Page 42 of Broken Moon

When I finally sat up, I lookedaround, disoriented, and saw Lennon lying in a motionless heap. She’d gotten a muchbigger hit than I had, so I could only imagine what that strange power had doneto her.

The creature was gone, flappinghis torn and ragged wings as he flew away, but I’d injured him badly. He hadn’tyet recovered from the first round with the demon blade, and he’d been hitagain. I was nearly certain he wouldn’t get far.

I just wasn’t certain how I wasgoing to kill the bastard. The woods were suddenly loud and seemingly crowdedas it appeared every wolf in Shadowfield had heard that scream. They’d shiftedto get here fast, and though shifting was a definite no-no while the beastlived, I knew he wasn’t going to be able to attack. Not for a while.

Before I could actually findthe strength to climb to my feet and check on Lennon and the alpha, the packshifted back to their human form and converged upon their wounded, tending themwith a practiced, coordinated, and eerily silent ease. They ignored me.

I saw the alpha, finally—he’dshifted to heal himself, and he loped across the ground, nosing his people,helping the ones who were conscious to shift. They’d heal so much faster intheir wolf form. Unfortunately for Lennon, maybe because of what she was, thealpha could not bring her shift.

The beta, Eli, cradled hertenderly in his arms and after a long look at his alpha, he rushed her from thewoods.

I managed to get my feet underme and I stood, but I could not shift, either, and my healing was going to be alittle slower. Not as slow as Lennon’s, but slower than the ones who couldshift.

It was like I’d been hit by atrain and struck by lightning at the same time. I felt bruised and burned, mybody shook with an unfamiliar and deep pain, as though my very bones had beencrushed and were attempting to reknit.

I lurched forward, accidentallystumbled against a burly man who was hurrying to help his people. He shoved meaway and I lost my precarious balance, falling to the ground once again.Someone stepped on my hand, and as I cradled my fingers to my chest andattempted once more to stand, I saw Jared loping toward me, his lip curled inan angry snarl. He shifted back to his human form just before he reached me. Hewould have been better off to stay as his wolf for a while to heal, but he’dtaken what he could from his wolf and shifted back to help his people.

Only he was angry, apparently,and wanted to deal with me first. I’d have trouble protecting myself against anangry alpha if I were completely well. And right now, I wasn’t exactly well,though I felt about a hundred times better than I had five minutes ago.

I recoiled when he reached me,and that was the moment I realized I’d lost my demon blade. Son of abitch.

I scrambled away from him andhis anger, but I had not yet managed to stand. As he loomed over me, I held upmy hands to ward him off, sure he could see the plea in my eyes. “Don’t hurtme, Alpha,” I said, but my voice was barely above a whisper.

I wasn’t in my right mind, orI’d have realized Jared wasn’t going to hurt me. He wasn’t an unfair, sadisticasshole like my last alpha. But my mind was cluttered and confused and at thatmoment, reality was just a little distorted.

The awful anger in his eyessoftened, and he lifted me from the ground and held me against his chest.“Sweetheart,” I thought he whispered, but of course I was wrong. Why would theGray Shadow alpha call me sweetheart?

The fucking exsoloup had warpedme.

Then Jared was running throughthe woods, and I wanted to kick my way out of his arms so I could find my lostblade, and also, I did not want the alpha or his pack oranyoneto seeme as a victim.

I also did not want to be theone the alpha helped when his own people were lying injured and dying on theground. God knew they hated me enough already. Hopefully they’d understand thatbecause I was unable to shift, I was too weak and injured to help myself.Unfortunately, I was the most delicate person left in the woods. And that wasjust embarrassing.

So I did nothing. I couldn’tfind the will to fight against the alpha’s help. He wanted to carry me from thewoods, and I would let him.

As if I could stop him.

I sighed, though, when Irealized that before the night was out, I’d likely have to return to the woodsto find my demon blade. Maybe I was a little obsessed with the thing, but thatwas only because deep in my soul, I knew that blade had reformed the moment ithad tasted my blood, and it was part of me now, like my heart, or my wolf.

Somewhat stronger in my bodyand clearer in my mind, I relaxed against Jared’s chest and let his body warmme and for the first time in forever, I felt safe, and my contentment waslarger than my pain.

ChapterNineteen

As though I’d absorbed some ofhis vitality, by the time Jared carried me back to town, I was mostly healedfrom my encounter with the exsoloup. Jared, though, was flagging. He’d taken abit of that scream, and even though he’d been farther away and had shifted fora while afterward, he was going to be affected.

He carried me into the tinyclinic, and when he lowered me to one of the three beds, I saw that Dr. Hayesand his nurse were already there. They must have been in town when we left,because I didn’t see how they could have arrived from the city that quickly.

Almost unthinkingly, I caughtJared’s hand after he’d placed me on the bed and then straightened. “Thankyou,” I murmured.

He stared down at me, a look offrustration in his eyes. He ran his thumb across my palm and my entire bodytingled even as his touch awakened my wolf. “When this is over,” he told me,his voice low, “and I have time to devote to you, I will free your wolf, Kait. You’regoing to need all of my attention when the time comes—with the next full moon.”

I nodded. “October thirty-first.”And I shivered with an excitement I could not control. Soon. Soon I would befree.

Then the doctor and nursehurried to my bedside and he kept my stare for a few seconds more before heturned to slip behind the privacy curtain that was pulled around the bed nextto mine.

For a second, I got a glimpseof the person in that bed.

Lennon lay there, her alreadypale skin white and bloodless, her body completely still. She didn’t look likethe warm woman she’d been earlier. She looked like a piece of plastic. Then thecurtain settled into place, obscuring both her and the alpha from my view.