Page 100 of The Last Sanctuary

She was ten yards from Shadow, then five.

Everything moved in a terrible, languid slow motion. Raven tried to take a step and stumbled, still dizzy. She could only watch in breathless dread.

Cobb swung around, planted his feet, and raised his rifle. He was too far for Raven to stop him. He aimed and fired at the white wolf.

Luna yelped in pain. Her right hind leg dragged on the ground. Blood bloomed across her hindquarters.

Raven screamed. “No!”

Before she could run at Cobb again, Damien wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back. Raven fought him, twisting to get away. He was strong and held her fast. “It’s not safe! Stay back.”

Her legs buckled. Pain speared her ribs, her skull, the bleeding cut on her neck. “Let me go! Luna!”

Too late.

Cobb fired again.

Luna staggered. She took a faltering step, then another. With a whimper, she slumped to the ground.

“Get up!” Raven cried. “Get up! Run!”

Luna did not get up. A scarlet stain spread through the thick fur of her throat. Her legs twitched like she was chasing a deer through the woods on a beautiful moonlit night. Only she wasn’t. She couldn’t. She would never run again.

Raven shoved at Damien, trying to break free, to get to Luna. “Let me go! Luna!”

Damien tightened his grip. “They’ll kill you. Raven, stop?—”

“Luna, get up! Get up!”

Luna’s sinewy body shuddered. Her great chest heaved with the effort of each panting breath. Her regal head lifted once, as if searching for her mate, for Shadow, then it sagged limply to the ground. The wolf let out a faint, pained moan. Then she went still.

Thunder boomed overhead. Lightning flashed. The sky split into jagged pieces.

“NO!” Raven stared at the fallen wolf, bereft. Damien tightened his grip, holding her upright. “No, no, no!”

Rain pelted the wolf’s body. It mingled with the blood and ran in reddish rivulets through the matted fur like small bright rivers. She didn’t move. Her chest did not rise and fall.

The white wolf was dead.

Chapter Forty-Two

Luna was dead.

Raven cried out in horror. Her grief clenched tight as a giant fist inside her.

She could do nothing but watch in numb despair as Cobb stalked across the clearing and stood triumphantly over the dead wolf. He punched the air in victory with his fist.

He kicked the limp body savagely, mercilessly. Then he laughed.

Raven felt flayed. “Stop! Stop it!”

Shadow howled. High and plaintive, full of grief. Abandoning Vaughn, he darted across the clearing to Luna’s side. With a bewildered whine, he nudged her head with his muzzle, as if begging her to open her eyes, to leap to her paws.

She didn’t. She wouldn’t, ever again.

Shadow crouched over her fallen body, raised his great head, and snarled at the Headhunters. He was protecting her, even in death. But his honor would get him killed, too.

“Run!” Raven screamed at him. “Run, damn it!”