"They have us," I yelled over the roaring river behind us.

"Stand still," Draven commanded.

Kael's guards burst through the tree line, raising heavy wooden crossbows. The tips of their bolts gleamed under the torchlight.

"There's nowhere to run, beast!" the captain shouted, aiming directly at Draven's chest. "Hand over the Omega, and Alpha Kael might let you die quickly."

"I do not negotiate with dead men," Draven replied, his voice a low rumble that vibrated through the muddy ground.

"Fire!" the captain shouted.

Draven spun, grabbing my waist and hauling me against his chest. He turned his broad back to the tree line just as the crossbows twanged.

A sickening thud echoed over the storm. Draven grunted, his frame jerking forward from the impact.

At the exact same second, a white-hot spike drove through my left shoulder.

I screamed, my knees buckling. I clawed at my own shoulder, feeling nothing but wet fabric, but the agony ripped down to the bone. It felt as though a burning coal had been shoved under my skin.

"Wolfsbane," Draven snarled, his voice thick with sudden strain.

I looked at his back. A silver-shafted arrow protruded deep from his left shoulder blade. Thick, black blood pulsed around the entry wound, hissing as it touched the rain.

"They're reloading!" I choked out, fighting the burning paralysis spreading through my left arm.

"Hold your breath," he ordered.

Before I could argue, he threw us backward.

We plummeted off the sheer cliff. Freezing wind whipped my face, followed instantly by the brutal impact of the river.

Ice-cold water swallowed us. The current tore at my clothes, spinning me upside down. I thrashed, desperate for the surface, but a heavy arm clamped around my waist, anchoring me to his side.

A submerged log struck my ribs. I opened my mouth and swallowed river water.

Draven kicked against the raging rapids. We broke the surface, gasping for air.

"Keep your head up!" he roared over the rushing water.

Before I could nod, the churning white water dragged us under again. The river battered us against smooth stones and jagged roots. Draven never let go. His grip on my waist felt like iron, even as the poison surely pumped through his veins, weakening him by the second.

Finally, my boots scraped against rough gravel.

Draven hauled us out of the shallows, dragging me onto a muddy riverbank. He collapsed onto his back, his chest heaving.

"Draven," I coughed, spitting out muddy water.

He didn't answer. The black veins around the arrow wound had already spider-webbed across his neck, standing out sharply against his pale skin.

"Hey," I said, shoving his uninjured shoulder. "Do not pass out on me."

"The poison," he rasped, his jaw clenched tight. "It is meant for Alphas. It burns the blood. Turns it to ash."

"Then let me get it out," I demanded, pushing myself up on my right arm.

"Leave it," he said, turning his face toward the mud. "Run. You are free from your cage. Go hide in the woods like a frightened rabbit."

"I'm bound to you, you idiot," I snapped. "If you die, the curse kills me too."

"A flaw in the magic," he muttered, closing his eyes.

"I'm not dying in the mud because you're too stubborn to accept help."

I reached down to my right boot, fumbling with the wet leather until my fingers brushed the cold steel of my hidden medical knife. I pulled the small blade free.

"I have to get the silver out," I told him, positioning myself over his left shoulder.

"You will tear your own arm apart," he warned, opening one eye to look at the knife.

"I'll manage," I said, though my hands shook violently.

"Your hands tremble," he mocked weakly. "You hold that blade like a pup holding a stick."

"Shut up," I warned him.

I gripped the arrow shaft and snapped it off.

Fire exploded in my shoulder. I bit down on my tongue, tasting copper, and pressed the tip of the medical knife into his infected flesh.

"Do it fast," he ordered, his fingers digging deep gouges into the wet earth.

"I have to find the hook," I argued.

The skin was already necrotic, turning a foul, spongy black. I dug the blade in, slicing through the muscle to reach the deeply embedded silver arrowhead.

"Ah!" I cried out, tears spilling over my eyelashes and dropping onto his cold, rain-slicked chest.

Draven groaned, a low, guttural sound. "Stop crying, Omega."

"It hurts," I gasped, my vision blurring.

"Pain is a reminder you are alive," he shot back, his breathing ragged. "Cut deeper."

"I'm trying!"

"You hesitate. You fear the pain. That is why Kael kept you on a leash."

His words stung worse than the poison. Anger flared in my chest, cutting through the agony.

"He kept me on a leash because he murdered my father," I snarled, driving the blade further in. "Not because I am weak."

"Prove it," Draven challenged, his eyes locked on mine.

I twisted the blade, scraping directly against his collarbone. I wedged the steel under the silver hook and pried upward with all my remaining strength.

With a wet tear, the arrowhead popped out, landing in the mud.

"It is out," Draven breathed, his voice barely a whisper.

"Yeah," I wheezed, staring at the canopy. "I told you I wasn't weak."

He let out a dry, rattling chuckle that quickly devolved into a violent coughing fit. Black blood splattered his chin.

"You talk too much," he murmured.

A sudden, blinding heat wrapped around my right wrist. I lifted my arm. The silver crescent moon totem burned fiercely, flashing in rhythm with my racing heartbeat.

I rolled my head to the side. Draven's wrist flashed with the exact same blinding light. "The bond," he muttered, forcing his eyes open to glare at his glowing skin. "It feeds on the trauma."

I pushed myself up on my good arm, looking down at my left side.

The phantom wound hadn't bled, but the wolfsbane had transferred. Jagged silver veins pulsed beneath my pale skin, creeping out from my left shoulder.

"What is this?" I asked, my voice shaking as I touched the raised, metallic lines on my skin.

"The curse shares everything," Draven said, his gaze dropping to my arm. "Even the poison."

I watched the metallic lines stretch past my bicep, curling around my elbow.

Kael kept medical texts locked in his library. They said that once wolfsbane reached the elbow, it had entered the main artery. I had less than three hours before the silver reached my heart.