Page 79 of Never Tamed
The tunnel ends in a door reeking of newness. The wood is ancient but the construction is only weeks old. Red sends her clenched fist through it and the inches of oak are nothing but tinder for her.
Wherever she’s been hiding these powers, I don’t care. Now isabsolutelythe right time for her to use them. Maniacal laughter scalds the back of my throat and I release it as she tears the pieces to shreds.
“Come on, Red. I can’t just let you stand there and have all the fun.”
I nudge her with my shoulder before my concentration splinters.When the leaves are fallen, and midnight tolls—
This fucking song is a curse. Growling, I lean forward, clawing my hands through my hair and pulling the strands until pain splinters, the door forgotten.
“Dax, buddy, let us handle it. You’re not in a position to fight.” Mathis says gently, and I hate it.
Saliva pools in my mouth like I'm the rabid beast they say I am and I push him away, growling. “I’ve got it.”
But the melody is there, just out of reach, an itch I can’t scratch.
Noble helps Red pry the pieces of wood aside and thrusts his arm through the hole to unlock whatever he finds on the other side.
The door leads to an industrial hallway with a mechanical room to the left.
“The scent is stronger,” Red adds. “He’s got them somewhere in this area. I’m sure of it.”
“We trust you,” Torin is quick to say.
He keeps his wolf under lock and key. I’ve only seen him let it loose a couple times, during his botched wedding and our escape. What a fucking nightmare, but also fun.
Today should have been the same kind of fun.
It’s not.
Red moves to the end of the hallway and cocks her head to the side, listening to things none of the rest of us can, sounds too far away to catch. I’d love to take her out in the woods with me one day. She’d be a better tracker than any of us and would make fierce competition for me.
How fun it would be to play a game of cat and mouse, too.
I’d love to see which one of us came out the victor. I’d find her.
I’d always find her.
You’re safe my love, so safe, and warm.
Someone calls my name. I’m not sure if it’s in my head or not anymore, but the fracturing baby’s cry, that’s definitely not down here in the muck with us.
“Dax!”
I come back to myself sharply and just in time to arch back and avoid the sweep of claws.
The ambush came on us in a blink with more men than before. Andras definitely doesn’t want us making it to the end of this tunnel system. He doesn’t want to relinquish his prize.
I pour my anger and frustration and fear into my hits. My knuckles slam hard enough into the man’s jaw to dislocate it.
You have to put your hip into it, a voice says in my head. Familiar, distant, strange.If you’re going to be human, then you have to learn how to protect yourself. You can't always rely on the wolf,Dax.
The words, the memory, floods my head, and I stumble off balance.
My vision blanks and the world is colored by crimson, my favorite color. My body doesn’t belong to me but between me and Ren, the hallway empties.
“Dax, for fuck’s sake! You have to leave some of them alive,” Mathis warns with a snarl.
I’m shaking, my lungs laboring for air and my hands trembling. Blood drips from the tips of my fingers “Leave them alive?”
