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“You gostraight for the woods, before anyone thinks to look here. I’ll go around the way we came and meet you there. It’s better we split up.Go!”

She nodded,and in seconds was in her wolf form, sprinting through the darkness away from the house. I shifted too, white fur covering my body as my muscles expanded and my bones reconfigured. Jennifer disappeared into the tree line, and turned to move alongside thehouse.

“Hey, you! Stop!”

Iturned and saw him—Christophe—standingup on the balcony, pointing down at me. Funny how quickly I went from wanting to get a better look at him to wishing he never existed. Funny howheof all people would be the one to come after me. Who the hell was he, anyway? Head ofsecurity?

Ibolted,and immediately felt icy sharp pain shoot up my paw. A yelp escaped my mouth as my leg buckled and I somersaulted across the dirt. When I righted myself, I saw that I’d stepped right onto the broken whiskey glass. I didn’t know how bad the cut was, but I knew I was bleeding. I gritted through the pain andran.

Behind me,I heard an impact on thedirt.

Fuck!He was fucking chasingme!

It feltlike molten fangs were being driven into my paw every time it made contact with the ground, but I refused to slow down. I chanced a look over my shoulder and saw him in hot pursuit, a huge black wolf with intense red eyes. He was on me, his body pointed and focused, like a fighter jet. The crazy thing was that I was still somehow faster than him. I was in better shape than him, but that didn’t mean I could relax. I was putting some distance between us, but how long could I keep up thispace?

Isnappedthe strap of my pack with my teeth, clipping it loose, and then tossed it back at my pursuer in a lame attempt to create some kind of obstacle. Plus, it was slowing me down. It was painful to dump it, but I hadto.

Fuck me.Empty handed. I fucked up. This was what happened when you gotgreedy.

The mansion was farbehind us now. I skirted along the edge of the forest, the sound of my heart pounding loudly in my ears. I didn’t have to look, I could feel him behind me, slowly gaining. Every step was agony. It felt like a shroud was being draped around me, darkness closing in, pinholing my vision. Forward. Forward. I just needed to outlast him. I had to get home. I had to get to Jennifer. I couldn’t let him catchme.

Maintain,Mason. Keepgoing.

Iveeredinto the woods and weaved between the trees, bounding over falling logs and ignoring the bolts of pain that cut into myleg.

Don’t stop.

You can do this.

Branches caught my fur,like claws trying to drag me down to the ground. The trees whipped by like signs on a highway. It felt like my legs were carrying me on their own, like I was no longer in control. The only thing I cared about was getting away, and getting my sister back home safely. We’d figure the money out… We’d find a way tosurvive.

I’ll never dothis again.This was the lasttime.

It wasa promise that I released to the cosmos, to whoever might be listening, and the reply I got was not what I had hopedfor.

As I hurdledover a downed tree, my injured leg seized up and gave way under me, sending me tumbling to the ground. When I tried to get back on my paws, white hot pain seared through my body, nearly pulling consciousness from me. I collapsed again, and for the first time I saw the gash running down the center of my paw. I felt like I was about to faint. Then I realized that I wasalone.

Abreeze whistledthrough the trees, rustling the foliage and swirling a curl of dead leaves up from the ground. Slowly and gingerly, I got to my feet, careful not to put pressure on my paw. My white fur was soakedred.

Ineeded to find Jennifer.I neededto—

Suddenly,he exploded from the thicket, a mass of black fur and hard muscle that I only caught a flash of before he slammed into me. I felt the breath vacuumed from my lungs from the impact, and I hit the ground. There was no way I’d be able to get back up, even if he weren’t pinning me down with his forepaws. He stood over me, teeth bared in an angry snarl. I wanted to fight him, to teach him how things were done in my neighborhood, but I could hardly move. I could hardly think. The tunnel was closing around me, and I was fadingfast.

Sirens cutthrough the silence of theforest.

All I could do waspray that Jennifer had escapedunnoticed.