Page 53 of Pack to the Wall

The sound of bones snapping and reforming so fast like popcorn was horrific. The sight almost made me sick.

This didn’t look right at all.

Her constant scream became a horrid wet gurgling as her face twisted and tried to reform. Her eyes flared with agony, shifting from her dark-caramel brown to wolfen yellow and back.

I wanted — No, Ineeded— to help her, but I didn’t know how!

I ran to her, desperate to do something, even if it was just pulling her away from cracking her skull on the headboard. I managed to grab her head, pulling her to the side before she hurt herself. Under my hands, her skull shuddered and shifted, trying to stretch, but then snapped back into place.

Fur rippled out of her skin in spots only to vanish again and appear elsewhere, like some wild patchwork. One of her legs was half-shifted, somewhere between wolf and human, as was one of her arms.

“Fuck me,” I whispered.

It hadn’t occurred to me that I might lose Jane here and now from some inability to make the transformation. I’d assumed she’d shift just fine and it would be Brick’s challenge next week we’d have to worry about. But it looked like she was breaking in all the wrong ways.

Her face elongated again, her snout forming, and this time stayed, as fur rippled over it in patches. A wolfen whine escaped her. She was close. There was nothing I could do, other than be there for her, so I knelt next to the bed and hoped.

Then the door to Jane’s room was torn off its hinges as Tank-as-a-bear lumbered in and roared. I couldn’t help it, fear surged through me. Bears were one of the few animals wolves feared… especially one on one.

Time seemed to stretch, my reactions far too slow.

I reached for Jane to hold her, protect her, but she jerked out of my reach. With a scream, which turned to a howling-whine, her body spasmed one last time and she shifted.

Her wolf was beautiful: a golden-brown coat over the sides and rump, with a white belly and darker stripes of brown over her shoulders and on her face. She had a white patch around her mouth and black lines framing her eyes. Eyes filled with raw terror as Tank’s bear roared again.

Tank had scared her into shifting. Had he meant to do that?

Yet my joy was short-lived. Jane’s wolf bolted. She leaped from the bed to the dresser, then out the broken window, crashing through the remaining glass.

Gone.

And suddenly it all fell into place.

Breaking her window hadn’t just been an act of petty vandalism. It had been so Jane’s wolf would smell the evening air and see that as an escape from the bear charging her. And that’s exactly what she’d done.

I rose to go after her, but Tank lumbered closer. I tore at my clothes, needing to shift now! But I had no time. Cloth ripped as I shifted to my hybrid form. It would be the only way Imighthave a chance against Tank-as-a-bear. There wasn’t enough room in here for him to take his mid-form. Hell, he’d broken the doorframe just squeezing through the door to get in as a bear.

Tank swiped at me, and I leaped back, narrowly avoiding his massive claws.

Then Tank roared again, but this time it was in pain. Through the broken doorway, I caught glimpses of a lion jumping onto Tank’s back.

Thank you, Bronn.

I shifted into my wolf — what remained of my clothes fell away from this smaller form — and followed Jane out the window. The bits of jagged glass that remained cut at my flanks, but I didn’t care.

I paused on the driveway outside. The sun had set, but there was still light enough to see. No sign of Jane. What I did see was Sonny, coming from the front of the house, stalking up the driveway toward me… gun in his hand.

“Can’t challenge the alpha, but wecankill you,” he said, firing.

The first bullet caught my hip, but only a grazing, glancing blow. I bolted toward the back yard, bullets flying around me. One tore off the top of one ear, which was far from fatal but stung like hell. Another hit a hind leg. It wasn’t a bad blow, but it would slow me down.

Whatever the old betas had planned, it seemed to be working. More crashing and roaring came from inside the house. Tank still fought. I wished Bronn luck and hoped Colt was there to help him. Meanwhile, I was on the defensive and Jane was who-knew-where! I needed to find her, but first I needed to deal with Sonny.

Once I was around the back of the house, I shifted back to human. Pain surged at the side of my face, my hip, and leg. I grunted, steeling myself as I looked for a weapon. I hobbled over to one of the tarps. The corner was already pulled up and I grabbed the loose piton. That would have to do.

Turning back, I saw Sonny coming around the back of the house. He fired again. A bullet grazed my arm as I charged at him.

I ducked under two more shots, then the slide of his gun caught and the trigger clicked. He was out of ammo.

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