Page 20 of Rabid
“Where’s Hess?” I demand, spitting out a glob of dirt.
“Hess is dead.”
The cold declaration staggers me where I stand in a cloud of dust and dread.
No.
I feel the blood drain from my face right before a rush of anger overwhelms it. My hands curl into fists, and I tense, ready to attack him for all I’m worth, but when the haze of wrath and dust clears, I find myself staring into the barrel of a gun. I have no idea if it’s what they use to tranquilize me or if it’s the bullet-shooting kind, but the sight makes me freeze in place.
My wolf howls inside of me, insisting that we can get to his throat before he can so much as pull the trigger, but I’m not so sure. The dart’s effects are still weighing down my blood and my body, and as much as I want to get to him, I want to make sure I can rip him apart when I do.
I glare at the weak alpha, my stare furious and filled with disdain. He wouldn’t know a fair fight if it bit his dick off. Looking around, I see tall grass and foreign trees. I don’t smell anything other than nature, maybe a hint of water nearby, and a fox den over the hill the van just drove down. I have no idea where we are or why he’s brought me here. My foot shifts, and Burke’s gun-arm springs up higher, just an inch of movement making him trigger happy.
“If you come any closer, I’ll put you down like the pack was begging me to,” he threatens, his unwelcome gaze dropping to my bare body.
A warning growl crawls up my throat, and his black stare flashes to mine. Disgust fills him as he looks at my eyes as though something has changed about me, though I don’t feel anything is different. Cheekbones, lips, nose, they’re all the same. Maybe he just sees the red-hot rage he sparked to life as it burns through my gaze. My wolf and I want to claw his fucking eyes out and drown in his screams as I slowly rip him to pieces.
“Not impressed?” I seethe, gesturing to my face. Regardless of what he sees when he looks at me, it’s made him want to tuck tail and run.
Good.
He made me snap, attacked me, threatened me, tried to claim me against my will. And now, a fissure has opened inside of me like the cracked earth after an apocalyptic quake.
Rabid, he called me, expelling it like a repulsive curse. Am I rabid? Is there something wrong with me and my wolf? Maybe, but I’ll take it if it keeps him the fuck away from me.
I shake with the effort not to shift as my wolf surges forward, demanding Burke’s blood. I remind her of the gun and the chains on our limbs and beg her to bide her time.Not yet.
“You’re a fuckingstain,” he snarls, spitting on the ground like he’s purging his mouth of the foul words, as though they might be catching. “A malignancy to our kind. You and your wolf are defective—a disgrace to Totemic shifters everywhere.”
Conrad crosses his arms next to Burke and nods in agreement, though his eyes keep straying to my breasts and to the juncture between my thighs.
My legs are shaking with the effort it’s taking to stand, but I lock my knees and keep my spine snapped straight, refusing to let myself fall. “Then shoot me,” I challenge, wondering what the hell he’s brought me out here for. “Be the spineless piece of shit that everyone knows you are.”
Our kind doesn’t use guns against each other. Doing so is considered the epitome of weak. We use teeth, brute force, and instincts, not bullets. The fact that he uses darts is bad enough, but if he kills me here today, at least my death will show him for what he is. A feeble alpha who could only win by cheating, and there’d be no denying it this time. The pattern would be clear, and no pack would ever let him live that down.
Burke smiles, and I reassure my wolf that one way or another, we’ll wipe that arrogant grin off his face, even if we have to do it without teeth. Slowly, he backs away from me, moving closer to the van. “You think I’d kill you, make things easy for you after what you’ve done?” he taunts, just as Conrad gets into the driver’s seat and starts the engine, a door slamming shut in his wake.
“After whatI’vedone?” I hiss, hands curling into fists, making the shackles around my wrists bite into my skin.
Burke jerks the barrel of the gun at me as though he’s telling me to stay put. I glare at him but don’t press my luck. If they think dumping me in the wild is going to get rid of me, then they’re dumber than I thought. I’ll hunt, I’ll heal, and then I’ll come for them.
As though my thoughts are written plain as day across my face, Burke’s smile grows even wider, and the sight makes an uneasy trickle drip down the back of my neck. He backs up all the way to the passenger side and gets in, shutting the door behind him, gun still pointed at me out the open window.
I take a step forward just as Conrad slams on the gas and jerks the van forward, but Burke’s shouted words stop me in my tracks. “Say hello to Ruin Falls.” A horrible gleam in his eyes freezes the air in my lungs. “I’d start running if I were you.”
Kicking up dirt and dust, the van speeds away down the narrow dirt path, and all the blood drains from my face.
No.
The name Ruin Falls pounds in my ears in time with my galloping heart. I spin around frantically as though wolves are sneaking up on me at this very moment, but there’s nothing there. Only trees and grass and the cloud of dust left in the wake of another cowardly move. I immediately hurry toward the tall grass and crouch down in it. I wince at the soreness in my muscles and at the suddenly too loud clinking of my chains, wishing I didn’t feel so exposed.
Ruin Falls.
I try to listen for the sounds of predators stalking me through the tall grass, but all I hear is the wind as it tickles the tall light-green blades, bending them to its will, the same way this savage pack will if they get their hands on me.
I pull in deep lungfuls of air, but I don’t smell any wolves on the gentle breeze. There’s no hint of territory markings or indication that the pack is nearby, but that doesn’t make me feel better. Sweat starts to kiss my skin, and my leg muscles tighten with the urge to run. Holding my breath, I try to think through what the hell I should do.
I thought the Twin Rivers pack was bad, that staying there was the end of everything for me. But the Ruin Falls pack is the stuff of nightmares. Everyone knows the stories. The warnings. There isn’t a pack as vicious or more feral than that one. Their alpha has never lost a challenge, and everyone knows better than to mess with them. These wolves are the definition of barbaric and ruthless, so wild that they aren’t allowed near humans, and I’ve just been dropped somewhere in their territory, naked, chained, and weak—the very definition of easy prey.
