Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87193 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87193 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Merritt leaned back a fraction. Just enough.
She lunged, wrenching the knife free from his sheath and driving it into his ribs in one brutal motion. The blade sank deep. Hot blood spilled over her fingers.
Merritt snarled, the sound tearing from his throat as he staggered backward and crashed into the fire. Flames roared upward, sparks shooting into the air. Then he shrieked.
Nadia didn’t wait.
She sliced through the rope on her left wrist too fast, too deep. Pain crackled as the blade cut into her skin, and warm blood spilled over her fingers. She bit back a cry as Merritt howled.
The other two males dragged him out of the fire, slapping at the flames.
She slashed through the ropes at her ankles, freeing her boots, and scrambled toward Luca. She was behind him in seconds, sawing through his restraints just as Merritt lunged for her.
A massive black wolf exploded out of the trees.
Caidrik!
He hit Merritt mid-shift, the impact sounding like bone on bone. The Alpha’s roar ripped through the clearing, primal and furious, shaking snow from the branches overhead. They rolled together across the frozen ground, claws and fists and teeth flashing in the firelight.
Nadia was thrown aside by a shockwave of power when Merritt shifted fully.
The other two males shifted and attacked Luca.
Nadia tumbled across the snow, breath knocked from her lungs, rolling dangerously close to the fire.
A smaller wolf darted between her and the flames, skidding sideways and slamming its body into hers. It grabbed her arm gently but firmly and dragged her back.
“Taryn?” Nadia gasped.
Taryn nodded once, eyes blazing, then turned and launched herself at the wolves attacking Luca. They collided in a snarl of teeth and fur, bodies crashing into the snow as Luca finally freed his feet and joined the fight, still in human form.
Nadia tried to shift.
Nothing happened.
She tried again.
Still nothing.
Panic surged throughout her body, cold and suffocating. One of the wolves escaped the melee and stalked toward her, saliva dripping from its snarling maw. Taryn and Luca battled the other wolf, spraying blood.
Then another blur of motion tore out of the tree line.
Solomon.
Nadia knew it was him without seeing his face. In wolf form, Solomon slammed into the attacker mid-air, jaws locking around its throat as they hit the ground hard. She scrambled backward on hands and heels, her injured wrist throbbing, blood slicking her palm.
The fight was brutal and fast.
Caidrik and Merritt tore into each other with raw violence, snow and dirt spraying as they crashed through trees and rock. Merritt fought dirty. Caidrik fought to end it. The Alpha’s strength broke through first. His jaws closed around Merritt’s throat, crushing and relentless, until the other wolf went still.
Taryn fought like fire.
She moved with terrifying precision, ripping into the wolf threatening Luca, her teeth and claws working in ruthless coordination.
Solomon finished the last wolf moments later, though Taryn was already there, backing him up, blood staining her muzzle.
Silence fell hard.
Caidrik shifted back mid-stride and ran for Nadia. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah,” she said faintly.
He angled her wrist toward the firelight. “You’re bleeding.”
Taryn shifted too, rising naked and fierce in the firelight, snow falling over her shoulders. “Why didn’t you shift?”
“I don’t know,” Nadia said. “I couldn’t.”
“Me either,” Luca muttered, blood sliding from his mouth. “Must’ve been the darts.”
How long would the drugs be in her system? She needed to shift to heal herself.
Caidrik crouched and studied her wrist closer. “You might need stitches.”
“I can heal it,” she said stubbornly, even as her body felt hollow and off.
“We’ll see,” Caidrik said softly.
She looked at the dead wolves. At the blood in the snow. At Taryn, who had fought like a warrior while Nadia had failed to shift at all.
Luca spoke quietly. “They brought us in a vehicle. It’s just around the bend.”
“All right,” Caidrik said. He lifted Nadia into his arms, holding her close against his heated chest.
She rested her forehead against him, shaken and exhausted. Blood flowed freely from her wrists, and her head felt like she’d been kicked in each ear. Worse yet, her heart ached. In the fight, she’d been of absolutely no use at all.
Chapter 21
Caidrik climbed the side of the mansion and slid through Nadia’s window, pulling it shut behind him as the storm picked up again. Snow rattled against the glass in short bursts, the sound sharp in the quiet room. He brushed as much white from his shoulders and hair as he could and then turned toward her.
She sat propped against the headboard with a blanket over her legs, a fragrant mug of hot chocolate balanced on the nightstand beside her. Several journals lay open across the quilt next to a legal pad with pages filled in. The female seemed to be working hard. She looked up when he moved closer, her face still pale, dark shadows smudged beneath her eyes that hadn’t been there a few days ago.