Page 97 of Wild Like Us
Run.
Feet to ground. Breath stuck in my lungs. I run.
I skid.
My fingers find my backpack and I’m fast as I reach in, but I’m not fast enough. Paws and claws crash into me, knocking oxygen from my lungs.
Fuckfuckfuck.My hand is on the hilt. Pain flares somewhere on my skin, my body, as I remove the gun from my pack and fire. The bullet rings my ears. And then I release five morepopsin quick succession.
Growling and hissing immediately cease. All I hear now is my heavy breath. Fur blocks my gaze. His muzzle lies at my head. His body is on me.
His body is on me.
Warm blood soaks into my shirt. I try to push the animal off me, but my arm’s wedged wrong.
There’s just silence.
Pure silence.
It’s louder and more horrible than anything I’ve ever confronted. “KITS! BANKS!” I yell in raw fear. They’re hurt. I know they’re fucking hurt. The last thing I saw was both of them fighting off that other cougar.
How much death am I lying in right now?
They can’t be dead.
They’re okay. They have to be okay.
“BANKS! KITS!” I scream, hot tears in my eyes. “BANKS!”
Please don’t be dead.
Please don’t be dead.
In a panic, I struggle to push the cougar off me. “KITS!” Hardly breathing. Am I breathing? I choke for air.
“We’re right here,” Akara breathes out, and just like that, the cougar is lifted off me. I try to fight off the dread as soon as I see them.
They’re okay.
They’re okay.
I’m silently bawling—the fear I felt crushes me more than the cougar.
My bodyguards heave the animal aside, and I struggle to regain breath. “Fuck,” I choke and wipe my wet eyes with my forearm.
Crimson stains their clothes. Their skin. It’s hard to tell if it’s their blood or the cougars’. Akara’s shirt is falling off his body, hanging by one piece of fabric at his shoulder. Blood mats Banks’ hair, and they’re both sweeping me, assessing quickly.
I sit up slowly, inhaling jagged breath. Their eyes plant to the gun in my hand.
I haven’t let it go. It feels attached. Like a third limb.
“Sulli,” Banks says, bending down, and Akara drops to his knees in a wince beside me.
“Are you in pain anywhere?” Akara asks.
I swallow hard. Adrenaline hardly recedes to make way for the throbbing in my side. “Just here.” I wipe my watery gaze again and touch my hipbone. Red blood coats my fingertips. Don’t know for sure if it’s mine. “How badly are you two hurt?”
I want to magically take their pain away. I get they’re sworn to protect me. Being in the crossfire of threats is what they signed up for, but an animal attack was never a part of that contract.
