Page 81 of Raised By Wolves

Conflicting emotions swirl across her thin, weathered face: fear and defiance, terror and love.

“Ma’am?”

Never lie, she always said to us.

We didn’t listen to her, did we? We lied to protect her.

But she won’t lie to protect herself.

“No,” Wendy says quietly.

“I need you to come with me,” the chief says.

“What for?”

The chief unclips the handcuffs from his belt. “Turn around, please,” he says.

“I don’t understand. What is this about? I’ve done no harm!”

“Chester, don’t,” Holo cries, but the chief ignores him.

“I don’t know who you are, or what you’re doing with thesekids. You’re under arrest for suspected kidnapping,” the chief says.

“She didn’t kidnap us,” Holo yells.

“Then where did she get you? And where are your real parents?” the chief demands.

The question’s like a bullet to the heart. We don’t know.

We have never known.

CHAPTER 61

THE CHIEF TAKES another step toward Wendy. And that’s when Beast charges.

“No,” I scream, as the big alpha female launches herself at his chest. She hits him dead on, all eighty-five pounds of her, and the chief goes flying backward, arms spinning helplessly. He lands hard, flat on his back, with a gasp. Beast stands over him, paws on his shoulders and lips pulled back in a terrifying snarl.

Hardy raises his gun again, a grim smile on his face. There’s never been a better reason to kill a wolf.

Wendy yells, “Beast,go!”

Beast doesn’t listen. So Wendy rushes forward, slamming into her side and knocking the mother wolf off the chief. Then Wendy reaches down to the chief’s belt and grabs the pistol. She spins around and points it at Hardy.

“Shoot my wolf and you die,” she says.

The two of them stare at each other, eyes full of hatred. The chief scrambles to his feet, white with shock. All the breath’sbeen knocked out of him, but he moves quicker than anyone’s expecting. He grabs Wendy’s right arm and twists it hard behind her back. She gives a cry of pain and drops the gun to the ground.

“Do not move,” he says viciously, even as Wendy’s spinning around to face him.

“Wendy!” I scream. “Do what he says!”

She looks up at me, and I see all the fight drain out of her eyes. Her shoulders slump. Her arms hang loose at her sides. She’s surrendered.

Hardy snorts and spits a wad of phlegm into the dirt.

The chief’s voice shakes as he puts the cuffs around Wendy’s thin wrists. “You’re under arrest for suspicion of kidnapping, for trespassing, for maintaining an illegal structure on National Forest System lands, and for threatening the life of an officer of the law.”

“Wendy didn’t make Beast attack!” I cry. “You don’t have to arrest her!”

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