Page 71 of Rocky Top

Rocky stiffened beside me. He’d gone from teasing to all business in a breath. “Stay behind me,” he growled.

“Why?”

That’s when the first shot rang out.

The night exploded. Bark flew off trees, and a bullet whistled so close to my head I felt the heat of it pass.

“Down!” Rocky shouted, shoving me behind a rotted stump. The other brothers fanned out, weapons drawn, growling low and feral. That wasn’t just rage, it was instinct, wild and barely human.

More shots cracked. Someone returned fire. The forest lit up like a war zone. I scrambled for cover, my palms muddy and shaking, heart pounding so hard I could barely hear over it.

And then I smelled it. Blood. The coppery tang filled my nose, sharp and wrong.

I turned toward the noise just in time to see something blur through the shadows. It was huge, bigger than life, fast as hell. Notquite human, not quite beast. And it wasn’t one of them. It wasn’t one ofus, either.

“Rocky!” I screamed, but he was already mid-shift. I’d seen it once before, but this time, there was no ceremony. No build-up. One moment, he was man—tattooed, broad, furious. The next, fur exploded from his skin, bones cracked and reshaped, and he hit the ground as a massive gray wolf.

Everything inside me screamed to run.

But I didn’t.

I saw the monster lunge for him, teeth bared. They collided in a blur of snarls and claws, fur and gore. Rocky’s wolf form was a damn sight to behold, powerful and terrifying and noble all at once. But even he was struggling.

Something hit me. Hard.

I cried out, hitting the ground, breath knocked clean from my chest. A second figure loomed over me. It wasn’t like Rocky. It wasn’tanythinglike him. This one had jagged yellow eyes, warped limbs. Half-wolf, half-something else. Its mouth opened and the stench of rot poured out.

It raised a clawed hand.

I rolled.

Too slow.

Pain exploded in my side. Warmth followed—blood. My blood.

I screamed. But no one heard me overthe chaos.

I was going to die. Right here, in the dirt, in the middle of nowhere.

Then I saw him—Rocky. Not the wolf. The man. Covered in blood, eyes blazing with a fury I’d never seen before. He tore through the brush and reached me in a blink. Fell to his knees beside me.

“Birdie, look at me,” he said, voice rough with fear. “You’re hurt bad.”

I tried to nod. It felt like everything was fading. My body was going numb, cold from the inside out.

“Damn it,” he muttered. “I can’t lose you. Iwon’t.”

His hands hovered over the gash on my side, shaking.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “You might hate me for this later, but I don’t got a choice.”

“What?” I thought, but my mouth didn’t move. I was dying.

That’s when I felt it.

His teeth.

He bit me.

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