Captured - Cara Wylde Page 0,3

door, sending wood splinters flying all over the place. That alone would have been scary, but within seconds, it became obvious that wood splinters were the least of our concerns.

The wolves went for the men first. One of them attacked Emmett and Richard, and the second zeroed in on my father and Uncle Donald.

Blood splattered all over the pristine white rug as the first wolf tore my cousins apart. Intestines spilled from Emmett’s gut as the wolf clawed him open. And it didn’t stop there.

Emmett’s arm hit the wall with a nauseating squelch. Richard’s disembodied head rolled into the corner. I had the hysterical thought that his glassy eyes reminded me of those of the stuffed deer on the wall.

I screamed, and so did my mother and Melinda. “Rich!” my aunt cried. “Emmett!”

But it was pointless because they couldn’t hear her anymore. They were as dead as that deer and the wolf they’d hunted. And even if that hadn’t been the case, she couldn’t have protected them.

Maybe she realized this because she didn’t try to rush to their side. She didn’t move a muscle.

Or maybe that had something to do with the third wolf, who was cornering us. He was even larger than the others, almost impossibly so. I felt like an ant, one that he fully intended to squash under his paw.

In front of us, I could catch a glimpse of the second wolf, still targeting my father and his brother. They weren’t dead. The creature had decided to toy with them first. They’d lost a leg and an eye respectively. I doubted the wolves would stop there, and idly, I thought my cousins’ fate had been more merciful.

The rest of us might not be so lucky.

What happened next was something like out of my worst nightmares. I hadn’t thought things could get any more horrible, but I was quickly proven wrong. The largest wolf left our side and went to watch over my injured father and uncle. The sadistic one decided to trade places with his friend.

My mother lost it, wrapping his arms around me and screaming hysterically. “N-no. Go away! Leave her alone! Go away!”

She was terrified, but I still appreciated the fact that she cared enough to try to protect me. Or at least, I did until I met the wolf’s eyes.

There was something about the way he was looking at us that made my skin crawl with an apprehension that went beyond the fear for my life. His gaze held more than predatory instinct and the blood lust of a feral animal. He was assessing my mother with… disdain?

Was that disdain? No, it couldn’t be. Animals couldn’t feel that kind of emotion, could they?

And yet, there it was, and I blurted out, “Mom, stop. I think he understands us.”

My mother didn’t agree. “Isabel, shut up. It’s an animal. We have to… Fire, wolves are afraid of fire…”

Really? Fire? These wolves had just torn my cousins apart, and she thought they were going to run away because she threw a lighter at them or something?

There were so many things I’d have liked to say or do. I wanted to reason with her, or maybe try to find a different option. There had to be another weapon nearby. I didn’t know how to shoot – and oh, how ironic it was that my father had just offered to teach me – but there had to be some kind of knife.

The wolves had no intention of letting us try anything. The one that had killed my cousins lunged at me, separating me from my mother and my aunt. And I could do nothing but scream and struggle as the other one ripped apart what was left of my family.

My father and my uncle were first. By now, they were barely alive, having almost bled out because of their injuries. But the wolf still attacked them just as viciously as he had before. I screamed and sobbed, desperate and terrified. “Please! Stop! Don’t! Don’t hurt them any longer!”

He understood me. I knew he did. But he ignored me anyway. He was thorough, making sure their deaths were almost as gruesome as those of my cousins.

With what little time she had at her disposal, my mother managed to grab a table knife. It wasn’t exactly what I’d had in mind. I doubted it would make a difference considering the size of the creature.

And it didn’t. If anything, it made the wolf angrier. And as he lunged at her, I knew