Page 68 of Rabid
“Run! Now! Get Tyran!” I scream at her, and relief flashes through me as she disappears into the brush a second before a dart hits the spot she was just standing in.
I attempt to call my wolf, to shift and give myself some weapons to try and hold them off, but I can’t connect. Staggering away as best I can, I continue to call to the beast inside of me as though I can click over to the right channel and everything will align inside of us. I stumble through the woods, refusing to be a sitting duck for the Twin Rivers bitches who just started a war.
I can smell Conrad and Saul, and I think Ryden too, all of them closing in on me. I push my leaden legs harder, desperate to get away. Rage the likes of which I’ve never felt before explodes inside of me like an atomic bomb, and I don’t know if it’s coming from Tyran or me or a combination of us both. I hope Presley catches up with him soon and that he can get here fast enough.
“Where’s the wolf we were supposed to meet? Burke said he’d be here with her and to bring him too. That was the agreement,” I hear Saul ask stupidly as I try to duck behind a tree and hide.
His words don’t make sense to my muddled mind. Is Burke here? I sniff for the cowardly piece of shit, but his scent isn’t anywhere on the wind.
“Who fucking cares? He’s not here, and we’re not going to sit here all day waiting for him. Go get her, she should be down by now,” Conrad orders, and I debate playing dead and trying to attack them by surprise, but I worry if I lie down, I’ll never get back up again.
I lean against the bark, trying to stay upright. The tranquilizer is deadening my senses and slowing my reaction time, but I wonder if you can build up a tolerance to this stuff, because even though I feel its effects, I’m sure as fuck not down like they think I should be.
I pray to the moon and all the stars that Tyran is close and on his way with help. I even crack a smile at the thought of what he’s going to do to these fuckers when he finds them. Suddenly, Saul’s big ass face pops up in front of me, and all thoughts of Tyran and help disappear as I try to tap into my rabid and fuck him up.
I’m slower than I should be, but when he tries to pull me away from the tree, I launch my hands forward and dig my thumbs into his eye sockets, pressing as hard as I can. I bellow in rage as he stumbles back with a scream, tripping on a bush behind him. I fall with him, determined to blind the bastard and take him out of the equation. He shouts and claws at my hands as I try to crush his eyeballs. I feel one give with a sickeningpop, but before I apply more pressure to the other, I’m yanked off of him and slammed to the ground.
My lungs empty completely, and I can’t scramble away before Conrad’s on me. He presses his knee into my chest, pulling a long knife from his belt. I try to scream to force him off of me so that my lungs can expand, but he presses the blade to my neck and gets in my face. When his weight shifts, I gasp in a desperate breath of oxygen, then try to push at his hand to move the knife from my neck. But the brute is huge, and the drugs have suppressed my wolf and her strength.
“Don’t move, Seneca, or I’ll fuck that pretty little face up,” he threatens, pressing into me harder. A whimper forms in my throat, but I shove it down. No, these bastards won’t get a peep of weakness or fear out of me. “Burke can’t wait to see you again,” he taunts, the blade of the knife slowly moving from my throat down my chest, a stinging trail left in its wake. “When a wolf called three days ago and informed Burke that a certain little pet had it too good here, he happily traded that wolf a place in our pack to get you back. Now you can get the punishment you deserve since Ruin Falls turned out to be so disappointing.”
Conrad’s words spiral around me and leave me reeling.Did Presley set me up? Did she do this?
Threateningly, his knife dips past my belly button, down to between my thighs. I suck in a breath as he twines the sharp tip of it through my curls and then lowers it to my seam. The disgusting smell of lust permeates the air, and I try to struggle out from underneath him again until he presses the blade to the inside of my thigh. I go still. My mother taught me all about anatomy, and I know if he cuts me deep enough, he could slice right through my artery, and I would bleed to death in minutes.
