Page 40 of The Sacred Wolf

Jayla!

“Help her, Elyse!” Evan’s plea was faint, his focus subsumed by his opponent.

Damien lay atop me, snarling and fighting to pin me, but I evaded him by lashing at his wrists and leaning into his right side, where he was weaker. I spotted Jayla over his shoulder, the smaller of the two mangy wolves pacing toward her with a low rumble rippling in his throat.

“No! Stay back!” She screamed, fumbling in the depths of her purse, and pulling out a tiny bottle.

The wolf sprang, a chestnut blur, and then yelped as it met an airborne stream of pepper spray.

“Eat hot shit, you disgusting…thing!” Jayla yelled, triumphant for one moment.

The wolf howled, the sound cinching my chest in dread. It was a battle cry, an ululation of lupine frenzy, not a yelp of pain or intimidation.

“She only…pissed him…off!” Evan’s thoughts pelted me—a spasmodic flow like pebbles against the window of my mind—as he wrestled with his combatant.

“No!” I echoed Jayla’s sentiments as her pursuer landed atop the seats, claws rending red velvet as it shook its mane. Drool slid in glistening tendrils from its inflamed gums. I twisted beneath Damien, seeking an opening, and wriggled between his front paws. Just as the cool air of freedom enveloped me, his jaws closed on my right flank. Fiery spears delved into my flesh as his fangs found purchase, and I howled.

Now Jayla was pelting along the row of seats, her screams drowning out my bawl of pain. I searched for Evan. He was trying to escape so that he could get to Jayla as well, but each time he got an inch of freedom, the ebony wolf snapped at his legs and he’d snarl, whipping back and grabbing for ears or muzzle to free himself. If he wasn’t careful, he’d lose an Achilles tendon and be done. I couldn’t decide who needed help more.

“Evan, remember to protect your belly and rear!”

The only reply was the sound of his snarls and snapping jaws as he fought for his life. A clang from the other aisle brought my head around just in time to see Jayla, whose knee had caught on the last armrest, crumple to the floor. Her predator leaped across the top of the seats and lunged toward where she’d fallen.

“Shit!” My heart leaped into my throat. “Leto, help us!”

“Jayla!” Evan’s anguished cry joined my own.

Damien took advantage of my distraction and headbutted me into the seats. My ribs slammed against the metal frame with a loud crack, and my head bounced off the floor, jaws clacking shut like a sprung trap as agony erupted in my head and chest at once.

I’m going to watch another friend die. The thought was muddy, a slow eddy attempting to surface inside my buzzing skull. Assuming I survive.

As I wheezed and tried to get my paws back beneath me, a snarl resounded from above. I looked up. A white wolf dropped from the theater balcony onto the back of Jayla’s attacker. I shook my head, sure that I was having a concussive hallucination, but the feral chestnut shifter bellowed, and I snapped to attention.

Help—of some kind—had arrived.

A mirror image of me, but with three times the ferocity, rolled Jayla’s attacker into the aisle and pinned him. Between the seats, her head rose and fell, the snapping of her jaws the melody against the downbeat of tearing flesh. The foreign shifter tried to shove her off, her back heaving upward, but his muzzle just missed latching onto hers and that miss cost him. She raised a paw and smacked, blood arcing away from her slice before her snarling bite lashed downward again.

The shifter’s cries ended abruptly, leaving silence as all of us, including Damien and his remaining bodyguard, sat frozen, watching the movements of the new arrival.

“Oh, Damien!” A familiar taunting voice sing-songed. “Come out, come out, wherever you are…”

Over the ruined seat backs, a white tail was held high in warning, the loping sway of white shoulder blades as the victorious wolf rounded the back of the rows and turned into our aisle, growling.

Kiana! A tumult of relief, elation, and terror wove a tight cord through my chest. Thank Leto!

The white I’d seen was the only bit of her untouched by gore. Her muzzle, chest, and claws were crimson. Her teeth dripped with blood and saliva as she roared, her gaze locked on Damien.

“You…disgusting…murderer!” She snarled.

Her thoughts knifed through us toward their intended target, the male who had coddled and encouraged her all his life, but who had done so only for his own gain.

The male who had lied to and manipulated her.

The male who had controlled her father and robbed her of her mother.

My chest heaved, burning with each rasping inhale against what I knew were broken ribs. The fire I’d awaited to ignite inside my sister had finally found oxygen.

And it was an inferno.

---