Chapter 479

• Kian
• A dead treecracks beneath my back paws as I use it for a launching pad to scale a large, round boulder the size of an SUV. For a split second, I’m weightless, inside and out. Just me and gravity. Free from the weight of the earth and the constant hum of pain inside me. Free from bad decisions. From intrusive thoughts.
• But then I come back down to earth. I slam down onto the boulder, and it shakes beneath my bulk. My brothers land behind me, Frost with sinuous grace, but Malix with a loud skittering of his shadowy claws. I snatch at his smoky form with my teeth, nabbing him before he can slide right off the dusty stone of the mountain ledge into the open expanse beyond—which looks like a painful fucking fall, even for a shadow wolf.