I sighed and finally,finallyexhaled. Seri was alive and safe. Zane was alive and safe. Foster was alive and safe. Not perfect, not how I would have run the play, but it had worked. And in the end, only the results mattered.
“He thinks you’re happy, Cas,” Zane reported. “He said,Alpha Sharp smile!”
I hadn’t realized I was. My bleach-scented fingers touched my lips to confirm it.
Cruor, I am.
I glanced over at Seri, still sleeping. Then to Foster, still twitching, but no longer steaming. Then to my brothers, Zane still reorganizing supplies with his usual lack of system despite my instructions and Koa still keeping silent watch over our beloved.
“Yeah, Brummy,” I admitted, reaching out to scratch under his chin, mindful of the terrible scar there. “Alpha Sharp’s happy now.”
#
Seri
I woke to the scent of bleach stinging my nose.
Shifting on the cot, I noticed first that my fingers didn’t hurt. The weird green fire was gone. Someone had tended to me. I could smell the herbs in the salve worked into my skin and feel the tight band of gauze around my hand. The care was delicate, methodical, and all Casimir.
I blinked up at the ceiling, waiting for the sharp edges of sleep to dull, and listened.
There were voices, low and close.
“He named it!” Zane was saying. His voice was hoarse, threaded with something too fragile to be mischief. “You know what that means, right?”
A pause. Then Casimir’s voice, dry as bone.
“Noctem maledicta.”
“Alpha Toast stays now.” A soft clink of glass. Zane shelving something, probably out of order. “Law of Brumous.”
“I am surrounded by madness,” Casimir muttered.
“Youinvitedthe madness.”
“Correction.Youbrought him here.”
“Correction.Our wifebrought him here. You might be able to tell Brummy no, but you really think you can tellherno when she looks up at you with those big gray eyes, all soft and teary?”
A snort, probably from Koa, and the soft rustle of fur.
Curious, I turned my head, and my breath caught.
Brumous was half-draped over a huge black wolf, sleeping and still, his ribs barely lifting with each breath.
Foster. He was alive. We’d been in time. Barely, it appeared. His once-glorious coat was singed and patchy, and gauze wound around most of his body. Brumous’ eyes were bright and his tail flicked once as if to say,Mine now.
Casimir stood with his arms folded and his jaw tight. He looked like he was losing an argument with himself.
“He stays,” Zane said quietly, and I realized he wasn’t joking anymore. “You saw the way Brum-Brum looked at him.”
Casimir didn’t answer right away, then he pinched the bridge of his nose like he could physicallypushthe headache back into his skull.
“Fine. Butyou’refeeding him.”
“I’m not afraid. Fozzy Wozzie is halfway to domesticated. Ha! Brumous says,Alpha Toast stay now. We take care.So there!”
Zane grinned, but the corners of his eyes were red. Had he been crying? Hehad. Still, his smile reached deeper than before. Like something in him had been temporarily stitched back together.
