“Fuck!”A searing pain lassoed Silas’s leg.His gaze darted toward his lower extremities to see a tongue of fire originating from the pit below, wrapped around his ankle like a whip.
“Hang on, Silas!”Jason yelled.He and Laina strained to pull him up.
The tongue pulled harder, the burning, tugging pain threatening his hold on the strap and wall.
“I can’t hold on,” Silas said.
With a high-pitched cry, the eagle soared back into the crater, snapping at the fiery whip and slashing it with its talons.The burning thing slipped off Silas’s bare ankle, receding into the pit below.Silas dug his toes into the side of the crater and, with everything he had left, climbed.Jason’s hand landed on his shoulder, hoisting him over the lip of the crater.
And then he was in Jason’s and Laina’s arms.They huddled together in the kind of group hug only experienced in the most desperate of times, the type with tears and the blubbering of words that are forgotten the moment they are spoken because the feelings are too intense to be described in any language.
Silas was alpha.He’d saved his family.He’d saved his pack.And he wept openly like a child.And then, with an intense pain that bubbled along his spine, Silas gave himself over to his wolf, his brother and sister shifting beside him.
Silas becamehuman again at the edge of the wood.He blinked into the sunrise, the night before coming back to him.Alex was dead.Nickelova was dead.And Meredith was both proven innocent and alive.He turned over to find Laina shifting back a few yards away.
“Are you okay?”he asked her when she was human again.
“Better.I think the shift helped.Alex did something to my head before.Everything was hazy, but I think I’m okay now.I’m just worried about the baby.”
“We’re going to get you help,” he said.“Where are Jason and Meredith?”
“I’m here,” Jason said from behind him.
Silas stood and searched the area, sniffing the air and following Meredith’s scent.He found her near the crater, curled next to her mother.
“Silas?”she said, a worried expression on her face.“I can’t move my legs.And there’s something wrong with my mom.”
“Too many times,” Olivia murmured beside her.
Meredith stroked her mother’s hair back from her face.“She needs a doctor.”With her hand on her mother’s forehead, she looked at Silas.“She’s shifted too often, too close together.She’s running a fever.If we don’t get her help, she’ll die.”
Silas nudged Jason.“Take Olivia.I’ll carry Meredith.We need to get them to the truck and get help.”
His brother froze.“An hour ago she was trying to strangle me.”
“Alex was controlling her,” Meredith said.“She didn’t know what she was doing!”
With a sigh, Jason scooped Olivia into his arms.“Yeah, it looked that way.But I’ll trust her when I have proof.Everyone’s a hero when they’re trying to save their own scrawny necks.”
Meredith cast him a pleading glance.“Please take care of her.Please.”
“Give him time,” Silas said as he gathered her into his arms.
Meredith leaned her head against his chest.“I don’t know when Alex poisoned her, but I do know my mother wouldn’t have helped him of her own free will.”
“The pack will need answers, but she’ll be treated fairly,” Silas said.“I’ll make sure of it.”He watched Jason load Olivia into the back of the Suburban and hoped the woman would live long enough to receive a fair trial.
“Thank you for saving my life,” she croaked, tears dribbling from the corners of her tawny eyes.
He lowered his forehead to hers.“And thank you for saving mine.”
“Bingo!”Jason yelled from the Suburban.He held up two cell phones.“Look what I found in the glove compartment.”
“Any charge left?”
“Ten percent.”
Silas helped Meredith into a seat, then dialed Polina.
