Page 31 of The Last Sanctuary

Crouch low at their level and don’t move, her dad had instructed the few times he’d brought her inside the fence.Don’t startle them. Show you’re submissive. Speak in their language.

On the path behind her, a flashlight beam flickered to life.

There was no time. She was exposed. At any second, the thug would discover her. She had to get out of the clearing into the forested area around the perimeter. She had to move, to hide—right now.

She took a hesitant step into the enclosure. Then another. Her heart hammered against her ribs.

Deeper in the enclosure, a twig cracked.

The wolves were here. They sensed her presence.

It was only then, surrounded by darkness, locked inside the enclosure, that she realized her mistake.

The deer carcass she’d fed to the timber wolves earlier in the day was missing.

It had been right here, not twenty yards in. The wolves wouldn’t have finished the carcass yet. Even if they had, there would be bones, a skull, patches of fur, gristle, which she’d be able to see, even in the dark.

Her heart turned to ice in her chest.

The deer carcass wasn’t here because she wasn’t inside the timber wolves’ enclosure. In the dark, in her panic, she’d entered the second enclosure instead.

Raven had locked herself in with the hybrid wolves.

Chapter Thirteen

Sweat beaded beneath Raven’s armpits. Her breath came in sharp, shallow gasps.

These were not the timber wolves she knew and understood, still deadly, still dangerous, but at leastfamiliar.

The hybrid wolves were completelyother. Alien and terrible.

Raven nearly turned around. She almost lost her nerve and fled back to the gate.

The biker’s flashlight beam swept across a thicket of trees a dozen yards to her right. Fear stuck in her throat like a hook. Her pursuer was searching for her.

Human killers or killer wolves. Either choice was horrible.

The human killers were worse. They would take their time, make it hurt. They’d use her. The animals, at least, would be quick, clean.

She’d take her chances with the animals.

Frantic, she searched for a hiding spot within the enclosure—a wide tree trunk, a thick bush, a fallen log—anything. She squinted, peering into the darkness, the darkness that held any number of monsters.

The flashlight beam swept toward her. Raven scrambled down the shallow incline, shoved brambles and underbrush aside, and dove behind the trunk of a hickory tree. The bark scraped her spine, but she hardly noticed.

She drew her arms and legs close, hunched her shoulders, and made herself as small as possible.

A second later, the flashlight skimmed over her hiding place. The light glinted off something in the brush deeper in the trees. The light stilled on a spot ahead of her, not five yards from where she huddled behind the trunk.

Two pairs of reflective eyes peered back at her.

Raven went very still.

Both wolves were less than twenty-five feet away. Every cell in her body screamed at her to flee. She couldn’t. The biker stood on the path above her. He trained the flashlight beam on the pairs of glowing eyes and swore softly.

A halo of white emerged among the darkly gleaming leaves. It was Luna, the big white female. Luna’s mate remained utterly camouflaged in the darkness. Only the glitter of eyes stared intently back at her.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.