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Another body burst into the clearing, one that cast a long, slim shadow. In only a second, another shadow, almost as long, but curvy where the other was sleek and lean, joined the first.
Zee’s nose told her who was there before she even looked up and she welcomed Meridia with arms open as the Atargarian Regnar stepped toward her.
She was confused by the other woman’s presence though.
Leana looked around, her black eyes now lit with an odd inner glow—a lavender haze behind black glass—her full lips compressed as she cataloged everything with a concise gaze.
“I thought you left,” Zee said blankly.
“No.” Leana shook her head. “There was something... vile in the air tonight. Ash and I lingered in a conversation pit closer to the house, having a drink. He’s bringing another group.”
Leana fell silent then, staring at the blood that painted the ground an even darker shade.
“Fae blood,” she murmured. “The earth keens her misery when it’s Fae blood, as if she senses her children’s pain.”
Her eyes strayed to Shale, then moved, not to Niko, but to Zee.
Zee didn’t say anything, but the other woman must have seen something. A faint line appeared between Leana’s brows as she went on her knees on Shale’s other side, close to Etan, but not interfering.
“Did your pack’s healer come?” she asked Niko.
“No.” Tight lines bracketed his mouth as he met Leana’s gaze. “She’s still caring for a couple of those injured in the crash. I can help him hold on... for a while.”
Unspoken were the words, but it won’t be enough.
Leana simply nodded. “I can help... a bit. Give him a chance, but I can make no promises.”
Shale’s face was the pallid yellow of coming death, his life—and any chance at survival—leaking away with the ever-slowing river of blood.
“Do it.” Niko only met her gaze for a flicker of a second, the swirling depths of his beast rising to overtake the fathomless blue. He took Shale’s limp hand and squeezed, shifting his attention to the fallen male. “Hold on, Shale. You hear me, you big bastard? Hold on.”
People moved around Zee.
She tensed as somebody came at her back.
Muscles coiling, preparing to turn.
Then something in her calmed, soothed. Inside, on a level she hadn’t even acknowledged was still even active, she sensed it was Saint. He brushed his hand over her shoulder, a wordless reassurance.
“That dumbass is the pack’s problem now,” Saint murmured when she looked around for the outsider who’d been involved in the attack.
“Who is he?”
Saint shook his head. “Dunno. I’m not in the area much, but I don’t think he’s part of Niko’s pack.”
The wording tugged a chord in her, but she was too lost to ask anything questions right. When he wrapped a supporting arm around her waist, she leaned against him in relief.
“Some send-off for the old man, huh?” Saint kissed her temple.
She managed a weak laugh. “He always did like a scene.”
Seconds later, others flowed into the clearing, the dull roar of confusion and chaos coming to an end at one harsh command from Niko’s most senior lieutenant.
Boone took a look around, eyes landing on his Prime, then on the fallen body of a packmate, the outsider and then, finally, he looked at Zee.
“What happened?”
