Animals ✔

Chapter 26

But with the house burning down behind me, I know now that this is simply what it takes to survive. What I'll do to survive.

I stumble toward him. He doesn't seem to have noticed me yet, too distracted by the wave of wolves surging toward him. I'm pushing my limits now, but I won't let them harm him. Not yet, not before I get to hold him again. Not before I get to tell him how I feel.

I draw on the heat, wrapping it around him like a force field as another wolf launches itself through the air toward him. It bounces harmlessly off the heat shield.

He finally looks my way and I smile for the first time in days. The heat shield flickers away as he moves towards me, dodging other wolves. I'm too weak to keep it up for long anyway.

Tiberius's body contorts, shifting back into human form in the middle of the field.

He's completely naked and covered in a disturbing amount of blood, but he's here. When he gets close, he grabs me, pulling me into his chest.

Everything around us fades away. It's just me and him.

I wrap my arms around him, too.

But it doesn't last long. I pull away first.

"Have you seen my brother?"

Tiberius nods, his touch still sending tingles down my spine. God, I missed this feeling.

"He's safe, don't worry."

I want to crumble then. Everything might still be okay. I'll never get Charlie back, but at least Ira hasn't managed to steal anyone else from me.

Tears stream down my face. I'm not sure if they're out of happiness that they found me, or if it's just the trauma of the past few days finally catching up to me. Maybe a bit of both.

"It was Jon," I tell him. "He knocked me out and I woke up here... I think he's dead now."

I shudder as I picture the way Jon looked at me in the moments before Ira intervened. He wasn't the person I knew anymore, he was just hungry for power. Power that had never belonged to him in the first place.

I can't look Tiberius in the eye. I shouldn't have trusted Jon. I shouldn't have let Ira kill him. I shouldn't have... Tiberius's hands find my shoulders and he pulls me back to him.

"It's not your fault," he says. I try to believe him.

A wolf howls loudly into the night, and I turn away from Tiberius, jarred by the sound. I realize we're still standing in the middle of a battlefield and I step back, looking for any other familiar wolves. Are Colin and Sampson here too?

I don't see it coming until it's too late.

It's contorted strangely, somehow both half man and half beast, as if frozen mid-shift. What's left of its fur is short and grisly, with patches of dark red, blistering skin covering its entire body. Its jaw is still formed like a snout, but its black eyes look eerily human.

Or they would, if they didn't look so feral.

I don't have time to react, my body rooted in place with shock, as it howls loudly. The sound is loud and agonizing, almost like a loud whimper.

I flinch as it launches itself past me, landing on Tiberius with its claws burying deep in his chest.

A scream dies in my throat when it turns to stare at me. I gasp at the sight of him. What have I done?