Chapter 18: Silver

I screamed his name, and what came out of my wolf's throat was a howl.

Lucan turned his head at the sound. He saw me, and then he saw what I was looking at.

He raised his sword too late.

Cade drove the silver in under his ribs, on the same side as the iron wound, and leaned his whole weight on it.

Lucan did not cry out.

He staggered. His sword fell out of his hand. He looked down at the blade in his body with a mild, surprised face.

Then his knees went.

The silver-white wolf broke out of him as he dropped, and shrank back, and left a man lying in the grass.

I felt it through the mark. It went through my own side like a hot nail.

I hit Cade in the chest with all four feet.

He went over backward. The torn cloth rolled away from him in the grass. The blade was still in Lucan.

I stood over him with my teeth at his throat.

He was breathing hard. He looked up at me and did not try to fight.

He looked up at a white wolf and said, very quietly, "Do it."

I did not.

I could not. My jaws were shaking.

He had locked my door.

He had sold me to the man who made me.

But he had also been eight years old when his mother died, and every adult he trusted had told him I was the reason.

I let go of him and went for Lucan.

Cade lay in the grass and watched me go. Then he rolled over, got up, and ran for the rogue lines.

I shifted as I reached Lucan, and landed on my knees in the grass, naked, in the middle of a battle.

I did not care.

"Lucan. Lucan."

He opened his eyes. They were grey and very bright.

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