Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 27521 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 138(@200wpm)___ 110(@250wpm)___ 92(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27521 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 138(@200wpm)___ 110(@250wpm)___ 92(@300wpm)
I’m staying in my human form so I can shout orders at them. I can do that in my wolf form as well, but it’s not as precise. Plus, I’m not entirely sure that my wolf won’t sprint all the way back to the castle to see our mate in the flesh.
A young wolf runs past me. Alone. I grab his tail, yanking him back. The wolf yelps.
“Where is your partner?”
He lowers his head.
“Stay together,” I snap, releasing him. “The Hollowborn will tear you apart.”
He sprints off and I sigh.
I walk along Aurevale’s ancient wall, dragging my hand along the smooth rock as I think about her. I can’t wait to get home and smell her again. I wonder what her mouth tastes like. I wonder what it feels like to sink my hands into her beautiful blonde hair.
It’s after midnight when the Hollowborn find me. I’m walking along the wall, absorbed in thoughts of my mate when a Hollowborn comes at me from above so quickly I don’t have time to phase into my wolf.
The monster was halfway up the wall. I was looking sideways. I should have looked up.
One second I’m dreaming of our Vaela, the next, the vicious creature lands on my back and its venom-tipped claws slice across my chest.
“Fuck,” I shout, kicking it away as my flesh tears open.
I call my wolf forward, but he’s sluggish and drugged, and doesn’t come. The venom is already surging through my veins, stopping my ability to phase.
“Oh well,” I say, rolling my shoulders and squeezing my hands into fists. I’m going to have to do this the old fashioned way.
The creature rolls on the ground and springs up on its unnaturally long limbs, rising until it towers over me. Its pale gray skin is stretched tightly across its lean muscles, slick and nearly translucent beneath the moonlight. You can see their black veins through their skin, which is deceiving. They look paper thin, but I know from experience that Hollowborn skin can withstand even the fiercest wolf shifter’s claws and teeth.
They must be the most disgusting creatures that have ever existed. This monster has no hair on its body, its bald head long and narrow with pointy ears and a mouth crammed with a disgusting number of sharp, jagged teeth. Strings of dark saliva drip out of its open jaw as it lowers itself onto all fours.
Its arms are so long that it can run on four feet, giving it the gruesome, hunched shape of some enormous, starving insect.
“What the fuck do you want?” I growl as I touch my chest. My fingers come away slick with bright green venom and crimson blood.
It lets out a nasty hiss as its lips peel back from its teeth.
“Come on, then,” I growl, raising my fists as the wound across my chest burns hotter. “Give me your best shot.”
There’s not much prey left up here. These beasts are happy to chow down on shifters, humans, adults, babies, whatever they can get their long, creepy claws on. They’ll devour it all. If they can get through me.
He swings his long claws as fast as a crevermoore snake and I lunge back just in time. The tips of those claws graze the skin of my shoulder.
Normally, I’d be in my wolf form right now, calling my pack, going for his neck, but the venom is preventing that.
I keep my focus locked on his red glowing eyes as I circle. My feet hit a large rock. With one quick movement, I grab it and throw it at his head. He dodges it, but it smacks his shoulder, making him hiss in pain.
All I want is to get back to my girl. To see her face. To touch her body. I can’t die without marking her. That’s my sole purpose in life.
And she’s finally here. The only thing between me and that beautiful girl’s sweet neck is this disgusting creature.
“You picked the wrong night to fuck with me,” I growl as I grab another rock. This time, I keep it.
He jerks back in surprise as I attack him, rushing in and cracking the rock across his head. He swings his arm to slice me open with those claws, but I grab his wrist as I pummel him again and again and again.
He kicks his hind legs at me and slices my stomach with his back claws. I cry out as I feel them like knives slicing through my flesh. There is no venom in these claws, but they hurt all the same. And with the venom already in my veins, stopping my shifter healing from kicking in, the pain is only going to get worse.
I get in nice and close, his foul breath assaulting me as I go for his neck. I wrap my hands around his jugular and squeeze as hard as I can. I’m lifted off the ground as he stands on his two hind legs. These things are so damned tall.