Chapter 8 “Retreat.” The silent word flew toward me down a pack bond I hadn’t even known existed. And while the implications of that connection were mildly interesting, I would have waited to consider them at my leisure if that blasted collar hadn’t shocked me just as a huge shifter barreled into my shoulder with the force of a runaway freight train. “Leave me alone,” I growled, attempting to evade my attacker. But Ryder was grabbing my ruff and shaking me off Gracie’s leg as easily as if I, rather than she, was the defenseless kitten. Then the male and I tumbled toward two separate bushes at the same instant a dark shape sprang into the space I’d recently considered my own. The newcomer was a wolf, I noted woozily, but not a shifter. The same beast, I guessed, that had been left behind