Page 5 of Fated to Him

“See you tomorrow,” I lie.

I feel bad doing it, but it’s always been easier to leave instead of making up an excuse about why I can’t stay. Especially to a guy I foresee an offer of a date will soon be on the table. I’ve seen a smile like it before, and I’m not looking for a relationship.

With anyone.

Leaving Clint to finish cleaning the counter with Ruby, the other waitress working tonight, I lift my backpack up my arm as I cut through the kitchen to reach the dumpster at the back of the bar.

I shove the backdoor open, letting it slam shut as I cross over to the dumpster, wrinkling my nose at the foul, rotting stench coming from it.

Tossing the trash takes seconds. Thank God. I don’t know what smells so bad, but I’ll be glad when I’m no longer anywhere near it.

A small scuff behind me makes me spin around.

I come face to face with Jerry’s rage-filled stare.

He grabs my shoulder, yanks me toward him, and blazing agony explodes in my belly.

I gasp, a short, choked sound that echoes in the dark, smelly back entrance of the Hellwood Brewery.

The pain comes next, a tidal wave of agony rioting through my body.

My bag slides down my right arm and thumps to the ground, the sound strangely distant even though it’s coming from right beside me.

I’m still staring right into Jerry’s eyes as he twists the blade he stuck in my belly. “Fucking bitch. That’ll teach you to?—”

Something smashes into him, ripping him away from me.

Without his hand on my shoulder, I crash to the ground, landing on my hands and knees with another choked gasp.

I clamp my hand over my belly, careful not to disturb the blade hilt. I have to get inside. Get pressure on it. Do something to stop the blood dripping onto the cold concrete.

And I plan to do all that, I really do.

A furious snarl pulls my focus from the pool of blood forming beneath me.

My eyes widen as I take in a black-brown wolf the size of a bear chomping down on Jerry’s throat. I’m being dramatic. It’s not that big, but if you saw its teeth, you’d be dramatic too.

Jerry’s right leg stops kicking. The wolf lifts his head and meets my unblinking stare with one of its own.

Shit. Get up, Delilah. Run.

I scuttle away.

The agony consuming my belly suddenly takes a backseat to the wolf standing feet away. My back slaps against a brick wall, and I can’t find the strength in me to move again.

Breathing hard, I struggle to focus on the wolf staring me down. When the edges of my vision darken, I blink rapidly until the shadows drift away as I work through my options.

It doesn’t take long.

I can’t pass out. Getting up isn’t possible. And the only weapon I have is in my belly and will kill me if I try to pull it out.

The wolf stalks toward me.

I close my hand around the hilt of the knife. Better to die fighting than wait for a wolf to bury its teeth in my throat.

The wolf snarls as it eats up the distance between us. As if it knows what I intend and isn’t happy about it. Its eyes are a strange mix of gray and green.

I almost forget that I’m bleeding out all over the back of Hellwood Brewery because I swear that wolf has the same color eyes as Malakhi Gabriel.

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