Page 8 of Unleashed

Nina’s heart stopped.

The creature’s head snapped up, turning toward Nina as its nostrils flared with heavy inhalations. The clicking noise from its throat began anew, rising into a chirruping growl, and it released another call. It was immediately answered by three other calls from the woods to either side.

She was being surrounded.

Instinct took over; she ran, dead leaves crunching under her boots. A series of shrieks sounded behind her. Panting, Nina pushed herself faster, rounding tree trunks and hurtling over fallen logs and exposed roots, her world a blur of black and gray in the darkness. Her heart leapt into her throat each time she stumbled. Perspiration dripped down her forehead, between her breasts, and over her back, and her legs burned with exertion.

The clicking drew nearer, and the primitive thoughts from the beast-minds strengthened — meat, blood,prey. They had her scent, had her sound. Fallen branches snapped immediately behind her.

Nina glanced over her shoulder as one of the shriekers leapt. With a cry, she dove aside, tumbling over grass and fallen leaves. She scrambled to her feet as another shrieker pounced. Nina ducked away, thrusting her spear upward to impale the creature from below. It wailed in pain and crashed to the ground with the spear shaft jutting from its belly. With limbs thrashing, it opened its toothy jaws and released another agonized call.

She didn’t wait to see whether it got back up, didn’t waste time trying to tug her spear free. Gritting her teeth against its projections — pain, fury,hunger— she shoved herself up, drew the dagger from her belt, and ran.

The snarls, shrieks, and wet crunching behind her signaled that a couple of the beasts had turned on their wounded packmate. They were indiscriminate in their need to satiate their hunger; blood was blood.

But the sound of crunching leaves and twigs on her heels told her that the shrieker that had originally picked up her scent had not abandoned its hunt.

Nina released a choked sob. She thought of her parents, of the pain and sorrow they’d feel when they returned home to discover her missing, of how they’d never know what had happened to her, how they’d never have closure.

All for one stupid decision made while she was caught up in the moment.

The beast’s breath was ragged, almost close enough to feel. She sensed its intent the instant before it leapt. She dropped into a slide, skidding over the decaying vegetation on the forest floor. The shrieker sailed over her, twisting its body around as it passed but unable to change its direction.

Climbing to her feet, Nina veered to the left, stumbling forward before catching her balance and breaking into a sprint. The beast’s talon-tipped feet clawed at the ground for purchase as it righted itself. Within a moment, its chase had resumed. Between her sawing breaths, she heard a sound that afforded her a glimmer of hope — rushing water.

The river! Just a little farther…

She pumped her arms faster. Suddenly, the ground beneath her disappeared. For a fraction of a second, she was weightless, and then her stomach lurched as she plummeted into darkness.

Chapter Two

Nina’s scream was cut short when she hit a hard, slanted surface and the air was knocked out of her lungs. She slid downward along the steeply sloped stone, clawing for purchase, but her struggles were in vain; her momentum only increased. The stone scraped the skin on her legs, stomach, arms, and hands. Something sliced her palm, but the pain was insignificant in the face of her terror.

Panicked, wailing calls from above her called her attention up; she caught a single glimpse of the shrieker’s shadowy form in the sliver of moonlight at the top of the shaft. Its desperate struggles were meeting with no more success than her own. Within a second, the creature had fallen past the weak light and plunged into the darkness along with Nina.

Fear robbed her of the breath she might’ve used to scream as she slid deeper into the earth, knowing death lurked both above and below her. She looked down to see a faint, glowing opening at the bottom of the slope, fast approaching.

The shaft spit her out when she reached the light. For an instant, she was again weightless, and then she crashed into a stone floor. She lost her grip on her dagger as she tumbled. Dozens of small rocks poking and bruising her until she struck something hard. Her shoulder took the brunt of the impact. Her entire body was awash with pain; squeezing her eyes shut, she cried out and arched her back, pressing her heel into the floor as though it could alleviate the agony.

She inhaled sharply and gagged as the stink of rot bombarded her nose.

Opening her eyes, she found herself in a dimly lit cave with cracked bones scattered across the floor and metal bars on three sides creating a cage against the cave wall — and face-to-face with a rockfur.

Nina flinched back with a startled gasp. The massive beast huffed, nostrils flaring. It was taller than Orishok at its shoulders, with a thick, dark mane sweeping back from its head. Huge tusks protruded from its mouth, and horns jutted from the top and sides of its head, the smallest of which was as long as her hand. Quinn had told Nina that rockfurs were like a cross between two Earth creatures — boars and rhinos — and the mental images she’d shared had supported that assessment. But boars and rhinos didn’t instill fear in anyone like an angry rockfur could.

These things knocked over small trees when they were calm.

Its thoughts blasted her. Rage, burning like fire; a hollow hunger that put the shriekers’ needs to shame; a deep possessiveness of this space, this territory. There was more there, deep beneath the surface, but this was no time to delve into its mind.

This beast could grind her into a paste effortlessly.

The wails of the shrieker grew suddenly more immediate. The creature plummeted from the opening in the ceiling and slammed onto the floor between Nina and the rockfur, scattering the old bones littering the cell. The shrieker struggled onto its feet, but it was not quick enough; the rockfur roared and thrust itself forward, impaling the shrieker on its tusks. Squealing in pain, the shrieker lashed out with claws and tail, gnashing its teeth. Its attacks could not match the ferocity and power of the hungry rockfur.

Nina’s lungs burned as she shifted, pressing herself against the bars. They weren’t very wide, but she had no other choice. She had to squeeze through. As vicious as shriekers could be, this one wouldn’t last long against a full-grown male rockfur.

Tugging her bag up and over her head, she thrust it out of the cell before twisting her torso to slip her arms and head through. Her chest was the first sticking point. She exhaled and resisted the need to draw in another breath, pushing against the bars with both arms to force her torso through. The enthusiasm of her tiny victory vanished quickly when her hips met the metal and her backside wedged in place.

She wiggled and kicked, gritting her teeth as the rough metal scraped her skin. The cell rattled as the rockfur slammed into its sides, the beast’s roars reverberating off the walls to drown out the death cries of the shrieker.

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