Chapter 74
Chapter 74
Avery’s POV
I stared at the empty clearing in confusion, then back at the note in my hand. Maybe I had messed up my directions? I was pretty sure this was the clearing where I had told my mother to meet me, but there was no one else here.
I went towards a fallen stump and sat on it. Something crinkled and I stood back up.
There was a note on the stump. A piece of white paper, somewhat crumpled from me sitting on it accidentally.
It took me a moment to read it in the moonlight, but there was that now all-too-familiar handwriting again. I read,
“Wow, I can’t believe you’d really trek all the way out here. What a pathetic idiot you are! Seriously, stop being so predictable and just die already. And stop sending sad letters to your mom, she can’t save you.
Your move, bitch.
Xoxo
Zara
P.S. If I were you, I’d run p>
What the actual fuck? Zara had intercepted my mail?
So… my mother wasn’t coming. She was never coming.
I was still staring at the note in shock when I heard the sound of someone running towards me. My head snapped up and I saw a man barreling in my direction.
I frowned in confusion. The last line of the note still floating through my brain.
“Run… run… RUN!” My brain clicked into gear and I turned and took off.
As I did, wolves burst from the woods around me. They snarled and snapped, leaping after me as I ran as hard as
I could.
I couldn’t shift to match their speed, and the tree branches grabbed at my skin and hair while they ran throug the underbrush easily.
I felt their hot breath panting on my ankles and flung myself at a huge tree, putting my back to it and trying to kick away those slavering jaws.
“Avery!” The man who had been running up behind the pack shouted at me. I snapped my head up to look at him.
It was Tegan. Gideon’s Beta.
“I can’t get to you!” He shouted, “I’m going to go get help p>
“Wait!” I shrieked but he was already gone, dashing in the opposite direction. I heard a howl go up in the
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Chapter 74
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distance.
I tried to scale the tree behind me but the lowest branches were far above my head. There was no escape here.
I stood and faced the half dozen wolves that encircled me.
“Well?” I yelled. “What are you waiting for p>
They all lunged at once.
Fur whirled and teeth snapped. I screamed and tried to divert the oncoming attacks. One wolf grabbed my boot and yanked me off balance, as another soared for where my throat had just been.
They were really trying to kill me!
I didn’t recognize these wolves. Were they rogues? Or were these people I had once known from Silvermoon?
I kicked off my boot and rolled away under a bush, hoping the quick maneuver would confuse them for a second as they tried to figure out where I had gone.
I crawled on my stomach through the brambles and out the other side. Behind me I heard a wolf whine as it tried to fit through the narrow space.
On the other side I hauled myself to my feet and took off running again. It didn’t take the wolves long to catch up with me around the tree, but this time I leaped for another tree with lower branches and pulled myself up.
At the base of the tree the wolves leaped and snarled, then transformed.
I wasn’t sure if I should feel relieved that I didn’t recognize any of them. I was still in danger, but at least I knew I hadn’t been betrayed by my former pack… just my former family.
“Come down, little girl.” a man’s voice called up to me.
“Absolutely not.” I scoffed, pulling myself further up into the foliage. Truthfully, I was terrified. Could I really hold off these rogues until help arrived?
“If you don’t come down, we’ll shoot you down.” The voice came again, along with a rattle of equipment. These are silver arrows p>
(C
“Did you save up your allowance to buy those?” I yelled down, while I tried to put more branches between me and them. I heard some scattered laughter below.
Then with a loud thunk, an arrow embedded in the tree next to my bare foot. I shrieked and my foot slipped an fell.
My hands scrambled to try and stop my descent, but I was moving too fast, my body rotating away from the
trunk.
I screamed as I fell, then hit the ground with a sickening crash.
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