Page 77 of Never Tamed
“He doesn't like this place,” Mathis explains. “It’s unnerving.”
The energy here is wrong. Agitation prickles the inside of my skin and the walls ooze some kind of brown liquid down to the winding stream of filth in the low parts. It’s tall enough to stand but not to reach my arms out to either side and avoid the ooze.
Our men fill the tunnel, united in their restlessness. The other wolves aren’t any happier to be here than we are.
“Spread out. Half go to the left and the other half with me to the right,” Torin says in an undertone.
The walls, instead of reverberating his voice back to us, absorb every bit of sound. And hopefully don’t send it straight to Andras.
“This is all wrong,” I whisper.
Dax bumps into me, using his groin to maneuver me to the left. “Just stick with me, Red. I’ll make sure the wrong goes right.”
“You’re not in a position to do anything,” I hiss back. “You’re losing it.”
Instead of taking offense, he chuckles darkly under his breath, pushing closer.
But damn, the heat rolling off of him is a comfort. His wildness will come in handy. A large part of that is how I always feel when I’m around him.
Dax is feral in the best way. His loss of control is a beautiful thing, and his bloodlust makes me feel powerful, like there’s nothing I can't do.
I twist my wrists to the side and force myself into a steady walk.
The tunnel branches off into three directions ahead of us. I stop, lifting my face and forcing down gulps of stinky air, searching for something familiar. My skin tingles and tightens. It’s either nerves, or I’m finally feeling the wolf inside of me for the first time. It’s clearer now than it ever has been before, and the sensation is enough to rattle my teeth in their sockets.
Does my wolf know where to go without words?
This place is all wrong and no matter how Dax boasts, there's no way to make it right. It’s not just the warehouse above that deserves to burn to the ground. If it wouldn’t cause a massive explosion, I’d take this maze system down too.
“We go there,” I say.
I head decisively toward the middle tunnel and duck when the ceiling slants lower. Slimy stone brushes the back of my neck and I hustle forward with the echo of footsteps behind me. The sewage smell is worse but underneath it—
I recognize Flora’s perfume, that slight undertone of Japanese cherry blossoms.
She’s here.
So are the rest of them.
Disquiet shifts to elation.
The space finally opens up and the ceiling arches, the tunnels spanning out from a center point like spokes in a wheel. And out of two of the tunnels pour Andras’s men. They make no sound until they’re on top of us, one of their footsteps going rogue in a puddle of something better unnamed.
The closest man reaches for my throat to claw it out, and I duck, my eyes drifting shut as I arch upward.
The wolf takes over.
There’s no good way to describe the experience. It’s instinct and natural and uncomfortable at the same time. But there's no other choice. My body lurches and in the next breath I’m across the room. I slam my palms into the spine of the nearest man and send him stumbling forward into one of his buddy’s.
“What the shit?” Another looks on, wide-eyed, but his features are clear even in the gloom.
Breathless, I slam my palms against his chest and send him flying into the wall. The stone caves around his body and his skull hits before he slumps to the floor.
A savage glee lights my face.Let’s see what I can do.
It’s a heady feeling. Intoxicating, in a way. I want to push my body to the limits of my capabilities.
I’m not human anymore. Maybe my heart will always carry too much of that soft vulnerability that comes with being so infinitely breakable. But the rest of me? Chosen.
