Page 16 of To Keep A Wolf
My hand closes over it as the voices outside grow closer.
They’ve found me.
I look back at Kari. “I still hate you,” I say, emotion rushing through me now at what I’m about to do. What she’s demanding of me. And dammit, what I want. “I’ll always hate you.”
“I know,” she says, somewhere between sad and cruel as she watches me cry for her.
“You tortured Levi, not because he had information you wanted,” I say, “but just to weaken me. So I couldn’t come for you.”
“Of course. You could have killed me,” she says, eyeing the knife as I approach her cage.
“I’m going to kill you anyway,” I choke out.
She nods. “Get on with it then.”
At her words, my wolf stirs—finally—and she’s been trapped too long for me to talk sense into her now.
Screw the voices outside.
I use the knife to pick the lock. When the mechanism springs free, I toss it aside. Behind me, the doorknob rattles. I ignore it and shift as I move into Kari’s cage.
My wolf doesn’t even break stride as my human bones give way and my flesh sprouts fur. Kari waits in silence as I come for her. She doesn’t try to fight me off, and I don’t even hesitate.
My wolf’s teeth sink into her throat, and I taste blood.
Something lands on me from behind, and I’m thrown off Kari and onto the floor of her cell. My wolf yelps at a sudden pain in my side. I’m back on my feet in moments. Kari’s lifeless body stares back at me from the floor. I turn away from her and launch myself at the guard who dared try to stop me. His bloodied knife dangles from his hand. He hasn’t shifted, and I can see this tiny space won’t let him even if he tried.
But it won’t be an advantage for long.
I ram him with my shoulder and run for the open door.
In the hall, three more guards come running toward me. They raise weapons aimed at me.
Guns.
I falter, throwing myself sideways to avoid their bullets.
The gunshots roar in my ears, too loud up close.
I brace myself against the discomfort my animal feels at such volume and keep going, shoving past them, knocking them down as I go. My wolf is full of adrenaline, desperate to get out and somehow also reveling in the chase they’re giving. She’s been caged too long, and now she wants only to be free—and to punish all those who would try to take that freedom away.
Her determination is a special kind of rage.
I’ve never felt more powerful or more threatened in my life.
Left and right then left again, I do my best to backtrack into the area of the house I can navigate. Guards startle at the sight of me in wolf form. Twice, they get off a shot before I’m out of sight. One of the bullets catches me in the ear. I yelp and keep going, determined not to stop until they make me.
Pain lances through my ear, and blood drips toward my eye.
I blink, shaking my head to clear it, then run for Jadick’s office, envisioning myself crashing through those French doors. It’s closer than the main entrance and hopefully less guarded.
Slamming the door with my hip, I barrel into the well-lit space just as a horrific boom splits the air. I glimpse Jadick standing in front of the doors, a gun raised. But the boom has thrown me off, and I fall—no, am driven—sideways. I land on the rug with a heavy thud, thanks to the momentum carrying me.
My wolf contorts in pain as we land.
By the time I’m prone against the scratchy rug, I know I’ve been hit. The pain that radiates from my left shoulder is paralyzing. My wolf howls.
A shadow looms over me, blotting out the light.
