Page 27 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

About thirty minutes later, I was drifting in and out. I kept blinking hard as I tried to keep up a brisk pace, but barely managed a slogging one, and each time I blinked, I had this strange feeling as though more time had passed than I realized.

Surveying my surroundings every so often only made me feel more disoriented.

I couldn’t even be certain I was going in the right direction anymore.

My throat was raw and sore from the cold.

My feet were aching, the pain in my heels starting to overtake even the throbbing ache in my hand that I kept clutched to my chest, elevated to stave off the worst of the pain.

I had to be getting close by now.

Just a little further, I urged myself, imagining the warm hearth in Clay and Jared’s living room. My cozy bed. Viv and Layla pulling me into a warm hug, so glad to find that I’m alright.

Except…they didn’t even know I was missing.

If Devin had succeeded in keeping up appearances, no one did.

My face pinched as my chest tightened and I rested for a moment against the peeling bark of a thin birch tree, finding the soft texture and scent so incredibly soothing that I found myself wanting to curl up at its base and sleep. I was so so tired.

Just a little break. Five minutes. I just needed five minutes and then I can keep going.

It was a lie. I knew even as I pressed my back against the base of the tree and settled my bottom against the damp ground that I wouldn’t be getting back up. At least, not much more than five minutes.

But you have to…

I tipped my head back to rest against the tree and looked up at the sky between the branches of the forest’s canopy. It was so beautiful. The forest was so peaceful. If I closed my eyes, I could just drift—

An eerie tremble rolled up my spine and I straightened, bringing my head off the bark with slow, measured movements. I wasn’t even breathing.

The forest had been peaceful. Filled with sounds I’d grown used to falling asleep to over the past months. The rustle of leaves. The skitter of small animals in the underbrush. The crickets and other insects.

There was none of that. It was spine-tinglingly silent. Not even the wind dared interrupt the miasmal sense of foreboding that slithered over my mud caked body like a serpent scenting its prey with its forked tongue flicking before scaled lips and shining black eyes.

But the eyes I saw in the wood were not beady. And they were not black.

They were brightest emerald. And they were trained on me with an unwavering focus.

The wolf strode from the shadows with a hunter’s grace, its massive paws silent against the mossy carpet of the forest. Its canine lips were curled back over shining white teeth. Its hot tongue snaked out from its jaws as it neared, a low growl reverberating out from its muscled chest.

This wolf was not Jared. And it was not Clay.

I whimpered, pressing my back into the tree. My hands clenched fistfuls of crackling brown leaves as I braced for an attack.

I had the presence of mind to want to feel around for a weapon on the ground, but I couldn’t peel my gaze from the beast stalking ever closer. I was afraid that if I did, he would lunge.

“P-Please,” I croaked. “Don’t.”

He was only a few feet away now, his deep gray and brown fur rippling as he blew steam from his nostrils and planted his front paws firmly against the earth.

The wolf that was Devin lifted its head to the sky, its wide green eyes reflecting the full moon against their glassy surface. When those green eyes fixed themselves back on me, it was with an apology and I knew what he was trying to say without the need for a human voice box.

It’s time.

I screamed.

I screamed loud and hard, shocking myself with the volume I was able to manage even though the sound was raw, and scratching and my chest twinged from the pressure.

The scream was cut off midway when Devin lunged. His eyes were sharp and wild. His jaw agape. I threw my body to the side and rolled. A wolfish yelp told me he’d hit the tree and I was up and running, fueled by pure unfiltered adrenaline.

My vision was no longer dull. My body no longer ached. I felt nothing except for the wind in my hair and the passage of my feet over earth, my heart bleating out a thudding rhythm in my ears. For three blissful seconds, it was like I was flying, until I wasn’t.

I was pushed forward and sailed five feet before I landed on my chest, splayed like a goddamned starfish in the dirt.

Devin was on me before I could blink, and pain exploded through my shoulder.

His jaws clamped down and warm liquid ran over my skin as I cried out, trying unsuccessfully to buck him off me.

All the while inside I was screaming.

No. No. No. Please god no.

My eyes stung with the welling of hot fat tears as I silently pleaded, not for the pain to stop, but for whatever was in his stupid magical wolf saliva to not work.

There came a savage snarl to my right a split second before Devin’s weight was shifted off of me.

