Magic Bleeds

CHAPTER 27

EVERYTHING HURT.

“Don’t move.” Urgency filled Jim’s quiet voice.

I lay absolutely still, my eyes closed. The magic was down. The air smelled of blood.

Something fanned my face. I opened my eyes just enough to glimpse a clawed foot passing out of my field of vision.

“You’re on the floor,” Jim said. “I’m at the door directly in front of you. When I say, run to me.”

My eyes snapped open.

Jim crouched in the doorway, Doolittle next to him. Derek stood to the left, his face white. Beyond them I saw Mahon looming like a mountain.

Jim’s eyes shone with green.

“She doesn’t understand,” Doolittle murmured.

Jim leaned an inch forward. “You’re in the Keep. Curran brought you here three hours ago. He’s pacing back and forth around you. He attacks anyone who tries to enter. He isn’t talking. He doesn’t recognize me or anyone else.” He paused, waiting for it sink in. “Kate, he may have gone loup. You must get out of here, before he kills you. If you run, we’ll shut the door as soon as you make it out. We’ve got enough people to hold it.”

Three hours. He hasn’t spoken in three hours.

I sat up. A dark bloody stain slicked the floor under me. I must’ve bled. I turned and saw a furry gray back at the far wall and above it a tangled, bloodstained mane. Curran.

“Kate!” Jim hissed.

The beast that used to be Curran whipped around. White eyes glared at me.

I stood up.

He leaped across the room, covering the distance between us in a single bound. His hands clamped my ribs. He jerked me up to a mouth full of teeth.

“Hey, baby,” I said into his maw, breathing out to let him inhale my scent.

White eyes peered into mine. A deep growl rolled from him.

“Very scary,” I told him softly. “I’m terribly impressed.”

He snarled. Teeth clicked a hair from my throat.

“Curran,” I whispered. “Remember me.”

He inhaled my scent. His ears twitched. He was listening to the shapeshifters at the door.

“Close the door, Jim.”

Jim hesitated.

“I’m his mate. Close the door.”

A moment later the door clicked shut.

I put my arms around his neck. “You’re mine. You can’t let her win. She can’t have you.”

He was listening but not hearing.

“I love you,” I told him. “You said you would always come for me. I need you now. Come back to me. Please, come back to me.”

I put my head against Curran’s mane.

“Come back to me. I know you’re in there. You brought me here. You didn’t kill me. You must know who I am.”

Fur slid under my fingers. He stood rigid.

“If you come back to me, I’ll never leave you,” I whispered into the furry ear. “I’ll make you all the pies you could ever eat.”

All of the magic I had, all of the power of my blood, all of it was useless with the magic down. He was slipping away, farther and farther, with each passing second. “Come back to me. Please. Remember you wanted me to say please. I’m saying it now. Please come back to me.”

Nothing.

“Who’ll protect me from myself if you’re gone? Who’ll fight with me? I will be all by myself. You can’t abandon me, Curran. You can’t orphan the Pack. You just can’t.”

He clenched me to him. Pain exploded and I cried out.

Curran snarled and gripped me tighter.

He didn’t remember me. Curran was lost. She took him from me. She ripped him right out of my life with her dying breath. The world broke to pieces and caved in on me. I couldn’t even breathe.

My eyes grew hot. Something inside me broke and I cried. I hugged his thick neck and cried and cried, because he was dying second by second and I could do nothing.

“Come back to me. Don’t leave me all alone. Don’t die on me, you stupid sonovabitch. You goddamn fucking idiot. I told you to stay out of the damn fight! Why the hell don’t you ever listen? I fucking hate you. I hate you, you hear me? Don’t you dare die on me, because I need to kill you with my bare hands.”

The fur boiled under my hands and my fingers grazed human skin. Curran’s gray eyes looked at me from a human face.

“Talk to me, baby,” I whispered. “Please talk to me.”

His lips moved. He struggled for a long moment and forced it out.

“Not dead yet.”

His eyes rolled back in his head. He swayed and we crashed to the floor.

DOOLITTLE WIPED HIS HANDS WITH A TOWEL. “HE’S comatose. His body is human, but whether his mind returns is the question. However, he spoke. We heard him through the door and it was clear and coherent. That gives us hope.”

“When will he wake up?”

Doolittle looked at me, his eyes troubled. “I don’t know.”

