Page 56 of Defeated

No one is doing any tracking up here. The stench is that bad.

I try to breathe through my mouth and not my nose, and I wait.

Downstairs is quiet.

The stairs are quiet.

All I need is for those shifters to run past me and keep going, so I can creep on out of here and leave them in here searching for me.

If I’m lucky, they’ll still be here searching by the time I run back to Colton’s house and warn Chris—if he’s returned from grabbing us breakfast—that it might be time to get out of town.

Silence.

Maybe they’re tired or?—

The quiet, almost silent snick of nails on the stairs makes me mentally curse.

While I was busy planning out how I could slip out of here, they were shifting so they could ambush me.

They’re on my floor now. Maybe at the top of the staircase. Maybe halfway down, but their noses will be wrinkling. In disgust, much as mine did, because it really fucking stinks up here.

Wherever they are, it’s too late to dash out and find a new hiding place. They’d see me.

The click of wolf claws on the floor pause outside my room.

I keep breathing—quietly—out of my mouth and hope the rotting stench is covering my scent. And I lie still, nose to the ground, almost buried in a thick coating of filth and dust and who knows what else this rancid stench is.

I count five of my heartbeats.

Just as I start thinking they will pass me by, the footsteps enter my room.

Shit.

I can continue to hide, or I can fight. Hiding means they could ambush me. Fighting against two shifters might lead to my death.

The footsteps creep closer, taking the decision out of my hands.

I slowly rise from my prone position in this dusty, stinking room. And I wait.

A blond snout slowly edges around the piece of machinery I’m hiding behind. I slash out with a claw and follow it up by charging the wolf. He growls in pain as we fly across the room.

As we slam into the ground, another wolf, a reddish-brown one, tries to jump on my back. I twist out of the way and sprint toward the doorway.

I make it halfway before a heavy weight tackles me, and I smash into the wall, stunned as I whimper in pain.

Movement draws my gaze to the open doorway, where four more wolves enter, their eyes glittering silver as they focus on me.

Colton warned me to leave town, said it wasn’t safe.

I should have listened.

20

CHRIS

Tracking Zoe is easy.

Whispers about a wolf running free in town mean it’s like an arrow right from Colton’s apartment, down the streets and to an abandoned factory.

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