Chapter 56 DANE

I burst through after her and the strange, massive monster that seemed to be made of slime—like shadows that could coil and grab. We’d come this far. I wasn’t going to let her go now.

She had jumped in front of me. Saved me. Why?

Fucking why?

It didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she had, and now I had to get her back. Whatever this beast was, it was huge. I couldn’t kill it alone.

But I didn’t have to kill it. I just had to save Aurora.

I clawed at the creature, gritting my teeth against the cold. It screamed and deep red ooze gushed from its side. Using my claws, I climbed over its writhing coils, using every ounce of my wolf sight to search for her.

I finally spotted her. Her face was pale and drawn with pain. Her eyes fell on me, and she gasped out, “You have to get out of here.”

Her words took me by surprise. “What?”

“The shadows want you. Your family…”

Her words were cut off as the creature shifted and roiled, dragging her deeper into the tunnels beneath the house.

“Alpha!” Archer was at my side, then Trajan.

“We have to get her out,” I said. “Get in front of it. Slow it down. Get her out. That’s all that matters.”

They leapt away from me and attacked. The monster roiled and churned. I never saw any kind of head to attack, so I just kept trying to get to Aurora, using tooth and claw and whatever else I could.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, I reached her. She had passed out.

The monster tried to wrench her away from me again, but I wasn’t going to let that happen. I clawed down into its coils, wrapped my arms around her, and pulled.

Inch by inch, she slid free. I gathered her in my arms, crouched, and leaped free of the mass of shadows.

“I’ve got her!” I called. I waited just long enough to see if they were alive, then I ran.

It tried to follow, but as Aurora jostled in my arms, the pendant that I thought she was supposed to give Evelyn fell free from where it had been tucked beneath her shirt. It flashed bright, lighting the room with a white-blue light.

The monster screamed. Suddenly, it wasn’t chasing us anymore. It was retreating.

I didn’t know what the hell had happened, and I didn’t care. I just knew I had a chance to run, so I took it.

We found a way up and out of the house. Aurora was still in my arms, but she was limp. I crouched and brushed hair away from her face. I still wore my lycan form, and my hands were massive claws against her pale, delicate skin.

“Let me see her,” Trajan barked, striding over.

Archer jumped in front of us. “Get. Back. The Alpha has her.”

“Like he had her during those years they were married?” he matched Archer’s snarl with his own. “Let go of her, Montague. You never cared for her when you had her. You have a fiancé. You don’t get to start now.”

“There’s no time for this,” I snapped. “Get me some light.”

I shrank down into my human form and ripped open the front of Aurora’s shirt.

The shadows had stung her the way they had my grandfather. I’d seen it. Darkness would be spreading from the injury, poisoning her veins. We had to get her to Evelyn. Only she could stop it.

Light flashed on. Trajan knelt across from me. He had Aurora’s phone in his hand, the flashlight on.

The wound was there, to the right of her heart. The creature had missed it by inches. The dark, sickly coloring was already around the wound, spreading through her veins.

All because it had been aiming for me, and she’d stopped it.

I couldn’t stop my own voice from screaming why inside my head over and over and over again.

She was injured. Maybe dying. We were too far from a car, too far from any kind of help this far into the wilderness. If I ran, it would still be forty minutes or more before I could get her to Evelyn, to pack healers, let alone the nearest hospital or witch who would treat shifters.

Except….

“Trajan, shine the light here.”

He shifted so I could see, and I bent closer.

Aurora was wearing the necklace she was supposed to give Evelyn. The silvery pearl meant for the goddess’s chosen. It hung near the place the creature had gotten her…and where the pearl sat, there was no sickness spreading through her.

I touched the pearl, shifting it closer to the wound.

The spreading black veins faded and seemed to fade in its wake.