Page 39 of A Wolf's Treasure
“If I were you, I’d tuck my tail between my legs and go back to Thomas and tell him you couldn’t find me.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because he’s lying to you. Just like the prince is lying to you. Killing me isn’t going to do anything but take out the only Faerie who is on your side.”
He went quiet, his expression thoughtful. Could it be something she’d said had struck a chord? Or was she hoping for something that wasn’t there.
Without warning, the rogue wolf charged her, his companion on his heels.
“Stop!” their leader shouted, but he may as well have been yelling at the rain.
Ryanne raised her hand, extending her fingers toward the closest wolf. Blue electricity flew from the tips, striking the wolf like lightening, knocking him off his paws and holding him a foot off the ground. His body torqued in the air.
The other wolf rushed past his friend at a dead run.
She had about two tenths of a second before he got to her, and if that happened, she’d might never get out of here alive.
In a flash, she dropped the first wolf and reappeared behind them, between the two wolves and Duncan. Bad move, she realized, when she heard the popping sound of bones breaking and re-knitting and the wet, slushy tearing of muscle.
The leader, who hadn’t moved from his spot beside her wolf, was shifting behind her. And the wolf still on its feet in front of her had just spun around on its back legs and was heading back her way.
Ryanne quickly weighed her options. She couldn’t stay there and fight. The odds were very good one would take her down while she dealt with the other one. And she wouldn’t be able to get close enough to make direct contact with their skulls that she’d be able to take them out instantly.
If she ran, she would be leaving Duncan exposed and helpless. They weren’t focused on him now, but if she ran away, one or the other could very well take his frustration out on him.
And those options didn’t even include the fact that the first wolf she’d zapped was already moving on the muddy ground, trying to get his paws beneath him.
She shouldn’t have come back here. If she died, no one would be left to take care of her father.
No one else knew what she knew.
With no other choice, Ryanne ran. Her wet skirt stuck to her legs and her boots slid in the moss and mud, impeding her progress. And these wolves were fast. She could hear them right behind her, their footing much better on the wet ground than hers. Why hadn’t she thought to pull off these damn boots before confronting them?
Panic tried to make its way into her heart, but she pushed it aside. She had no time for such nonsense. Not if she wanted them both to live.
Chapter 13
Duncan stared in the direction Ryanne had just run, three angry wolves on her tail. The cold mud seeped through his clothes and his head was pounding from the hit he’d just taken.
A hit that had actually “knocked some sense into him”, pulling him from the terror he’d been drowning in.
She had come back to help him. Or had she come to finish him off? Lying in the mud in a stupor—bloody, beaten, and confused—Duncan blinked the rain out of his eyes and stared off through the trees.
His wolf was not bewildered in the least. It chewed and clawed at his insides, demanding to be released. And this time, it was not taking no as an answer.
Duncan yelped as muscle ripped and every bone in his body began to break and reknit itself. His spine arched off the ground, his torso twisting, reshaping into his wolf. The change was fast and hard.
His wolf had had enough. It was taking over. It needed to protect Duncan. And, even more importantly, the female it recognized as its mate.
No more sound escaped his lips as he finished shifting. And when it was done, he shook the mud from his fur, then threw back his head and howled. With his wolf fronting both physically and mentally, he was able to throw off the last vestiges of the hell he’d been trapped in. Every instinct awake and alert.
I’m coming, lass.
Head down, he took off in the direction he’d seen the wolves run. It was hard to stay on the trail with the rain coming down harder as it was, and he lost their scent more than once. Yet, somehow, he knew which way to go, more by instinct than anything else. And within a few minutes, he caught sight of the wolf trailing Ryanne and the other two.
His large paws landed silently on the wet leaves and moss as Duncan pushed himself to go faster. When he was close enough not to lose sight of the other wolf, he veered off to the side, circling around until he was running parallel.
Intent on his prey, the other wolf didn’t notice him there until it was too late.
