CHAPTER THIRTY

I sprint as fast as I can, but their growls are so close that I can feel their hot breath on my fur. Teeth nip at my heels as I make a harsh right turn. It doesn’t work like I’d hoped; I don’t run away from the wolves, I run into them.

Seven of them, all crowded in a circle and ready to pounce on me the second my fur touches theirs.

Mouths grab my paws and I’m flipped onto my back, the starry night barely visible above me. My heart is racing and I can’t breathe, can’t think.

All I feel, all I am is fear.

I whine as they drag me across the dead leaves and fallen branches. I try to lift my snout to smell for James, but one of the wolves whacks me on the nose.

Tears form in my eyes from the sharp hurt, and I hate that they’ve reduced me to a whimpering animal

Someone must have slipped something into the water they gave me when we arrived at their compound, because when I wake up, it’s morning.

I’m lying on a thin mattress in a cold white room without windows. My clothes are to