Page 101 of Raised By Wolves

The pilot heads east, toward where the trees thin and the open grasslands begin. The sky’s getting lighter by the second. I’ve never seen the world from this height—I guess I was too busy barfing last time—and it’s crazy. I can see 360 degrees around me. Everything looks totally different, but Iknow where we are. All of this is our territory. All of this is the wolves’ territory.

I feel dizzy and my head pounds.Keep it together, Kai.

Luckily my stomach’s empty. If I’d eaten any breakfast, it’d be in a puddle on the floor by now.

We fly low and slow, making giant circles, until Wendy points, jabbing a finger at the window. She knocks Agent Dunham on the shoulder, gesturing to him. In the air, a few hundred yards off, we can see the flashing lights of another helicopter.

“There they are,” she yells.

Therewhoare? What the hell?

I look at Wendy in confusion. She shoves a pair of binoculars at me. Along the side of the helicopter, where there should be a door, there’s an open space. And in that open space is Reginald Hardy, holding an assault rifle.

Suddenly I understand, and I nearly convulse with horror.

He’s flying out to hunt Bim and Ben and Harriet, to kill Beast and her babies.

He’s going to murder my family.

CHAPTER 79

AGENT DUNHAM SAYS something to the pilot, who nods and accelerates. Pretty soon we’re coming up alongside the other helicopter. Then we stop, hovering barely fifty feet away from it.

Below us is a broad flat valley cut through by the river. I scan the ground frantically. I don’t want to see anything moving down there.

Please, Beast, stay hidden. Keep your babies close.

Our pilot’s attempting to radio the other helicopter while Dunham’s trying to get Hardy’s attention. Hardy glances our way, spits, and then leans farther out, looking for the same wolves we are.

If Hardy kills another wolf I love, I swear I’ll rip Dunham’s gun from his waistband and murder him.

“What’s that down there?” Holo shouts in my ear.

I look where he’s pointing. Squint. We’re flying low enough that I can see what it is without binoculars: a dead sheep, bloody and half-eaten in the scrub brush.

But there shouldn’t be a sheep carcass here! The ranches are miles off, way over on the other side of the ridge. Wolves wouldn’t kill a sheep and drag it all this way—theycouldn’t. I don’t understand.

Wendy taps me on the knee. “It’s bait!” she cries.

Oh God, I think.Of course.

The other helicopter suddenly descends.

“Stay with him,” Wendy screams to the pilot.

We go swooping down, way too fast. My stomach flies up into my throat and lodges there. I can’t breathe. Holo grabs my hand.

“What’s happening? Are we crashing?” he yells.

I shake my head. I don’t think so. But I swear I’d be fine with crashing if it meant I could get out of this awful thing. We’re barely forty feet off the ground now. The other helicopter levels out and so do we. Hardy’s leaning halfway out, head swiveling, gun clutched tight.

Two dark shapes come rocketing out of the brush.

“Harriet!” Holo screams. “Ben!”

I don’t see the rest of the pack, but I know they’re nearby, drawn by the carcass that Hardy must’ve somehow left for them.

There’s no good cover here. Nowhere to hide.

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