A soft whisper echoed in my mind, reminding me of what she’d asked in return for her assistance. She wanted me to kill her Alpha. Yet, as I looked down at the scene below, I understood why.
Could I really blame her when her pack had her cornered like a rabbit?
Her Alpha leapt. His teeth pierced her skin before I could hit the ground. My impact drowned out her yelps. I spun and grabbed the Alpha wolf. His teeth ripped through Ness’s skin. I should have thought that through, but my anger eclipsed my ability to think. The world glimmered beyond a veil of red.
I threw the Alpha wolf into a crowd of his followers. They crumpled into a yipping pile while I turned my attention back to Ness. She fumbled back onto her feet. Her vision seemed unfocused as she swayed. Blood poured over her other shoulder, forcing her to put her weight onto the leg she’d been favoring.
I’d made a mess of things once again. Had my intervention helped at all? I couldn’t stick around to find out. I gathered the little hound into my claws and opened my wings.
A wolf, one that smelled like the asshole from the mall, leapt at me with his fangs bared. I braced to whip my tail in his direction, but before I could strike, a wolf broke free from the pack and slammed into his side. The wolf had dark fur, almost as dark as Ness’s. The wolf bared its teeth at the asshole before glancing at the hound in my hands.
Indecision flickered across the older wolf’s features. If my intervention bothered him, he didn’t stick around to tell me. He spun and took off into the woods. More wolves followed suit. The pack dispersed, leaving only those dedicated to the Alpha behind.
The Alpha eyed me warily. He looked me up and down, perhaps weighing whether or not he could take me with the assistance of his pack. If he could rally the entire pack and trap me on the ground, then there was a chance that he could.
Lightning flickered overhead. It hit the ground between the Alpha and me. The smell of singed earth coiled in the air as the Alpha turned tail and ran. A growl rumbled in my throat when I opened my wings and rose into the air.
I knew what it looked like when madness took a shifter. Though Ness’s Alpha was an asshole, he was not insane. Though I knew that Ness needed help, I wasn’t sure that I could follow through with her request. Had her Alpha shown signs of madness, then this would have been easier.
Her Alpha was cruel and vindictive, which required logic and reasoning. I carried Ness away from her pack’s hunting grounds. We reached the same field I first saw her in. My car waited for me on the side of the road since I couldn’t fly back to the rental in this form.
Air roared in my ears. My form shrank, scales pulling back into human skin. I crashed into the ground and dropped into a crouch to soften the impact. Clutched to my chest, the hound made a small sound. I buried my fingers in her fur and whispered that she was safe. The last thing I needed was for her to panic and try to escape.
Ness was too wounded to run right now. Blood congealed across my forearm from holding her. I had to be careful adjusting my hold on her when I opened the passenger door. I didn’t want to tear open any wounds that were in the process of healing. Ness had already been through hell tonight.