Page 99 of The Last Sanctuary

The wolves had made her pack. They’d made her family.

She had todosomething.

Time slowed. Her heart battered against her ribs. Rain pelted her exposed head. The world was gray and hazy, blurred by the raindrops clinging to her eyelashes.

Across the clearing, Shadow kept Vaughn at bay. Circling and darting, leaping and snarling and biting.

Vaughn fired several times but couldn’t aim fast enough. Shadow was a black ghost, dissolving in the rain to mist before reappearing to tear a gash in Vaughn’s arm, to nip viciously at his leg.

Raven needed a weapon, a better one than her tiny whittling blade. She was helpless without one. She scanned the slick wet grass, searching desperately for Dekker’s serrated hunting knife or Damien’s pistol?—

There. Among the bent ferns, a glint of steel.

Before she could seize the large hunting knife, Damien appeared. He picked it up and turned toward her. His face a rictus of fear, confusion, indecision.

Raven thrust out her bound arms. “Help me!”

Damien sliced through the zip ties with the knife and freed her wrists. The plastic pieces slipped to the grass. Raven grabbed the knife from Damien’s hands. Her fingers were slick with her blood. It soaked into her shirt.

“You need to go!” His voice was frantic. “Quickly, while they’re distracted. Go. Run!”

“I can’t. Not without?—”

Another gunshot sounded. Much closer. Louder.

Raven’s heart stopped. Her ears rang. She whirled to the right.

Scorpio had fired at Luna and missed. On the ground, Dekker wrestled Luna to the death. Scorpio and Cobb circled them warily, searching for an opening.

Luna snarled and snapped at Dekker’s throat. Dekker’s clothes were shredded. His arms and chest were bloodied andtattered. Luna lunged for his throat, closing her jaws a hair’s breadth from his Adam’s Apple. She was ferocious, unrelenting in her attack.

Cobb lifted his rifle, finger on the trigger.

Raven raised the knife and lunged at him. “No!”

Sensing her attack, Cobb dodged to the side. Her knife scraped harmlessly across the arm of his leather jacket.

Cobb whirled and struck her in the side of the head with the rifle.

Pain exploded inside her head. Stars danced across her vision. She staggered, momentarily stunned. The knife slipped from her hand.

Cobb fired. The round nicked the white wolf’s left ear, drawing blood. He cursed.

Before he could fire again, the wolf plunged her jaws into Dekker’s throat. Her teeth closed deep. She clamped her jaws and shook her head fiercely, ripping and tearing and shredding through the man’s jugular. Blood arced from his throat in a wide red spray.

Dekker shuddered. His mouth opened in a gurgling scream. His eyes bulged in horror. His body twitched, convulsed, and then stilled. Blood soaked the ground, the ferns, his torn throat.

Luna had killed him.

The Headhunters shouted in alarm. They couldn’t help him now. Their rifles swiveled toward the wolf.

“Kill it!” Cobb shouted. “Hurry! Don’t let it get away!”

“Luna!” Raven cried. “Run! Go!”

As if comprehending her words, Luna leaped from Dekker’s limp form before the Headhunters could regroup and shoot her. The wolf streaked across the clearing.

But Luna didn’t flee into the safety of the woods. Instead, she swerved toward Vaughn and Shadow, coming to her mate’s aid.