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I yelped and flinched sideways. “Okay, look. If you plan on eating me, then do it already, but clearly, you haven’t yet…” I gulped and met his gaze when something shifted behind his eyes. He shook his head and released a low grumble as if trying to communicate. That prompted my next words. “Are you all shifters? And if that’s the case, well, you are being super rude by not welcoming me to your land.” My rambling came from the panic slithering up my back, and I tucked my bent knees up against mystomach.
Silence swept between us, well, aside from the rustling leaves and gurgling river. What were the wolves waiting for? Were they trying to give me a hypnotic stare? Because it wasn’tworking.
A deep rumble came from the black wolf. Was it telling the others toattack?
When all of them followed suit and let out deep growls, I tensed and gasped forair.
Be brave, my little girl—Grandma’s favorite saying. So I readied to fight to the end and balled my hands intofists.
Gray Wolf twitched andcharged.
Lightning fast, I scrambled backward and flung out my hand holding the bottle. But a wolfsbane root had wrapped itself around the broken cork top. Fumbling, I dropped my bag and the cork popped off, and the entire contents splashed outward, striking the gray wolf in the face. I threw the bottle athim.
He groaned with obvious pain and recoiled, shaking hishead.
Mist danced in the air from my spray, and the black wolf sneezed, while the white one stumbledabout.
On my feet, I spun andran.
Heaviness slammed onto my back. My scream tore through my body like blades. I bucked and squirmed for purchase out from under hisweight.
I shook, expecting fangs to dig into the back of my neck. I cried out, fingers grasping foranything.
But instead of biting me, the white wolf leaped off and seized my ankle. A primeval instinct took over, and I kicked his face. His lips peeled back with athreat.
I gritted my teeth, my breaths fast andloud.
“Help!” I ripped at plants, scratching my fingernails into thesoil.
He hauled me like a trophy prize. When another wolf snatched my other leg, I writhed and bellowed. The gray wolf trotted alongside me, still shaking his head, and his eyes had turned red… must have been from mypotion.
“Please,” I pleaded. “I’ll give you anything you want; just let me go.” I seized a fist-sized rock when the big alpha snapped in my face, his bloody breath washing across me. Bloodshot eyes glared at me, and he kept squinting tight and shaking his head. But before I could toss the rock away, the wolf head-butted me. My vision blurred, fading to blackness, and the last thing I heard was a threateninggrowl.
* * *
Adoor slapped shut,and I opened my eyes. I glanced up at a ceiling in a dimly-lit room, a fire crackling nearby, its warmth cocooning me. Now this was the life… sleeping next to a fire at home.Wait!I didn’t have a fireplace in my bedroom, and a tidal wave of memories crashed through me. Me heading into the woods for wolfsbane, the priestess replanting wolfsbane in our neighboring land, and wolves attacking me. Even Mr. No Pants popped in there, reminding me of his warning about the wolves at war, and I’d gloriously gotten myself caught by apack.
The earlier jitters swarmed through me, and I scrambled off a long table, my lower back stiff, hoping to avoid making a sound. Darn, the wolves had me lying there like a roast so they could just sit down and devour their dinner. I patted myself and glanced down. Yep, still wearing clothes, but they were dry now. How long had I beenout?
A throbbing ache settled across my temple, and I rubbed the lump on my head from where the wolf had knocked meout.
The room lay barren of decorations. It consisted of wooden walls and a ceiling. There was only the table in the middle, and a torn-up rug covered the hardwood in front of the fire; someone had scratched their claws on the frayed edges. No windows, just a closed door. And a strange musty and wet dog fur smell hung in theair.
My mind failed to make sense of where I was, and I couldn’t formulate a thought. I turned on the spot, not recognizing anything. I froze, yet tingles pressed on my body to run, to put distance between me and the wolves. I choked the breath from my lungs and tightness clasped my gut.Time to leave.I retreated toward the door, but my foot hit something. I flinched and looked down, but I’d just bumped into a stack of logs for the fireplace. No sentimental objects sat on the mantelpiece behind me or paintings to indicate who owned the place. If this was a wolf shifter’s home, then crap. Everything I’d heard about them painted them as savages who lived off the land and who followed their alpha to the death if he asked it of them. Except here I was in a house that had required someone to build it. Unless the shifters kidnapped people to do their bidding? That notion sank through me liketar.
I rushed across the room, desperate to get out of thishouse.
But the door flung open, hitting the wall, a flurry of cold air colliding intome.
My heart struck my throat, and I staggered backward as a man strode into the room. At first, my gaze bounced from his bare feet to his naked torso, to the chiseled specimen standing before me. Why hadn’t anyone told me shifters were gods in appearance? If I’d known, I may have stumbled into their territorybefore.
I glanced behind down a long corridor with wooden walls and several doors. This cabin was a lot larger than I had first thought. What were in the otherrooms?
Then my gaze fastened on the red strip of fabric the guy wore as a skirt to cover his privates. So familiar. Near the bunched-up fabric at his hip, there was a small sigil of a black moon crest. Just like the one grandma had sewn on her hooded cloak. I scratched my neck, reaching for mine, but the cloak was gone. I scanned the room behind me. My bag sat in a corner alone. The wolves must have collected it after I’d dropped it in the woods. A sweet gesture and maybe not all hope was lost for me surviving theday.
I swung back around to the man dressed in part ofmycloak. Fire hit my cheeks, and I stormed closer, but he kicked the door shut, closing us insidetogether.
But right then I didn’t care, not when an inferno burned me up from my toes to myhead.