“Can you do anything? Can’t you fix him?”

He shook his head again and pulled back from me. “I’m out of cures. It’s up to his body and time now.”

Jim thrust himself into my view. “You need to let him fix you.”

I stared at him.

“Let the doctor fix you,” Jim said, as if to a small child. “You’re hurt. It’s not good for you to be hurt.”

I wanted them to leave me the hell alone. “Since when did you turn into my nursemaid?”

Jim crouched by me. “By now the whole Keep knows the Beast Lord is in a coma. They’re scared and pissed off and they want blood. What they need right now is the Beast Lord’s mate standing on her own two feet. You need to be up and running, so I can walk you through the Keep to keep people from panicking.”

“I’m not going anywhere while he’s like this.”

Jim shook his head. “You’re going to pick yourself up and take up right where he left off. That’s your job now.”

“Leave me the hell alone, or I’ll hurt you,” I growled at him.

“That’s real nice,” Jim said. “But first we’ll need to fix you.”

Doolittle put his finger on my jeans a couple of inches above the knee. “Cut from here to the ankle.”

Jim flashed a knife, slicing my jeans along my right leg. Doolittle pointed down. “Look here.”

My knee had developed a large bump on the left side. The muscle around it had swelled, disfiguring the leg.

“You know what this is,” Doolittle said.

“Dislocated kneecap.”

“Good girl. You have two broken ribs, severe bruising, a wound in the stomach, and at least four deep cuts that I can see, and all of them are filthy. Your wound did seal itself, but if we don’t take care of it now, you won’t be here if he wakes up.”

He said “if,” not “when.” If he wakes up.

Doolittle grasped my ankle. “Hold under her knee.”

Jim caught the underside of my knee in his hand.

Doolittle’s eyes found mine. “You know how this goes.”

I clenched the armrests of the chair. “Do it.”

He twisted my leg. A red-hot shaft of pain shot through me, tearing a scream.

Doolittle peered into my eyes. “That ought to bring you back to earth. Are you with us now?”

I squeezed my eyes shut against the pain.

“Good,” Doolittle said. “Now let’s see to those ribs.”

DEREK KNOCKED ON THE DOOR. I KNEW IT WAS him, because he always knocked twice.

I closed the book I was reading out loud. “Yes?”

Derek stepped in. The boy wonder looked me over with a worried look on his face. “How are you feeling?”

“Same.”

It had been three days since Curran collapsed. He showed no signs of waking up. I had him moved to the couch, because the bed was too high, and I’d made a bed for myself on the floor next to him. I hadn’t left his side longer than the few minutes I needed to go to the bathroom. The boy wonder had the devil of a time getting me to eat.

“Julie called me,” he said. “She says the school won’t let her contact you.”

“It was a precaution against Erra. I didn’t want her to find out Julie was alive. Is she angry with me?”

“She’s hurt,” he said. “I’ll talk to her.”

I could tell there was more. “Give, Derek. What else?”

“The Pack Council is going to convene in four hours. They are going to debate what to do if Curran doesn’t come around.”

“And?”

“There is some talk of expelling you from Curran’s quarters, since you’re not officially an alpha.”

My laughter rang through the room, sounding cold and brittle.

Derek took a step back. His face softened, his voice gaining an almost pleading quality. “Kate? Bring the creepy down a notch. Please.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I told him. The magic had hit for a few hours yesterday and Doolittle spent most of the wave putting me back together, since he could do nothing for Curran. I wouldn’t be able to fight Erra again right this second, but I had enough left in me for one good show.

“Any calls from Andrea?”

“No.”

The shapeshifters had reported that Andrea had survived the fire at the Mole Hole, but she’d made no attempts to contact me. My best friend had abandoned me and I missed her. But then I probably wasn’t good company right this second. Maybe it was for the best.

“Still no word on Naeemah?” I asked.

He shook his head. “But there are two people from Clan Bouda here. They say you have some sort of arrangement with Aunt B.”

I pushed myself off the chair and handed him the book. “Page 238. Read to him while I talk to them. Please.”

Derek licked his lips. “I’m not sure he can hear us.”

“When I was out after the rakshasas nearly killed me, I heard voices. I heard Curran, Julie, you, Andrea. I didn’t know what was being said, but I recognized the voices. That’s how I knew I was safe. I want you to read to him, so he knows he’s not dead and he isn’t alone.”

