“Jo Jo?” He didn’t look up at me.
“Etta?” he said softly. “No. Gods, I should’ve come in with you. I’m too late. Too late.” He rocked the body in his arms.
I moved in for an even closer look. Silver hair… Well, crap. I began to have an inkling about why Jo Jo was upset.
Get back in your body, little wolf.
“Who said that?”
A shadowy man, well over six and a half feet tall with wide shoulders and tree trunk legs, stood next to Jo Jo. He spoke formally and with an accent, as if English wasn’t his first language. Funny enough, it wasn’t his appearance and speech that disturbed me. It was the sense of calm I felt in his presence.
Good, I am glad you are not afraid. I would never harm you, little wolf. I felt another wave of calm.Not after I worked so hard to free you.
“Brother Wolf?”
Your destiny awaits you, my child. You have a long path ahead filled with sorrow, fear, and pain but also hope, love, and joy.I could hear the smile in his voice.So much joy. But only if you get back into your body.
“I don’t even know how I got out. Let alone how to get back in.”
You have a gift. The mother will teach you, but only if you manage to live. You left your skin to survive. Now go back for the same reason. Your frail brain will not last if you fail to take in air.
“Just like that.”
Just like that, he agreed.Your soul will go where you guide it.
I gave him a glowing thumbs up, then maneuvered until I had overlaid my glowing parts with my not-breathing parts. I could hear Jo Jo whispering for me to come back. To not leave him. Not again.
Never, I thought. Pain flooded back into me as I gasped air into my lungs.
“Etta?” Jo Jo’s tone was sharp with surprise. He yanked me tightly against his chest. “I thought you were gone. I thought he’d killed you. You had me so scared. So fucking scared,” he whispered.
“Ow,” I managed to mutter. I liked being in his arms, but not like this. Everything hurt again.
He relaxed his hold and smoothed back my hair. I ran my fingers through the warm thickness of his fur.
Lycanthropes and therianthropes both mended faster than humans, but it wasn’t supernaturally fast. Lycanthropes had a chemical in our saliva that sped healing as well, but I hadn’t spit on my back. So, the fact that I could move at all after what Pete had done to my spine and my head made me think that Brother Wolf’s visit had been about more than keeping me alive. I was almost certain he’d healed me.
“I’m okay,” I rasped. I glanced over at Pete lying on the floor near the door. I felt stronger with each breath. “We better get him out of the living room and get the door you broke propped up in its right place before a nosy neighbor shows up.”
He kept his large furry arms around me as he nodded but made no effort to get up. “Good idea.”
“You’re going to have to let me go,” I said reluctantly.
His lip curled into a sneer, and his golden eyes glowed with anger. “No. Not letting go.” His words were almost caveman-ish, and, dare I say, sexy. His expression held a possessiveness that made me think maybe I’d been reading the signals all wrong.
“I only mean for a minute. Just long enough to get Pete out from in front of the wide-open door.”
Jo Jo's animal brain seemed to calculate all the probabilities of what would happen if he did as I asked, and then, finally, he let out a slow breath. “Yes, okay.”
He kissed the top of my head as his body changed under my touch, the fur receding, his muscles rippling as he returned to his human body. He cradled me gently as he lifted me from the floor and took me to the couch. “
Reluctantly, he set me down and went to Pete's crumpled form. He dragged the wolf shifter farther inside my apartment and then shoved the door into position. I could see light around the edges where the hinges had ripped off the wood, but someone not paying close attention might miss it.
I stared at Pete’s body. “Is he…?”
Jo Jo nodded. “Dead,” he said unhappily. “I’ve never killed anyone before.”
“Because you’re not a psycho,” I told him. “Pete was. He would’ve killed you and me if you had given him even an inch.”
