The world came back in fragments.
First...pain. A white-hot brand between her shoulder blades, radiating down her spine like liquid fire.
Second...sound. The wet crunch of teeth tearing flesh, the guttural snarls of wolves locked in combat.
Third...smell. Blood. So much blood.
Selene gasped awake, her vision swimming. Above her, the moon hung swollen and red, painting the forest in shades of violence. She was on her stomach, her fingers clawing at damp earth, her shadows thrashing weakly around her.
Move. Get up.
Her body refused to obey.
A shadow loomed over her. Kael.
Blood streaked his bare chest, his muscles heaving with each ragged breath. His claws were extended, dripping gore, his golden eyes wild with something feral. Behind him, three wolves lay motionless...Orric's hunters, their throats ripped out.
"You're alive," he rasped.
Selene tried to speak, but all that came out was a whimper. The wound in her back burned, as if whatever had struck her was laced with poison.
Kael's hands hovered over her, trembling. "I can't...fuck...I can't pull it out. The blade... it's moving."
Moving?
Cold dread slithered down her spine.
Then she felt it...a twitch between her shoulders, like a worm burrowing deeper.
Her shadows screamed.
Kael's jaw set. "This is going to hurt."
Before she could protest, his claws sank into her back.
Selene arched off the ground, a raw scream tearing from her throat as he dug, his fingers searching for the foreign object. The pain was unbearable, unholy...
Then...relief.
With a sickening pop, Kael yanked the blade free.
Selene collapsed, panting, her vision spotting. The last thing she saw before darkness took her again was the weapon in Kael's grip...a jagged shard of bone, pulsing with black veins.
Ghost-wolf magic.
The Cave
When Selene woke again, firelight danced across rough stone walls. She was on her side, her back bandaged tightly, the scent of herbs thick in the air.
Kael sat across from her, sharpening his dagger. The bone shard lay between them, still oozing that inky darkness.
"You've been out for hours," he said without looking up.
Her voice was sandpaper. "Where...?"
"Abandoned bear den. Orric's men won't find us here."
Selene tried to sit up, but a wave of dizziness forced her back down. "Cyrus..."
"Alive." Kael's tone was clipped. "For now."
The unspoken because of you hung between them.
Selene studied him...the tightness in his shoulders, the way his fingers clenched around the dagger. He was angry. No, beyond angry.
"You saved me," she said quietly.
His gaze snapped to hers, blazing. "I shouldn't have."
The words stung, but she didn't flinch. "Because I'm a ghost wolf?"
A muscle jumped in his jaw. "Because you lied."
"I didn't..."
"Enough." He was on her in a heartbeat, his hands braced on either side of her head, his breath hot against her lips. "You let me think you were just a shadow wolf. You let me touch you, taste you..." His voice broke. "Was any of it real?"
Selene's heart hammered. "Kael..."
A howl cut through the night...closer this time.
Kael stiffened. "They're tracking the blood."
Selene forced herself upright, ignoring the agony in her back. "Then we run."
"No." He pressed her back down, his grip gentler now. "You can barely stand."
"So leave me."
"Never." The word was a vow.
Then, before she could protest, he sliced his palm open with his dagger and pressed it to her lips.
"Drink."
Selene recoiled. "What...?"
"Alpha blood can heal ghost-wolf poison." His eyes burned into hers. "Or are you going to lie about that too?"
She hesitated. Then, with a shuddering breath, she closed her mouth over the wound.
Kael's blood was fire and salt, power and pain, flooding her senses until she couldn't tell where he ended and she began. Her shadows roared to life, twisting around them like a living thing, weaving their magic together in a way that felt inevitable.
When she finally pulled away, gasping, the wound in her back was gone.
But something else had taken its place...a new awareness, a tether between them that hadn't been there before.
Kael felt it too. She could see it in his widened eyes, in the way his breath hitched.
"What did you do?" he whispered.
Selene had no answer.
Because outside the cave, the howls had stopped.
And the laughter had begun.