Never would he have dreamed that she’d be beautiful.
Jessie was afraid, but herdeterminationoverrode even herpain. She wasn’t panicked as her body writhed its way through her first change. She lay in Kade’s arms as he whispered her through it. Her predominantworrywas for Laura.
Jessie had her hand on Laura’s arm, but the other woman tore away from her. Her mind was pure,terror-stricken chaos.
Ryan brought Zach straight to Laura, lowering him to the floor beside her. Zach tried to put a hand on her arm, but she viciously batted him away. Her face was stuck midway through the transition. If she didn’t accept and guide what was happening to her, she’d die.
Zach tried to reach her with his worry and concern for her welfare. But she shoved them away, too terrified to let anything in. Zach tried again, with no success.
Even sitting, he swayed. And then Jessie reached out and grabbed his hand. The surge was more than he could handle. Every emotion from those near and far snapped into crystal clear focus, and his brain teetered on the edge of an abyss. That welcome, soothing blackness called to him.
But Laura’s pain screamed for attention, and he gathered the tattered bits of his talent, focusing them on her.
Not just focusing. Forcing. He had no choice. She’d rebuff any softer attempt. Zach pushed into herpanic, grabbed hold of it and tore it to pieces.
She screamed.
He replaced it with Jessie’s calm determination. Kade fed him the process—how to shift from human to animal. And Zach pushed it to Laura. But she fought him, savagely. Used her new strength to fling off Ryan’s attempts to hold her. Zach struggled to keep contact as his brain stretched close to the snapping point.
“Help her!” Ryan tried to hold her.
Zachtried. Laura writhed as blonde hair raced across her long Were face, but the features wavered back toward human.
“Laura, stop fighting it!” Ryan pleaded.
But she slashed at him with her baby claws, leaving red slices across his face. Ryan barely flinched, reaching to trap her wrists in his big hands. She screamed and sank her teeth into one of them.
Wild. She was wild. Like a feral dog.
Kade shouldered Zach aside, trying to pin her down. Zach was lost in the chaos of her mind, struggling to grab hold of something that would help. But there was nothing. With every breath, Laura slipped further into madness. And she was taking him with her.
“Zach, pull out,” Kade rumbled. “We can’t help her. She’s too far gone.”
“No!” Ryan protested. But his voice revealed the truth. That he believed it too.
Zach refused to give up on her. And she’d wrapped him in her pain and madness. He wasn’t sure he could get free, even if he tried. He didn’t have the energy to make the effort. Hands on his arm. Jessie. Then something hooked into him and yanked. Kade—and Jessie. They wouldn’t let him go. They kept at it until he lost his hold on Laura, and they pulled him free.
Zach opened his eyes. For just a second, Laura glared out at him from a face that was more Dire than human. Then her eyes glazed over, and she slumped to the floor.
Ryan stared at her, breathing hard. Zach recoiled from the Were’sanger. Anger that Zach hadn’t been able to save her.
You did what you could. Some cannot be saved.Kade rumbled in his head.
Zach barely heard him. He looked at Jessie. At her silver cat eyes in a face framed with curly hair. The bright red danced through the fresh, dark strands, and faint spots traced patterns across her face.
Part Dire, part Sabre, her beast was beautiful.Shewas beautiful.
And she belonged to Kade, body and soul.
Her eyes widened as Zach pulled away from her, yanking his arm free from her grip. The sudden release from the emotions of everyone within range, and a few beyond, was overwhelming. And at the edges of it all, the blackness beckoned to him.
Zach...Jessie, in his brain. Why was she still there? He didn’t want her there. Or Kade. The big Were was there too. He felt him. Hisconcern.
He shoved them out, brutally. He just wanted the blackness, and the relief that it offered.
Zach tried to stand. Needed to get away from them. From everyone. But his legs refused to obey him. It was okay. All he had to do was give up.
So he did.
