I said, “You fucking asshole. What the hell? Why would you—”
He kissed me again. “Stupid Carter. Questions. Always questions. Just know it. Keep it. It’s yours. From me to you.”
“Thump, thump, thump.”
He grinned at me. It was dazzling.
“I love you too.”
He rolled his eyes. “I know. You came for me.”
“When this is over, we’re going to have a long talk about—”
“Talk, talk, talk,” he muttered. “That’s all you do.”
He lifted his shirt over his head.
The scar between his shoulder and neck was on full display.
I trailed my fingers along it, feeling the bumpy ridge, the mark of my fangs.
He turned his face and kissed the back of my hand. He took a deep breath, and his muscles and bones began to move underneath his skin. It came quicker than it had before, and it was only a moment before a large timber wolf stood before me.
He pressed his snout against my chest, right above my heart. I pressed the blinking light in his ear, snapping it in place with a magnet on the other side. The people of Green Creek would know who we were, even in the face of battle.
He said, MateLovePack with me you stay with me together we’ll be together and nothing will stop us you are mine and i i i am yours.
“Yes,” I told him. “Yes.”
He tilted his head back and howled. It was a song of rage and hope, and although he was a feral wolf no longer, his howl was a terrifying thing. I knew his father would hear it, and I hoped it tore at him, knowing all he’d lost.
I followed Gavin.
THE WOLVES AT THE BRIDGE hadn’t been the only ones.
There were others. They must have been on the opposite end of Green Creek.
The moment the wards broke completely, they entered the town. And though their numbers were fewer than had been with Gregory, they were closer to the town, and enraged.
And it was their downfall.
As we hit the first buildings in town, I heard the sharp snap as one of the wolves hit a thin rope stretched between two trees. I didn’t need to see it to know what had happened. An animal screamed in extraordinary pain as the rope broke, the rigging that had been wrapped around the tree snapping, a pallet with large silver railroad spikes embedded through it swinging around the tree and into flesh.
Behind us, other wolves fell into similar traps, boards breaking, bodies pierced by spikes of wood and silver. If it didn’t kill them, it would at least injure them enough to take some of the fight out of them. Will had been rightly proud. “Saw it in a movie once,” he’d said. “Figured it’d work here too.”
It did, at least in part.
It wouldn’t stop all of them. They’d be more careful as the wolves around them fell prey to what Will had done.
The people on top of the buildings were firing under Will’s orders. On the other side of Green Creek, I could see a couple of wolves running toward us. Hillary, the woman standing on a roof next to Will, took aim through the scope on her rifle. I watched as she breathed in and then out slowly. She fired, knocking one of the wolves off its feet, blood arcing as it hit the ground roughly and skidded off the side of the road. It didn’t rise.
“Got ’im!” Grant cried from atop the roof of Gordo’s. He lowered his binoculars and grinned across the street. “Motherfucker went down hard.”
Gavin growled, pacing in front of me.
Will looked down at me. “Got through, did they?”
I nodd