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A figure barreled forward at the corner of her eye, diving toward the moving clump of leaves. Moon was faster, pushing the figure out of the way to let her take the lead as she slapped her magic—a useless move as the shadow skittered away. The slippery bastard scattered into nothingness, unaffected, and her stomach jolted when she felt it breaking away from her potion, too.
“My potion turned off,” she declared in astonishment. “It just stopped working.”
“Pearl?”
“Moon—”
“Go, Pearl.”
Henry’s voice broke her from her focus, alerting her that she and Moon were no longer alone. She spun to tell them she would keep tracking, then stopped when she found the larger man leaning against Moon as if his life depended on it. Henry never leaned on anyone—and Henry never looked as disheveled as he did now, his body filled with bumps and bruises, and…
Naked.
She had seen naked men before. She had seen Moon naked multiple times and didn’t bat an eye, even if Moon had been mortified. But the sight of a large, naked Henry…
“Go, Pearl. Go.”
She strode over to where they were and took Henry’s other arm, navigating it around her shoulder. Anxiousness trickled in when he leaned heavily against her too.
“I lost the trail,” she said. “What happened to you?”
“I don’t know. I was attacked. I think.”
He frowned as if he wasn’t sure. She and Moon eyed each other in confusion before Moon cleared his throat.
“Do you need Ruby?”
“Yes, please.”
Pearl transferred more energy into her arms and waited until Moon carefully deposited the rest of Henry’s weight on her. When the wolf shifter was gone, she cajoled Henry to move with her as they made their way back to his property.
“Are you in pain?”
“No. Just tired.”
“What do you remember?”
“I remember getting hit in the stomach. Pain in my shoulder. The shadow on me.”
She waited for more, but there wasn’t—and his movements were steadily getting more sluggish. The anxiousness turned to fear that he wouldn’t make it to the house without falling into unconsciousness, so she gritted her teeth and hastened her steps.
“Was it on you as in straddling and choking you? Did it feel like a physical force?”
“No.”
“A magical force?”
“No.”
“Do you remember it stripping off your clothes?”
“I have no clothes?”
She glanced down on instinct, then shot her gaze back up when she caught a glimpse of something heavy—not as heavy as the rest of him, butheavy—swinging in between his legs. She gulped and willed herself to continue the conversation.
“Yup. Naked as the day you were born.”
“Oh.”