“Stop fucking around. Let’s go,” Ryden barks, fear dripping from his voice as he looks around wildly. He picks Saul up from the ground, who’s now bleeding from both eyes. “We still need to get back to the car, and you know a sentry or something heard this little bitch screaming,” he declares, shaking Saul for good measure and eliciting a whimper in return. How that pisser ever became a beta, I’ll never know.
My hands start to go numb from the drug, and I can practically feel it moving up my arms and legs, deadening everything in its path.
“Coming,” Conrad says, a sinister smile on his face. “I just want to give Rabid here a little taste of what she has to look forward to.” I feel him flip the knife in his hand and press the handle of it to my opening.
I snarl and fight to get away, panic and a zing of pain shooting through me. But out of nowhere, a wolf leaps from the surrounding bushes and barrels into Conrad. A menacing snarl roars through the air all around me, and Conrad slams back from the impact, his knife flying out of his hands. The white and red wolf rips into the bastard beta’s arm and thrashes as hard as she can, opening deep wounds that have Conrad screaming for help.
Presley lets go of his arm and snaps for his face, but Conrad flips her off of him. I struggle with everything I have to roll over, the sounds of Conrad shifting into his wolf spurring me on. I look to see if Tyran is with her, but no other wolves join in on the fight, and I lurch to my feet with a growl of effort, turning around as Presley attacks Conrad.
The sound of a vicious fight is all I can hear as my vision starts to blur and my limbs grow even heavier. I pitch forward, trying to focus, and see that Ryden has put Saul down and is instead scrabbling to grab Conrad’s knife so he can attack. I beg my body for just a little more as Ryden grips the handle and picks it up.
Presley forces Conrad back, and even though his wolf has to have a solid fifty pounds on hers, she fights ruthlessly and tirelessly to get the upper hand. Ryden jabs at the white and red wolf, going for her throat, but I lurch forward, stepping between them at the perfect time. The knife sinks into my stomach instead, and I gasp at the burning sensation and the pain that hammers through me.
I look down at the blade sunk into my skin, blood dripping from the metal. The drug has disconnected me, or maybe it’s the shock, because even though I feel the pain, it’s sluggish, almost separated from the rest of me. I want to rip the blade out and slit the throat of the spineless piece of shit in front of me, but I can’t feel my hands, and my legs give out beneath me, sending me crashing to the ground. A high-pitched yelp assaults the forest, and I look to see Conrad back in his skin, and Presley struggling in his chokehold.
“No, don’t fucking hurt her,” I yell at him, but the order lacks all power and sounds more like a croak as pain slurs my heavy tongue.
“Let’s go!” Conrad shouts at Ryden, picking Presley up and carrying her with him, keeping a hand on her muzzle and legs pinned. “Leave Saul,” the beta barks, and Ryden scoops me up from the ground and starts running behind Conrad.
Fear and fury crash inside of me, but I think it might be Tyran’s emotions, because all I feel right now is resounding pain. Ryden runs clumsily through the trees and foliage, jostling me with every step and leaving a trail of blood in our wake. At least Tyran won’t have to track my scent to find me.
Conrad runs hard, Presley’s wolf still gripped in his hands, and Ryden falls further and further behind. I work to keep my eyes open, but they keep trying to shut. I think I hear a snarl coming from the woods.
Tyran.
“Fuck this shit, you’re not worth it!” Ryden growls, and suddenly, he throws my body to the ground before he takes off after Conrad, my weight no longer slowing him down and allowing him to shift.
I slam against the unforgiving earth, my momentum rolling me, making the handle of the knife catch the ground and slice sideways before it’s torn from my abdomen. Agony explodes through me, and this time, I do scream from the pain, but all that comes out is a sick mewling sound as my body hits a tree and stops rolling. I gasp for air, but the world spins and my vision curdles, my body not sure if it wants to vomit or pass out. My hands press to my stomach, and I look down at the puddled ground. So much blood.
The world goes quiet.
For one heartbeat.
