Page 116 of Never Tamed
This cocky fucker.
I use the opening to strike again. My teeth sink into his throat and tear into fur and muscle. Hot, coppery blood floods my mouth, making my wolf growl with pleasure.
Andras’s howl turns into a roar of fury. His body slams into mine, and the sheer force knocks the air from my lungs. I’m thrown back, and I skid through the snow. Throwing my arms and legs out, my claws tear deep grooves in the earth until I manage to stop.
He’s even bigger up close. A beast of nightmares. He towers over me, and his ruby eyes gleam with something feral. But I’m not afraid. I am faster. Stronger. Something powerful and wild burns in me, wild and untamed. The mate bond thrums through me like a tether to my three men.
I lower myself, muscles coiled. When he attacks, I’m already gone.
I shoot to the side. Andras’s claws slash through empty air where I’d been a millisecond before. He snarls, spinning to follow, but I’m already behind him, snapping at his flank. My teeth catch flesh, tearing a gash along his haunch. His growl rises up in the air, raw and furious, and he whips around again, mouth wide.
But I duck, slide under his chest, and rake my claws across his belly. Blood spatters hot against the snow.
He stumbles but recovers instantly, his size and rage giving him momentum. His paw slams into my side with bone-crushing force. Pain flares and I tumble, rolling over and over in the snow until I crash into a fallen tree. Bark cracks from the impact.
The world tilts for a moment. My vision pulses with black spots, but I shake my head and try to force myself back up.
Andras is already on me.
He charges. His next bite catches my shoulder, and agony tears through me as his teeth pierce deep, all the way to bone. Then he pins me; his massive weight drives me into the snow.
A whimper threatens to rise, but I choke it down. I twist violently, and with a surge of strength I didn’t know I had, I slam my paw against his throat. My claws pierce and rake down.
Blood sprays. He jerks back.
For any other wolf, his wounds would be a death sentence, but Andras isn’t even swaying on his feet. My chest lurches, and my shoulder is screaming with pain, but I stand. I have to. Andras and the Blood Moons’ reign ends tonight.
Our eyes lock.
He pounces again, faster this time, but I meet him head-on. We crash. His jaws close around empty space as I spin, my speed carrying me past him, and I sink my teeth into his neck again. This time the back. Blood pours hot, but I hold on, crunching down harder.
He bellows, thrashing, and tries to shake me loose. I hang on with everything in me, plunging deeper, tasting a little more of his life in every hot gush. His claws slam into my ribs, and with a sickening crack, I’m wrenched free and hurled across the clearing.
I hit the ground with a loud thud. Snow and blood smear together beneath me.
My vision narrows. Time seems to slow, and every detail looks sharper—Andras’s massive jaws opening, the whites of his eyes burning, the drops of blood caked into his black fur. It’s time for me to vanish.
My speed carries me around him, faster than his eye can track. I circle once, twice, in a blur of white. He can only snap at the air.
And then, I attack.
I leap onto his back. My nails expand and sink into his flesh. He bucks and thrashes in the attempt to throw me off, but I hold onto a thick muscle on the back of his neck. I bite down, harder, harder, until my jaw aches, until I feel tendon snap and more metallic blood fills my throat.
He bucks, throwing his body into tree trunks to get me loose. But I don’t budge.
Twisting my head, I clamp harder and tear deeper. Eventually, his movements slow and his strength wanes.
Finally, Andras staggers then collapses in a heap. With one last surge of strength, I wrench my head sideways and rip his throat wide open.
The sound is wretched. Final.
Andras crumples. His blood makes dark rivers across the snow. His body twitches once then stills.
As I back away, chest heaving, his form starts to shrink. The fur falls away as the final shift transforms him back into a human. My shoulder throbs, my lungs burn, and every inch of me is blaring with pain. But I’m still standing.
I killed him.
I did it.
