Page 55 of Wolfsbane

Healing was a very specific magical art. It took years of study to master it, and most people didn’t start with their own brother’s dismembered hand.

But Viktor had my magic, so we didn’t have a choice. Aleks was going to lose his hand, or we were going to fix this. Those were our only options.

I’d just taken a single step forward when Cash’s head snapped up. “Back off!”

His shout was every bit as rough as a starved dog who’d been chained outside alone. He looked pale and horrible, but even that wasn’t enough to cloud how much he hated me, and I thought⁠—

I thought I could understand that, at least a little. Aleks was his mate, the man he loved most in this world, and I stood in for everyone who had hurt him. Maybe it hadn’t been my own hands or my own callous demands, but I hadn’t stopped it either.

And all that meant was that I owed it to Aleks to try now. Try my hardest. Give him my very best for all the times that I hadn’t.

Even Cash couldn’t stand in the way of that.

I swallowed hard, even as I came up short, and lifted my chin. “No.”

Cash’s growl was a low-pitched, constant vibration. I swear, his eyes flashed with a magical sheen when he glared at me.

As much as I wanted to, I didn’t let myself shrink back.

“If I hurt him in any way, if I make this worse, you can tear me apart. Later. But right now, you’re going to let Viktor and me help him, because that’s his only shot at keeping his hand.”

Cash’s growl shifted into a pitiful whine and a horrible gasp for air, but I—I couldn’t help him. Leo came over and grasped him tight, wrapping his long arms around Cash and pulling him close.

I caught Leo’s eye, and he nodded to me.

If he had to, Leo would hold Cash back, but right then, I thought Cash needed someone to hold him together more than a vise to keep him controlled.

I looked at Aleks, and if I held his gaze, I could—I could maybe keep from losing my breakfast. His face was pale. His blue eyes had been swallowed by his irises. His breath came short and quick, and a tremor ran through his body.

“It’s gonna be okay,” I promised him. “Can I touch you?”

He nodded, the movement small and tight. As alpha, he wouldn’t let himself fall apart, but, well, if my hand were barely hanging onto my arm, I thought I might freak out anyway.

I touched his good arm and looped my hand around the small of his back. If he went into shock, he wasn’t falling on my watch. Not after I’d promised Cash he could rip me to pieces.

“We’re just going to sit down over here, against the wall. Good.” I helped him sink down until his ass was in the dirt and his shoulders back against the side of the house, away from the sawhorse where he’d been working and the pool of blood he’d left on the ground. “Viktor?”

A second later, he was kneeling across from me, awaiting instructions, because he didn’t know what to do. He hadn’t had years of access to the coven’s grimoires to guide the theory.

Goddess, I hoped I picked the right practice.

I swallowed down my nerves. “I’m going to move your arm, all right?”

“Yeah,” Aleks croaked.

It still took noticeable effort for him to release his grasp on it, but when he did, I guided it away from his chest. Before his hand could dangle too grotesquely, I cupped his palm and framed it with my fingertips. Maybe he couldn’t feel it, but I still wanted to be gentle with every part of him. I couldn’t imagine the pain he was in.

His skin was slick with blood, his hand only held up by mine as I aligned it with his severed wrist.

“It really got you, huh?”

Aleks snorted out a laugh, and I smiled at him. That was a good sign, right? He wasn’t about to pass out on us.

But I could see his bones and muscle and sinew and⁠—

I closed my eyes and tipped my head back, taking a deep breath. Which was a huge fucking mistake, because the scent of blood rolled through me, magnified by having a wolf inside me rather than my magic, and I thought I was going to be sick.

Yeah, puking on Aleks’s severed hand was definitely going to get me torn to pieces, so I needed to stamp that down.