Page 12 of The Alpha Dire Wolf
Silence greeted my request. I sighed, though what had I expected? A hologram of all three of them to appear above a bonfire and nod at me like they had sorted out their differences and were all good now?
“Ha.”
My sarcastic laugh echoed eerily in the forest, bouncing off the trees and becoming distorted. The sound was twisted, unpleasant.
All at once, I’d gone far enough into the forest.
At the same time, the warmth fell away, replaced by that same cool breeze from before. Prickles ran down my neck, joined by a sudden tightness in my stomach.
Danger was close.
I had definitely come far enough. Looking around for any obvious signs, I turned to go. A twig snapped underfoot, cracking like a gunshot in the silence. Nails tracked down my spine, digging in around each vertebra like a vise.
Shadows around the trees grew deeper as the silence became more profound. No chirping of birds, no rustle of leaves. No signs oflife. It was empty.
“Hello?” I called nervously, trying to watch my every step so I didn’t trip and fall. The ground was far more uneven than I remembered upon entry. I hadn’t been watching where I went. The forest had guided me.
Now it was an obstacle course, preventing me from getting out.
Deep in the forest, something screamed. Deep and throaty, it was not the dying cry of an animal. It was the hunting call of a predator. I took off. Leaves crunched, twigs broke, but I didn’t care. I had to get out of there. The forest wasn’t welcoming. My grandmother was right. It was—
I came skidding to a halt as a giant black shape shuffled out from behind a tree twenty yards in front of me. I froze, looking down and away as the black bear reacted to my presence. Maybe if I did nothing menacing, if I just stood there, it would go away.
But when it lifted its head, and I saw the redness to its eyes and the saliva dripping down its jowls, I had a brand-new fear.
It’s rabid. The damn thing is rabid. Is that even possible?
Possible or not, I was confronted with the reality that I was at its mercy.
I am so fucking dead.
A momentary spike of irony reminded me of my talk to the heavens about reuniting with my parents and grandmother. I hadn’t meant for it to be this soon, but fate was funny like that sometimes.
The bear growled deeper, rising up on its hind legs and letting loose its bellow at full blast. I braced myself, looking around, unsure of where to run. I couldn’t outpace it. I knew that. I would have to dodge, somehow. There was no other way. Use the trees to my advantage maybe?
Dropping down onto all fours again, the bear charged, its eyes red with madness and focused entirely on me. All my plans went out the window, and I screamed, sure that death had caught me.
The ground shook as the bear closed the gap fast. I squeezed my eyes shut, fear rooting me to the spot against my wishes.
And at the last second, something hit me in the side, tackling me out of the way. My eyes snapped open as I flew through the air. All I could see was gray fur as I landed on top of it.
Gray. Not black. It wasn’t the bear.
We rolled, hard and fast, and I was tossed free, bouncing roughly before coming to a stop facing away from the bear. I could hear it making noises as it crashed to a stop. Closer by, something answered it back.
Something deep and powerful.
Spinning over, I could only watch as a giant wolf challenged the bear, standing between it and me, its dark gray fur rippling in the cool wind that now made its way through the forest. Crouching low on its front legs, the massive beast jumped. It was far larger than any wolf I’d ever seen, and when it hit the bear, it bounced off, landing on its feet with impossible agility.
The bear fell backward, and I saw matted fur where the wolfs claws had sunk in deeply. Unfortunately, all the attack did was enrage the thing. It charged again, wildly fast, but the wolf darted away, easily evading the attack. Again it played out, this time the wolf leaped up and over the charging bear, landing on its back to tear at the fur there before jumping free and waiting for the bear to gather itself yet again.
While it waited, it swung its head toward me. I stared back. It had mismatched eyes—one a bright blue, the other vibrant amber-yellow. Both of them locked on me, unmoving.
Time slowed and came to a standstill. The wind moved so slowly I could have stepped around it. The distance between the wolf and me seemed to stretch, colors blurring and mixing. Stars flashed past my eyes, and somewhere in the periphery, purple clouds closed in.
And then, just like that, it was past. Reality snapped back into focus, and I drew in a sharp, needed breath that I had been holding.
The wolf blinked and shook its head with a weird-sounding growl. Then, in a very humanlike motion, it jerked its snout to the side. In the direction of the house.
