Page 9 of Soul Bound

“Are you okay?” I move to help her stand up, but her small shaking hand shoots up, halting my movements.

“I-I’m fine.” She shakily stands. “This was a mistake, I shouldn’t have come here…” Standing, she dusts herself off, but never takes her eyes off of me. “Yeah, I’m really starting to think this was a bad idea…”

For a human, she’s quick. She easily runs around me, avoiding Pru’s outreached hand when she tries to stop her. I don’t miss the way Remi just steps out of her way, giving her a wide birth like the crazy was going to getonher.

I hear the rustling in the trees and know what’s coming before she does. Oddly, my wolf panics, afraid they’ll take her as a threat instead of just a lost and confused woman. I take off after her and my arms just barely circle her slim waist before he charges out of the woods.

She lets out a choked scream as Ransom, in his massive wolf form, skids to a halt in front of her. I have enough time to push her off to the side, out of the way before Ransom’s large body slams into mine as he lunges for her. I go flying back, landing harshly on the gravel driveway.

This day fucking sucks.

3

Winslow

Riding a bus from Rhode Island to butt-fuck nowhere Montana sucks ass. I wouldn’t recommend anyone ever make that trek. But that was the easiest part of this whole half-baked,stupid, plan. After leaving Cresthill, I went to a skeevy pawn shop and sold off the tennis bracelet I had taken from the doctor. I know it was worth thousands more than what I got for it, but I just needed enough money to buy a bus ticket and some necessities like clothes and hygiene products.

I also got a cheap prepaid cell phone so I could do some stalking of this Ranger fellow. It wasn’t hard to find him online, not many people had the name Ranger Weylyn. Not that I can judge him on his name, how many girls do you know named Winslow? None? That’s what I thought.

The beauty of social media is that everything you need to know about a person is out there, sometimes it just takes a little digging. It didn’t take me long to find the town in Montana he lived in. After dropping my bag off at the motel, all it took was me asking a bartender at a sports bar called Kody’s to find out where Ranger lived. One Uber ride later, I found myself standing in front of an amazing lakefront house.

And of course, no one was home.

That’s when the doubt had settled in and the adrenaline of the last two days had worn off. I had been all set and excited to go on this mission for Thalia, but now that I’m standing on this guy’s lawn, I’m freaking the fuck out.

Why on earth did I think it was a good idea to go across the country to some random dude’s home? What if this guy is a serial killer that keeps women locked in his basement? What if he has a foot fetish? What if I’m actually crazy and I don’t talk to dead people and this whole thing is just a figment of my imagination?

And then I came face to face with him.

Not once when I was imagining what he could be like did I picture him being covered in blood. The man looks like he went ten rounds with a professional MMA fighter, and he losteverytime. Dried blood is caked on the left side of his face, coating his neck and white T-shirt. His brilliant blue eyes are bloodshot and black eyes have started to form. His once straight nose is slightly crooked, and his bottom lip is busted.

The dude is lookingrough.

And that’s when I decided this was all a horrible idea and I needed to get out of there ASAP.

But my escape plan is halted when the biggest fucking wolf I have ever seen charges out of the woods, directly at me. The scream that escapes my lips is cut off when strong arms wrap around me and throw me back. I stumble again, falling to my butt on the rocky driveway, the sharp gravel digs into the palms of my hands when I brace my fall. Cursing, I look up to watch in horror as the giant gray and silver wolf stalks toward me, his head low and his lips pulled back revealing really,reallysharp teeth. I’ve been to the zoo, I’ve watched the nature channel on TV—I know for a fact this wolf is three times bigger than the wolves I’ve seen in the past.

I don’t remember if I’m supposed to make myself small or big. Do I make eye contact, or will he take that as a threat? Honestly, I couldn’t pry my eyes away even if I wanted to, my body is completely frozen.

Ranger pulls himself up off the ground and with a speed I’ve never seen a human run before, he’s back standing in front of me. His arms held up at his sides, blocking the beast from charging at me.

“Ransom, stop!” he roars when the gray wolf lunges to the left, but Ranger moves too, halting his movements.

“Ransom!” I hear the blonde girl yell. I can’t see her, but her voice sounds closer than she was standing before. “Enough!”

In the distance, I hear the other girl yelling something as well, but her words are muffled by the sound of the blood rushing in my ears.

The silver wolf ignores both of their warnings and tries to lunge at me again. Finally finding my ability to move again, I jerk back and start back peddling away as fast as my shaking limbs will allow.

“I said enough, Ransom!” The blonde’s voice sounds weird, almost growl-like. I risk moving my head slightly so I can look at her, and when I do, I see her eyes are glowing. Not like they’re shining with anger or anything, no they are straight-upglowsticks.

“Pru! Calm down, not in front ofher.” Ranger waves a hand in my direction, not once taking his eyes off of the wolf. “You have to breathe and get back in control!”

“Can’t… help… it,” she bites out, her chest heaving with every breath. Her hands balled into tight fists are at her sides as she stands there stiffly staring at the disaster situation. With my head turned, I don’t notice the wolf lunging at me again, but she does and that’s when shit hits the fan.

One second the girl is standing there, looking like she’s in pain, and the next a white wolf is tearing through her skin. It happens so fast, I’m not even sure what I’m looking at actually happens. I’m sure my eyes are the size of dinner plates and my jaw is hanging open in a completely rude manner.

I make a girlish squeaking noise when the white wolf charges the gray wolf, they slam into each other so hard, I feel my own bones shake with the force. They fly backward, their bodies ramming into the trees that are behind us. The trees splinter and break in half.

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