Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 87771 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87771 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Yuni ran out of the woods on all fours. Her fur was all white, sleek, a lethal blur.
She tackled the were before he reached me.
That left me open to help Chris. He slashed at two other weres. They had the upper hand on him. I dropped to my fours and ran, howling. Chris snapped at one. The fur of his mottled gray and beige arm was stained crimson.
One swung a clawed hand. Chris caught it, twisted it. He snapped his jaws down hard on the arm. A pained cry morphed into a rabid growl. The other were went to defend, but I reached him first. I grabbed him around the waist and threw us both down. The were snarled and barked. He kicked up and gashed the side of my leg. Sharp bolts of electrified pain coursed through me. I yelped and rolled off him.
It would heal, but the pain was intense, blinding.
I limped backward.
Emmy let out an anguished howl. Our alpha was in danger; we had to help him.
I turned to spot Viktor towering over him. Yuni ran to him. She was being chased.
Chris barked out a warning. I whipped around. The other were was coming to finish the job. I raised my arm and blocked his blow, countering with a swipe upward. I could feel the tension, his flesh ripping like a knife through butter. He cried out as warmth covered my hand. I reached up and grabbed him by the throat. I lifted him up. The were’s light brown eyes were bloodshot. I recognized them.
This was Richie. I’d played against him. He was fighting this because his alpha was crazy. Because he thought something that wasn’t even true. Because he was making a power play.
He didn’t need to die.
No one needed to die tonight.
No.
I had to fight this bloodlust. Instincts were strong, but my humanity… All around me were the sounds of a brutal battle. Maybe I could stop it. Maybe I could—
CRACK.
A freight train must have hit me. All the air inside me was knocked out. I dropped Richie and was pushed down into the ground. I took a breath and felt it burn, like I’d inhaled fire. My ribs must have been broken.
I looked up at the first were I had attacked. Her long auburn muzzle lifted into a snarl.
I knew that was a smile, her teeth bared. They would sink into my neck. I had to fight back. I had to—
A thick cloud of smoke suddenly erupted from a canister thrown into the center of the chaos. It spread rapidly. The cloud hit us in seconds, completely enveloping us in a dense fog. I couldn’t see out of it. The pressure on my chest eased as the were pinning me down leaned to the side.
I tried to get up. Muscles wouldn’t work. They became heavy. Mind became slow.
Wolfsbane.
Eli was right. This had been a trap all along. We’d walked right into it.
Vision started to darken. I tried to fight it, but it was impossible. The sweet scent of the toxic smoke choked me.
All I could think as the curtain drew shut on my consciousness was: I broke my promise.
Chapter Thirty-One
I’ve Got This
ELI
I sat on Emmy’s couch with my hands in my lap like a little schoolchild in time-out. It felt like a pile of fire ants crawled underneath my ass, biting me, urging me to stand up and run. I felt an invisible thread tying me to Gabe. The incessant pull to be near him during the battle was almost unbearable.
I took out my phone and tried to distract myself with pointless, stupid videos that only served to make me even more anxious. How could anyone be making stupid jokes or silly pranks when there was a life-or-death fight going on? It felt insane to me. Wrong.
Raquel was in the kitchen. We were supposed to go into the shift room in about thirty minutes. There, we’d be locked in and wouldn’t come out until the sun rose again.
I wouldn’t know anything about how the Burlington pack did until then.
The idea of waiting to know if Gabe was alive or not was excruciating.
My brain whirred like a broken gear. So many ideas rolled around in my skull. One of them began solidifying…
It was stupid.
It was fucking crazy.
“Hey, Raquel,” I called out. “What kind of music do you like? It’s too quiet in here.”
“Anything,” she shouted back from the kitchen. The clanging of a pan being placed into the oven followed. Apparently, Raquel wanted to cook a couple of pizzas to bring into the shift room with us. “Whatever you want to listen to. Just not country, please.”
“Okay,” I said. I turned on the TV and went to Emmy’s YouTube. The homepage was full of hockey videos and a few hour-long fireplace videos. I went down to the music section and scrolled over to a rock song.