Derek sat in my chair and opened the book.

I went through the door into the meeting room.

A man and a woman rose at my approach. The man was of average height and built like a young lightweight boxer: ridiculously toned but without any bulk. Those guys were wicked fast. You’d think you could take one out, and then you’d be waking up on the nice cold floor. His face was sharp-featured and his hair blazed bright red. It was a wonder he didn’t set the room on fire.

The woman was black, six inches taller, twenty pounds heavier—all of it muscle—and she was trying very hard not to scowl. She failed miserably.

They bowed their heads. Both looked to be in their mid-twenties.

“Aunt B sends her regards,” the man said. “I’m Barabas. This is Jezebel.”

I arched my eyebrow at him. “Ambitious names.”

“Bouda mothers have high hopes for their children,” Barabas explained. “Our alpha tells us we’re yours. If you find us suitable, we’ll serve you from this point on. If not, she will send replacements.”

I sat into the chair. “What made you a candidate for shit duty, Barabas?”

He blinked.

“I don’t see Aunt B passing an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. So what did you do to make her want to eject you from everyday bouda dealings?”

“My mother is a bouda,” he said. “My father is from Clan Nimble. I drew Nimble from the genetic lottery.”

When two shapeshifters from different clans mated, which happened more frequently with boudas, since there were only thirty or so of them, the children had an equal chance for either parent’s brand of Lyc-V. “What do you turn into?”

“Mongoose. There are dominance issues in the clan,” he said.

“He won’t play by the rules,” Jezebel said.

Barabas sighed. “I’m gay. They view me as competition and treat me as they would treat a bouda female, which means a strict pecking order. I don’t fit in well and I have no wish to slaughter a load of my cousins so I can be a proper bouda female.”

I looked at Jezebel. “And you?”

Jezebel thrust her chin at me. “I challenged my sister for her place in the clan.”

“How did it go?”

“I lost.”

I sat up straighter. Duels for dominance between the shapeshifters were to the death. Always. “Why are you still breathing?”

“She stabbed me in the heart with her claws. I went into cardiac arrest and was clinically dead for eight minutes. When I came to, my sister couldn’t bring herself to kill me the second time. It reflects badly on her and on me. I’m a walking dead, and as long as I’m around, I’m the proof that she was weak.”

Great. You really had to admire Aunt B. If either of them left the clan on their own, it could have been taken as a sign of cowardice on their part. As it was, their honor was intact.

“Are you any good at Pack politics?”

“He’s very good,” Jezebel said. “I’m better with force, but I know the rules. I know what people can and can’t do. I’m not stupid and I can be useful to you.”

I sighed. “You’re both hired. I have a Council meeting in four hours. They’re going to try to remove me. Find out what I should expect.”

I got up and went back to Curran. I was two thirds of the way through The Princess Bride and he would want to know what happened next.

When I walked in, Derek rose from the chair. “About Julie . . .”

“Yes?”

He straightened, his new face looking too tight on his bones. “I lied. She didn’t call me.”

I fought an urge to slump over. Now he was lying to me. “Is she okay?”

“I’m okay,” a thin voice said from the middle of the room.

I turned. Julie sat on the floor with her feet under her. She wore a black sweater and her face seemed very pale against the dark wool, almost transparent. Huge dark eyes looked at me.

She got up. “I ran away.”

I crossed the floor and hugged her. Derek backed out of the room.

“I went home,” Julie said softly. “I was worried. There is no home left. All of our stuff is gone. What happened?”

“It’s a long story.” At least I kept her safe.

“Am I in trouble?”

“No, kiddo.” I squeezed her to me and kissed her blond hair. “You’re alive. Everything else we can fix.”

FOUR HOURS LATER I SAT IN CURRAN’S PRIVATE meeting room. Barabas sat across from me. Jezebel perched on the table and Derek leaned against the door. Julie had volunteered to read to Curran.

“You are not universally loved,” Barabas said.

Tell me something I don’t know.

“There are seven clans,” he continued. “Of the seven, you can count on the support of Clan Cat, and unless my Great Aunt B is doing a complete turnabout, the boudas are on your side as well. The wolves are fanatically loyal to Curran. Normally they would be behind you all the way, but you killed Jennifer’s little sister.”

