Page 61 of A Wolf’s Wound

Ryder

Mid-lunge, I realize what’s happening. I twist my body away from Hannah and crash into the tree beside her.

“Are you okay?” she gasps.

“Yeah.” I nod. “I really am.” I take a deep breath and exhale forcefully, as if doing that will blow Brian’s scent out of the area. Even though I know it’s still here, I do feel better now. Clearer and much more in control.

I stand up and wipe the blood from my eyes. I look at Hannah and take her hands in mine. “I’m back, Hannah. I’m not going to hurt you. I promise. I’m myself again.”

“I know,” she says, squeezing my hands with hers. “I can tell you’re okay again. I just hope you stay this way.”

“I will,” I promise her. And as I say the words, I can feel the truth of them. I look at Shadow, who’s staring at me anxiously. “I’m sorry, buddy. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

Shadow twitters and warbles, letting me know that he accepts my apology.

“What’s wrong, Ryder?” Brian yells behind me in a taunting tone. “Losing your touch? Come on, bite her!” he screams.

“I haven’t lost anything,” I snarl, turning to face him. I’m pleased to see how many of my blows connected with his face. “This is over, Brian. You failed.”

Brian’s face twists in confusion. He looks from me to Hannah and then stares at me again.

I think he can tell I’m right, but he clenches his fists and steps toward me.

“Like hell I did,” he growls. “The scent is all over you, Ryder! You can try to fight it but it’s no use.

You’re going to bite her, and she’s going to have to prove herself to be with you! Just like I did!”

“No, she won’t,” I say. “I’m sorry for what I did to you, Brian. I am truly sorry, and I will be for the rest of my life. But this is over.”

As he glares at me, I realize how much pain I’m in. Every fiber in my body aches, and it’s hard to stay on my feet. But I know I can’t give up now.

I turn away from Brian and close my eyes for a brief second. “You can do this,” I mutter to myself, trying to gather what strength I still have. Then I open my eyes and whirl around with my fist already moving toward Brian’s face with all my strength.

I connect squarely across his jaw. He stumbles backward, trips over his own feet, and collapses in a heap. I hear his head strike the ground with a sickening thud.

My legs give out, and I sink to the grass, feeling sick with pain and regret. I watch as Hannah runs over to Brian and puts her hand on his neck. “He’s breathing, but he’s out,” she tells me.

“Good,” I gasp.

Hannah puts her hands on my shoulders. “Ryder, we need to get you both to a doctor. You’re badly hurt.”

I shake my head. “I’ll be okay, Hannah. We have to finish this thing.” I take a breath and feel my resolve harden into action. I stand and make my way over to Brian.

“Finish this?” Hannah echoes as I continue on my path. “You can’t mean to…”

“I can and I will.” Brian can’t be allowed to live. Not after everything he’s done and the shifter laws he’s broken.

“But, Ryder…”

“I know how you feel, Hannah, but this must be done. You know our laws.”

She swallows hard, and I can see the indecision and doubt transform into resolve. “I understand.”

I lean down and grasp Brian’s head between my hands, prepared to snap his neck. “Look away, sweetheart.”

She does as I ask and it takes hardly any effort to break Brian’s neck, ending his terror once and for all.

I drop my ex-friend to the ground and straighten, catching Hannah as she flings herself into my arms. I ignore the pain from my injuries and relish her embrace. I hug her back but then see wolf shifters running toward us.

“What the hell?” Hannah turns and spies them, too.

“Wolf shifters,” I mutter. “They were drawn by that damn scent Brian created.”

“It was that strong,” Hannah says, the realization dawning across her face. “It didn’t just affect you.”

“No,” I shake my head. “I’ve smelled the same scent before, even from blocks away. It’s incredibly strong.”

“How do you know these are all shifters and not real wolves?” Hannah asks.

I can’t help but smile. “Come on, are you really asking me that? Didn’t you grow up in the Blackwood pack?”

Hannah shakes her head but smiles back. “You’re right.”

I look around. We’re not in the middle of Stonehaven, which is something. Maybe we’re far enough out of the city that the scent didn’t travel that far. Maybe it died out along the roads and woods that lead into town.

But I know well how insidious the scent can be, and what kind of distances it can travel.

And we’re still too close to the city for me to feel confident that everyone is safe.

There could be dozens, or even hundreds, of people enduring the shift right now.

I might not have been fast enough to save them.

The weight of what could be happening almost knocks me over. I’m gripped by a feeling of hopelessness: that everything Hannah and I endured has been for nothing. That what I did to Brian is going to result in the deaths of far too many more people.

“Ryder,” Hannah says, putting an arm around my waist. I look at her, into her eyes. I see love and understanding looking back at me, and I know she’s thinking the same thoughts I am.

“It won’t be your fault,” Hannah says. “Do you hear me? I mean, do you really hear me?”

“How can’t it be my fault? Look at what I did to Brian.”

“I know what you did to him. And it was awful and wrong, but everything that happened after that was because of Brian, not you.”

“How do you know that?”

“Ryder, I watched the two of you fighting. The way Brian looked, how he appeared—something was wrong with him. Sure, he survived the shift, but he didn’t become a wolf. He was some sort of damaged hybrid. I think that played a huge role in his mental state.”

“So not only did I bite him, but I didn’t even do the job well?”

Hannah shakes her head impatiently. “That’s not what I mean! I mean that he shouldn’t have survived the shift. I don’t think you can blame yourself for how his body reacted.”

What Hannah’s saying makes sense, but it’s still hard to wrap my mind around everything that’s happened tonight. “I understand. But, Hannah, I’m still the one who bit him. I was out of control, and I hurt someone.”

“Yes, you did,” she says simply. “You can’t change that, no matter how much you might want to. You’re going to have to figure out how to live with that fact.”

I look at the wolf shifters in front of us—near feral and battling each other—and think about what might be happening in Stonehaven as the wind carries that insidious scent. And I’m gripped with the knowledge that while I can’t undo what happened in the past, I can make sure the present is better.

And that means fixing what Brian has been trying to break. That means protecting Stonehaven and my family.

It means protecting Hannah.