Page 64 of Hunted

Both Esme and Bert moved surprisingly quickly because when Abigail turned around, breathlessly, she saw that Bert was following close behind her, when he had been several feet away from her at first.

The children and other vulnerable adults were being secreted away in the woods behind the cabins where Esme and Bert lived.

“Remember,” Abigail said to the children as she handed the little girl who clung to her over to Esme. “Be quiet. Be like mice. Do you remember what I taught you about mice the other day? About how quiet they can be?”

The children nodded silently, their eyes wide.

Then Abigail did what Dominic and Luke had instructed her to do over and over again. She shifted.

The compound was dark, but even in the darkness Abigail could see, as her vision sharpened and changed. And it helped, of course, that she had grown to know the Moonstone pack territory like the back of her hand.

Every one of the Moonstone pack wolves did.

That was their advantage.

Abigail had also memorized all the traps that had been set for Christian and his betas.

The traps had been silently constructed by Bert, several days earlier, shocking Abigail, Luke, and Dominic.

Now, in her wolf form, she turned to look at Esme and Bert, who had cocked their shotguns.

Esme went to the porch of her cabin and sat down in the rocking chair with a box of ammunition next to her.

It’ll all be okay,Abigail repeated silently to herself. The words became a mantra as she bolted toward the center of the compound.

Bert was close behind her, and she kept her head down as he began blasting the shotgun.

Abigail could see Luke and Dominic at the front of the fight as their enemies spilled into the compound like a virus, infecting everything around them with fear and disgust.

Or maybe I’m the only one afraid,Abigail told herself as she bared her canines at an enemy wolf before Bert blew its head off and then reloaded.

Maybe I am, but what of it? They’re threatening my family, my alphas. Why shouldn’t I be afraid? But I am also very, veryangry.

She was angry, she realized as she stayed close to Bert, that Christian thought he could have her. Like she was some kind of toy. As though she was a piece of property.

Abigail was also angry at herself.

Because she hadn’t chosen yet.

Maybe when this is over, I’ll know who to choose,she thought almost hopefully. But she knew she’d never be able to pick. She’d never be able to choose.

A wolf came at her then, too fast for Bert to do anything, and leaped at her.

She wasn’t sure if the wolf knew who she was. Maybe he had his orders to drag her back to Christian by her throat.

Because right then, he tried to close his jaw around her neck, but Abigail had really been paying attention during those training sessions.

She slid underneath the wolf, nipping at its hind legs and making it yelp.

Then, slipping around to face it, she sank her claws into its pelt.

It howled with pain, and Abigail batted at it again with her heavy claws until the wolf went still.

Behind her, another wolf came up to bite at her, but Bert simply turned the shotgun around and beat the wolf to death with the butt of the gun.

She gave a barking growl and Bert grinned at her.

Then, to her surprise and shock, he threw the shotgun aside and began the shift.

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