The twisted body of the little werewolf flashed before me. “It couldn’t be helped.”

“Nobody is disputing the kill,” Barabas said. “It was a justifiable death, and given time, Jennifer will see that. But right now, she is in mourning. She has to blame someone, because she can’t blame herself any more than she does already. All of that puts Daniel in a difficult position. He won’t oppose you. That would be disloyal to Curran. But he can’t support you either, because he has to be loyal to his mate. The proper course of action in cases like this is to abstain, and Wolves always do the proper thing. So he won’t hurt you, but he won’t help you either.”

“That’s three,” I said.

Barabas nodded. “Next we have Clan Heavy, the large predators who don’t fit into the other packs. Wereboars, were-bison, werewolverines, even a werebaboon, but most of them are bears and bears hate to be surprised. They like the status quo and Mahon is a typical bear. He will probably oppose you. It’s nothing personal. You just don’t fit into his picture of the way it ought to be.” Barabas leaned forward and framed an imaginary square box with his hands, palms facing each other. “At eighteen, people like me have a choice: we can stay with the clan of our parents or we can go to the clan of our beast. I chose to stay with the boudas. All my friends were there and my family, and I didn’t know anybody in Clan Nimble. Mahon sat me down shortly after and wanted to know why.”

“He had no right to ask,” Jezebel growled.

“We just had a conversation.” Barabas glanced at her. “I explained my reasons, but he couldn’t wrap his head around it. To him, I was a mongoose and my place was with Clan Nimble, because that’s the way it ought to be. You’re a human who is the Beast Lord’s mate and who now nominally occupies the place of Pack Alpha. That doesn’t compute in his brain and he will dig his heels in.”

“He also raised Curran,” Jezebel said. “He’s a strong supporter of the Beast Lord, and the Beast Lord chose you.”

Barabas nodded. “She’s right. When Mahon looks at Curran and you, he sees little babies, which to him means dynasty and stability. If he thinks there is a chance that Curran will pull through, he may decide not to make waves.”

“So he could go either way?”

“Yes,” Barabas said. “Clan Nimble is being secretive as usual, so we couldn’t find out anything. Clan Rat is problematic.”

Derek stirred. “You know the Lonescos.”

A predatory light flashed in Barabas’s eyes. “Why, because all gay men know each other?”

“You ran patrols of the north side with the rats for two years,” Derek said.

Jezebel snorted at Barabas. “Dumbass.”

Barabas grimaced. “Fine, I walked into that one. The rats are neophobic. They hate new, they don’t attack unless they know they can win, and they trust nobody. The Lonescos don’t know you. They won’t help you.”

So far, this was shaping decidedly not in my favor.

“Your biggest problem is the jackals,” Barabas said. “They’re a new couple. They came from the West about two years ago, waited for the required time in the Pack, and challenged the old alphas. Took them right out. They’re nasty in a fight and ambitious. They see you as an easy mark and they’re itching for a chance to snarl and show everybody their big teeth. They’ll kill you and won’t think twice about it.”

“Can the Council remove me?”

Barabas grimaced again. “It’s a touchy situation. Technically, yes. You’re mated to Curran, nobody questions that. But you have yet to prove yourself as an alpha. Until the mate of an alpha proves herself, she is treated as a rank-and-file member and is subject to the authority of the Council. This almost never happens. I could only find one case in the last twenty years, where the alpha of the Clan Wolf died before his mate could prove himself.”

“What happened?”

“The mate stepped down.”

I looked at them. “I won’t be stepping down. I’m not leaving Curran alone.”

Derek left the room and stepped back in. “The Council will be ready for you in ten minutes.”

I rose. “We go now. Derek, stay here and double the guard while we’re gone.”

We left Curran’s quarters and headed down the stairs, Barabas on my right and Jezebel on my left.

“Don’t provoke the alphas,” Barabas said. “An alpha can’t challenge those below him. The challenge has to come from a lower pack member to the higher. Since you technically have no status, as long as you don’t openly challenge them, if they attack, it’s an assault, and we can help you.”

“You can’t bring a sword or any weapons to the challenge, other than a six-inch knife.” Jezebel pulled out a sturdy double-edged knife and passed it to me. “In case. If you do fight, fight to the death. Don’t leave them alive.”

