Total pages in book: 193
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
Swallowing the scream rising from the depths of my soul, I spin, breaking rank and leaving myself exposed. There’s no time to hesitate or second-guess. I let my arrow loose and then I’m frozen, watching it cut through air misted with blood, rain, and fear until it pierces the wolf’s eye midair.
Holy fucking shit.
I’m about to ask if anyone saw that when Khalil screams my name, and I’m reminded in the most horrifying way that this is a battle for my life—our lives—and not target practice.
There’s a brown wolf with patches of gray fur sprinting straight for me, and I know there’s no time for me to react. No time to draw another arrow and load it before it’s on me. I’m most surprised by how easily my fate slides over me.
It never sat right with me that I was the one to survive and make a life for myself after the plane crash when so many others died. It was only a matter of time before the hand of karma pointed its finger at me once more.
The wolf lunges, and I close my eyes. A moment later, I’m knocked back and pinned to the ground by an impossible weight that knocks all the breath out of my lungs.
The fucking wolf is heavier than I thought.
Not wanting to see my death coming, I keep my eyes screwed shut and wait for claws and teeth to shred me apart. Someone screams in pain, but I realize belatedly that it isn’t me.
“Shit! Zeke!”
Hearing Thorin’s panicked shout, my eyes fly open at the startling realization that it’s Zeke on top of me, fending off the wolf that already has its teeth sunk into his forearm.
It only takes me half a second to realize how it happened. Zeke threw himself between the wolf and me. There wouldn’t have been enough time for him to hesitate or consider if I was worth it. For him, it was an easy decision that spoke to truths I couldn’t think about right now.
Zeke is in trouble, and the reminder of what will happen if I don’t do something is more terrifying than the wolves. Thorin and Khalil are still shooting, busy keeping the other wolves off our asses because if they swarm us, we’re done.
Do something! I scream internally.
In my peripheral vision, I spot the black wolf stalking us from the brush, its yellow gaze pinned on Zeke. Thorin and Khalil don’t see it, and from the sounds of the vicious swearing and commands coming from them behind me, stealing their focus away would mean certain death for us all.
There’s a knife tucked into my hip quiver, but it’s pinned under me and I can’t risk jostling Zeke to go for it. My gaze is searching the ground for a weapon when I eye the crossbow that Zeke dropped. It already has an arrow loaded. I splay and stretch my fingers toward it, but the weapon is just out of reach. The black wolf stalks a little closer to the edge of the brush and I strain once more to reach for the shoulder sling.
The very tip of my fingers finally curl around the black strap, and I yank it toward me. The black wolf’s claws dig into the dirt, readying to go in for the kill. Twenty feet away, it darts into the open just as I raise the crossbow and pull the trigger. The sear rotates, and my arm vibrates from the force of the bolt releasing. Heart in throat, I don’t breathe as I watch the arrow cleave the air toward the wolf…and sail right past it.
Shit.
With the wolf closing in fast and no chance of stopping the inevitable, my mouth opens with a bloodcurdling scream that cuts short when a massive form with grizzled fur suddenly appears. Before the wolf can react, the bear snaps its jaws around the wolf’s hind leg.
The wolf yelps in pain, its yellow eyes shifting from that of predator to prey, and then it whines as the bear drags it back before snatching it off the ground.
A bear.
A fucking grizzly bear.
I’d seen one before of course but never this close—not even when I saved Meera’s pups from becoming a snack. Uselessly, I wonder if it’s the same one. Too much happened that day to trust my powers of recollection.
The brown wolf that still has a hold on Zeke lets go and races toward the bigger threat. It lunges onto the grizzly’s back, and the bear roars when the wolf sinks its teeth into it.
Zeke rolls away and immediately reaches for me at the same time I reach for him.
“Did it get you?” he asks in a panic while his hands roam all over my body. “Talk to me, princess. Are you hurt?”
“No. But you are.” Anguish like I’ve never felt before causes my hands to tremble. “Let me see,” I demand while reaching for his bleeding arm. “Let me see, let me see.”