Rabid (Kingdom of Wolves #6) - Ivy Asher Page 0,37
with the urge to run. Holding my breath, I try to think through what the hell I should do.
I thought the Twin Rivers pack was bad, that staying there was the end of everything for me. But the Ruin Falls pack is the stuff of nightmares. Everyone knows the stories. The warnings. There isn’t a pack as vicious or more feral than that one. Their alpha has never lost a challenge, and everyone knows better than to mess with them. These wolves are the definition of barbaric and ruthless, so wild that they aren’t allowed near humans, and I’ve just been dropped somewhere in their territory, naked, chained, and weak—the very definition of easy prey.
My wolf whines inside of me, picking up on my fear, and as much as I want to keep her calm and reassured, I can’t. I crawl forward on my hands and knees, ignoring every bite that digs into my bare skin. The chains make it difficult to move and impossible to shift. I can’t risk our bones snapping beneath their hold, but I need them off if I have any hope of getting the fuck out of here.
If Burke truly dumped me in Ruin Falls territory, then I need to get away fast before I’m detected and ripped apart. I might be rabid, but they’re monsters.
I start looking for a rock or something I can wedge into the keyhole of the manacles. I stay low, using the long grass as cover, more or less frog walking my way to the treeline while looking for something I can use to break my chains.
The sound of a twig breaking in the distance might as well be cannon fire.
I freeze in my reach for a palm-sized rock and try to listen to my surroundings over the pounding of my own heart.
Dread hammers through me, but I can’t smell or hear anything. The little hairs rise on the back of my neck, and my wolf paces nervously inside of me. Out of nowhere, a massive crow lands to my left, making me nearly jump out of my skin. It blinks, shouting an ominous croak at me. I snarl at it and skitter away, fur exploding all over me as my hands morph into paws. I try not to give in to the panic, yet my vision once again breaks into that disorienting double sight.
A fiery rage builds in my chest as though it’s a forge. I spin wildly again to keep anything from sneaking up on me because I feel stalked. I try to take deep, measured breaths in an effort to calm the frantic and turbulent emotions coursing through me, telling myself that everything’s okay. No one knows I’m here. Burke probably dropped me off on the outskirts of their territory. I doubt that chicken shit would have had the balls to set one paw on their land.
I move closer to the trees, instinctively drawn to their cover and protection. At least from the forest, I can see what’s around me, because this grass is starting to feel like hundreds of grasping hands against my half-shifted skin.
My wolf calms slightly as we pull in the soothing scent of the pines, firs, and cedars. The dirt smells different here, richer, more uncultivated, and I’m surrounded by rolling hills with larger snowcapped peaks in the far distance.
Cautiously, I stand, hiding my body behind a tree, pressing my furred back against its rough bark. After a moment of nothing happening, I begin to shuffle from tree to tree, my eyes peeled for something that will help me get the chains off. My gaze surveys my surroundings in a constant sweep, while my ears strain to hear the slightest hint of anything amiss. I can still feel the effects of the dart making me lethargic, but I keep going, scenting everything around me for hints of wolf-claimed territory.
Soil sticks to the clammy soles of my feet, but I make steady progress. A deer rounds a bend in the distance, but one quick flare of its nostrils in my direction and it goes leaping away. My wolf perks up, wanting to chase it, and I’m reminded of just how empty and silent my stomach is. I need to get food, maybe find water, and—
Snap.
In a flash, I’m whipped off my feet and thrust into the air. I shout, panicked, as a snare wraps painfully around my ankle and yanks me upside down until I’m dangling from a large branch of a tall tree.