Until—
Bang.
The pain was instant.
Hot. Searing.
I fell face-first into the dirt, my scream muffled by the soil. My ankle—on fire.
I twisted, reaching for the wound, and saw blood soaking into the ground.
Then I saw him.
Brandon.
Walking calmly through the trees, gun in hand, smiling like the devil himself.
“Did you really think I’d let you go?” he said softly, almost like a lover’s whisper. “After all you ruined?”
He raised the gun again.
“You were always the weakness in the story.”
I braced myself.
Then—a blur.
Faster than sound. Faster than thought.
Kody.
His wolf tackled Brandon mid-step, sending him crashing into a tree with a sickening crack.
The gun fired once—harmlessly into the air—before it clattered uselessly to the ground.
Kody didn’t hesitate.
He didn’t grow
