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But he shushes me, and then shoves the wallhard, rolling back a boulder to reveal a cavern –

He shifts into his wolf, snarling with all his teeth bared into the darkness beyond.

I shriek and flash the light forward beyond him into the room as another wicked snarl cracks in the air.

Chapter 54 – Inside the Cavern

Nadia

“Cole!” I shriek, dashing forward, reaching for him – intending absurdly to pull him back –

But to my shock, his snarl immediately cuts off, and he takes that step back before I can even reach him. I stumble to his side as he shifts back into his human body, putting his hands up.

I pant as I grab his shirt, pulling myself behind him, peering around his body toward the sound of the snarl within the cavern, whipping my light to it –

But even as I do, something in me recognizes that the snarl isnothinglike Cole’s – with no true resonance or threat.

Instead, it’s the frightened sound of a desperate creature.

My face falls, heart clenching as my light lands on a little grey wolf pup, her legs stock straight in a pounce position with her claws dug into the floor, her teeth bared as far as they will go, snarling her little heart out at the gigantic Alpha before her.

And behind her – rows and rows of…

“Oh my god,” I say, stumbling forward, reaching for the girls – all of their faces too thin, their eyes wide with fear. One shrieks, tucking her head in against another’s shoulder.

But the little wolf in front leaps forward, gnashing her teeth at me, her eyes wide and crazy with her threat.

“No!” Cole barks out, grabbing me and pulling me back against his chest. “She’s little, but those fangs are sharp.”

I pant, looking between the little wolf on her skinny, fierce legs and all the girls she’s got behind her – who she’sprotecting–

My throat locks as desperate pity consumes me.

And then my body acts.

“Okay!” I say, dropping to my knees and holding my hands out toward the little she-wolf, attempting to show her that I’m no threat at all. “Okay! I’m sorry! We didn’t mean to scare you! You scared us too!”

“He’s not scared!” shouts a voice from the back.

I glance back at Cole, who does indeed have his teeth bared at them all, fangs extended.

“Would youstop?” I hiss, whipping a hand back to smack him on his shin.

“Nadia, theybite!”

The snarl from the defiant one in front grows in ferocity, letting me know that she agrees.

“Would youshift,” I growl, smacking him again. “You’re less scary as your wolf –“

He snaps his eyes to me. “What?” His voice is high and squeaky with disbelief.

“Youare!”

“I am not!”

“They’re kids! You’re – fuzzy!”

He gapes at me. “Oh my god, Nadia,” he snarls, shaking his head at me. But then he moves his eyes back to the girls. “You biteher, I biteyou, understood?”