The Council had scheduled the meeting while the tech was up. Trying to put me at a disadvantage.

As we turned into a hallway, I could hear Doolittle’s voice. “. . . spoke. The words were clear, not slurred. That indicates a return of cognitive ability—”

“There is no guarantee that the Beast Lord will wake up,” a male voice interrupted. “Surely we would all love for him to rise like Phoenix from the ashes, but we have to face a hard fact: he may not. His so-called mate is not a shapeshifter. She has no place in the Beast Lord’s quarters. When the same situation occurred within the wolf clan, the mate stepped down.”

“The wolf clan is not ready to voice an opinion,” Daniel’s even voice said.

“Now is the time for leadership,” the unfamiliar male jumped in. “She must be removed to make room for a new alpha.”

“And who would that be, Sontag?” Aunt B inquired. “Would that be you?”

We reached the door.

“If you challenge someone, we can’t interfere,” Barabas murmured. “Remember, don’t provoke them.”

I kicked the door open and walked in. Fourteen pairs of eyes glared at me from around the table. Beyond the alpha, fourteen other shapeshifters waited—the betas of each clan, invited as a courtesy.

I looked from face to face.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” the male voice said.

Third man on the left. Tall, wiry. Sontag.

I looked at him. “Ready to put your claws where your mouth is, or are you going to cringe behind the big boys and yip all day?”

His eyes flared with yellow. “Is that a challenge?”

“Yes, it is.”

He burst from the chair, turning furry in midflight. I sidestepped and slashed with my knife across his neck. Blood spurted from the severed carotid like a jet from a water pistol, spraying the table. He swiped at me. I kicked him in the knee. Bone crunched. He went down. I grabbed his hair, cut hard across his neck, and kicked his head. His neck crunched, and Sontag’s skull rolled across the table.

His mate lunged at me. I stabbed her in the heart. She clamped her teeth on my right arm and I jabbed my fingers into her eye sockets. She howled. I jerked the knife out and stabbed her until she stopped moving.

The whole thing took about half a minute. Eternity in a fight.

I turned to the Council. Their eyes glowed. Their nostrils flared at the scent of blood. They said nothing.

An older couple rose from among the betas and walked over to the table. The woman kicked the dead body of the female alpha out of the way and the two of them sat down in bloodstained chairs.

“Clan Jackal has no objection to the mate’s presence in the Beast Lord’s quarters,” the new alpha of the Jackals said.

An older Japanese couple at the far end stirred. “Clan Nimble has no objection to the mate,” the man said.

“We remember Myong,” his mate said in a heavily accented voice. “We do not forget.”

I surveyed the rest of the Council and looked directly at Mahon. “Some of you know me. Some of you have seen me fight and some of you are my friends. Have your vote. But know this: if you come to remove me, come in force, because if you try to separate me from him, I will kill every single one of you. My hand won’t shake. My aim won’t falter. My face will be the last thing you’ll see before you die.”

I jammed the knife into the table and walked out.

I got to the stairs before my vision swam and my legs turned to rubber.

A firm hand gripped my elbow. Jezebel hefted me upright, bearing all of my weight, and we kept walking.

“Way to play it cool there,” Barabas ground through his teeth. “Every idiot who wants to make a name for himself will be gunning for you now. Jezebel, let go of her. She will be seen. She must walk.”

“She’s bleeding. She’ll fall.”

“It’s better that she falls. She has to walk on her own.”

“I’ve got it,” I growled and made myself walk up the stairs. Every step jabbed a knife into my knee. Fucking stairs. When he woke up, I’d make him install a damn elevator.

“Only four flights to go,” Jezebel told me. “Is Doolittle behind us?”

Barabas glanced back. “Yes.”

“Good.”

A year later Derek shut the door behind us and I collapsed on the carpet in the hallway. Moments later Doolittle stepped through the door. “Pick her up, quickly, quickly.”

Jezebel swiped me off the floor and jogged with me to Curran’s rooms. “What’s wrong with her?”

“Her knee cap was shattered and the tendons in her left arm are torn. It took hours to get her walking properly. And she reopened her wounds. Foolish, Kate. You’re a God-damned fool, that’s what you are.”

By the time they got me to the room, the adrenaline had worn off and I was screaming. As Doolittle jabbed the needle in my arm, emptying a syringe full of painkillers into my vein, I saw Julie’s face. “It’s taken care of,” I told her. “I got it done. Did he wake up?”

