Knox's jaws snap closed on Chase's throat. The wet crunch of teeth meeting flesh echoes through the trees. Chase's wolf yelps and wrenches sideways, tearing free but leaving chunks of fur and skin behind. Blood sprays across the ground in an arc, black in the moonlight.
They separate and circle. Both wolves are bleeding now. Chase's neck wound is deep, crimson matting the brown fur. Knox has a wound across his shoulder, four parallel lines where Chase's claws caught him during that first collision. But Knox's pale eyes are focused and cold while Chase's are wide with something that looks like fear.
Chase lunges first. His larger body barrels forward, trying to use his weight to knock Knox down. Knox moves. One moment he's there, the next he's not, and Chase's momentum carries him past. Knox spins and rakes his claws down Chase's exposed flank.
The sound makes my stomach turn. Claws tearing through muscle, scraping against bone. Chase howls and wheels around,snapping at Knox's legs. His teeth catch empty air as Knox dances back, then forward again in a blur of grey fur.
Knox's jaws close on Chase's ear. He wrenches his head sideways and the ear tears free with a wet ripping sound. He spits it on the ground between them.
Chase staggers. Blood pours from where his ear used to be, running down his neck to mix with the throat wound. He's breathing hard now, sides heaving, disoriented and bleeding from multiple injuries.
But Knox isn't trying to drive him off. Every move is calculated for maximum damage, every strike aimed at vital areas. This isn't a dominance fight. This is an execution.
Chase's body tenses. His haunches bunch and for a second I think he's going to lunge again. Instead he pivots toward the tree line.
Knox is faster.
He lunges before Chase takes a full step, jaws closing on Chase's hind leg and yanking hard. Chase goes down in a tumble of brown fur and flailing limbs. They roll together, a tangle of teeth and claws and snarling fury, staying within my view as they grapple across the blood-stained ground. When they separate, Knox is on top with his jaws locked around Chase's throat.
Chase thrashes beneath him. His claws rake Knox's chest and belly, tearing through fur and flesh, trying desperately to break free. Blood wells up from the wounds but Knox doesn't let go. His jaws tighten and I hear the wet crunch of cartilage collapsing.
Chase's struggling grows weaker. His paws scrabble uselessly at the ground, claws leaving furrows in the dirt as his air runs out. A horrible gurgling sound comes from his ruined throat.
Knox's eyes are ice-cold as he watches Chase die. When the brown wolf finally goes still beneath him, Knox holds thebite for another full minute. Waiting. Making certain there's no heartbeat, no breath, no chance of survival.
Only then does he release Chase's torn throat and step back.
More wolves burst through the trees. Julian's dark grey wolf reaches me first, positioning himself over my silver form. His tongue rasps across my muzzle in quick, anxious strokes as he checks me for injuries. Caspian's massive amber wolf and Nico's brown wolf form a protective wall between me and Chase's corpse.
Knox stands over the body, sides heaving, blood dripping from his muzzle and the wounds on his chest and shoulder. He lifts his head and lets out a long, victorious howl that echoes through the forest.
The howl fades. Silence falls except for our breathing and the drip of blood hitting leaves.
I try to stand but my legs won't hold me. The poison is still in my system, burning through my veins and preventing my wolf from healing the cuts properly. Even in wolf form, the wounds remain open and weeping, the black edges spreading slowly beneath my silver fur.
Knox shifts first. Bones crack and reshape until he's human again, covered in blood but the wounds already healing, his shifter metabolism working to close the gashes. Julian shifts next, kneeling beside me with gentle hands running over my silver fur. "Nova, can you shift back?" His voice is soft and careful.
I manage it, the shift back to human leaving me dressed but shaking on the ground. My clothes are torn and bloodstained, the poisoned cuts still burning even in human form, angry and black-edged and refusing to close. Julian helps me sit up. Every muscle screams in protest, my face throbbing where Chase hit me, the taste of blood still thick in my mouth.
Caspian crouches in front of me and his expression goes completely still when he sees my arm. The black veining under the skin has spread since the forest floor, threading outward from the cuts in thin dark lines that reach toward my elbow. He takes my wrist carefully and turns it toward the moonlight.
"Julian." His voice is quiet but there's an edge under it that makes my stomach drop.
Julian is already beside him, already looking. His jaw tightens. "Wolfsbane compound. The nightshade is slowing her metabolism, which is why the wolf couldn't burn it out."
"How long does she have before it reaches her bloodstream properly?"
"Not long enough to get her to a healer without someone seeing." Julian looks at me. His eyes move across my face, cataloguing damage, and whatever he finds there makes him make a decision. "I can draw it out. It's going to hurt."
"More than it already does?"
"Yes."
I look at the dark lines crawling up my arm and then back at him. "Do it."
Julian pulls his jacket off and folds it under my arm, lifting it to a flat surface across his knee. Knox appears at the edge of the group, still bloodied from the fight, and takes up a position behind me without being asked, his hands coming to my shoulders to brace me.
"Hold her still," Julian says. Not to Knox specifically. To all of them.
