Page 85 of The Wolf Slayer

“We can give it a try.”

It took Christa a few tries but eventually she was able to draw a few drops of blood before she lost Niev’s vein again. As Niev was healing Bear’s other injuries, Christa injected some of the blood underneath his skin where his fractured ribs were. Niev had hoped that Christa would be able to draw more, to help ease the process, but it was far quicker for Niev to cut herself. After all, time wasn’t on their side.

Seth and Blake sat next to her as she healed Bear. Blake kept feeding her apple slices while Seth seemed deep in his own thoughts.

“Is Bear your real name?” Niev couldn’t imagine someone calling their son Bear, especially not a wolf.

He smirked as she leaned over his upper arm and healed a deep cut that went all the way from his shoulder down to his elbow.

“No.”

She looked up at him, expecting him to explain it further but it was Seth who started talking instead. “The night of his consecration he ran off and stumbled across a black bear. They got into a fight which he unexpectedly won.”

“Why was he expected to lose? Aren’t you much bigger than a bear?”

“We are, but I had just shifted for the first time,” Bear announced proudly.

Blake must have seen her confusion and explained further. “The first time shifting is confusing to us. We’re not used to our wolf bodies. We are like newborn puppies trying to walk for the first time.”

She pictured Blake’s huge wolf stumbling around like a puppy and couldn’t hold back an amused smile. She stepped away from Bear and gave him a nod that she was done with his healing.

“So since then, everyone’s called you Bear?”

He nodded and looked down at his now healed body, giving it a good stretch. “Fuck, this is amazing. What are you?”

Niev shrugged her shoulders as she had no clue herself what she was, and gestured Blake to sit down.

“Sit, let me heal you before I start on the others.”

“You don’t need to do this. You already healed me far too much.”

“But you have new injuries, and I would prefer to get you back alive and in one piece.”

He sighed in defeat and took Bear’s seat.

“How are you planning on attacking them anyway?”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Seth and Bear exchange a look and instantly knew she’d done something wrong.

She looked at Blake who seemed indecisive.

“Is that something I shouldn’t have asked?”

Blake looked from Seth to Bear, then back to Seth. “It’s not a secret.”

“But nothing a woman should know. I get it.”

Blake smirked and lifted his hand to caress her cheek. “I just don’t want you worrying about me.”

“I thought we established that the unknown spreads a greater fear than the known.”

Bear crooked his eyebrow and Niev knew that she was definitely different from all other women he knew.

She shook her head and focused back on healing his injured side. “Forget it.”

Blake exchanged another look with Seth before he answered. “One of our scouts was able to track down one of the Skadu Wolves and followed him to their campsite about thirty miles outside of our territory. They seem to feel safe out there, likely because we have only been defending our borders so far.”

“So, you’ll do what they aren’t expecting and attack them?”

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