She just stared at me.

“Did he wake up?”

“No.”

I closed my eyes and let the medicine take me under.

THE COUNCIL DECIDED IN MY FAVOR. THE WOLVES and Clan Heavy abstained; the rats voted against me; the cats, boudas, Clan Nimble, and Clan Jackal voted for me.

Three days later Mahon came to see me. I was being bandaged at the time—the shapeshifters had declared open season. This was the fifth attack since I’d killed the alpha jackals. I was still winning but barely.

I’d kept Mahon waiting for about five minutes. When I finally walked out of our rooms, Mahon looked as if a storm had ridden in on his thick dark eyebrows. Derek was impassive and my two boudas obviously were wordlessly conspiring to murder Mahon if he took a step out of line.

“I want to see him,” Mahon said.

I stepped aside.

“You as well. I have some things I wish to say to both of you.”

I led him inside.

He stared at Curran. I looked, too. I kept thinking he’d wake up any minute, and I watched for the tiniest hint of movement, until I started seeing things that weren’t there.

“You aren’t fit,” Mahon said. “You aren’t a shapeshifter. You don’t understand us and you probably never will. This”—he spread his massive arms, indicating the bedroom, me, and Curran—“was against my better judgment. I told him so before. He has had many women. I thought it would pass.”

I watched him. If he attacked me here, I’d lose. I couldn’t take Mahon at my best, and right this minute it was a fight to remain standing.

“As I said, this is unwise. But he chose you. I respect the man he has become and I respect what he has done for us. And I respect you for standing by him.” Mahon met my gaze. “You may never be my alpha. You will have to live with that. But he will always be my liege.”

I felt like some pretender to the throne in a medieval drama.

Mahon leaned over Curran and touched his shoulder. “Sleep well. I won’t challenge her and neither will my people.

We will talk more when you wake.”

He walked out.

I WALKED INTO THE ROOM, CARRYING A CUP OF tea and leaning on my cane. Derek rose from the chair, nodded at me, and left without a word. I sat on the edge of the couch and sipped my tea.

Curran lay immobile, an IV dangling from his arm. He’d lost weight. Thirty pounds, at least. His skin was pale. It hurt to look at him.

I forced dread aside. “I didn’t have to kill anybody today. Remember, the first couple of days they were coming three a day, then two, then one. Today nobody challenged me. It’s late now, so if somebody does show up, your castle guard will tell them to come back in the morning. Maybe it’s slacking off.”

I pulled my boots off, wincing at the stab of pain. “Julie has appropriated your bimbo room. I made them throw away the sheets—who knows what sort of crazy crap is on there—and she has a new set. Black. She painted the walls black. The curtains are black lace. I tried to convince her to keep the furniture white, but I saw her carry a paint can in there, so I think it will be black by morning. It’s like a freaking dungeon in there.”

I pulled off my sweatshirt and slid next to him. My voice was soft. “That’s the good news. The bad news is that it’s been eleven days since you fell asleep and I’m beginning to get scared you won’t wake up.”

I held my breath, but he lay still.

“Let’s see . . . What else? I’m sick of killing. Doolittle says there might be permanent damage to my left leg. It will heal eventually, even if he doesn’t think so, but meanwhile it hurts like hell. He wants me to stop putting pressure on it, so he gave me this lovely cane. I can only use it up here so the rest of the Keep won’t see me as weak.”

I just wanted him to wake up. Of course, he didn’t, so I kept talking, trying to keep the panic at bay.

“Still no calls from Andrea. Jim is keeping his distance, which I can understand. Derek says he’s helping from behind the scenes, whatever that means. The wolves keep finding ways to screw with me. They’ve made me mediate a divorce. Well, they requested I do it, and according to Barabas, I can’t say no. It’s a Japanese couple. They were members of a small pack and married very young and had two boys. The husband was expelled from the pack under suspicion of stealing. The wife remained behind, because the grandparents had the kids.”

He lay next to me, warm and alive, and if I didn’t look at him, I could almost imagine that he was listening. I shut my eyes. My body ached. Doolittle wanted me on bed rest, but the boudas wanted me out and about, demonstrating that I was fit as a fiddle and ready to take on everyone and anyone.

