Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
I start to chip away at the broken end with the six-inch spike and have just managed to make a point—though not a very sharp one—when I hear my name again.
“Aurelia!”
I gasp, and my head snaps in that direction. “Tyler?”
“Aurelia, where are you?”
“Tyler, I’m over here!”
I quicken my steps and don’t realize I’m running with my makeshift spear until I hear a snarl so vicious my steps slow abruptly until I’m standing still. A moment later, the storm seems to part, and something large and terrifying stalks from the snowy veil.
Black fur, four legs, sharp teeth, and glowing yellow eyes.
“Oh, shit.”
Wolves.
A single breath shudders out of me before I turn back the way I came. When I do, I see another wolf with white fur and blue eyes blocking the path. The wolf’s hackles raise the moment I turn, and it bares its teeth while folding its ears back.
Fear paralyzes me, so when I hear a snarl, my eyes are the only part of me that moves in the direction of the gray wolf closing in.
Teeth snapping draws my gaze to my right, to the final wolf with brown fur completing the kill circle.
My death will not be quick.
Cassie’s wasn’t.
I watched them tear her apart, and there was nothing I could do about it when I was armed with an axe. All I have now is a branch and little more than a butter knife the wolves can pick their teeth with after they’re done with me.
I flinch when the white wolf bares its teeth. Remembering how one of the wolves that attacked Cassie came after me when I tried to save her, I grip the thick branch tighter. Its blue eyes seem to track the movement, and then it snarls again.
“Just fucking do it already,” I say through gritted teeth while holding its gaze.
I don’t expect the first attack to come from the side.
I barely pivot in time to raise my arms when the gray wolf tackles me to the ground. The branch I hold at its throat is the only thing keeping it from ripping out mine as it snaps and snarls at me from above. My teeth are bared, too, as I clench them in concentration and beg my muscles to hold.
The other wolves don’t immediately attack once I’m pinned like they did Cassie. They circle, barking and growling, but they don’t go for the easy kill. I have a feeling the alpha sent the smallest one in to test me.
The powdered snow under the gray wolf’s giant paws flies up from its claws as it scrapes the ground to get closer.
One of those paws finds my shoulder, and I scream.
Sharp claws dig in and shred through my flesh, and I pray that I blackout from the pain so that I won’t feel it when the rest comes.
But I don’t.
Even when the pain is blinding and blood oozes from the wound, I stay woefully conscious.
And unlike me, the wolf shows no signs of tiring.
My arms are already trembling from the effort it takes to hold it off. If my predicament weren’t so terrifying, I’d laugh at God’s twisted sense of humor.
I survived a plane crash, three days in the wild, and six days with three feral mountain men just to be torn apart by wolves. I’d been spared those other times so that I might suffer the worst possible death.
Well, that tracks.
Even with my focus on staying alive, I can still hear Cassie’s pleas. I can still see her pretty face twisted with pain and fear as they fed on her.
Tears prick my eyes, knowing I’d failed her, but they don’t fall. They never fall.
Cassie’s dead when it should have been me.
If I hadn’t been such a bitch to Tania, if I hadn’t been so determined to destroy the life I hated so much, my uncle wouldn’t have felt the need to exile me. None of this would have happened if I’d just done that stupid interview a year ago, told my side, and moved on.
“Cassie, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t fight harder,” I plead in vain.
She’s gone just like the others.
My sobs cause my grip to loosen on the branch, and the maw of the wolf and its flesh-shredding teeth gain an inch.
As I stare death in the eye, a dark thought scales the stubborn wall my mind has built.
The glowing green eyes of the wolf are almost hypnotic as I think about how much easier it would be to let it kill me. Coward. Maybe this death will go quicker than I think. It won’t. The longer I stare, the more numb I become, and when my hold loosens on the branch this time, it’s not entirely unintentional.
One last memory pierces my thoughts, but this time, it rises from the icy moat built around my heart where I trapped it.