Page 46 of Wolf Hunted (Rejected Moons 1)

Our only hope now is to get to the exit before the Ravagers get to us.

I hear a howl as we pass one of the t-junctions—a crazed, inhuman howl, much closer to us than that first scent was.

I run faster, hoping Emlyn is keeping up.

Chapter 30

EMLYN

Theadrenalineiscoursingthrough my body too quickly to allow for coherent thought.

The only thing I can think about is what will happen when the Ravagers catch me, which feels both impossible and inevitable right now. Can I really be about to die?

I’ll feel the first set of teeth tear into me. I know this with such certainty that it’s almost as if I can feel them already, severing my Achilles tendon, sending searing pain up my leg.

I’ll turn and kill the one who bites me first, of course. That one won’t have a chance. But I’ll be hobbled.

It’ll be the second one, or the third, that kills me.

And as I’m dying, I’ll hear the sound of Nate fighting for his own life beside me.

Nate’s like me. He won’t go down easily. He’ll fight until he can’t fight anymore. We’ll both fight until our bodies are overrun by ravagers.

By morning, there will be nothing left of us but bones.

I wish the wolves had killed me. Even throwing my body into the lake would be less horrifying than what the Ravagers will do.

And then, from up ahead, I see light.

I see the shadow that is Nate’s body, and I pour on speed, able to move even more quickly now that I can see where I’m going.

He veers to the side and up the stairs, and I follow, glad that we’ve already passed one exit and that this is the second one. If Victor was telling the truth, we should be safe here.

We bolt up the stairs.

Immediately, I feel more secure.

There are no wolves here. I can’t smell them anywhere. The Ravagers could follow us, of course, but there’s so much open space out here, and we’re faster than they are when we’re running out in the open.

Nate doesn’t shift back. He keeps running. I follow him. The important thing right now seems to be staying together. He’s the only person in this city that I can trust, the only one who doesn’t want me dead.

We run for what feels like two or three more miles. Not that far for a wolf, but in the time it takes, the fear begins to leave my body, and reason starts to return. We actually survived. We made it.

We need a place to hole up for the night and regroup, to decide what we’re going to do next. But Nate must be aware of that need because the next thing I know, he’s turning down what looks like a street of residential buildings.

He shifts outside the door of one of them. I don’t know if it’s a place he’s chosen at random, or if he knows this building, but right now I’m willing to put my faith in him. He opens the door and holds it for me, and I run inside, still wolf.

“Top floor,” he says, and I clatter awkwardly up the stairs. It’s hard to handle a flight of stairs as a wolf, but I manage it. It would make more sense for me to shift back right now, to take human form, but I can’t quite manage it. I know the danger is past—intellectually, I know it. But I’m still edgy from everything we’ve been through.

The top floor features a square landing with several doors. Nate paces around trying the handles. Several of them turn, but eventually, he comes to one that’s locked.

“This one,” he says.

I blink, confused. Why is he choosing the locked door?

He drops to his knees on the floor and picks up a nail that’s lying there in a loose floorboard. I remember, suddenly, the way he knew how to use the nail to pick the lock on his cage. Is he going to do the same thing here?

He is. He fiddles with it for a moment, and then I hear aclickand the door swings open. Nate gets to his feet.

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