Page 82 of Spark
“Girls, you know what to do,” Sven told them. “No bite marks. This needs to look like an airbag broke her neck.”
* * *
When Matt and Chris drove into the Wolf Rock picnic area, Matt immediately spotted Sophie.
She had her back against the wide trunk of a cottonwood tree. She was cradling her right hand against her chest, and she looked terrified. Two female wolves, a pale gray one and a black one with a white blaze across her chest, were deliberately circling the tree, stalking her, looking like they were making a game of it.
Her phone, with its distinctive metallic pink case, lay a few yards away on the layer of fallen leaves carpeting the picnic ground.
Sven Tringstad was sitting on one of the picnic tables, watching it all with a wide grin of enjoyment.
“Shit!” Matt hit the brakes and pushed open his driver’s side door.
“We have to shift. Now!” he ordered as he tumbled out of the big white pickup truck.
Chris already had his door open and was tugging his t-shirt over his head. “I’ll do it as fast as I can and catch up with you. Go!”
Slow and painful shifts were one of the downsides of belonging to an ancient lineage like the sabertooth cats.
Since his own shifts could be measured in seconds rather than minutes, Matt knew he’d have to hold off two fully grown wolves on his own until Chris was ready to back him up.
Hurry! We have to save Sophie!Matt urged his bear while frantically unlacing his work boots and tearing off his clothes.
In response, it surged up powerfully from his innermost depth.
His skin immediately felt like it was being pierced by ten thousand red-hot needles as the change began to roll over him and he began to sprout the thick, dark-brown fur of his other shape. His bones, tendons, and muscles immediately started rearranging themselves. It hurt in a way that his shifts had never hurt before.
When his accelerated shift was complete, Matt staggered to his feet. His head was spinning and he was seeing double. Every joint screamed with pain.
But he couldn’t waste any time.
He launched himself forward and galloped into the picnic ground with all the speed he could muster. And that was a lot.
Despite their huge size, normal grizzly bears could run forty miles an hour, and shapeshifters were bigger and stronger than their counterparts.
Sven spotted him and shouted a warning. The two wolves stalking Sophie whirled to meet him, but weren’t fast enough to avoid him.
Matt barreled into the closest wolf, a huge black-furred female, and hit her with his shoulder, sending her flying. She plowed into the leaf litter, tumbling and yelping.
Without hesitating, he lunged for the other wolf, who had a gray pelt tipped with black, and swiped at her with his massive front paw.
She dodged him with a startled yelp and retreated to just out of his reach.
Matt used the opening to position himself between the wolves and Sophie. Her scent was tainted with the sharp tang of terror, but thankfully, he couldn’t detect any blood. Relief shot through him.
“Matt?” The hope and relief in her voice flowed through him, strengthening his determination.
Never letting the wolves out of his sight, he dipped his head.
“Oh, thank God,” Sophie said. “Help me. I need to get my phone.”
She stepped away from the relative shelter of the huge tree.
Keeping a wary eye on the wolves, Matt flanked her as she darted forward and snatched up her phone using her left hand before retreating once more to the relative shelter of the tree.
The black wolf regained her feet, though she was moving more stiffly now. Growling, her tail held low, she moved in, staying just out of his striking range.
The gray wolf joined her sister. Snarling and barking, the two wolves circled Matt. Like all wolf shifters, these two had huge triangular heads, with massive muzzles lined with long, gleaming fangs.
