Page 21 of The Forbidden Wolf King
She knew. She knew we were pack. It was the only way we could pull off such a coordinated attack.
She took two steps back, then three, and was halfway out of the fighting ring before her loner wolf friend realized what was happening.
They were going to retreat.
Part of me wanted to take them both out now. Together, as a pack, we probably could, but Eliza was injured, I could sense it.
‘How badly are you hurt?’I asked her.
‘Who cares.Let’s finish them.’
I turned and gave her a wolfish grin. I knew I’d originally liked her for a reason. But when I saw the hunk of fur and flesh hanging off her ribcage and the pool of blood beneath her, fear washed over me.
Ivanna and her wolf used my distraction then to tuck tail and run, heading for the open flat landscape around us.
Knowing they were gone and wouldn’t likely come back, I ran to Eliza and used my nose to bring the flap of fur up to her exposed ribcage.
She whimpered.
‘Lie down,’I commanded.
She plopped down in her own blood and I used my nose to stick the skin back to her flank so that it could heal properly.
She needed food. Raw meat preferably.
I peered at the two dead wolves laying around us and Eliza looked up at me.
‘I’m not that hungry,’she assured me.
‘I didn’t say anything.’I tried to act innocent.
‘You were thinking it.’
Damn, she already knew me too well. I’d never eaten my own kind, couldn’t even fathom it until now.
‘I’ll be fine with some rest and water,’she said.
I moved to grab one of the water bead strings and then dragged it over to her. She crushed the bulbs in her mouth and then began to pant.
Panting meant pain and I was about to make things worse because my instinct was telling me that lying injured near two fresh kills was a stupid idea. ‘We should move. These bodies are going to attract animals.’
I hated myself for saying it because I knew she would do as I asked. With a wide-eyed look of horror, she nodded once and tried to stand. She fell twice and I felt awful.
‘I can shift and carry you,’ I said.
‘Don’t you dare,’she snapped. ‘Save your energy, they could come back and we still have to walk out of here.’
On her third attempt, I used my snout to help her stand and she stumbled forward, out of the blood puddle and away from the carnage.
‘Even a quarter of a mile will help us. Anything to put a distance between us and the bodies,’I told her.
She limped, whimpering with each step as we moved away from where the fight had gone down. When we’d gotten a good enough way away, I called for her to stop. She did, and promptly fell to the ground with a yelp.
I immediately nuzzled her neck, fear gripping me. I felt so conflicted. She was now my packmate, someone I had a connection with. I couldfeelher pain. I couldn’t just let her die. She was more injured than she’d let on. I saw that now. Blood pooled around her and I knew that without food, her healing magic would be slow. Too slow.
‘I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you,’I told her. The fact that we were both in a competition to win the Queen Trials didn’t matter anymore. Only this bond mattered, she was a pack sister now.
Cyrus was going to kill me because I knew in this moment I could never hurt her. If we both made it back to Death Mountain alive and I was put in a fight against her, I couldn’t do it.
