Page 59 of Salvation

She refrained from pointing to the lump on Emmett’s head and brought the golf club to a ready position instead.

Two men exchanged glances, nodded, and came for her.

“Over here,” one of them goaded her.

“Over here,” the other echoed, snapping his fingers for her attention.

What was she, a rabid dog backed into a corner?

Well, she sure wasn’t far off.

She was so desperate, she grabbed on to the notion and decided to run with it. She channeled rabid-dog vibes and bared her teeth. Why the hell not?

“Over here,” she shot back, wiggling the end of the golf club. The sun glinted off the head, making the man on the right squint.

There,her inner coach yelled, and she swung. A short, karate chop that caught the man on the arm and pushed him back, leaving her a fraction of a second to backhand the second man. He warded off the blow, taking the brunt of the force with his forearm, and she swore she heard the bone crack. He was still reaching for her with his left hand, though, and she had just enough time for a defensive jab. It was aimed at his face, and though it landed on his collarbone, she still counted that as her point.

Another crack, another cry of pain.

Anna gulped back the bile in her throat and found her footing as the two men fell back. Two others took their place.

“Shift!” Emmett screamed at them. “Go for her throat.”

The men paused and considered for a moment, then nodded as the others chanted away.

“Purity. Purity.”

“What kind of men are you?” she screamed, desperate for one of them to come to his senses and call off the attack. “What kind of cowards?”

The two closest to her squared their shoulders and let their jaws hang open.

“Not men,” Emmett sneered. “Shifters.”

One of the men made a choking sound and doubled over. The other bared his teeth. Anna stared, unable to tear her gaze from the flash of white. Thelengtheningflash of white.

“What the…?”

“Shifters,” Emmett repeated as the man pulled his lips back farther.

She wasn’t imagining things. His caninesweregetting longer.

“The last of the chosen few,” Emmett went on. “Those committed to preserving our bloodlines.”

She gasped aloud as hair broke out all over the closest man’s skin.

“There are those who wish to stop us, but we will stop them. We will stop all of you.”

The closest man fell to all fours. His shirt split down his back. Beside him, the second man shook off scraps of fabric, revealing a curved back covered in hair.

“Wolf…” she stuttered. Good God, the men were changing into beasts.

She dared glancing away just long enough to stare at Emmett. He stood on two feet, utterly unchanged, grinning at her.

The scar. Look at the scar.She focused on the scar running straight up from one lip.Same scar as the wolf who came running out of the woods the day of her hike.

She stared at Emmett and read the truth in his eyes. Shifter. Man. Wolf.

“Jesus.” She looked back at the wolves that stood before her. One shook his coat as if coming in from the rain, and the other flicked his tail and showed his teeth.

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