Within minutes, Aislin showed up holding a bag of clothes alongside Niko. The two wolves circled around me, pinning Catrina, immediately understanding the scene with the context of Billie being injured nearby. I stood up and backed away from Catrina. As soon as she was free, she rolled to her feet and snarled as Aislin and Niko corralled her at a distance. The bag of clothes sat in the grass between where I caught my breath and where Billie trembled, and feeling the throbs of pain we shared through our fated bond. I was drawn to her not with an impulse of anger, but empathy, wanting to wrap up her wounds and comfort her. My tenderness was jarringly overcome with embarrassment a moment later, disgusted that I let my guard down, and I launched into transformation to finally seek answers from
