Savage King: New Worlds - Milly Taiden Page 0,12

kicking up water as he fell into the swift current.

This wasn’t going to be a good day.

Chapter Five

Wren ran for her life, seeing huge shark-like teeth in the tiger’s mouth swinging toward her. Her two friends were ahead of her, starting their run from where they hid behind trees while she tried to help the tiger that saved her life.

Now that she could look back on it, she was certain that rescuing her was what the big cat was doing. The way its white starburst irises locked with hers was strange and. . .thrilling. Or that could’ve been because she was trying not to be eaten by a plant. But she read the expression on its face—fear, concern, intelligence of what was going to happen to her.

No, dammit. There she went again projecting human traits onto an animal. Perhaps she spent too much time lost in her worlds.

She didn’t know what happened back there. A shock, like touching an electric fence, jolted her when her hand brushed its fur. As far as she knew, only certain aquatic life had electrifying ability. She and her cousins must’ve portaled deep into the Amazon jungle where humans had never been.

Earth did not have flowers the size of a small car that ate people. That thought startled her, making her stumble on stones and fallen branches along the creek’s banks they were following. Were they not on—

She caught herself before falling into the water, stubbing her toe on a rock and cursing. Seeing her shoeless foot, she startled. When had she lost her shoe? She was so scared shitless trying to get away before she was eaten a second time, that she didn’t notice.

“Don’t stop,” Lilah hollered back to her. “We’re not that far away yet. It might be looking for us. Thanks to you for pissing it off.”

That bitch. Lilah was in rare form today. Wren hollered back, “I did not piss it off. It was hurt.”

“So what do you do?” Lilah asked, rolling her eyes, stopping “You put water on it.”

“So?” she shot back. She was helping the poor thing.

“Cats hate water, Wren,” Daphne hollered, grabbing Lilah’s arm and dragging her forward. “Keep running, you guys. Come on.”

Oh, she hadn’t thought of cats and their reaction to water. Breaking into a jog, she padded along, not wanting to catch up with her cousins yet, but not wanting to fall behind either. She wasn’t ready to move on. Being so close to the creature her fantasy writing life revolved around was surreal. Tiger shifters were her life, more so lately as she found the real world harder and harder to face.

If she could find a man like the ones she wrote about, she’d snatch him up so fast, his head would spin. That was the problem though. They existed only in her mind and in black ink. She’d never find a man she was happy with because she set the bar so far over their heads, they could barely see it, much less reach it.

A sharp pain radiated from her bare foot up her leg. She cursed again, this time going to the ground and grabbing her foot. In the sole, a tiny piece of wood pierced the skin. Clenching her jaw, she pulled it out.

“You okay?” Lilah asked, concern in her voice. Wren sighed. That woman was a rollercoaster when it came to making her madder than a cat caught in the rain then turning around and filling her heart with love. But she wouldn’t have Lilah any other way.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just stepped on a branch or something.”

“Where’s your shoe?” Daphne asked.

Wren jacked her thumb over her shoulder. “Back there somewhere.” She scooted closer to the creek, lifting herself onto the rocky edge she dipped her foot in, promptly yanking it out. “Shit, that’s cold.” It didn’t feel like that when she put her hands in earlier. She leaned over and splashed water on the bottom of her foot, washing away the blood.

Something floating in the middle of the creek a few yards up caught her eye. When she looked up, her jaw dropped into her lap. A gorgeous man riding the current toward them stared directly at her. Just before reaching her, he grabbed onto a boulder sticking up, slinging himself to the edge, kneeling at her feet.

She gasped seeing his eyes close up. They had a white starburst around the pupil. Just like the tiger’s. That must’ve been a thing here, wherever they were. Her mind didn’t work at