Page 79 of To Hunt A Wolf
My response is muted by a horrific boom.
Around me, people scream, but I can’t hear them through the temporary deafness in my ears.
Dust and rock rain down around us. Instinctively, I put my hands over my head, which isn’t really necessary since Levi grabs me and pulls me down to the floor with his body covering mine. We land hard against the stone, and I grunt as Levi’s weight settles against me.
A large boulder rips loose from the ceiling and slams into the concrete beside us. I jerk at the sight of it and feel the reverberation of its impact all the way through my bones.
I’m still recovering from it when Levi yanks me to my feet again. His face looms in front of me, eyes wide and urgent.
“Follow me.”
His words sound as if they’ve come from underwater.
But I make them out, barely, thanks to the shape of his lips as he talks.
I nod, and he grabs my hand, pulling me through the hangar.
He shouts orders to the people around us, but I can’t hear them.
The vehicles fill quickly as everyone climbs in, and Levi yanks me out of the way as each of them accelerates for the exit. Another explosion rocks the hangar. More stone tears loose from above and beside us.
Twice, I’m nearly crushed but manage to jump clear of the falling debris.
My feet barely keep me upright, thanks to the shaking ground. Beside me, a woman falls. Her cries are cut off as she lands face first in a pile of rubble with a boulder as large as a car on top of her.
I glance behind me and see others also pinned or lying still and bloodied in the broken piles of stone and debris. My chest squeezes, and I falter, wanting desperately to turn back and help. But Levi’s expression as he yanks me toward him—toward the exit—makes it clear that’s not an option. And deep down, I know it won’t do any good. They’re gone. And if I try to go back, I’ll die with them.
More explosions sound above my head. Boulders fall, and the walls shake with the force of their impact. Every inhale draws another cloud of dust into my lungs, and I choke as I leap over the uneven ground. The hangar is crumbling, falling apart with us still inside it.
If I didn’t know what this was, I’d assume an earthquake.
But this is no natural disaster. We’re under attack.
Thiago has found us.
Dirk sold us out. And I put him in the exact right place to do it.
The remaining Jades sprint through the hangar opening with us. One by one, they all shift into their wolf, and we pour out of the doorway into the dusty air. In the distance, red taillights are fading as the convoy drives off. Levi steers me toward the trees, and we run with the others, shifting as we go.
My clothes tear away from my body as my limbs lengthen and pop. One second, I’m a human, and the next, my wolf is eating up the ground with her long strides and massive paws.
Behind us, the Jade compound continues to crumble as more explosives detonate topside. I have no idea how many men Thiago has sent to kill us, but I have no doubt that’s what will happen if we don’t fight our way past them.
We’re all being hunted now.
ChapterEighteen
We make it to the base of the mountains before Thiago’s men catch us. In the gorge, at least a dozen men appear and begin to drop from above, repelling off the craggy rocks and blocking our escape. As the first few hit the ground, we fan out. I bare my teeth, muscles bunched and ready as I square off with a man still tethered to his drop cord. He produces a blade and cuts the cord then immediately shifts. Before I can sink my teeth into him, Levi is there, cutting past me to take the man down into the hard dirt.
I growl, mostly out of the need for a fight of my own, and look for another opponent. The wolves who came with us are nearly all engaged in fights of their own. We’re closely numbered. Unless reinforcements show up for Thiago’s men. A likely scenario, considering the damage they’ve already done to the compound itself.
We need to win this fight, and we need to do it fast.
Another man drops from above.
I meet him before he has time to complete the shift, my teeth ripping into his shoulder and tearing a chunk away. His blood and tissue coat my mouth, but I spit it back at him before darting in for another bite. This time, I come away with his throat, and his cries of pain die out at the same time he does.
I spin and look for another.
