"Wolf collapsed like a falling tree.
Jack knelt, turned him over. The hair was melting away from Wolf's cheeks with the eerie speed of time-lapse photography. His eyes had gone hazel again. And to Jack he looked horribly tired.
"Jacky--" Wolf raised a bloody hand and touched Jack's cheek.
"Shoot...you? Did he..."
"No," Jack said, cradling his friend's head. "No, Wolf, never got me. Never did."
"I..." Wolf's eyes closed and then opened slowly again. He smiled with incredible sweetness and spoke carefully, enunciating each word, obviously needing to convey this if nothing else. "I...kept...my herd...safe."
Ahh,