But Colby could have told him what he’d find. Not a clearly labeled wolf half and a clearly labeled human half; not one side dominant over the other. Just him.
Whatever Eli saw there, it seemed to convince him that he really was done for.
Slowly, the fur Colby was gripping flattened down, smoothing out into bare skin.
Apparently, the back-to-nature, go-wolf-or-go-home guy wasn’t so attached to being a wolf that he was willing to die for it.
Colby snapped the handcuffs on the second Eli had hands to put them around.
He repeated the Miranda rights, letting himself start to feel woozy now as more and more blood seeped through his shirt and ran down his chest. Good thing he’d been the one to take that bite, not Susan Fowler.
“Do you understand these rights as I’ve explained them to you?”
Eli just looked like the whole world had turned upside-down on him.
“You’re weak,” Eli said. “You needed all these people on your s
ide to take me down.”
“These people are my pack,” Colby said. He thought of Mel, Luke, Mattie, Aria’s parents. “Some of my pack. I’m glad I have them. And I bet right now you’re sorry you threw all of yours away.”
He hauled Eli up to his feet and smiled at his team.
“Can one of you take this asshole away before I pass out on top of him?”
“It would be our pleasure,” Gretchen said.
He handed Eli Hebbert off to her, getting an extra kick out of how much it probably pained his delusional ego to be manhandled by a woman.
“And Susan’s inside in the bathroom,” Aria added. “Theo, you talked to her before, she knows you. Can you go—sort of explain this?”
“Of course,” Theo said instantly.
Good, Colby thought. He still felt a little woozy. That’s good.
Now that everything was resolved, he let himself slump—and found he was leaning against Aria’s shoulder, since she was suddenly right by him, holding him up.
“Thanks,” he said.
She was busy unbuttoning his shirt to examine the bite. “For what?”
For catching him. For being his backup even when he’d said he didn’t need it. For telling him not to say goodbye to her. For saving her own life by turning the car around.
For having a voice that was the most beautiful piece of music he’d ever heard in his entire life.
He just shook his head, unable to possibly say all of it. He wanted to spend the rest of his life saying it.
Then something occurred to him. Even with the pain of Aria starting to dab the blood away from his shoulder, the thought made him laugh.
“What?” Aria said.
“I’m half-tempted to shift just so poor Susan Fowler doesn’t have another phantom wolf sighting she has to try to explain to Animal Control. But you can’t let them capture me.”
“Oh, that.” She smiled. “I made it up. I was too busy worrying about to even think about calling Animal Control and doubling down on it. I was just bluffing.”
Like she had with the silver bullets. Totally fearless.
“God, I love you,” Colby said.