Page 21 of Ravaged Wolf
“I see that,” the oldest male says in a calm, deliberate voice. “What happened?”
“Get me away from her,” Trevor begs.
“Okay.” The old male nods to the others, and they converge on Trevor, boots thudding on the pavement around me while I huddle on the concrete. He doesn’t resist when they seize his arms and drag him away.
My wolf wheezes a thin, weak cry. He hurt us, but his wolf is her mate, and she doesn’t want to be left here alone.
Trevor’s spine stiffens, but he doesn’t turn his head.
She cries for him again, louder, summoning the last of her energy.
He keeps walking.
My wolf collapses, at the end of her strength, leaving my naked human body behind on the sidewalk.
“Trevor,” I cry one last time as a nurse squats next to me, pity and horror in her eyes. He doesn’t turn around.
“Oh, sweetheart, what did he do to you?” she murmurs, setting her metal first aid kit next to me and flipping the latch open.
I don’t know what to say, so I keep my mouth shut, and she considers my mangled body, her hand hovering in the air with an alcohol swab. She doesn’t know either how to even begin fixing this terrible, horrible thing.
4
TREVOR
I’m a monster.The knowledge screams in my brain.
I can’t think.
I let the medics get me away from her, but then I fight. I have to get away. I can’t escape them as a man, so I shift. My wolf gets us away from them, but as soon as he escapes, he wheels around to go back to her. I wrench him out of our body and collapse to my knees, keening, retching.
I hurt Izzy. It wasn’t me. I would never hurt her. Never. But they were my claws. My fangs. My ears. I heard every single scream and cry and didn’t stop. I would never do this thing, but I did.
I pound my chest, trying to beat the agony out, but I can’t. The shame shreds me, rends me to pieces, and it should be unbearable, but every second is a fresh horror, every thought is a knife plunging into raw flesh.
There’s blood on my hands. Under my nails. I rip them out with my teeth and spit them onto the ground.
I hurt her. Am I feral?
It’s a mercy to put a feral down.
I wipe my mouth, stagger back to my feet, and racethrough the woods, faster and faster, mindless at first, but then a destination rises in my mind.
I weave through trees and leap fallen logs. Rocks chew the soles of my feet, limbs whip my face, and the pain isn’t nearly enough, not nearly what I deserve. The horror chases me, nips my heels, swipes its razor-sharp claws across my back, bowing my spine.
Izzy nuzzled my cheek, marking me.
I shoved her face in the dirt.
I told her to run, she did, and I chased her.
It was my fault, my fault, my fucking fault.
She came to me, and I was weak. I failed her.
I’m a piece of shit.
I’m a monster.
