Page 72 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part Two

“I see that contempt in your eyes. I’ve heard stories about you, Leo. I didn’t believe them because you are so very young, but in truth, it would take someone very special to take down all my sons.”

She squeezed her hand into a fist, and several of my bones cracked. This time it wasn’t just in my mind because I could feel the bones healing. The golems never let go of my arms, leaving me hanging in my torment.

A sharp scream tore out of me, and Katarina sat back in her throne, a pleased smile on her face. She lifted that clenched hand once more, and I braced myself for whatever awful sensationwas going to come next, but it never did. Suddenly, a glass bottle went sailing through the air and shattered on the throne right above the woman’s head.

“What the fuck?” she blurted as the liquid poured over her.

What the fuck, indeed.

As soon as the contents of the jar hit the witch’s skin, it began to sizzle and slough away, like acid eating her flesh. I watched her eye collapse in on itself and part of her cheek disappear.

Katarina jumped to her feet and waved her hand. Her skin returned to normal, like it had never happened at all. I got the impression that wasn’t usually the case when a witch was hit with whatever had been in that jar.

“What’s this?” she spat, her demeanor changing entirely. “I knew there was no way you were noble enough to come willingly!”

I had no idea what she meant until I craned my neck back. I gasped in horror as dozens of my pack members poured in from the open areas on the branches of the tree. Wolf shifters. Coyote shifters. Eagle shifters swooping in. Even a couple of bear shifters, and the giant of a man who waited until he was on solid ground before shifting into the behemoth of a moose he was.

“No!” I cried. “You can’t do this! She’s too powerful!”

Most people would be relieved to see their family rushing in to save them, but all I could feel was abject terror. I had been ready to die. I had sacrificed myself so they would live. But if they were here, there was a very good chance that we wouldalldie, and everything would have been for naught.

Katarina raised her hands, and suddenly a massive tornado formed in the middle of the room before rapidly moving to catch the sudden incursion of shifters.

“Get out of here! Are you insane?”

“Yes,” Katarina said. “Listen to your alpha. There’s no need for all of you to die, but I will bleed every single one of you outand dance on your corpses if you dare try to stop my revenge for my sons!”

“Your sons deserved what they got,” a familiar voice said, and for a moment I couldn’t believe it was actually her. Ven stood on a balcony a floor above us, determination etched on her face. “I will give you one chance to let our alpha go, and you are welcome to live out the rest of your long life however you want. But if you insist on enacting this insane revenge plot on your sons’ victims, then we will be forced to end your line entirely. The world will likely be better for it.”

It wasn’t often that I heard such steel and fire in Ven’s voice, but she spoke with total authority. The way she was standing, elevated above us, the high wind and the canopies buffeting her clothing and hair, almost made her seem like a beautiful Valkyrie. A war goddess. As much as I didn’t want her here, I was in total awe.

“You think your ragtag group of zoo animals can defeat me?” Katarina spat.

“No,” Ven answered, her voice icily calm. “Iknowwe can.”

With that, my love raised her arms high above her head, her palms flat, and the throne behind Katarina came alive, parts of it extending to grab at the witch like it was trying to tear her limb from limb.

Not missing a beat, Ven vaulted over the balcony railing. I shouted in shock once more, wondering what the hell she could be thinking, when a branch broke through the floor, rapidly rising up and extending giant leaves that caught my love and gently deposited her on her feet.

Since when could she dothat?

“Leo!” She ran to me. The golems moved to attack, but she flicked her hand, and the moss between their rocks rapidly expanded until they fell to the floor as a random collection of stone. I dropped down to the floor, too, and that was honestlythe only thing that stopped my chin from dropping down to my chest. I had seen the incredibly impressive and powerful things Ven could do when we were fighting Frederick, but this was on an entirely different level. Did she come into her own because she now knew what she was? Was it because she’d found out Frederick had been responsible for the death of her mother? Or was it...

Was it because of me?

“Ven, what are you doing here?” I gasped as she caught me in her arms, clinging to me tightly. “I was doing this for you!”

“We don’t need you to sacrifice yourself. Look around you! You may have lost faith, but I know we are strong enough to take her on. So, get on your feet andfightfor your family! We can’t do this without you.”

She spoke with such authority. Normally, my alpha side would bristle against something like that, but I was completely touched. Honored. More shifters were pouring in—far more than had been in our ragtag, merry band. All week, everyone had been reaching out to allies, but I thought I had left early enough that they had no chance of assembling. Clearly, I was wrong, because there were nearly a hundred shifters in the room, and they were all dialed in to fight the witch and whatever she conjured up.

“Look, Leo. We’re all united because of you. So, lead us to victory, do you hear me? Because I’m not living the rest of my life without you.”

Well, it looked like a change of plans was in order.

20

VANESSA

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