Page 45 of The Sacred Wolf

Jayla squirmed, working on sitting forward where she could see better. “Can I help?” she asked. “I’m training to be a doctor.”

“He’ll be ok,” Kiana replied. “Leave him alone.”

“How do you know that?” Jayla protested. “At least let’s get some pressure on the wound.”

“We heal, human,” Kiana whispered, her eyes fixed on the back window. “He will heal.”

“Not if he runs out of blood faster than his cells can renew,” I snapped. “Jayla, please. Anything you can do.”

Jayla cast a wary glance at my twin and did a double-take, eyes widening as she finally realized this was the legendary evil twin of all my watered-down stories about life in the Bronx. But it only threw her for a second, and then she sprang into action, covering Sebastian’s wound with one hand on top of the other. Blood spurted around her fingers, and she sat up on her knees in Evan’s lap to use more of her weight to apply pressure.

“Hey.” Evan wrapped both arms around her waist so he could lay both of his hands on top of hers. “It’s just a flesh wound.”

Jayla laughed, a short bark, and then stopped. “Monty Python to the rescue,” she murmured.

Kiana’s head swiveled from her hawk-like focus on the streets flying by—no doubt scanning for potential threats—to Evan, her eyes sweeping over him and Jayla and then narrowing. Her scent swirled with outrage and confusion, a mix that choked like sulfur. Her gaze returned to me, eyes going flat.

Shit! I thought, my mind doing the math a split second after my sister’s.

The movie reference.

Jayla’s comfort with him.

The number of wolves who’d been battling with Damien and his henchmen when she’d arrived…

She knows!

Yes. My wolf agreed. She knows we turned him. We’re the One. She paused, and then made her own attempt at a mood-lightening joke. She knows that we’re Neo.

Fluff.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon!” I willed the Plaza elevator to go faster as we stood huddled in a tight crush within its mirrored walls. Kenzo and Evan—who’d insisted on helping despite Sebastian’s initial growl of protest—supported Sebastian’s sagging frame on either side. Blood glistened in a wet cascade that slurped farther down Sebastian’s torso with each passing second.And the hollow of worry inside me grew as my future mate turned the same shade of gray as his wolf.

“Hang in there, man. Just need you on your feet a little longer.” Kenzo said, his voice tight.

Sebastian’s head lolled, and he didn’t respond.

He will heal. My wolf tried to reassure me for the hundredth time since Sebastian had been shot.

We aren’t immortal.

I bit back a sob when the doors opened on the Alpha Family floor, and the guys dragged Sebastian down the hall to his room.I hurried after them as fast as my injured leg would allow, but the office door exploded outward, and Max and Mateo rushed into the hall, looking wildly around for the source of all the commotion.

“What in the Gods’ names?” Max wailed, his face twisting. “My boy!” He ran down the hall and tried to shove Evan out of the way to take over helping his beloved son himself, but Kenzo held up a hand that seemed to soothe his adoptive father.

“We’ll get him in the bed first, explain second,” Kenzo grunted. “Is the medic here?”

“I’ll call for him.” Mateo’s lips sealed in a tight, white scrawl, and then his soulful brown eyes swept over the second skin of blood coating the rest of us. “It looks like Sebastian’s not the only one who needs one.”

“We can wait,” I sobbed. “Just help Sebastian.”

“He’ll be fine.” Mateo took me by the shoulders.

He’ll be fine. My wolf insisted, her tone motherly, which was such a departure from her norm that it deepened my nerves.

What if he isn’t, though?

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