It struck me how silly her little act of kindness was considering I couldn’t get frostbite.
A black speck appeared through the falling snow, growing larger and crisper until the beast with the glowing amber eyes was all I could see. My Alpha shoved aside Sarah’s hands, then pulsed blistering air against my exposed skin.Is any of this blood yours?
My mind ached from the volume of his voice and then ached some more when I shook my head.
“Shotgun wound to the chest.” Lucas nodded to Lori’s chest. “I don’t smell any silver.”
Not that it would’ve mattered since Lori was immune. Not immune to a stopped heart, though.
Liam’s thick fur withdrew into his pores as he morphed into his human. Features chiseled with fury, he skimmed my jaw, then my neck.
“Long range,” Lucas said. “Nikki didn’t see where it came from.”
“I t-told her to shift. She d-died b-because I—”
“Don’t fucking blame yourself.”
“But I told her—”
“She didn’t die because she shifted back; she shifted backbecauseshe died.” Liam surely said this to reassure me, but reassured or not, guilty or not, Lori died while I’d just sat there, gagging.
My teeth chattered so hard their clicking could probably be heard by every Boulder, even the ones still on the other side of the mountain.
“Canvas the area where the shot came from,” Liam ordered.
“Wh-what if the k-killer is still out there?”
“Then I’ll catch’em.” Lucas’s blue eyes flashed as he stripped.
Before shifting, Sarah stepped up to him, gripped the nape of his neck and dragged his head down. “You be careful. I’mnotraising this kid alone.”
When she kissed him, I looked away, but then I thought of Storm. Weren’t they supposed to be watching him?
I must’ve uttered his name, because as soon as Lucas was in fur, Sarah turned toward me. “He’s with Amanda.”
More people arrived then—some in skin, most in fur.
Before I could see if Nate or my parents were among the horde, Liam scooped me up. I raised no protest, because my legs felt all at once like hard candy and jelly. I doubted I’d have been able to walk. I rested my cheek against his hard chest and closed my eyes.
After a few minutes of punitive silence, he growled, “I can’t fucking believe Matt let you go off on your own. I gave him one job. One fucking job.”
I raised my lids. “It’s not his fault, Liam. There was a fire—”
“I know about the fucking fire!”
“Nate asked him to guard Bea.”
“Igive the orders,notyour brother. And I don’t give two shits about Bea. That bullet was meant for Lori but if the shooter—” He shuddered. “If he’d missed, or if you’d seen him—” Again he stopped talking abruptly, but this time, he didn’t shudder.
“Could be a woman.”
The look he fired at me might’ve made me smile had a body not lain prone mere feet away.
I touched his granite jaw. “Look at me. I’m unharmed.”
Like the rest of his face, his glowing eyes didn’t soften an iota.
I swallowed. “Who set the fire?”
