Episode Twenty-One We Didn’t Need a Lecture

S hanna

My heart is slamming in my chest. My hands are fluttering so badly I squash them between my thighs to control them. The guys don't need to know I totally lost it back here. They have enough to worry about.

Ro has killed before. It was in the line of duty, but none of the rest of us have—until today. Whether our enemies looked like lions or wolves, we know the bodies housed human beings. I'm sure none of us are proud of what we just did.

"We're all in one piece?" Chaska asks. It's part question, part reassurance. "Let's face it. That sucked."

We all murmur our agreement, avoiding eye contact.

"We're safe in this car, at least for the time being. Let's take a moment to realize a few hard truths," he says.

He pauses long enough for me to have a lively discussion in my head. Hard truths? Does he think he needs to enumerate hard truths to a rabbit, a wolf, and a woman who thinks she's living on borrowed time? Or what? Does he have some additional information about our impending doom he hasn't shared with us yet?

"Life as we know it is over," he begins.

"Yeah, Chass," Alex snipes, "tell us something we don't know." He pinches the bridge of his nose, a behavior that would be more at home in a boardroom after a bad fiscal quarter than after a slaughter of living beings.

"I know. I'm stating the obvious. But we all need to be on the same page. Get our minds right. Kick me out at the next off-ramp if you want, but I'm going to lay it all out for us."

He heaves a deep sigh, his blue-green scales shimmering in the sunlight.

"I'm a dragon, Ro's a hare, or a rabbit. I never did know the difference. Doesn't matter. His neurochemicals are coursing with fight-or-flight hormones. Mostly flight from what I've observed. Alex is a wolf. His system is overflowing with fight hormones. Shanna's body is possibly in the process of shutting down even as we speak."

Ro manages to keep careening between parked cars as he spits, "Shut the fuck up, Chass. If you were closer, I'd punch you in your scaly face."

To his credit, Chaska doesn't breathe fire or even snap his mouthful of teeth.

"Did that make you feel better, Ro?" Chass asks. "Cause saying it felt like shit to me. But we must be honest. It's all we have left: our honesty and each other. It's precious."

I hate sitting here, feeling like an inanimate object as they talk about me, but Chass is right.

"We're a family. We love each other," he continues. "We've never said it before and will probably never say it again, but as much as we men love each other, it's Shanna who's the glue. Shanna who is the diamond who makes all of us a little less rough. None of us, least of all her, want to contemplate that her life might be spinning to a close. But here we are. Truth."

"He's right," I whisper.

"What happened back there? Thirty fucking wolfmen in a pack hellbent on our destruction? I don't think that's the end. I think that's the beginning. We have to get our shit together. There's no room for error."

After his harsh pronouncement, he reaches over the back seat and kisses me. I can't understand how he manages with those insanely sharp teeth, or the spikes surrounding his head, but it's the sweetest kiss we've shared since our first night together.

There's no lust. None. Just the softest expression of connection and love. His slitted purple eyes somehow manage to speak volumes of his affection, concern, and undying love.

"I love you, too," I say.