The first thing I felt wasn't pain.
It was grief. Massive, ancient, and not my own. It crashed through me like a black wave, dragging me up from unconsciousness into a world that hurt too much to exist in. I gasped, my eyes flying open, and for a terrible moment I didn't know where I ended and Brian began.
He was sitting beside my bed in what looked like a hastily converted storage room. Medical equipment beeped around me. Harsh fluorescent lights buzzed overhead. His hand gripped mine so tightly I could feel my bones grinding together, but the physical pain was nothing compared to what was pouring through our new bond. Four hundred years of loss. Every wolf he'd ever buried. Every enemy he'd ever made. Every night he'd spent wondering if the loneliness would finally kill him. It all hit
