“Brick!” Ivy yelled, leaping to her feet.

She raced behind Duke, to where Brick lay stock-still. Using his head, Duke pushed against Brick’s wolf until he slid off of Joe’s crushed dead frame. Brick’s breath came in slow and hard huffs.

“Can I touch him?” Ivy cried.

Duke nodded, as he trotted off. Dropping to her knees, she gazed into his wolf’s golden eyes.

“Please stay with me, Brick. Don’t leave me.”

With a whine, he nudged her arm, and she wrapped them around his neck, leaning onto him, as his chest rose and fell in heaving surges.

With a blanket wrapped around his waist, Duke ran back and grabbed Joe’s body. He tossed it, and it landed beside Matt’s.

“Ivy, I’ve gotta get the bullet out of him, so he can heal.”

“What can I do to help? What about the other shifter? Where is he? Are we in danger?”

“Nah. He ran off like the little bitch he is. Talk to Brick while I work.”

“Okay.”

“Alpha.” Duke grunted, placing his back against Brick, bracing his feet on the floor, as Ivy stepped away. “I’ve gotta turn you over.”

Pressing his feet down and straightening his knees, Duke eased Brick’s solid and heavy weight up, moving him onto his side. Once he was in that position, Duke gave another gentler shove, and Brick landed with a thump on his back.

“Oh, my God! There’s so much blood.”

“He’s a big guy.” Duke looked at the wound. “I’m going in.”

“With what?”

Duke held a hand up and said, “It’s all I’ve got. With that silver in his body, he can’t heal.”

When Duke shoved his fingers into Brick’s chest cavity, he let out a loud whine.

With tears streaming down her cheeks, as she held his head in her lap, Ivy whispered, “I’m so sorry this happened. I ran away from my dad as soon as I was of legal age. When your kind first emerged from hiding, he became paranoid, convinced that you would take the human’s place in the world. He wouldn’t listen to reason—only what people who agreed with him said. When my mother left him for a shifter, he was so enraged that he joined the TMD. He was never the same, from that day forward. I was horrified when he told me he’d murdered a female and left her body by a river.”

Duke’s head jerked up, and he said, “Did he tell you her name?”

“Ruth, I think. He said that she killed Braxton, and they tracked her down for execution.”

Brick howled in pain, and Ivy shivered at the sound.

While Duke went back to searching for the bullet, he said, “That was Brick’s adoptive mother.”

“Oh, my God!” She looked down at Brick’s closed eyes. “I’m so sorry that I was mean to you.”

“Almost there. I feel it. Keep talking to him.”

“I fought against my feelings for you, Brick, but they’ve hit me like a ton of them. I can’t resist it anymore, and I don’t want to. I accept it... and you.”

“Got it!” Duke brought out his fingers, which were covered in red, and held the bullet up. “You’re one lucky guy, Alpha.”

“Police! On the floor, face down, hands behind your back! Now!”

Ivy and Duke turned to see several armed men in black uniforms, aiming their pistols at them.

“Yes, sir!” Duke nodded to Ivy, and they followed the order. “Glad to see you’re here!”

“Don’t shoot them!” Billy shouted. “They’re the good guys! The bad ones are over there!”

“How’d he get in? Take that kid out of here!” another officer hollered, as he approached them. “What happened here?” He took a step back. “He’s huge! Is he dead, too?”

“No. He’s alive, but he’ll be unconscious for a while, until he repairs himself. That man,” he said, nodding towards Joe, “shot him and planned to murder all of us. We had to take action to protect ourselves. I’d be happy to answer any of your questions.”

“I’m going to have to handcuff you until we sort this out.”

Duke nodded and gave a reassuring smile to Ivy, when her hands were being cuffed behind her.

Walking over to Matt’s and Joe’s bodies, an officer squatted down and said, “I recognize these two from the BOLOs from the Dyer case.” He looked over to Duke. “You were on the video, as well.” Duke didn’t reply. “Don’t worry. We know who murdered her, and it wasn’t you. The evidence is crystal clear. Let’s get statements from the two of you, and then we’ll cut you loose.”

Another policeman joined him and said, “The kid who called this in was included in that attempt to locate, as well. He’s being interviewed right now. Looks like we’ve apprehended them all.”

“What’s going to happen to Dylan?” Ivy asked. “He’s my cousin. He tried to help us. He saved the little boy.”

“Sounds like he’s cooperating, so that’s good. But ultimately, it depends on what’s discovered in the investigation. We don’t know to what extent he was involved in the murders the TMD is responsible for. No way to know at this point.”

Hours later, after their statements were taken and the crime scene was processed, Duke and Ivy were released with an order to stay in town, should any additional questioning be required.

While this went on around him, Brick remained asleep in his wolf form.

Ivy rushed to Brick’s side the moment the police allowed her to go.