Page 103 of Exiled Heir

“I’ve used too much magic.” Cade swallowed, his throat working. “I’ll be fine. Get me some water.” He paused. “Please.”

I stood, striding into the bathroom and finding his cup. As I filled it with cool water, I heard him in the next room, panting.

When I came back in, he was sitting on the ground, his legs pulled tight against his chest. I handed him the glass, and he nodded in appreciation. “What did you want to tell me?”

“I still can’t shift.”

Cade stopped, the glass halfway to his lips. He turned to me, his eyes wide. “What?”

“I still can’t shift. Whatever drug they gave me, it’s… I just can’t. I can feel my shift, I can feel the wolf, but when I try to pull it through… nothing.”

I stood, my frustration getting the better of me. I walked across the room, fisting my hands.

Closing my eyes, I tried again. I could feel my wolf under my skin, feel the shift, a caterpillar that no longer fit in its chrysalis. But when I pulled, when I started the movement in my body that should shift me into my wolf form…

It felt like I was digging the butterfly out of the chrysalis, tearing it open only to find pulp and half-formed wings inside. Pulling at it left me with a half-shifted monstrous thing that had almost no form at all.

Cade struggled to his feet, walking over to the desk and placing the glass on it with an audible click.

“You can’t shift.” He spoke low. “When were you planning on telling me?”

“I did tell you!” I bit out the words, frustrated.

“Two weeksago,” Cade said. “You said it was going to get better. You saidyouwere going to get better.”

“Well, it hasn’t.” I fisted my hands, then stretched out my fingers, trying to force the claws to come. “Ihaven’t gotten better.”

I heard Cade come close, his footsteps soft on the plush carpet.

“Well, you’d better fix it, or both of us are screwed.”

The word was so foreign in his mouth, as though he had suddenly started speaking a language I didn’t know. I turned around. His eyes were narrowed, brows drawn tight. He crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“If it were that easy, I already would’ve done it,” I snapped. “I am not refusing to shift to makeyourlife difficult.”

“We arebothdead unless you can become a wolf.” Cade stared at me, his blue eyes bottomless. I was slipping into them. I was going to drown, swallowed up by the endless blue.

He dropped his gaze, staring at my shoulder. “I’ve seen your wolf.”

I blinked, frowning. “What?”

“I see him in you. He’s strong. Big. Bigger than any wolf I’ve seen since…”

Cade swallowed. “He’s strong and big. He wouldn’t leave you abandoned.”

I stared at him, and he reached out, putting his hand on my bicep and then looking up at me. And I was drowning again—I was plunged into arctic water, and there was nothing for me to do but desperately take mouthfuls of frigid salt water like it was air.

“Your wolf is a protector. And it’s going to protect us now. You are going to save us, just like you saved that woman that Declan wanted dead.”

I shook my head. “That was different. I wasn’t saving her. I was betraying Declan.”

Cade’s lips twitched.

“You were saving her. And you’re going to save us,” he repeated. “You’re the only one who can.”

I wet my lips, my tongue slick across the sensitive skin. “How can you be so sure?”

“Because that’s what I hired you to do. I’m not paying for you to get us both killed,” Cade said.