Page 108 of A Wolf's Wound
She swallows hard, and I can see the indecision and doubt transform into resolve.“I understand.”
I lean down and grasp Brian’s head between my hands, prepared to snap his neck.“Look away, sweetheart.”
She does as I ask and it takes hardly any effort to break Brian’s neck, ending his terror once and for all.
I drop my ex-friend to the ground and straighten, catching Hannah as she flings herself into my arms.I ignore the pain from my injuries and relish her embrace.I hug her back but then see wolf shifters running toward us.
“What the hell?”Hannah turns and spies them, too.
“Wolf shifters,” I mutter.“They were drawn by that damn scent Brian created.”
“It was that strong,” Hannah says, the realization dawning across her face.“It didn’t just affect you.”
“No,” I shake my head.“I’ve smelled the same scent before, even from blocks away.It’s incredibly strong.”
“How do you know these are all shifters and not real wolves?”Hannah asks.
I can’t help but smile.“Come on, are you really asking me that?Didn’t you grow up in the Blackwood pack?”
Hannah shakes her head but smiles back.“You’re right.”
I look around.We’re not in the middle of Stonehaven, which is something.Maybe we’re far enough out of the city that the scent didn’t travel that far.Maybe it died out along the roads and woods that lead into town.
But I know well how insidious the scent can be, and what kind of distances it can travel.And we’re still too close to the city for me to feel confident that everyone is safe.There could be dozens, or even hundreds, of people enduring the shift right now.I might not have been fast enough to save them.
The weight of what could be happening almost knocks me over.I’m gripped by a feeling of hopelessness: that everything Hannah and I endured has been for nothing.That what I did to Brian is going to result in the deaths of far too many more people.
“Ryder,” Hannah says, putting an arm around my waist.I look at her, into her eyes.I see love and understanding looking back at me, and I know she’s thinking the same thoughts I am.
“It won’t be your fault,” Hannah says.“Do you hear me?I mean, do you really hear me?”
“How can’t it be my fault?Look at what I did to Brian.”
“I know what you did to him.And it was awful and wrong, but everything that happened after that was because of Brian, not you.”
“How do you know that?”
“Ryder, I watched the two of you fighting.The way Brian looked, how he appeared—something was wrong with him.Sure, he survived the shift, but he didn’t become a wolf.He was some sort of damaged hybrid.I think that played a huge role in his mental state.”
“So not only did I bite him, but I didn’t even do the job well?”
Hannah shakes her head impatiently.“That’s not what I mean!I mean that he shouldn’t have survived the shift.I don’t think you can blame yourself for how his body reacted.”
What Hannah’s saying makes sense, but it’s still hard to wrap my mind around everything that’s happened tonight.“I understand.But, Hannah, I’m still the one who bit him.I was out of control, and I hurt someone.”
“Yes, you did,” she says simply.“You can’t change that, no matter how much you might want to.You’re going to have to figure out how to live with that fact.”
I look at the wolf shifters in front of us—near feral and battling each other—and think about what might be happening in Stonehaven as the wind carries that insidious scent.And I’m gripped with the knowledge that while I can’t undo what happened in the past, I can make sure the present is better.
And that means fixing what Brian has been trying to break.That means protecting Stonehaven and my family.
It means protecting Hannah.
Chapter 62
Hannah
Thewindpicksup,blowing that evil scent away and leaving injured and confused shifters in its wake.
