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Mad declares, “They’re here.”
The asshole grins deviously, while my gut twists on itself.
Trying my best not to tremble, I fail miserably. Silhouettes lurch out of the shadows, lanky things with torn clothes and gaunt faces. Missing eyes and limbs. Nothing stops the cursed.
Fighting harder, I yank on the ropes, the burn on my wrists digging deep, ripping at skin. Panic slices through me because this isn’t where I’m meant to die. Not like this. Not like fucking this.
More keep shambling out of the forest and the sight shudders me to the core. It’s a kick to the gut that despite everything I did, this is where I ended up.
“Beg me,” Mad demands.
I’d rather die than grovel to him. Nothing I say will make him change his mind. I’ve seen the darkness in his eyes, the hatred, the retaliation he thinks I deserve.
I straighten my spine, staring back around to the encroaching monsters. Moving ever closer. Darkening shadows blot the forest. These aren’t just a few zombies… but a whole herd.
A tremor jerks through me. Tugging for freedom, I never give up while trepidation claws at my insides. Gone is my calm demeanor as the sound of shuffling feet draws nearer.
A sudden lick of electricity hums along my skin, like it always does when a wolf shifts. Who is it? There’s nothing behind me but zombies staggering closer. The crowd on the fence isn’t changing but rather crying in panicked gasps. No one dares demand my release and I can’t blame them. Not when that’s all the push Mad needs to shove them over the fence and at the mercy of the undead.
Frantically, I tug on the rope, a tornado whipping in my chest with adrenaline and the terror coming for me.
A deafening growl slices through the air and it comes from deep in the woods, away from the settlement.
My heart soars. I pray it’s Bardhyl and Lucien. I crane my neck to look back. My men better be damn quick because the horde in the distance grows denser. And I hear the terror in people’s voices from the wall, their panicked words.They’ll be too close… There’re too many… like last time.
Such a cluster of the undead can have bigger consequences than the pack losing me, if they crash into the compound with so many spectators just out of reach. For the innocents trapped in there, I worry, but for Mad, it’s everything he deserves.
Someone screams, and I flinch at the reaction as the ground beneath me shudders like a small quake.
I wrench my head around as a huge white blur charges toward me.
So fast, so large, I can’t make it out at first.
“Bardhyl,” I murmur to myself, but the scent is all wrong. It’s no one I recognize, yet it belongs to an Alpha. My thoughts fly to the man sharing the dungeon with me. Except Meira insisted they negotiated her for him… so why are these trespassers still here?
The sudden swish of air across my back leaves me hardening my spine. I twist my head to the encroaching zombies.
Nothing is stopping the river from coming this way, and I desperately pull for escape.
Four Ash Wolf guards drop from the fence on either side of me. Seconds is all it takes for them to transform into their wolves. Clothes are torn, skin popping as it splits and bones elongate. Trotting closer, they linger around me in a protective circle… This has nothing to do with them keeping me safe from the zombies, but everything to do with stopping the newcomer wolf from freeing me.
Mad is so paranoid I’ll escape, he risks his own men to ensure I am torn apart by the undead, even if he loses a few of his own followers. Except for all I know, whoever these wolves are, they might want me dead as much as they do Mad.
Sadistic asshole.
Tension thickens the air.
I lift my gaze to Mad glaring at me, his lips thinning. I never lower my gaze from his, and for as long as I breathe, I will challenge him.
A howl pierces the air somewhere behind me, and I stiffen against the pole. Seconds later, the pounding of paws hitting the ground booms, coming right up behind me.
My heart pummels against my ribcage. I swivel my head as the four Ash Wolves dart toward the white blurs that burst out of the nearby woods with extraordinary agility. They clash tremendously and all chaos breaks loose.
The crowd is screaming and cheering, while Mad’s bellowing commands fall on deaf ears.
And if there was ever a time for me to break free, this is it.
Wriggling my hands in the rope proves harder than I hoped. Fighting the tightness, I struggle to curl my hands enough to fit through the knotted binds.
