Page 148 of Black Bird

“I know he helps you through this, Rhaena … but it shouldn’t be him that you’re leaning on anymore.”

“He’s right, Rhaena …” Athan agreed.

“You’re my Sherlock, now. Nobody else’s.”

Wren poked her bottom lip out and pressed a hand to her chest. Sarah cracked a smile.

“You’re human, Brandon …” Rhaena wept. “I don’t wanna hurt you.”

“We’ve got Athan for that,” Sarah offered, placing her hand on his shoulder. He leaned against her thigh and curled his hand around it.

“Please, baby.”

Rhaena’s legs spread, exposing everything, and she bowed backward, struggling to breathe and jerking forcefully against her restraints. The back of her head rested against the beam, and she let out a guttural moan. “I love—” she gasped, panting and swallowing back growls. “I—” Her words gurgled out and bones started snapping and reforming themselves. Sarah and Wren’s eyes grew wide, and Athan stood up, forcing them back as Rhaena let out a blood-curdling wail.

He’d seen it dozens of times. It never got any easier. Especially this time, when someone she cared about was on the other line of that phone, and desperate to get to her. How anyone didn’t treasure humanity, or its many precious aspects, still evaded him. His chest ached, and Rhaena’s wolf form started taking shape.

“Rhaena!”Jenkins sounded just as helpless as she did. Athan bristled.

Rhaena stood on her haunches as her spine started crackling and thick fur started spreading over her body. She screamed again, and it broke off into a labored sob, before her animalistic roar finally took over. Sarah and Wren stared frozen and wide-eyed, and the phone shook in her hand while Rhaena struggled against the chains, growling and clawing at the air.

“The hard part’s over, Jenkins. Ride like the wind,” Athan said, keeping an arm in front of both the girls.

“I’ll be there in twenty. Thanks, Kane.”

She’d probably kick his ass for it later. He knew that. But he also knew that as bad as she didn’t want him to see her in this state, she wanted him here. And she’d need him here when it was over, no matter what she chose to do with Sarah’s blood tonight. He and Sarah had spent another night weighing all the options, and how they were going to offer Rhaena the opportunity that could end this madness for her. They’d decided that the moment Rhaena allowed him to put that ring on her, she’d likely be coherent enough to give them some kind of answer when Sarah presented her with the syringe. If they could get her through the first few hours of hell, she’d get a break, at least, from the poison of that silver. Athan had warned her and Wren yesterday about how shocking this would be, and he never expected them not to react the way they were right now. It was how anyone would have responded.

“Come on,” Athan guided them along the wall, a safe distance from where Rhaena snapped at them in the closet, thrashing and slinging strings of foamy drool from her maw. They stepped into the living room, and Athan cracked the bedroom door. It didn’t do much to muffle her roaring, and the harsh sounds of metal clanging together.

Wren turned toward them from the middle of the den with her eyes full of tears and a hand over her mouth. “This is gonna break his fucking heart. It’s breakingmine.” She sniffled. “How do you do this every month, Athan?” Wren shook her head slowly, her mouth staying open. “How doesshe?”

“It’s who we are, Red. She’ll be okay, I promise. Rhaena’s tough as nails. She trains almost every day for this,” Athan said, sliding an arm around Sarah’s waist.

“She shouldn’t have to,” Sarah breathed, wiping at her nose. “What if she doesn’t take the blood?”

“Then we have to be okay with her decision. She may change her mind one day.” He reached into his pocket and pulled his cigarettes out, handing them to Sarah along with his lighter. “Go out there and cool off. I’ll keep an eye on her for a while. It’s gonna be a long night.”

Sarah nodded, taking the smokes and reaching for her jacket on the coat rack. Wren wiped her face and followed her outside, closing the door behind her.

They had spent almost fifteen minutes out here and it already felt like an eternity. Hearing Rhaena’s racket beyond the window at the end of the porch only got worse by the second. Wren lit another cigarette.

“I know he cares about her. I don’t know if I could handle watching you repeatedly go through something like that.” She met Sarah’s attention, seeing the mutual understanding in her eyes.

“You could. You handled a lot worse when I was in the hospital. And then that shooting … you’re just as strong as he is. You’re as strong asRhaenais.”

“Sarah, that’s nothing compared to what’s happening in that room. I fucking heard her bones breaking.” Her throat ached with the need to cry a little again. “It’s so awful. I mean, I know … in theory, you know … all the movies and shit about werewolves changing. I knew it would be something like that, but actually seeing it? Experiencing it?” Wren shook her head and took a long hit from her cigarette.

“I just keep flashing back to when I talked to her in her kitchen. When Athan was still using her coffee maker, I was waiting on it to finish brewing and she came home from here. I saw bruises all over her. It looked like she’d been jumped and beaten down with crowbars. She hides it so well. The next day, after she’d slept it off … you couldn’t tell anything had ever happened to her. That was before I knew what she was. Before either of us knew. She’ll get through it, Wren. I’m sure Athan’s first time seeing her like this wasn’t easy, either.”

“It’s kinda funny ain’t it?” Wren snickered, staring down at the wooden planks in the porch and flicking the ashes off the end of her smoke. “When we first came to stay at their apartments … I gave her a tattoo of a damn wolf.” They both snorted. “Dude, she acted like that was the worst pain she’d ever felt. You remember?”

“The irony is kinda laughable.” Sarah giggled, taking a drag. “You think she was playing us?”

“Hell no. I’ve tattooed enough people in my life to know when they’re struggling. Rhae-Rhae was being a little pussy.”

Sarah cackled. “Oh God, Wren … don’t call her that.”

They quieted and froze when Rhaena let out a howl that sounded almost identical to what you’d hear in a movie. Athan’s muffled voice tried to soothe her, but the sound of chains and banging followed after it. Sarah moved to go investigate and Wren grabbed her arm.

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