Chapter 26 · Cain Takes the Hit

"Ivy, don't touch him." Cain's hand clamped around my wrist before I could reach Aiden.

Aiden knelt on the floor, choking as black veins climbed his neck. They spread beneath his skin in branching lines, pulsing with a rhythm I could feel in my own chest.

"Let me go."

"If you touch him, it transfers."

"I don't care."

Cain's grip tightened. His palm was hot against my skin. "I do."

The white wolf turned its head toward us. Its eyes burned silver, bright enough to cut through the safehouse gloom.

Rex shoved himself upright against the wall, one arm hanging uselessly at his side. Blood dripped from his knuckles.

"She's not going to kill him," he said. "She never does."

The wolf looked at him.

Rex swallowed. "That wasn't a challenge."

Elara stepped forward, and her hunters raised their crossbows. Every bolt pointed at Cain, Rex, or me.

"The shadow chose Aiden because he was there," Elara said. "Three years ago, at the altar. He watched his brother humiliate you and stood by."

Aiden's fingers scraped over the floor. "Ivy... don't listen..."

"Your wolf remembers," Elara cut in. "It doesn't care why he did it. It remembers who hurt you—