Page 45 of Eternally Yours

The tunnel was dark, but my eyes adjusted as we hurried down the narrow passage. The air was thick and moist. Another snarl echoed behind us and my fear spiked. Nic cursed. They’d unleashed a creature on us.

“This tunnel can’t run long,” Nic said. “Keep running until you find the exit.”

“What about you?”

“I’m gonna try to hold them back as long as I can. I need you to go, Loren. And don’t look back.”

“Last time you faced one of those things, it nearly killed you.”

“I’ll be fine,” he said as he walked back the way we came, his rifle aimed and ready.

“No. I’m not leaving you.”

“Dammit, Loren.” He spun around, his eyes black, fangs at full length. “I’ve got this. Go!”

His command was harsh, leaving me no choice but to do as he said. With one more fleeting look at him, I raced further through the darkness. Gunshots rang out, and my heart jumped with every bang. Growls, vicious snarls, the sound of a scuffle.

Images of Nic’s torn and bloody body in the alley resurfaced and I halted. I couldn’t just leave him. Reeling in my fear, I ran back toward Nic. As I approached, one more gunshot ricocheted off the tunnel walls, followed by a high-pitched howl. I found Nic laying on the ground with a giant gash across his chest. He was bleeding profusely.

“I’m ok,” he muttered, but the pained expression on his face told me otherwise.

“You’re not healing fast enough.”

He grimaced as he scooted backward and leaned on the wall of the tunnel. “It’s… the toxins in their saliva and claws,” he sputtered as I tried to help him up. “Slows down the regeneration process.”

I looked around the area where Nic had been attacked. Two giant wolves lay dead. “At least you killed them.”

“There’s more. I heard them jump in.” His voice was strained, his breaths shallow. “You gotta go, Loren. We won’t be able to outrun them.”

I kneeled beside him and wiped sweat off his brow. “I told you already, I’m not leaving you.”

He looked down at his leg. I hadn’t noticed his right thigh had been gashed as well. “I’ll just hold you back.”

Then a snarl echoed in the tunnel.

I spun around, standing in front of Nic like a human shield. Another growl boomed. But this time, it wasmine.

Chapter Fifteen

Nicholas

The pain was excruciating at first, but then numbness settled in. I couldn’t feel my leg anymore, and my arm was all but dead. I forced myself to stay focused on Loren, fear the only thing fighting the darkness from taking over. I tried to draw my weapon, but I was out of ammo, and in the struggle, I’d lost sight of the duffle. As I braced myself against the tunnel wall for support, I was hit in the face by a splatter of blood.

I panicked, thinking Loren had been injured, but as I wiped the blood from my eyes, my breath choked in my throat. Loren had transformed, her body bigger and wider, her back muscles flexing through her thin shirt. The fury with which she attacked the wolves made my bones rattle.

There were two more beasts, both massive, bigger than any I’d seen before. In the tunnel’s dismal light, their eyes glowed bright yellow, and they moved so fast, they were nothing more than a blur of fur and teeth.

But Loren was just as fast, grabbing one of them by the muzzle as it lunged for her. She wrenched its head so hard, the sickening crack of its neck breaking ricocheted all around us. The second one jumped on her back, teeth sinking into her shoulder, and she reared back, hands grabbing for it but unable to get a good grip.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Maybe I wasn’t really seeing it at all. There was no doubt the venom of their saliva had reached my heart by now—I could’ve been hallucinating the entire thing.

The wolf tore its fangs away, ripping out muscle, making Loren scream. Her pain shot through our bond and I nearly keeled over, my vision clouding. I could barely make out Loren’s body backpedaling and slamming the wolf into the wall.

It released her.

The sharp scent of blood saturated the air, making my head swim. Continuing to fade in and out of consciousness, I heard the loud sound of flesh hitting the wall again, followed by silence. The next thing I knew, Loren was helping me up from the floor.

“Can you walk?” she asked, her voice guttural.

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