“Have a little faith in me, Ness.”
“Okay. Fine. What happens after you win? How exactly are you planning on eating her heart?”
A corner of his mouth curled. “With my teeth.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be dense. If her blood’s full of silver, then her heart is too.”
“Little Wolf’s right,” Matt said.
“I’ll have it injected with Sillin. Or I’ll inject myself with Sillin. Greg would know. You brought it?”
I pulled the tablets out of my bag just as the front door opened and Greg stepped in.
Liam smirked. “Look at that. I speak his name and he appears. We were just talking about you.”
Surprise crinkled the fine lines around the doctor’s eyes. Or maybe it was concern. “And what were you discussing?”
“We were discussing how you’re going to purge a heart of silver without purging it of blood. You know, so I can eat it.”
Greg scrutinized the screen of the portable device in which he’d just inserted a drop of August’s blood. “Down by a little more than a half. You should be Sillin-free by the next full moon.”
Considering the duel was tonight, it was a good thing I hadn’t been the guinea-pig in the experiment.
“Can you shift at all?” Greg asked, putting away the handheld machine.
August, who was sitting at the game table between Cole and the doctor, palmed his cropped hair. “No.”
“Can you get your claws to come out?”
Studying the ball of cotton he held to the puncture wound on the inside of his elbow, he said, “No.”
“Did it affect the mating link?”
August raised his gaze to me. “No.”
I was standing by the windowed wall, alternately watching the males behind me and the ones on the other side of the glass. Ever since Greg told Liam that injecting him with a hefty dose of Sillin at the end of the duel-not as hefty as what he’d given August, because we didn’t have enough pills left for that-would counteract the silver in Cassandra’s blood, Liam was mentally and physically psyching himself up for the duel.
Both he and Matt had shed their clothes and morphed into fur. For the past half hour, they’d been battling relentlessly. Liam wasn’t immune to Matt’s blows-he tumbled and winced-but he’d hop back on his paws and give as good as he got.
Better.
But then, they were play-acting.
However violent the fight, it wasn’t real.
I lifted my gaze to the miles of swaying pines that separated Liam’s property from the Inn, wondering what the Creeks were doing at this exact moment. Vandalizing more of our homes, burying Aidan’s ashes, or preparing to face-off with us?
As Lucas came to stand next to me, I hugged my torso. “Sarah got with Alex to help us. She hates him.”
He watched Matt catch Liam’s hind leg and flip him onto his back.
“How do you feel, by the way?” I asked.
“Fucking relieved.”
I couldn’t help smiling a little at his answer. “Not about Sarah.”
“Oh.” A blush streaked his cheeks.
“I meant, since you ran into Alex Morgan’s fist.”
“Murderous, but otherwise, good.”
“For what he did to you or what he might’ve done to her?”
His eyebrows slanted behind his shaggy, black hair. “Both.”
We went back to our silent but companionable observation of Liam and Matt.
At some point, Lucas said, “I know you’re worried, but Liam’s skilled and quick. Have you ever noticed how fast he moves? Like those vampires in the shows chicks love to watch.”
I side-eyed him. “I’m not sure I’m familiar with those shows. Why don’t you tell me more about them?”
He started to walk me through the plot of one, but then he caught my dimples excavating my cheeks and stopped.
“Don’t worry. I won’t tell Sarah about your secret obsession with vampires.”
A brighter blush slashed his cheeks. “You’re a real pain in my furry ass.”
“But surprisingly endearing, right?”
He shot me a look, which was probably supposed to be scathing, if it weren’t for his crooked smile. “Surprisingly so.”
I knocked my shoulder into his, and his mouth curved a little more.
“You know what’s crazy?” I asked after a while.
“I think you should rephrase your question to: do you know what isn’t crazy?”
“Probably.” I bobbed my head. “Anyway, if we win tonight, I’ll go from being the only female in my pack to being one of many females.”
“Oh, the horror.”
I shoved him again. “Watch it, Mason.”
He chuckled quietly.
Ness, get out here and shift.