I scooted over and prodded the velvety flesh, seeking depressions. Found none. The bullet was still insideLiam.
And if it was made ofsilver…
I shuddered then returned to Liam’s head and pressed my palm delicately against his nose. It was wet and cold, pulsing weak breaths against my clammyskin.
It should’ve been my leg that leakedblood.
It should’ve beenme.
Why did you dothat?
As I stroked his fur, a car engine roared and rubbersquealed.
A silver sedan glinted in thedarkness.
Matt washere.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Matt must’veground his foot into the brake, because the tires shrieked as the Dodge vaulted to a stop. He opened his door, and then, face as pale as the clouds twisting over the moon, he pumped open his trunk, took out a heavy blanket, and jogged toward us. Without uttering a single word, he spread the heavy fabric on the blood-soaked flagstones, then shoved me aside, crooked one arm underneath Liam’s neck, and snared hisforepaws.
“Ness, hold it down!” Lucas jerked his head toward my tank top still wedged against the gushingwound.
I scrambled to my feet and gripped the soddenfabric.
Lucas hooked his arms around Liam’s rump, and on Matt’s signal, they hoisted their friend onto the blanket. Then they crimped its edges with white-knuckled fingers and heaved. I straightened in time with them, keeping a steady pressure on Liam’sflank.
I only let go when Matt shouted at me to open the passenger door. He placed his end of the body inside, then loped around the car and crawled onto the backseat. Breathing jaggedly, he tugged the blanket until Liam was entirely sprawled on the backseat, then flung the doorshut.
I got in next to Liam. Laid his head on my cold, goose-fleshed thighs. And then I resumed pressing my tank against his injury. Car doors slammed, and then tires screeched and headlights burned a white path down theroad.
As we zipped through the darkness, I heard snippets of Lucas’s and Matt’s conversation—he was trying to shoot her…out cold, but not dead…silver bullet, I think…Greg is on hisway.
“That’s not the way to the hospital,” I said when Matt hung a left instead of aright.
He twisted around long enough to glare atme.
“We’re not going to the hospital. We’re not going to a vet either.” There was no humor in his voice. Justanger.
He was angry with me. I wondered if it had solely to do with tonight, or if other factors—like the engagement party I’d attended on the arm of the enemy pack Alpha—contributed to hisantagonism.
I stared down at Liam, my fingers moving gently through the long, silky black strands on his neck.His fur began shortening, retreating inside his pores. Next, his snout receded, and his ears migrated back to the sides of hisface.
“Guys, he’s shifting.” The dark shape draped over my legs became a human face with sallow skin and a pale, gapingmouth.
“Fuck,” Lucassaid.
I guessed it wasn’t a good thing. But why, I hadno—
My hand stilled on Liam’sbrow.
My father had shifted back when the silver had leaked into his heart, draining his werewolf magic and then hislife.
My vision tilted and blurred, and the fingers gripping my balled, sodden top curled so hard around the fabric that rivulets of blood ran over Liam’s burnishedthigh.
Liam wasdying.
Chapter Thirty-Three
