Page 150 of Her Wolf

What remained of Eleodora Rivera.

He caught barely a glimpse before urgent smoke piled between them, but it had been enough to know Finn was about to pitch forward.

Kane released Lars and the dog. He forced himself to his legs with a cry of pain, and surged forward.

He tried to grab Milo, but he got a handful of Eleodora instead. Warm. Slippery. She slithered off Milo and onto him. He pushed her off with a hissed oath, and made another grab for Milo.

This time, he latched on. But the man found his balance and tore free a second later, only to fall down in the sand outside.

Where Kane could see he was still on fire.

He spun around and battled back through the smoke, running headlong into a bed before his streaming eyes could focus. He dragged a quilted cover from the mattress and into the en-suite bathroom. Water chugged from the taps, but everything was taking too long, toofuckinglong.

He clawed out the scarcely wet blanket and stumbled down the hall, coughing so hard he saw spots every time he blinked.

The blanket hissed when it fell over Milo’s unmoving body. Pale steam rose, a testament to the sudden dousing of those incandescent flames.

Footsteps scraped on the wood behind him.

Kane twisted around. He’d expected Zachary to be standing there. Nothing but a burned husk, but still alive. Grinning at him with a skull’s perpetual smile.

Lars tottered to the side, stumbled, and crashed to his knees. The dog he’d been carrying in his arms like a child yelped and went still.

Kane wrestled the now warm blanket from Milo and threw it over Lars where he lay on the porch.

Then he looked up, and saw a pair of feet sticking out of the doorway.

Two, perfect feet. Granted, one had a smudge of char on the inner arch but…

Kane stepped over the dog. His leg gave way when he put his weight on it. He crashed down beside Lars, let out a last cough that tore holes through his lungs, and tried to turn his head away from the smoke billowing out through the beach house’s doorway.

Something licked his ankle.

He laughed, thinking it had been Lars, and then remembered about the dog.

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