Page 24 of Never Submit

I fight through the agony. The battle rages on, a chaotic flurry of fur, claws, and fangs. My breath comes in ragged gasps, each inhale tainted with the metallic scent of blood.

Andras’s wolves are relentless. They nip and claw at me, their teeth sinking into my fur and flesh. My vision blurs with tears, but I refuse to give up. I lash out with my claws, desperation lending me a savage strength. My blows connect–a wolf squeals, and blood splatters.

Goddess, please let me survive this.

I didn’t live through my twenty-fifth birthday only to die now.

Dax

I leave Mathis behind, blabbering on about something unimportant. His plans for the future. His plans that hethinks will somehow save him as if life actually adheres to a fucking plan.

It’s all chaos.

We struggle against it and hope to survive, and in the end we turn right back to that mad darkness.

Maybe we start all over again.

I’m not sticking around for Noble to get another hit in. No fucking way.

The dickhead might have his mating bond, but I’ve fucked her. I’ll fuck her again.

I've just got to find her.

I grind my teeth together.I’m coming, Red.

The woods are familiar no matter how far I stray from home. Loping along in human form feels wrong here, though, and the shift takes me easily once I shuck the clothing off.

Goosebumps erupt from the cold air, there and gone in a blink as familiar pain rips through me. Muscles twist and lengthen, bones shatter before growing stronger, and I’m on all fours.

Eyes sharp, hearing sharper, teeth and claws ready for blood.

She’s out there.

She’s out there somewhere, and I’m fucking waiting around for everyone to pull their heads out of their goddamn asses and do something about finding her.Not anymore.

Let Mathis and Torin keep licking each other’s assholes. They’ll waste hours of precious time chasing their tails. Torin and Noble had no more information than we did, even though I’d hoped otherwise.

The human part of me slowly disappears under the instincts of the monster inside. And the next step I take as agiant golden wolf covers more ground than a man’s two strides.

I’ve got to find her.

Back, back, back the way we came. Toward the top of Grey Mountain and the ruins of the temple there.

I didn’t pick up the trail on my way down, but maybe that’s because Red never made it down.

Little Red.

She’s still alive.

My muscles warm the farther I run until even the rugged terrain isn’t a problem. Outside the boundaries of Mathis’s territory, like I’ve ever given a shit for those invisible lines anyway.

I’ll rip apart whoever took her. If I end up finding them before I find Red, then all the better. For what they did to her. To us. For taking her from me. Leaving me alone, again.

I skid to a halt with my heart thundering and my lungs working like bellows.

What if Red is out here in the woods by herself? What if someone dumped her, the way they dumped?—

There’s no guarantee she’s even still alive at this point, but hope…hope is that single thing that even an asshole like me clings to. Hope that the following day is going to be better than the ones you leave behind.

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