“Of course she is,” Maddy snapped.
Silas shook his head and waved his men forward. “My guys say that she displayed a Greywolf power, which probably makes her Wren. I’m taking her in to the Fae Lords for questioning.”
“The hell you are!” Maddy jumped in front of me, and at the same time Brayden launched himself at Silas.
Everything happened so fast, I could barely track it. Two of his cronies stepped around the melee and wrapped their arms around me. I bucked wildly while the other two went for Maddy and pinned her down.
“No!” I thrashed and my wolf pushed to the surface. I wasn’t sure shifting was a good idea right now. As a wolf I couldn’t blow their brains out, but I also hadn’t thought to bring my gun outside in all the commotion. Silas’ men were halfway to the car with me when my wolf took over and started to shift. As they sensed my changing form, the men holding me just gripped tighter, making it hard to breathe as one of them wrapped his fingers around my throat.
“Averly!” Maddy yelled, and the terror in her voice made tears prick my eyelids. Brayden’s wolf howled, and just as I turned back to look at him, two gunshots pierced the night air.
The hands holding me went limp and I fell to the ground, booking it to Brayden’s side with my tail tucked behind my legs. The gunshots had come from behind me, near the car, and I didn’t want the next slug to go in my ass.
When I reached Brayden who was mid-fight with Silas’ human form, I finally turned and came face to face with the shooter.
Leah?
My best friend held her 9mm Glock in one hand and her cell phone in the other. “I’m recording all of this, you dipshits, and unless you release my best friend I’ll send it to every news outlet in the world, including the International Society of Werewolves, who will bethrilledto know you are real,” she snarled at Brayden and Silas.
She then looked right at my wolf. “Averly, get in the car!”
Holy crap, Leah knew it was me, she’d clearly seen me shift and she wasn’t fazed one bit. I guess when you hunted sasquatches for a living, stumbling upon a few werewolves wasn’t a big deal.
Silas froze, holding his hands up, and Brayden released his jaws from the meat of Silas’ calf.
“Listen, pretty lady,” Silas cooed, “I don’t know what you think you saw, but these wolfdogs are—”
“Shut up!” Leah screamed and shook the gun in his direction and then at Maddy and Brayden.
Maddy put her hands up. “Easy, we’re Averly’s friends.He’sthe bad guy.” She pointed to Silas.
I started to shift then, because I wanted to confirm to her that Brayden and Maddy were with me before she shot them. My wolf was halfway through the change when I saw one of the men she’d shot had shifted into his wolf form. He was a streak of fur and I tried to scream her name and warn her, but it was just a howl on my lips before he latched on to her back and bit down on her neck.
“Leah!” My bloodcurdling scream finally ripped from my human throat, making all the birds fly from the trees as I stumbled forward, half human, half wolf.
Leah dropped the gun, eyes wide as I ran for her, and she collapsed into me, mouth open in shock. I caught her and we both fell to the ground. The wolf was still attached to her neck and started to shake her like a ragdoll. In a blind panic, I reached out and picked up the gun with one hand and then used my other hand to yank the wolf’s neck skin back, pulling him off of her. Leah was limp in my lap as I shoved the tip of the pistol up into the wolf’s chin and blew his brains out all over the front yard.
“Come back from that, you asshole!” I screamed, crying.
Leah was lying in my naked lap holding her fingers to her gushing throat. There was so much blood. How had this happened? It all went down so fast I… I couldn’t process it. Her hand slipped as she weakened and I pulled my fingers up to cover the puncture marks.
“I think he hit an artery!” I screamed through my sobs. “Brayden!” I craned my neck to see Silas had already run off, and Maddy was watching horrorstruck with her hands over her mouth.
Brayden’s wolf padded over to me and looked up into my eyes.
“Do surgery!” I begged him. “You’re a doctor.”
He shook his wolf’s head,‘She’s too far gone. She won’t make it to the hospital,’his voice said in my head.
No.
“Do something. Save her,” I begged him.
Leah twitched in my arms and I looked down at her, recoiling at the paleness in her face. “They’re real.” Leah croaked. “You’re…”
“I’m sorry I lied to you,” I sobbed, stroking her forehead. “I love you so much.”
She nodded. “Sister.” The word was a gurgled croak, and it tore my heart in two.
