Chapter 25 · Blood On Both Sides

His throat was right under my mouth, and every shredded nerve in me was screaming to pull back.

I didn't.

Silver dust drifted across the concrete floor like dry-ice smoke. Freezing. Under my palms, Julian’s chest barely rose. One beat every three seconds. A crushed drum.

Behind me, Maya hadn't moved in four minutes.

"Mom."

Eli. Six years old, hacking up gray foam, barely clinging to the edge of the cot.

"Mom, I can't..." Eli dragged in a wet rattle. "I can't get it in."

"Through your nose, baby. Slow."

"I'm trying." His little voice snapped like dry twigs. "Maya stopped."

Julian’s pulse jerked against my knuckles. Even half-dead, his wolf knew I was millimeters from his scent gland.

"Nora." His voice scraped out, totally wrecked, stripped of every ounce of Alpha arrogance. "You've got eleven seconds before your damn pride kills both of them. Want me to count down?"

"Shut up."

"Ten."

"Shut your mouth, Julian."

"Nine."

God, I hated him. I hated that his math was cold and dead-on. I hated the metallic stink of his blood filling my nose, competing with the pine and burning zinc.