The wolf above me bunched his muscles, pressing down tighter against me. Bracing against an attack. Why wasn’t he the one attacking?
What was happening?
My head flooded with a growl, blocking out all other thoughts. My chest vibrated with it. That was the vibration I felt.
Arran’s wolf stood over me, protecting me. I did not need to be protected. I reached for my knife—
Fuuccckkkkk.
Pain roared through my skull. My hand fell away into the snow, useless.
Breathe, I ordered myself.Arran will keep you safe.
I had not survived decades of torture by being unable to function while in pain. Pain made the world sharper, enemies clearer.
Slowly, I lifted my hand again. The pain was still there, but not as sharp. I lifted my fingers to the base of my skull and began to feel around, finding the culprit almost immediately.
I’d struck my head on a rock.
I tried to reach farther back, to see if there was any blood.No, no blood, there couldn’t be. I wore the scabbard. But it still fucking hurt.
Arran must know.He must have been able to feel it through the bond. If not the precise injury, at least that I was incapacitated.
My mind was clearing, bit by agonizing bit.
Arran stood above me, defending me. From what?
The snow and his thick white fur muffled the sound, but I could hear Lyrena yelling. Why was she yelling so fucking loud? My head throbbed.
A sharp bark joined Lyrena’s cries. Not Arran’s howl—another shifter?
Barkke, I realized. I laughed. I started convulsing with laughter in the snow, while my mate and companions fought off… something deadly.
I must have hit my head harder than I’d initially thought.
I took another long breath.
In, out. In, out.
I reached for my dagger with my hand while my mind speared for my mate.I am fine. Let me fight.
My answer was a growl and an unshifting white body.
I shoved him aside. He moved begrudgingly.
He planted himself in front of me as I sat up, rather than over my prone body. Only then did I see what he’d been snarling at.
A solabear.
It made the skoupuma seem meek. Easily ten feet tall, with claws that matched Arran’s fangs for ferocity. I understood Lyrena’s yelling—she’d been drawing it away from me and Arran. Now, she swung for the beast with her mighty sword, deftly using her goldstone armor to deflect when the bear swiped for her. At her side, a massive dark brown hound snarled, exposing an already bloody maw. Barkke’s animal form. I’d make fun of him for it later, when my head was not spinning dangerously.
The solabear shook its arm, dislodging Barrke’s jaws and sending him sprawling across the snow. Lyrena screamed and charged, but she slid in the snow and the solabear deflected easily. It was not interested in her—it turned back towards me and Arran.
Arran was not fully recovered from his enchanted sleep in Avalon, he’d just pushed himself to the limit dueling the Black Knight. It was up to me—
I fell back on my ass in the snow.
Stay down!Arran snarled into my swirling consciousness.
