He snarled at me, wolfy eyes wild as his face contorted, more fur breaking through the skin.
Rocky sat down beside me.
There was a look of sadness in the wolf’s eyes that made my chest squeeze.
Finally kicking into gear, I dropped my bag by the door and rushed across the room, kneeling next to the wolf-man.
“What happened?” I demanded. “How can I help?”
Ryder panted and snarled some more, before finally grinding out the word, “Rocco.”
Rocco?
I looked back at the wolf.
Rocky obviously didn’t think he could do anything. But Rocco… maybe Rocco had helped Ryder through this kind of thing before? Or maybe he would know what to do?
“Are you sure?” I asked Ryder, looking back at the man.
His head jerked in a nod, more fur cutting through his skin.
I turned back to Rocky, panic clutching my chest, and said, “Bite me.”
The wolf blinked.
“We both know I’m not going to walk away from this. You’ve been putting it off because you don’t approve of the decisions Rocco’s going to make, but they’re his decisions. Bite me, so he can help his brother.”
Rocky studied me, his expression wary.
And also… sad.
He was afraid Rocco would screw things up, and my wolf would reject him because of that. Even without having an actual verbal conversation with him, I knew that.
A few of Ryder’s bones cracked, and panic clutched me harder.
“Please,” I begged the wolf.
An expression of sad acceptance crossed his face, and then he lunged for me.
Sharp pain cut into my upper thigh.
I crashed to the ground, my arms clutching the massive wolf.
The pain faded rapidly, and the bite grew numb even faster. That numbness slowly descended through my leg, and then into the other one, as Rocky lowered me to the ground.
My head met the tile as numbness engulfed the rest of me, and I lost complete control of my body. Bones snapped and limbs changed, and I closed my eyes to wait out the transformation.
After a minute, my body felt completely foreign. I didn’t open my eyes, but my eyes opened—and I found myself staring into the most gorgeous blue eyes I’d ever seen.
Rocco’s eyes were distant, a bit dizzy, but his hand rubbed my wolf’s head as he staggered across the kitchen, sitting on his ass next to his brother.
He found Ryder’s hand somehow, and spoke to the man in low, raspy words that my wolf didn’t listen to.
The man’s head jerked in a nod, and Rocco continued rasping to him as Ryder slowly shifted back to his man form.
When Ryder had collapsed to the ground, all signs of his wolf completely gone, he was still panting, but his eyes were closed in what looked like gratitude.
Rocco turned toward me, and his expression gave away nothing but utter exhaustion.