Page 104 of Rogue Wolf

“You haven’t seen the last of me,” said Amdis. He was outnumbered as the pack members hurried into the nightclub, and he knew it. Instead of fighting alone, he chose to flee.

In a shadowy blur, Amdis was gone. He fled the nightclub, but Tamaska didn’t care. She held both pieces of the Blood Opal in her hand, and they fit together perfectly.

The gem was finally hers, right there in her hand. It might have broken, but it still held breathtaking beauty. She slipped it into the pocket of her loose trousers, hands trembling.

Had they really done it? Could she dare to hope it was all over? They had the Blood Opal, and Amdis couldn’t turn her.

Even though they’d touched…

The pack rushed to Kodiak’s side and nuzzled him. He barely responded.

Tamaska fell to the floor beside him to put her hand on his bloodied fur.

Please, please be all right.

He didn’t move.

CHAPTER 27

Tamaska

Shaking, she gently stroked Kodiak’s fur. His breath came fast and shallow as pain raked through him.

“We did it. We have the Blood Opal,” she said, unsure if he could hear her. “And I’m so sorry I said those things. You know I was just trying to throw him, right? You were magnificent. My hero. Oh, Kodiak, please…please don’t die…”

He made a tiny moan but the panting, shallow breaths worried her.

Everything in her twisted and guilt came crashing down. She’d said those horrible things to him. What if he believed her? After all their fighting and her stupid, pushy ways…he might.

She wanted to say she loved him that he was everything, a true leader and so brave, that how he’d fought the horrible chains was… She didn’t have words.

She wanted to tell him that the fights, her anger and resentment of being locked out…her disobedience…that was just her trying to find her way, to adjust, to fit into a world she was only beginning to understand.

But she couldn’t.

All that was selfish.

And not one word of it would make things better.

She’d thought she could walk in there and just save him.

Deep down though, she knew she’d had to. Even now. It might have been wrong, she might have put everyone in danger, but she had to. What else was she meant to have done?

Let him die?

“It’s going to be all right,” she whispered, kissing his furry head, breathing in the scent of him so clean and pure that lingered beneath the blood and gunk. “You’re going to be all right. I know it.”

Then his breathing got shallower and panic scrabbled at her and she looked up.

“Roan?” she called.

Oh, God. She hadn’t…where was he? Had he survived the fight outside? And what about the others?

Roan approached, changed back into human form, and knelt beside Kodiak.

“Will he…” The words stuck in her throat.

He touched her shoulder as he knelt close to Kodiak and put his nose to his, closing his eyes. He seemed to listen, then he nodded and looked up at her, face grave.

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