Page 45 of Fated to the Feral Wolf

And just like that, everything clicked.

The attacker, Brielle, me getting stabbed, Dirge shifting— I gasped and clutched at my chest, but there was no pain, no wound that I could feel, just a torn shirt sticky with half-dry blood. How long had I been out? I really had to stop getting mortally wounded. It sucked.

“Not long, my love.”

“I— But the wound is gone. How has it not been long?” I mumbled the first idiot thing that came out of my mouthbefore clamping my lips shut. I was clearly not fully back with it yet and lay dazed in his arms as I searched his eyes.

Goddess, he was beautiful. He’d probably hate that description—shifter males didn’t like anything that poked at their masculinity, as far as I could tell—but it was the truth. His hair was tousled, dark chestnut and straight, almost to his chin. He had olive skin and the most piercing hazel eyes I’d ever seen. And now that I was seeing them in the daylight, I knew without a doubt that the dream had been a mere shadow of the man.

He was stunning and powerful andwhollyoverwhelming.

“I don’t know. It’s a miracle.”

“Umm…” I tried to bring myself back around to the present, but when he was staring at me so intently, it was hard to focus on anything except my very needy pussy. She wanted him, pronto.

Chill out, Shay. It’s not a good look to be drooling over him while you’re covered in blood.

“A miracle? More like some badass magic. Holy shit, Shay. You got stabbed. It was bad. Blood everywhere, instant shock, you were pale and fading, and youfucking died on us—we were all gutted, by the way—then BAM! Bright lights and holy shit, you’re awake again.” Leigh’s eyes were wide, hair wild as if she’d run her hands through it a hundred times in the minutes I’d been out.

Minutes? It just didn’t make sense.

“Leigh, if I died, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now.”

I scanned the group, waiting for confirmation, but Dirge was still holding me—in his lap, I realized belatedly. When I moved to sit next to him, he held me tighter around the waist, as if I were going to disappear into a wisp of smoke if he let me go.

I mean, I guess if he thought I just died, I couldn’t blame him. But that clearly wasn’t the case. Hello, I’m still here.

But when my gaze landed on Brielle, and I saw her shell-shocked expression, I started to believe it a little bit more.

“Is everyone okay?” I asked, fingers twining into Dirge’s chin-length hair. Even if I did feel awkward sitting on his lap with all our pack mates around, touching him soothed me on a primal level. Anchored me.

Aroused me very inappropriately for the number of our friends staring at us.

“Everyone but the assassin, thanks to you,” he said, nodding toward the corpse a few feet away.

I looked only long enough to see that there was, in fact, a dead body not ten feet from where we sat in the grass, before quickly jerking my gaze away from the grisly sight.

“Assassin?” My brain processed slowly, as if I were coming back to the present in a big bubble of molasses or honey.

“Assassin,” Gael agreed, from his position kneeling next to the body. He seemed the least rattled of us all, focused on the task at hand and not on whatever had revived me.

Holy hell, had I reallydied? It didn’t seem possible. I felt fine. Better than fine, actually. Energetic. Ready to take out a dozen assassins.

“He’s carrying a sword, the knife he used on Shay.”

Dirge growled beneath me at that reminder, so I brought my other hand up to rest on his bare chest, trying to calm him as Gael continued.

“A pouch full of all kinds of vials, possibly poison? To be determined. He’s also got a pistol, both wolfsbane and devil’s trap bullets, and a sat phone.”

I blinked at the laundry list.

“Is he a shifter?” Kane asked from where he was crouched next to Brielle, hand on her shoulder. She had both arms wrapped around her knees, and she couldn’t seem to stop staring at me.

“It’s harder to tell postmortem once the essence fades,obviously, but I don’t think so. He’s got pointed ears and magic I’ve never felt before. The ears narrow it down to elf, goblin—mixed, given he’s not green—fae, or… I’m not sure. Pixie, maybe? He doesn’t smell like any of those.”

“Drakenia guild.” Dirge spoke, still holding me tightly yet cautiously, like I was a precious china doll he was scared to break. “Rare to see them this far from Europe, but clearly, the payout was big, since he’s here.”

I blinked at that. I’d never heard of the Drakenia guild, and I had no idea what kind of payout he was talking about.

---