Page 73 of Wrath

“What the hell was that?” I asked, instantly on alert.

Fortunately, when I returned to the land of the living, I wore the clothes I had on when I’d disappeared. I reached for my dagger now, the hilt a comforting weight in my hand.

“Goblins,” Ryland answered, his voice slightly breathless—whether from exhaustion, fear, or relief, I didn’t know for certain. “Lots of goblins.”

“Goblins.” I blinked.

“I’ll explain more later.” Ryland put his hand on the small of my back and gave it a tiny push, urging me forward. “But we need to move. Now.”

Something dove out of the brush, and I had just a moment to take in its small stature, wrinkly skin, strange ears, and abnormally large eyes before I heeded Ryland’s advice.

And I ran.

TWENTY-FOUR

Z

Iwas going to murder my mates.

What part of “don’t put yourselves in harm’s way” did they not understand?

The four of us raced through the forest, but I had no idea where the fuck we were going. I had yet to venture outside of camp, so everything was unfamiliar to me.

Another scream rent the air, and adrenaline surged through me like a lightning bolt. I picked up my pace, branches whipping at my cheeks and drawing blood.

“Where the fuck are we even going?” I asked, panting.

“We can’t bring them back to the camp.” Unlike me, Ryland didn’t sound out of breath in the slightest.

Stupid shadows.

I forced myself to stop running and, as expected, the other three stopped as well, all of them twisting to face me. My initial surprise over the situation I’d found myself in quickly morphed into anger.

Stupid, idiotic, asshole mates.

“We can’t just run nonstop for hours,” I snapped, pacing. “We need a plan.”

“We could try to get the army—” Ryland began, but I cut him off.

“We can’t risk these goblins getting close to camp.”

“So we fight them ourselves? Four of us against a couple of hundred?” Killian brought his pointer finger to his lips and began to bite at the nail.

A wave of fear threatened to tear down my composure.

What could we possibly do?

There had to be a solution. I didn’t complete three trials just to die now.

“Are we sure they’re goblins?” I demanded, whirling on Lupe.

The air around him fizzled and shimmered, then the bear shrank down, the fur receding, and my mate stood in his place. Naked.

I was going to pretend not to notice that.

“I’m positive.” Lupe nodded decisively.

“What do you know about them?”

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