Page 40 of A Wolf's Wound
“You think this was done by a wolf too,” I say,
He nods.“Perhaps.A rogue wolf, though,” Gavin adds.“Not one of the Stone pack.None of us would harm innocent creatures.”
“Are you sure?”I ask.
“I would swear to that on my son’s life,” he says.
“I didn’t know you had a son.”
“I do.Cody is thirteen.”Gavin turns his attention back to the deer.“If this isn’t a rogue wolf, this could be the result of a shift gone wrong.”
“Could that explain the other attacks too?”
“It could.It’s not super-common, but it could happen.”Gavin sighs.“Every time we get a new piece of information, new evidence of an injury or damage, that just raises more questions.It’s damn frustrating.”
“I’m sure.”I think back to our conversation earlier.“Did your enforcers find anything in the forest that could provide answers?”
“Not yet,” he says.“I don’t hold out much hope that they will either.We’ve been over every inch of that space countless times over the last few days.Whatever’s doing this is covering its tracks very well.”
I nod, not sure what else to say.Gavin gets a strange look on his face just then.He looks around, loudly sniffing the air.Before I can ask what he smells, he lowers his head toward the deer, closes his eyes, and inhales deeply.
“The blood on the deer,” Gavin says, his eyes still closed.
“What about it?”
Gavin straightens up and opens his eyes.The look on his face sends an icy splinter of fear down my spine.“Some of it smells human.”
“Which means…” I think I know what it means, but I don’t want to say it out loud.
“Which means a human might have done this.”
Chapter 23
Ryder
“H-h—”
The man tries to speak, but his vocal cords have shifted too much.His mouth is half snout now with fur just barely sprouting along his muzzle.I can guess what he’s trying to say, anyway.He’s asking me for help.
His body seizes, another wave of shifting pops and breaks his bones and cartilage.He screams, but the sound is as mangled as his body.
“I’ve got you,” I say, but it’s a lie.
Leaning this close to a newly shifting wolf is dangerous, but I can’t take the anguish in his eyes any longer, and I’m strong enough to withstand a bite.Stronger than all the pets and wild animals that have been fodder for…who, exactly?A rogue shifter, or the others he’s turned?
As terrifying as that thought is, I’d rather this be the work of a stranger than someone I know.Imagining a member of our pack choosing to do this to someone else makes my stomach turn.
Bloody foam and spittle fly from the man’s lips.I squeeze the back of his neck reassuringly.His lips pull back in an instinctive snarl, but he doesn’t have the strength to snap at me.I squeeze again, and this time he seems to relax.
He coughs, a wet, deep cough.I clear the foam away from his lips, but it keeps coming.It’s difficult for him to breathe, even as I adjust him on my knees to improve the angle.
“You’re okay.”
He isn’t.He’s dying.
And there’s nothing for me to do but watch.
There’s a reason this is prohibited, why shifters are so closely monitored by our alphas, why we can’t just bite whoever we like.This is no fairytale.Most humans who are bitten never survive the shift into a wolf, and those who do might not survive the shift back.Their bodies simply can’t handle it.Mates have much better chances, maybe because shifters are biologically drawn to those who are hardy enough to handle it, but even that’s risky.
