Page 19 of Wolfsbane

“Move,” he snapped, and he took off running.

And between a wolfless werewolf and my dagger-wielding mother? I’d take Viktor.

CHAPTER 9

Viktor

It felt like one of my fever dreams after being injured back when I was in government hands in Russia. I was running along unfamiliar terrain, following along behind my very own wolf. Desperately trying to find freedom.

Through the yard, to the hedges the guard had come through, and then straight through the garden, ignoring the herbs and flowers we trod on as we ran.

In the middle of the garden, my nostrils flared at the smell of blood, and I was worried for a moment. Was Daire hurt? Was I injured?

No. There was simply a spot where blood had soaked into the ground.

Right where I’d left the guard tied up.

The witches had murdered him.

Of course they had.

I felt a stab of conscience, but it hadn’t happened because I’d tied him up. Likely, it had been because he’d witnessed them taking a man prisoner, and would have wanted to summon the human authorities. They were at fault. They were the killers. I’d have simply left him there, alive, dealing with the truth of the situation himself.

I didn’t have time for self-recriminations that I should have let him go and told him to run. If I wanted to live, it was my turn to run.

It wasn’t as though I had any doubt that the head of the coven had been planning to plunge her dagger into my chest. I wasn’t a child or an innocent like her son.

Fuck only knew how someone had grown up so innocent in her company, but I still wasn’t sure he understood what she’d been doing, even as we ran.

We rounded the corner of the house at a flat-out run, and on four legs, he was fast. I was grateful I’d trained those legs to run, rather than him.

No offense to little Daire, but I suspected any wolf born of his soul wouldn’t have been quite as interested in speed.

We reached the corner where I’d initially climbed over, and I paused. He stopped when I did, almost like he’d hit a wall, and a second later, he was turning back into his human form.

“What . . . ” He stared down at his hands, then his eyes went wide and he slapped them over his cock, like anyone gave a damn about nudity at a time like this. He did, however, address the actual subject. “What are you doing?”

I motioned to the wall. “We need to get on the other side.”

He looked at it, then me, confused. “Yeah, at the gatehouse.”

“You think they’re not headed there? You think the guards will open it?”

That finally made him truly consider, but he still dismissed me. “They’re . . . slow. I can hear them.” He took one hand away from his crotch, slapping the open palm against the brick wall. “But it doesn’t matter because I can’t climb a whole wall, whether you can or not.”

Fuck me.

We were going to die because he couldn’t climb a wall. If we survived this, I promised myself, I was going to put Daire through hours of climbing drills. This would not happen again.

I sighed, turned, and started running again, this time toward the guard outbuilding. I didn’t want to deal with more guards, let alone maybe get them killed, but it wasn’t time to stop and chat.

We had to fucking run.

Daire kept gasping and starting to speak behind me, but never seemed to get a whole word out. I didn’t smell blood again, so I didn’t turn.

No time.

Only running.