Understanding tensed her shoulders, but she clasped hands with me. “Don’t die. I’ll get in so much trouble if you kick the bucket.”

Fingers damp in her grip, I timed it so my spur pierced Dell’s palm the moment the kelpie’s front hooves struck sand. A bestial cry rang out as it hauled itself forward in graceless increments. Its tail flipped and kicked up dirt until a burst of white magic dissolved the giant fins into muscular rear legs. With all four legs under it, the kelpie charged.

Tawny fur rippled down my arm the instant the tang of Dell’s blood registered in the back of my throat. Straining, I focused on the burn of magic, directed it, and slowly the nails on my other hand blackened and lengthened to razor tips.

Jaws wide, the gray wolf at my side lunged for the kelpie’s throat. Popping noises and soft whimpers told me Dell was mid-change. I circled around the kelpie, claws flexing, waiting for an opening. Graeson slung his head back and forth, ripping flesh and exposing the beast’s windpipe. His nails dug into its fur and gave him leverage to clamp his jaws deeper in the delicate skin.

The scent of raw meat made my stomach rumble. Must be the wolf blood, because I was a well-done kind of girl.

Graeson’s assault left no room for me. The hindquarters were too dangerous. The front end wasn’t much better. The throat was its weakest point, and the warg necklace the kelpie wore was stripping tendon to the bone.

A groan turned growl preceded the golden wolf who positioned herself between the fight and me. Head low and tail dragging the ground, Dell rumbled in her throat. The motion drew the kelpie’s eye, and its slimy gaze raked over me. The beast trumpeted a shrill whinny. Its black pupils expanded until only crystalline voids remained where its eyes had been. Their emptiness sucked at the edge of my consciousness, lured me forward and made my palms itch with the need to caress the kelpie’s silky hide, to run my fingers through its flowing hair. For a moment, the world spun in orbit around me, and the unforgiving fabric of the universe spread as far as my eyes could see. There was peace in death, and the creature offered it to me. Its vision enveloped me, and the surcease of pain was such a welcome relief that my bones melted with promise.

In the distance, miles away, light-years from me, the sounds of Graeson’s feasting rent the air. Another sound, a whine accompanied by the insistent nudging of a furry head against my thigh, yanked me from the kelpie’s trap, and I gasped as the world rushed back into focus.