“Apparently the husband had made his way over here and you took him in about eight years ago. I had Derek pull his record and it’s clean, so if he’s stealing, he’s brilliant at hiding it. I’ve met him. He seems like a decent guy. This September, the small local pack asked to join your Pack, and of course, you took them in again. Now they are stuck. The husband has someone else, the wife also has someone else, but by wolf law they’re mated for life and the grandparents on both sides are horrified. It doesn’t help that all of them are Japanese. I put them in the same room—nobody talks. Everybody is embarrassed and they keep apologizing to me nonstop. I don’t know what to do.”

“Have you tried the Second Chance Law?” Curran said.

I shut my eyes tighter. I was losing my mind. Now I imagined him talking in my head.

Even an imaginary conversation was better than nothing. “No, what’s that?”

“It’s the law that says any shapeshifter joining the Pack has a one-time right to a new identity. If the husband didn’t use it when he joined, declare him officially dead and let him rejoin under a new name. His former wife will officially be a widow.”

A warm arm hugged me. My eyes snapped open.

He was looking at me. He was pale, his eyes were sunken, but he was looking at me.

“You stayed with me,” Curran said.

“Always.”

He smiled and fell asleep.

Curran stirred again, an hour later. I raced into the kitchen, and by the time I returned with a steaming bowl, he was sitting up and pulling the IV out of his arm. “What is this shit?”

“It kept you alive for eleven days.”

“Well, I don’t like it.”

I handed him a bowl of soup. He put it aside, reached for me, and clenched me to him. I buried my face in his neck. My eyes grew hot and I cried.

His hand stroked my hair. “You stayed with me.”

“Of course I stayed with you. Did you think I would abandon you?”

“I heard you reading. And talking.”

I kissed him and tasted my tears. “Through your sleep?”

“Yes. I tried to wake up, but I couldn’t.”

I just held on to him. “Let’s not do this again. Ever.” “That sounds good.” He kissed me.

“You need to eat.”

“In a minute.” He clamped me tighter. We sat together for a few blissful minutes.

Two sharp knocks echoed through the door. Derek. He always knocked twice.

“Kate?”

“Come in,” I told him.

Derek walked in. “I have a wolf out here who wants to see you. He says it’s an emergency. Probably another challenge. What do you want me to . . . ?” His mouth hung open.

Curran looked at him. “Bring him in. Don’t tell him that I’m awake.”

Derek closed his mouth with a click and went out.

“Help me up?”

I grabbed his hand and pulled him off the bed. He blinked at the windup clock on the wall. “Is today Wednesday?”

“Yes.”

He picked up the bowl of soup and drank from it.

The door swung open. A large Hispanic man stepped through. He saw Curran and froze.

Curran finished draining the bowl and looked at him. “Yes?”

The wolf dropped down into a crouch and stayed there, his head bowed, his gaze on the floor.

“Nothing to say?”

The wolf shook his head.

“The Council is due for a meeting in three minutes. Go down there and tell them to wait for me, and I might forget you were ever here.”

The wolf turned, rising, and left without a word. The door shut behind him.

Curran swayed. I caught him. My leg gave and we crashed down onto the couch.

“Ow.”

Curran shook his head.

“Are you sure you’re ready for a Council meeting?”

He turned to me. Gold rolled over his eyes, cold and lethal. “I’m sure. They better be ready for me.”

He pushed himself up and headed to the bathroom. I followed him in case he tipped over. He did, on the way back, and caught himself on the wall.

I slid my arm around his waist.

“The soup will kick in in a minute,” he said.

“Sure. Lean on me.” He did and we slowly made our way to the door. “Some tough pair we are.”

“Tough enough,” he growled.

Five minutes later he walked to the Council room on his own power. The shapeshifters saw him and stepped aside, silent. We reached the room. I could hear people mumbling inside. Curran took a deep breath, thrust the door open, and roared.

The sound of leonine rage burst like thunder, shaking the windows. People in the hallway cringed. When it died, you could hear a pin drop.

Curran held the door open for me. He walked to his seat at the head of the table, got another chair, put it next to his, and looked at me. I came and sat. He lowered himself into his seat.

The alphas stared at the table. Not a single pair of eyes looked up.

Curran leaned forward, his eyes drenched in furious gold. “Explain yourselves.”