I needed to pull out, but the trap’s magic was almost sticky—did it have a taste of me now and wanted more, or did it think I was the wolf? I struggled to yank my magic free. The pressure hurt, like someone had put a vise on my temples and was slowly squeezing it together. I cut a strand and the wolf yelped. I’d hurt him somehow, and I didn’t have time to figure it out.

Okay, no cutting. I needed a big push and a yank, but I wasn’t sure I had the strength.

In the distance, the hunters blew a horn, the sound slicing through the night. I wasn’t sure how far away—sound bounced strangely in this forest, but they were definitely much closer. Too close. Behind me the wolf whined.

“I know, buddy,” I said through gritted teeth. “I’m doing my best.”

I felt him sniff the back of my neck and chuff, the hot air making me shiver. My teeth were chattering in the cold, my muscles getting so frozen and stiff that I was shaking nonstop. The wolf leaned on me then, sharing his warmth and magic. I grabbed at it without thinking, using the tether to shove myself free of the trap. There was a sharp snap as the metal clanged close, and we both rolled back from the force we’d exerted.

For a second, we rolled as one, all arms, legs, and fur. Then we slammed into the base of a tree, the shock making me gasp awake.

The forest was gone.

It took me a moment to get my bearings and shake out the cobwebs the dream had left behind. For a few seconds, I felt like I could still hear the hunters. But that quickly faded, leaving behind the whining of the wolf.

I was on the floor of the hall bathroom, my cheek against the cold tile. My muscles screamed as I raised myself up and peered into the clawfoot tub. Inside was a wolf, his leg bloodied, his tongue curled as he panted in fear. Panic-silvered eyes met mine, right before the foreign weight of a separate mind settled into my head.

Declan. I was staring at Declan. Magic still bound us, the fat, knotted rope I’d made while trying to bust us free. I patted his head awkwardly for about two seconds before my eyes rolled back in my head and I passed out, sending him the only two words I could seem to manage.

Well, shit.

Declan

I tried to scramble out of the tub, but my claws weren’t getting good traction. Blood splattered the porcelain sides, the wound from my dream slowly closing. My heart sped along at a rapid tattoo, the quick staccato beat of a woodpecker on dead wood. I was hurt. Lou was hurt. She’d freed me and trapped me. She was safe and not safe—we weren’t safe—and I didn’t know what to do. The wolf brain wasn’t set up for the kinds of emotional variables that human brains manufacture. He growled that I was making it too complicated. Now that we were out of the forest, he was settling down, but I wasn’t.