Page 86 of The Last Sanctuary

The service door hung open. Raven ran inside and collapsed onto her knees beside the mesh gate. Luna lay on her side. Knotted ropes bound her paws. Other than the rope shackles, she appeared unharmed.

The wolf raised her head and pressed her nose against the mesh, whimpering frantically.

“I’m getting you out.” Raven slapped the button to raise the sliding gate, pulled her whittling knife from her pocket, and flicked it open. She climbed awkwardly inside to reach the wolf.

Luna writhed on the cement floor, so agitated that Raven had difficulty cutting the rope without accidentally hurting the animal.

“Hold still!” she hissed. “I’m trying to help you!”

Luna snapped. Her jaws closed an inch from Raven’s wrist. Adrenaline shot through her veins, but she held her ground.

“No,” Raven said firmly. She met the wolf’s frantic amber gaze and held it. “I said enough!”

Luna was frightened, bewildered, and furious. She was the alpha; she’d never needed to be submissive a day of her adult life. Until now.

“Let me help you,” Raven said. “I’m going to help you, but damn it, you need to do what I say for a change.”

They stared at each other for a moment. Luna wild, panicked, and distrustful. Raven fighting down her own desperation.

She kept her eyes fixed on Luna’s, willing her to understand. “We’re going to have to trust each other, you and I. You’re not going to bite me, and I’m not going to cut you. Understand?”

Luna’s ears pricked. She whined low in her throat. Her lips remained peeled back from her fangs, but she didn’t growl. She didn’t snap.

It was a good sign. At least, Raven chose to take it as one.

She held Luna’s foreleg down with one hand, sawing at the rope with the whittling knife. She worked quickly but carefully. If she accidentally cut Luna, she’d lose whatever fragile trust they’d built between them.

Each second passed with incredible slowness. She felt every beat of her heart, every panicked breath as she worked through the first rope.

In the distance, Shadow’s howls intensified. He sounded as desperate as she felt.

After an endless minute, the frayed rope finally snapped.

Luna attempted to scramble up with just her forelegs. Her hind legs, still bound, collapsed. She yelped in surprised pain.

Raven pressed her down again. “Not yet. Let me work, damn you.”

Pausing for half a second, she listened for the Headhunters. Their shouts and yells echoed in the distance. It was fully dark outside. The shadows inside the tiger house were so deep she could hardly make out Luna’s pale form.

With one hand, she felt along the wolf’s muscled flank for the rope, fumbling to Luna’s hind legs. As she sawed through the rope, the blade rasped through the thick fibers with agonizing slowness.

“Come on, come on. Hurry the hell up!” Beads of sweat gathered at her hairline. Her heart hammered against her ribs. “Almost there, I promise.”

The last rope fell away. Luna was free. In a blink, the wolf leaped up and shot out of the chamber, through the service door, and out into the park.

“Run to Shadow!” Raven whispered as she rose to her feet and sheathed the blade. “Run!”

She exited the tiger house, blinking to readjust her eyes to the night.

The sky was a glossy black. The bank of towering thunderclouds roiled closer. Not yet masked by the incoming cloud cover, the moon was a bright sliver, casting a luminous glow over everything—the trees, the buildings, the habitats, the flagstone pathway.

Then she saw them. Her heart stopped.

On the path, forty or fifty yards away. Three Headhunters sprinted toward them. Whooping and hollering. Their faces hungry, drunk on blood and vengeance. Scorpio was shouting, pointing at the white wolf.

Vaughn and Dekker held rifles.

Dekker aimed his rifle at Raven’s chest. Vaughn swung his gun toward Luna.