be fine.” I was about to ask him about the collar when Alex held up a hand.
“Anyone else hear that?” he asked.
I glanced at him. “Hear what?”
“I don’t know.” He narrowed his eyes. “It almost sounds like the ocean.”
Up ahead, the trees appeared to thin and the forest floor grew brighter. I cocked my head. A faint roar drifted through the trees, receding and then rushing in again. Confusion mixed with an uncomfortable sense of wrongness curled around inside me.
“You’re right. It does sound like an ocean.” I breathed deep. “And now that you mention it, it smells like an ocean too.” I clutched Marianne’s hand tighter. “Do you live by the ocean?”
She gazed up at me with wide, confused eyes. “No.”
“Wolf, where are we going?”
Howls and snarls erupted around us as a pack of hairy creatures leaped up from the brush. They stood on two legs like people, but their legs bent like a dog’s. Claws curled out from big, oddly jointed fingers. They had tails and heads like wolves, with sharp teeth and glowing red eyes. I knew all too well what they were.
“Werewolves!” Alex yelled.
He swung his crossbow forward and started firing as they jumped at us from all directions. I snatched up Marianne and skittered backward so my back was against Alex’s. Wolf snarled at the two facing him.
Too many! Too many! I swung my fist at one of them, but he ducked with ease. His hands darted out and yanked Marianne from my grasp. She screamed and kicked at him, slapping at his face with her hands. I shouted in anger and jumped at the werewolf, locking my arms around his neck and slamming my knee into his side. He snarled and flung his body forward, flipping me off him. I landed on my back, the air knocked out of my lungs. Before I had a chance to recover, two other werewolves were on me, grabbing at my arms and digging their claws in deep enough to draw blood. One tore my daypack off my back. They hauled me to my feet and despite my vicious kicking, started to drag me out of the forest. The werewolf carrying Marianne ran ahead and vanished.
“Alex!”
But he only screamed amidst the werewolf barking and growling. I slammed my heel into one of my captor’s knees. He let out a howl and went down, releasing my arm. I spun around, trying to dislodge myself from the other werewolf, but he only held on tighter, sinking his claws deeper into my flesh. Behind us, Alex was unconscious, held between two werewolves with another carrying his crossbow.
“Wolf!”
Wolf glanced over his shoulder at me. His eyes were red. He faced off with several werewolves, in a half crouch, arms out and fingers curled into claws. One of the werewolves lunged at him, but the werewolf I’d kicked got back up and yanked me back around. Behind me, a bout of snarling went up as leaves crunched and crackled in the fight.
I jerked and kicked, but they weren’t so easily caught off guard again. They carried me into the open area beyond the trees. Bright light dazzled my eyes. We’d emerged on a beach where peach sand swept off to either side for miles. Just as suddenly, the sunlight vanished as a huge fortress loomed ahead. It looked like it might have been carved out of a single towering rock lodged on the beach the oceans had never been able to erode. A strange assortment of poles with blackened debris beneath them lined either side of the fortress. Then it hit me.
We’d arrived at the Impound.
I didn’t understand. Why were we at the Impound? Why were werewolves at the Impound? Why had Wolf brought us this far?
They dragged me inside the structure. We passed through a hall lined with weapons; crossbows, swords, knives, and clubs, all hanging on racks for quick access. I mapped out our progress in my mind as we went. If we had the chance to escape, we’d need to know the way out again, fast. We headed up through another hall to an open chamber with a vaulted ceiling. It looked like it had been rearranged to suit whoever now used it, wood piled in the corners and a chair set against one of the walls. A massive fire pit burned in the center, the walls decorated with tapestries depicting people standing before a castle or dead wolf after a hunt. After another short series of halls, they hauled