AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Then, just as everyone was starting to rebuild, the creatures started cropping up.
Hucows. Centaurs. Harpies.
And, of course, alphas and omegas too.
Could the wolf that had killed Blaylocke be another new creature that had come into existence following the Occurrence? Maybe. It had only been forty years since the Occurrence had happened, and there was plenty of open space in the west. Lots of places for a critter to hide if it didn’t want to be discovered.
But an entirespecies?
Suddenly, a tremor rippled through the canyon, breaking Tanner from his reveries. The horses whinnied in fear, and their hooves faltered on the shaking ground. Up ahead, Shannon Duffy looked like she was about to fall from her saddle. Tanner spurred his horse forward and steadied her with his free arm.
Then, just as quickly as it had started, the quake stopped.
“You okay, ma’am?” Tanner asked, keeping his hand against her side until he was certain she’d fully regained her balance.
“Yes. Thank you. What was that?”
“Just a small earthquake,” Tanner said. “They’re not too uncommon in these parts.”
For a few seconds, they were both quiet. The woman glanced down at Tanner’s hand, which was still braced against her ribs, even though it didn’t need to be there anymore. His thumb stroked gently against the side of her breast. He hadn’t meant to do that, it had just sort of happened. Her turquoise eyes looked up at him, and her lip trembled lightly. The expression on her face was almost enough to make a man burst into flames.
“Beg your pardon, ma’am, I just—”
A rumbling sound cut him off. For a moment, he thought it was the tremors starting back up again, but this time it didn’t feel the same as before. Then he saw movement from the corner of his eye, and he understood.
The side of the canyon was collapsing.
“Hold on tight!” he hollered.
He gave Shannon Duffy’s dapple gray a stiff slap on the rump, and the horse took off like a shot. At the same time, he spurred his own horse forward, and tugged on the reins of the riderless bay he was leading along beside him. He wasn’t worried about Logan. He knew the other alpha would have reacted just as quickly.
All four horses galloped forward. There was a deafening crash as a section of the canyon wall fell in behind them, and a thick cloud of orange dust filled the air. Fortunately, the rockslide only affected one small section of the canyon. They were in the clear.
Or so Tanner thought.
At the front of the pack, Logan’s horse was just about to go around a curve in the canyon when it suddenly stopped and reared back on its hind legs. At first, Tanner thought there must have been another rockslide up ahead.
Then a sound like a maraca filled the canyon, and his blood went cold.
His horse cantered sideways as something rushed past. Something big. He heard a rasp of dry scales slithering against stone and caught a glimpse of reptilian skin moving between the drifts of orange dust.
“Look out!” Tanner shouted.
In the space of a heartbeat, his gun was drawn, but the snakeman was even quicker. Before Tanner had a chance to get a shot off, a rattle-tipped tail whipped out and knocked the pistol from his hand.
Nearby, Shannon Duffy screamed. Her horse was starting to panic. It sensed the snakeman moving nearby, and it reared away, but in the process it lost its footing and toppled backwards. Thankfully Shannon was thrown clear, so she didn’t get crushed beneath the falling animal.
That wouldn’t matter if the snakeman got her.
Tanner felt another rush of air as the creature slithered past him on the other side. Jesus, that thing was quick. Down the canyon, he could see Logan lifting his rifle out of its scabbard, but the alpha couldn’t see where to shoot.
Then, all of a sudden, the dust cleared, and Tanner got a look at the thing. Its elongated torso perched atop a tail as thick as a tree trunk. Its arms and shoulders were covered in brown scales. Its eyes were orbs of polished jet. A pair of long fangs jutted from its gaping mouth like white daggers.
Logan’s rifle cracked like thunder, but the snakeman had already moved, and the shot smacked harmlessly into the canyon wall. The creature coiled backward onto itself, then it lunged straight for Shannon, its glistening fangs aimed right at her throat.
Protect!That was the only thought in Tanner’s mind: mustprotect!
Roaring, he dove from his horse and punched outward, throwing his arm straight out into the space between the woman’s neck and the snakeman’s open mouth. There was a sharp sting as the creature’s fangs sank into the meat of his forearm—then a rush of liquid fire as the venom filled his body. The canyon disappeared around him in a blinding white explosion of the purest pain he had ever known.
