1. Shay

ONE

Shay

B eing shot was agony. White-hot and furious, the bullet tore through my abdomen, leaving a trail of flames in its wake. The crowd of enforcers, the music, the lights, the screams—it all began to blur as my body processed what was happening to me in the only way it could: shock. I felt the impact, though, when my shoulder plowed into the floor.

Another time, I would have rolled, caught myself—anything to lessen the impact. But not this time. This time, I hit and bounced, my only saving grace the fact that it was my shoulder and not my face that took the brunt of my fall.

All my air was gone, the wind knocked straight out of me as I stared up at the ceiling, gaping like a fish as the fluorescent lights blurred into a too-bright mass overhead.

Something warm and wet touched my face, and a sharp whine pierced my ears, cutting through a layer of the shock.

He's important . My wolf was insistent, shoving at me to shift, get back to my feet. But I couldn't. Why couldn't I let her out? She'd protect me. She was the only one who could protect me, she insisted.

She shoved and snarled in my mind, growing more frantic by the second, but cold dread filled me as my abdomen began to go numb far too quickly. Shifters healed fast, but not that fast, and it hurt like a bitch. Which meant…

Wolfsbane.

They must have used a dipped bullet, but why would they do that?

I sucked in a desperate lungful of air as realization hit me. The feral wolf. The enforcers used a dipped bullet because that was one of the only ways to fell a feral wolf.

But if it had hit him… he wouldn't have gotten back up.

"Stop, don't shoot him," I rasped out as pain racked me again, this time farther from the bullet. The poison is spreading too fast.

Holy fuck, my stomach was cramping, and it was excruciating. But I had to focus. I couldn't let them kill him. He might have been feral, but he was my mate.

Goddess, it didn't feel real. Was it real? Was he really mine?

"Get off her!"

"We have to shoot!"

"You can't, you idiots! It's Dirge!" Reed's voice was a half snarl, tearing through the others arguing over what to do and silencing them with alpha dominance. As third in command, he was stronger than everyone except Kane and Gael, and neither of them was here.

The warm, wet thing prodded me again, and I forced my eyes to focus. It was a nose. Above it sat two glowing red eyes, the hard, soulless pits the stuff of human nightmares.

Little did the humans know, those lycanthropy legends started just like this, with a feral shifter who'd lost control to the dark side of his beast.

We all had one, but the human side outweighed it, for most of us. But not this guy. He was massive, black, and dripping saliva as he stood over me, paws planted on either side of my body as if shielding me from further harm .

But the distressing numbness was a danger of its own, and if I didn't get him off me—and stop him snarling at the enforcers—I would have much bigger problems.

I held his nightmare stare as I spoke next, slowly and clearly. "They won't hurt me. I need their help—" My words choked off with a violent cough, the involuntary clench of muscles making me hiss through my teeth.

"Please." I reached up a tentative hand, trying again. He didn't flinch back, didn't snap as my fingers met his cheek. The thick fur was surprisingly soft under my fingertips, and since he was letting me, I tangled my fingers into the silken strands. He whuffed, nothing more than a gentle burst of air, and tipped his head to the side, leaning into my hand. He liked it, my touch.

At any other time, wonder would have filled me. But right now, I was too scattered—too hurt—to really dissect the improbability of the situation.

"Dirge, it's me."

A dizzying glance up and over my shoulder showed that Reed had coerced everyone else to step back, giving us a few feet of space. He was the only one still close enough to be in danger or be perceived as a threat.

"I'm your brother. You know I won't hurt you. But Shay's in trouble, and she needs medical attention. That bullet was coated in a lethal dose of wolfsbane, and if we don't get her to John Henry quickly, she is going to lose access to her wolf."

The glowing red eyes left mine, a vicious growl tearing from his throat, and saliva dripping down over my chest as he homed in on his brother.

Shit, shit, shit.