Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 46587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 233(@200wpm)___ 186(@250wpm)___ 155(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 233(@200wpm)___ 186(@250wpm)___ 155(@300wpm)
One has dropped his gun, backing toward the door, his hand raised. I feel their bullets in my flesh, blood seeps over my silver fur, but I barely feel it, not the pain.
Just the fire inside me and the knowledge I have to end this.
“You better run off with your friend,” Ruby says, rushing forward and waving the gun. “I mean like fucking now! Move!”
Her voice cracks, but she’s maintaining some level of calm. I can sense it. It’s like she knows I don’t want to kill these men, not slaughter if I don’t have to.
She’s smart. She can sense the need in me as deeply as I can sense it in her.
The men flee, rushing across the field and into their car. Other men yell.
“Where the fuck are you going?”
But they don’t listen.
“Ramsey, you’re bleeding.”
Ruby makes to touch me.
I grunt and move away. I can’t let her lay her hands on me because then it’ll be too easy to lean into that feeling, the soothing balm. But Liam’s still out there, and I can scent men, too, metal and weapons.
Three more.
I can scent where they’re standing, about twenty feet from where Liam and the other wolf are fighting.
I snarl quietly at Ruby and Ilsa.
Stay here.
“You can’t go out there alone.”
I aim my wolfish eyes at Ilsa, staring at her intently. Her face hardens, and she nods.
“I’ll keep her here.”
“Mom....”
“You can’t do anything out there except get yourself hurt.”
I turn, no time to waste, my head rushing with the adrenalin of battle. My body feels like it’s getting harder than metal, the wounds pulsing as though that’s making me stronger. It’s my human, her closeness, triggering this type of change.
She’s made it so I can save us.
It’s her, always.
Outside, the men raise heavy weapons. These aren’t the small rifles of the other men. These are bigger, with a bandolier of thick chunky bullets. I’m not sure my body would stand up against those.
But it doesn’t have to.
I spring across the grass to the men on silent paws. One of them shoots, and it rushes past my ear, taking a chunk out of it, but then I’m on them.
I snarl and spin in a flurry of violence, lashing out with my paws, smashing my body into one of them. They scatter and land in bone-snapping heaps, roaring in agony.
I grab their guns and toss them away, spinning to them again, leaping at them, and driving them into the ground. I hear their ribs crack, and I know it’s what I have to do.
Hurt them badly, to make sure they can’t move.
Liam.
Bounding across the field, I judge the fight. The other wolf is rangier, all sinewy muscle, whereas Liam’s chunkier. Both of them have taken pieces out of each other, claw marks lashing through Liam’s silver fur. The other wolf has the worst of it; one of his ears is missing as he stumbles in a circle.
Liam snarls at me, not the other wolf.
Leave him. He’s mine.
He’s lost in the wolf, a rarity for Liam. It’s a life-or-death fight. He’d only let himself disappear into that place if he needed the wolf’s deepest ferocity, as any wolf would when facing another.
But there are two of us now. We’re a pack.
That’s what these hunter-wolves never understand. We’re stronger together.
No. I growl. He’s trying to hurt you.
It’s as simple as that. And with a grunt, Liam relents.
The other wolf spins, baring his teeth, suddenly emitting fear signals. He growls as if to call us cowards, but it doesn’t make any sense. He’s weaker than both of us. He’s trying to hurt Liam, my mentor, the man who raised me.
I leap at him.
He spins, lashing out, and Liam takes the opportunity to throw himself at the wolf’s back.
He crashes into him, and the two sprawl on the ground.
Spinning around, I jump and open my jaws, closing them around the wolf’s throat.
I don’t think, not now; it’s too late for that. He reeks of death.
He’s slaughtered our kind before. I can scent it.
Closing my jaws, I crush his neck and tear through his bone until I feel the life drain from him. I squeeze tighter, just to be sure, knowing I have to be certain. An injured wolf can be more dangerous than a whole one and can heal from minor wounds.
But he’s done. I open my mouth, letting him drop, stepping back as he starts to change. Liam walks up next to me, both of us staring down at the man, frail-looking as he lies there naked, his neck torn.
Ruby and Ilsa stumble over.
Ilsa’s shaking, Ruby’s hands on her shoulders, as they walk across the field. There’s purpose in Ilsa’s stride. She walks right over to the body, staring down at him, her hands shaking.
“Pig,” she whispers, then her voice grows louder, a splitting cry. “Pig, monster, pig.”