Page 61 of Sold Wolf Slave

“No more dallying,” he drawled. He raised his knife once more and brought it down in a killing blow.

Something cool wrapped around me. A second later, the knife struck my fur, then shattered.

Lucas stared, disbelief etched on his face. For the record, I was shocked, too. It wasn’t until I turned that I realized what was happening.

Kendra was staring straight at us, one hand outstretched, even as she kept her own barrier up. She gave a half-smirk when she saw me glancing and gave a short nod. Her hand quivered. I could tell keeping two spells at once was a lot for her, but she was holding onto them, keeping me safe.

Lucas couldn’t do anything. His brow knitted together as he scowled. He held up his hand, preparing to disappear. Only, nothing happened. Somehow, Kendra was nullifying it. He was done.

He realized it, too. A horrified expression spread across Lucas’s face. Blood trickled from the gash on his shoulder. He glanced around, seeming to realize he’d been beaten. He spun on his heels and raced toward the door.

Moments before he got there, the door slammed shut with so much force, the stone walls seemed to shake. Kendra again. Lucas reached out and grabbed the handles, shaking them desperately, to no avail. He spun back around, pressing against the door as I approached.

I didn’t waste time. With a furious snarl, I jumped through the air, lunging forward. My paws slammed into his shoulders. Before he could get away, I bit into his neck. He twitched once, then stilled.

I waited just long enough to make sure he was actually dead. When I was satisfied, I let go, turning back to see Chris and Nolan continuing to fight. I didn’t waste any time, racing over to join in the fray.

The other guards stared at the three approaching wolves. One tried to step forward, preparing himself to fight, as did another in wolf form.

Nolan and Chris lunged. In a handful of seconds, both guards were dead, and the Gold Wolves were already turning toward the others. The final guards fled, booking it the instant Chris and Nolan had attacked, running through the reopened door.

The three of us waited to see if they would come back, maybe with reinforcements. After a moment, we all relaxed. The shimmering light around Kendra evaporated, and she hurried forward as I shifted back to human.

“Are you okay?” she asked, her voice sounding strained and panicked as she looked me up and down. “Are you hurt?”

Reaching out, I wrapped my hand around hers, holding it tight. “I’m all right,” I said. “Are you?”

Her eyes flicked down to my arm and then to my side. Her eyes narrowed. “Liar,” she said.

Before I could say anything else, she placed her hand on my side. Startled, I let out a hiss of pain. She gave me an exasperated look, then muttered under her breath.

A breath of ice brushed across my skin, then everything went numb. Glancing down, I saw that the injury there had healed over, bright red and shiny with new skin, but healed. Without missing a beat, she moved to my arm and repeated the process.

She made it to go to Nolan and Chris to heal their injuries the same way. Before she could, I reached out and touched her shoulder gently.

“Thank you,” I said. My thumb stroked across her skin, and she leaned into the touch as she stared up at me. “You saved my life.”

She gave a soft smile. “I wasn’t about to let you die,” she said. She hesitated, biting her lip as though debating whether to say something. Then she shook her head to clear it. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“Great,” Nolan said. “Now that’s taken care of, we need to get to the portal. As strong as we are, I don’t like our chances with a bunch of greedy assholes who don’t care about slavery and want to make a fast buck. There is such a thing as being outnumbered. The portal is still up, as far as I can tell. I got the girls through it and told them to head toward town.”

I nodded. “Let’s get back.”

I noticed Kendra hesitating, her eyes flicking toward the far end of the room where the door to the private chambers lurked. I reached out and took her hand. Her head whipped backtoward me, burning with frustration. Her eyes caught my face, and the anger there dimmed a bit, mixed with resignation.

“I know,” I said. “It’s going to be okay.”

She shook her head as if she didn’t believe me. Regardless, she took a deep breath. When I tugged on her hand, she followed.

We raced through the streets. I half-expected there to be a dozen assassins lurking in the shadows, waiting to strike. But nothing stepped in our way as we continued to sprint through the roads, the town almost eerily quiet.

Either people have already left, or they haven’t realized what just happened to Lucas and still want us out of here, I thought. I tried not to worry about it too much. Right now, the only thing that mattered was getting out of here before the portal closed. We only had a matter of minutes.

We turned into the alley. I half-expected it to be closed, so I sighed in relief as I saw the portal swirling in midair before us.

“Ladies first,” Nolan said with a sweeping motion of his hand.

Kendra hesitated, glancing back over her shoulder. She licked her lips. “Are we… we really can’t…” She trailed off, unable to finish her sentence. But she didn’t need to.

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