Page 115

Her brothers. Yes. But they can still cover themselves.

I pull my ripped shirt free of my trousers. Keer’s torn most of one side open, and the sleeve sticks to the bite on my right forearm. Hitto. I peel it away and work that arm out first.

“What are you doing?” Kestria’s still holding her hand out.

I get the shirt over my head, and it drags across the claw marks down my side. I have to stop for a breath as the pain fades. Then I put a claw through the last seam and tear the shirt in half.

It was a good shirt this morning.

I hold both halves out.

“Cover yourselves.”

Keer doesn’t take it. He steps toward me, growling.

Mine’s louder.

He doesn’t stop. “I’m Alpha. I don’t fucking—”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Keer.” Kestria’s hand drops. “Just take the damn cloth and shut the fuck up already.”

My ears go flat, and Keer’s mouth snaps shut. She’s louder than both of us. I try not to smile about it.

I don’t try very hard.

Kestria turns back to her brother.

“He found me after I was attacked. I was down by the river with the bolt still in me. He carried me back and took it out.”

Keer’s eye goes to the dressing above her collar, then to the left arm she’s tucked against herself again.

“Kes—”

“I would’ve died, Keer. He saved my life.”

He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Then why didn’t you come home?”

Her fingers catch in the loose cloth at her waist. She looks down at them, and I wait for her to point at me.

“I couldn’t.”

“Why?”

Her fingers go still in the cloth. “My wolf’s gone.”

Keer’s hand stops beside his mouth. Axan straightens.

“Gone how?” Keer looks over her head at me, then back at her. “The poison?”

“Whatever they put on that bolt. I can’t shift. I can’t feel either of you, even here.”

Axan looks at her bare knees below my shirt. I growl at him and step across so he’s looking at me instead. His mouth opens, but he shuts it again.

Wise.

Keer watches her with the cloth held against him, still breathing hard.