hift was no

ud and storm water while three rogues argued over me

he argument.

e snapp

rived all at once and the world went white. My fingers broke backward. My jaw unhinged an

the voice inside r

before I had fo

teeth sank into the side of my neck and shook. Blood filled my mouth. My blood. He was tearing me open and I was still half gi

the face and ripped his b

f should make. He let go of my neck to get awa

y feet

- a full head taller, white fur already matted red down one side, rain steaming off me. For the fi

the way wolves speak without mouths. "The

ears out here by being careful. He circled, limping now, one empty socket streaming, and feinte

t, hot and deep, felt the cold rain get inside the cut a second

y head the way he had shaken my neck. He did not scream like Garrick. He

kill

here was no time to be anything about it

the

pe. Garrick had leashed him the crude rogue way, dominance hammered into his spine like a nail

w what I wa

t conversational, circling the boy. "Don't he, Finn? Tell the dead

ve only heard once sin

o. You told me she was getting better. You

ugged with his whole body. "That's the bea

ishment. Example. A message to m

the leas

bond had been, and I tore it out by the root. In the real world there was no sound. In the other world it was a bell crack

pt him still. Finn scrambled backward on his hands and Garrick rounded on me with

hesitate. This time

him he

ud, then purchase, then him. We rolled to the edge of the fallen pine, snapping, ripping, and

ter says it. He will leash every wolf he ever mee

nish

r, felt him try - at the very end, with an Alpha's pride - to Command me to release hi

rlands were very quiet, and I was standing over two

d and I did not care. My legs shook. My side was opening and closing wi

iss, you're- that's a

anguage came out ragged. "Kings and corps

ize. "Nobody kills Garrick. The packs send hunters and the hunte

at this than they look," I

ame back to myself on my knees in the mud with Finn's jacket around my shoulders - he had looked away, the idiot, ev

" Finn sai

than a horn should be. Then a second a

ing silver, Miss- Elara. They'll bring silver and they'll tell the council you wen

e trunk beside my head and quivered there,

us had hear

," I

k, I can't- after

run as

that took what was left of my feet, my side leaking with every step, the horns getting their bearings behin

ceremonial circle. Rowan had planned that far ah

river road below us, a scream wiped

t. Steel trap, Finn mouthed at me, gone white. Silvercrest set

ed out, tried again. "I can't shif

ayed behind

and a dead girl and we are bleeding, we ha

and the silver and the pack that had made my rejection

he screaming, and I ran straight

o be saved. We get to