Without the pressure of him on me, my lungs rushed to fill with air, inhaling a mouthful of dirt and debris.

I coughed, scrambling to get myself on my feet.

My hand went up to staunch the blood flow from my shoulder.

The jacket was slick with blood and I pulled my injured hand threw the sleeve so I could remove it from that arm and get a better look.

My shirt was torn and wet and I ripped it more, needing to see the damage, as though if I were able to see the bite mark itself, I would somehow know if I was going to shift.

My tiny, gasping breaths halted as I assessed the wound. It was so gross I had to stifle the urge to be ill. But the torn and puckered skin, the welling of blood, and smattering of dirt made it look mundane. It could have been a dog bite. It was nothing. It would heal.

I was going to be alright—

The strangled keening of an animal had me coming back to myself, finding the source of the cries just as a howl shattered the air somewhere behind me. I pressed myself against a tree, breathing heavily.

A wolf—a shifter—had his jaws around Devin’s throat, squeezing as it held him down with a strong paw.

It was bigger than Devin. Bigger even than Clay’s black wolf.

This one was matte gray with black markings around its hate-filled orange eyes.

I knew without seeing his human form, it was Ryland. Jared and Clay’s pack alpha.

I whirled, emitting a startled chirp as a blur of black barreled into the small clearing, growling at Devin’s wolf and then at Ryland, restless as it drug its claws over the ground, turning up dirt.

At first, I thought the wolf was wanting to protect Devin, but when it lunged to take a bite out of him itself, I realized it just wanted the chance to tear Devin apart.

Its great black head caught the moonlight and I saw its icy blue eyes. Clay—my heart gave a little start.

A white wolf sped into the clearing as though a bow loosed from an arrow, surveying Ryland as he pushed Devin’s canine head into the earth and bit down harder on the scruff of his neck with unrelenting jaws.

Then taking in Clay with a low whine. And then…

its amber eyes. One shining with the glow of a sunset, and the other with a fleck of green in the lower left corner.

“Jared?” I choked and the wolf sped to me, skidding in the dirt as it stopped, whining high in its throat as it pressed its big furry head into my belly, almost knocking me over.

I buried my bloodstained hand into his fur, dropping to my knees to pull his head further into my chest. I tried to loosen my fist in his fur, but couldn’t, and he didn’t seem to mind.

His cold nose nudged a spot under my neck, as though trying to lift my head.

I lifted it to look into pain-filled eyes, wide and searching.

“I-I’m alright,” I told him. It wasn’t exactly the truth. But I was alive, and that was a win in my books.

Jared sniffed my throat and I felt his canine body go rigid beneath my fingers. Reflexively, my hand fell away and he broke free of my embrace, sniffing a trail along my breastbone and up to my collarbone, and eventually, to the wound in my shoulder.

He barked, his hackles rising as he jumped a foot backwards, his amber gaze sweeping over me in horror.

My jaw tightened. I was about to reassure him that the bite didn’t have any effect when three other wolves flew past us from behind, moving to inspect the scene.

My pulse pounded in my ears. They were all shifters.

They had to be. They were too big to be normal wolves.

Two of them watched me curiously, making low noises in their throats, while the other took over for Ryland, wrapping his jaw around Devin’s throat so Ryland could retract his.

Devin yipped and then went still under the pressure of the larger wolf atop him, giving in to the dominance of the other wolf. For a fleeting second, I wished the wolf atop him would just tighten its jaws a little more.

No, not just tighten his jaw…I wished he would tear the fucker’s throat out and leave him to bleed out over the drying moss.

I gasped a little at the malice of the thought and tried to shake off the feeling, finding my vision had begun to blur again.

Ryland stalked over to where Jared still stood rigidly in front of me. Clay was still snarling and looking back at Devin every few seconds, but he followed Ryland until the three wolves had formed a line in front of me.

“Th-Thanks,” I murmured, not knowing if they were able to understand me in this form. I thought they could, though. “I need—”

I curled over, clutching my stomach as a stabbing sensation stole my breath away. I moaned, curling my fingernails into the earth as the aching spread. Colorful spots dotted my vision and I heard Jared whine.

Squinting, I looked up at him. He was trying to come closer, to help me, or maybe to comfort me, but Ryland stopped him with an outstretched paw and a short growl.