Page 58 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part One

I dived right back behind the tea bush as Leo went evenwilderthan he had when he’d attacked Chadwicke. He spun on his hind legs, racing toward the closest guard, closing the distance to them in mere seconds despite the hail of bullets. It was like he didn’t even feelthem. Once more, I was struck by how fast he could move. One moment he whirled to charge at his attacker, the next he’d reached his target, his jaws closing on either side of the man’s head and ripping it clean off.

“Oh, my God.” I slapped my hands over my mouth.

It didn’t stop there. Leo made quick work of all five the security guards, his blood and theirs spilling all over the ground. His wounds healed right before my eyes while theirs were certainly more permanent.

I hoped his massacre would stop with those five, that it would somehow manage to stop word from spreading, and we could infiltrate the zoo portion of the estate and get Ricky.

I was very foolish.

Because no sooner had he defeated the last one when another wave appeared, seeming to pour out of everywhere. And this time it wasn’t only human gunmen. A few moved forward with unnatural speed, streaks of their uniform trailing behind them, and even still others who were mid-shift into different animals.

The massacre I had been so afraid of was actively happening.

I needed to get people to safety. Judging by the screams and shouts of alarm coming from all over, the security didn’t care about any sort of crossfire. Considering that Leo was in front of me, and we didn’t have any other allies, I figured the security going on full alert, securing and locking down whatever section they were in.

How did everything go so wrong so fast?

I didn’t know, but my thoughts went immediately toward Haelena and the other staff in the orchard. It was quite a distance away, but if I could make it past the tree line, I could use it as cover all the way to the front gate.

I didn’t even make a conscious decision about it. One second I was cowering behind the tea bush, horrified at how many people might get caught in the crossfire, the next I was sprinting toward the tree line.

I heard maybe one of the guards shout about me—and that was amaybe—before I was barreling my way past the thick line that delineated the area of the compound. It was a meticulously cultivated span of trees, and I raced between them, staying low in case anyone took a shot at me. All the while the background music to my escape was the screams of those who went up against Leo, and his animalistic snarls and howls as he tore them apart. It was far too easy to imagine what was happening in my mind’s eye, so I shut it out as best I could. Luckily, I didn’t have the enhanced hearing, so a lot of the finer details quickly faded out of what I could pick up.

But the gunfire, the shrieks, and other animalistic noises coming from the shifter guards followed me. Sometimes it sounded like it was right behind me.

Despite all the odds, I made it to the orchard, where I found the two I was looking for huddled besides the golf cart.

“Haelena,” I hissed.

“Valencia! Oh, my God. What’s happening? Are the feds here?”

That was as reasonable a question as any other. “Something like that,” I said. “Come on. I’m getting you out of here.”

“What? But if it’s the feds, they’ve got to have the whole place surrounded. All our exits would be cut off!”

I didn’t really have the time to explain to her that federal agents weren’t attacking, but rather my best friend and wolf companion. She didn’t need to know. The guards had likely cut all the exits off, no doubt eager to catch me and Leo—not that they knew who I was.

“I know a different way.”

I’d spent all of the free time I could in the last week trying to find any secrets that would help. It hadn’t been easy with all the watchful eyes, and I’d mostly ended up empty-handed, but I had found a washed-away service road behind the very same compost area where I’d snuck Leo in. The area reeked, so most shifters and spoiled rich people wouldn’t go near it, which left the groundskeeping staff. With Chadwicke seemingly convinced I was a magical being, I figured the staff was mostly human.

“That’s impossible,” Haelena said.

“Many things are impossible, but this isn’t one of them. Come on. We don’t have a lot of time before this gets worse.” That seemed to convince the both of them, and they followed me back into the tree line. I wished we could take the golf cart, but it was far too visible a target, and I had no doubt the trigger-happy guards would fire first and ask questions later if they saw the vehicle speeding across an open area.

Besides, some of them probably didn’t even know it was a wolf shifter attacking them. I had no idea how good their communications were, but with everything happening so fast there was bound to be some misinformation somewhere. I didn’t want to end up bleeding out because of that.

We moved stealthily to the back of the trees. When we were close enough, I stopped and told Haelena how to find the service road. It was blocked by a fallen tree and partially obscured by a weeping willow that might once have been maintained, but was now so lush and out of control it was hard to see past it.

“Aren’t you coming with us?”

“No, I need to go help others.” I didn’t even want to think how many people were trapped, confused, and terrified. But even though I didn’t want to think about it, the image of Rosette, hunkered under a table and weeping forced its way to the front of my mind.

God, I wouldn’t be able to help everyone, but I had to try.

Ihadto.

She grabbed the sleeve of my uniform as I turned, and even though I knew her intentions were pure, I was getting pretty tired of people thinking they could manhandle me. I hadn’t givenanyonepermission to touch me.

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