2. Dirge

TWO

Dirge

T hreat.

He was too close, the male whose scent triggered memories of my past. Memories of before I was a being made up of living, breathing pain. I shook them off, forcing myself to step between him and my wounded mate.

The blood oozing from her smelled wrong . Tainted. The man had said that, though. His words meant something, but I wasn't sure enough of the man was left to remember what wolfsbane was or why it mattered.

All I knew was that the blood didn't smell clean; it smelled like three-day-old-carcass rot that turned even my stomach. But it shouldn't, since she was alive and the wound was fresh.

I couldn't focus on that. He wanted to take her away from me and give her to some other male. I didn't know who John Henry was, but if he laid a finger on my mate, I'd rip it off and swallow it whole.

Mine!

"Dirge? Is that your name?" My mate's quavering question stopped me in my tracks, and I turned back to where she still lay on the cold, hard floor. Her sweet scent was fruity and floral, and if she weren't wounded, I'd be trying to get it all over me.

Dirge.

Was I Dirge?

Confusion stopped me from moving toward her or toward the familiar-smelling man. His eyes held pain, but was that because he loved my mate? My mate who was hurt?

He couldn't have her. Another snarl parted my lips, flashing my fangs at the man who wanted my other half. Never .

Something tugged at my mind, the sensation unfamiliar and, at this point, unwanted.

The man. He lived deep inside, stuffed so far down, he couldn't ever come out again. I was wolf now, and nothing more.

The man was nearly dead. But that was okay, because I didn't need him to protect her, my female. If she would just shift, she would get better.

I turned my back on the man, ignoring his pleas, and nosed my female.

Shift .

I tried to force the suggestion into her mind, use the pack link, but nothing happened. Our connection was too new. But she knew, surely? That when you hurt, you took fur?

Shift!

I tried again, forcing all my will and intention into the communication.

Her body shuddered, and a bit of foam formed at the corner of her lips. Her lips, which were turning blue.

The man inside beat against my defenses, screamed into my mind. I shook again, trying to shed the uncomfortable sensation, but he wouldn't stop. Pounding and pounding against my defenses until a fissure appeared.

It's wolfsbane! Stand back! Let Reed help her, or she'll lose her wolf forever !

The man's demand had me stumbling to the side. He was so weak, so far back in my mind, that I hadn't heard him speak in many seasons. But was he right? Could my mate lose her wolf?

I threw back my head and howled at the pain of that thought. If she had no wolf, how could we be mated?

"Now! The tranquilizers!" the memory man shouted, as a split second later, stinging pinpricks hit me from all sides. I snarled and scratched, bit and yanked, trying to get the annoying projectiles off me, but it was no use.

Everywhere I'd been hit, cold seemed to flood my body. I blinked over at my female, her form growing hazy before my eyes.

Once, twice, as I swayed on my feet.

Don't crush her, the man in my head said, wresting control for a second and forcing me to the side.

He was right this time. Because seconds later, I collapsed.