Page 33 of Great Falls Cadet
“Don’t you dare bite just for the fun of it,” I mutter, using a nearby tree to climb to my feet. Shade may not understand my words directly, but the wolf has made his plans for his teeth all too clear.
The wolf snorts. Turning, he raises his tail and trots off, turning his head once to ensure I’m following.
Half walking, half crawling, I pull myself after Shade’s wolf, who, fortunately, leads me only twenty paces off to a small protective cave between three of the massive boulders. Blinking at the pit in the cave’s floor, I realize the wolf has already dug out the bottom to clear away the worst of the wet mud and create an extra barrier from the wind. Climbing inside, I curl around my wolf, his thick fur and lupine breath warming my shaking core.
* * *
COAL
A wolf’s howl raked across Coal’s soul, a sound that should have had Coal reaching for a weapon but spurred him into a run instead. He was at the bottom of the hill Lera had slid down, the slope so long and steep that Coal had to switchback down it to avoid cracking his head. To his left, the forest continued in a shivering cluster of aspen and pine. To his right, a rock formation held up the base of another rolling hill.
“Leralynn,” Coal hollered, his throat raw. “Where are you?”
The wolf howled again, as if in clear answer. The sound came from the base of that rock formation on Coal’s right, where a dark entrance to a cave that a smart animal might claim could be seen. This time, Coal did draw his boot knife as he closed the distance, his breath misting in the cold air.
A scraping echoed from the cave’s mouth.
Then something that sounded like ashush.
An indignant feminine yelp.
Before Coal could fully process the significance of the sound, a gray wolf streaked out from under the rocks, its teeth bare and ears laid flat as it headed right for Coal. A ripple of something Coal couldn’t explain raced through him, a perverse instinct that had him throwing away the knife instead of holding it toward the predator. Predictably, the idiotic move was a mistake. In the next heartbeat, the wolf hit Coal’s chest, knocking him flat into the earth.
Coal fell hard, a stone digging into his shoulders. His heart pounded, his mind unable to focus as a deadly maw hovered above his face. The wolf’s saliva dripped down, landing with the rain on Coal’s cheeks, the predator’s yellow eyes burning into him.
Darkness flashed before Coal’s eyes, the great weight atop his chest an echo of the islanders’ shackles. Coal’s heart tripped, hesitating for a moment before sprinting so quickly that Coal could feel it against his neck.The stench of rot and blood filled Coal’s nose, his mouth thick with a pain that was not yet here, but would come.
GHHHHHHHRRRRRRR
The wolf’s low growl came again, rising from deep in its chest while hackles rose in a thick gray ridge along its back. The animal’s breath was so close now that Coal felt it along his skin.
Coal’s hand closed around a stone, but just as he readied to smash the animal’s skull, the significance of the feminine voice finally penetrated. Lera. ItwasLera. Alive. And here. Somehow—though stars only knew what made Coal certain of it—the wolf was protecting, not harming, the girl.
Muscles shaking with effort, Coal opened his hand and let the stone roll free.
Unimpressed, the wolf pulled his lips back from glistening canines and snapped them inches from Coal’s face.
Coal lifted his chin, exposing his neck to the predator as he met the animal’s bright golden eyes. Daring him to finish it. Asking him to.
A heartbeat passed, marked with the wolf’s panting breath, the great lupine muscles as taut and trembling as Coal’s own. A second beat. A third.
“Come on, you flea sack,” Coal growled, flashing his own teeth. “Finish it.”
The wolf snorted and bent on his front paws, his shoulder blades rising. Then, pushing away from Coal’s shoulders, he streaked off into the forest.
Heart still pounding, Coal jumped to his feet, his gaze darting in confusion as he sheathed his knife into his boot. His mind raced with his pulse. He was alive. Whether this was a good thing, he didn’t know.
“Are you all right?” Lera’s voice gripped Coal’s throat, turning him toward the rocks. The girl was pale and wet in the mouth of the cave, shaking in her torn gray uniform, her hand gripping the rock with bone-white knuckles—which told him she was a breath away from collapsing.
“Leralynn.” The world narrowed to the girl standing in the cave’s mouth. With the next breath, Coal was moving, launching himself to grab Lera before she disappeared again. Catching hold of her, Coal shoved both of them into the cave, his fingers digging into Lera’s arms so hard that he was bound to leave bruises. But he couldn’t let go, or spare a thought for why.
11
Lera
Lunging forward, Coal grabs the tops of my arms, fingers digging into my wet tunic and the flesh beneath. His nostrils flare, his shoulders rising and falling with quick breaths. Before I can respond, he shoves us into the cave, his powerful thighs flexing fluidly. In the shadows and damp, his blond hair is dark, blue eyes flashing with icy flame. The water running down his face makes the perfect chiseled lines of it only more beautiful. More deadly. More arrogant. When Coal’s predatory gaze finds mine, heat rushes through my core.
“Are you damn insane?” Coal shouts into my face, the fear and fury rolling off him so thick that it settles like copper on my tongue. “You could have died.”
