Six

In the sight of death lurking in the shadows, time really moves fast. In my head, I had jumped and failed to reach the other end of the cliff, and now I was falling in my mind.

But that was just a false reality. A painful one, to be exact.

Maxwell had expected me to do exactly that. He caught my arm with his teeth mid-air and flung me down to the ground.

BOOM!!!

I landed hard, rolling on the ground with pain taking over my body. The pain was instant and blinding.

"Ahhh!" The scream tore from my throat before I could stop it.

Hot blood soaked my sleeve, sticky and warm. I could smell it—copper and salt mixing with the rain-soaked earth. My arm went numb, but I didn't dare let go of the hope that my best option was still to jump down the cliff.

Enduring the pain, I immediately stood up and started running again toward the edge. No matter the pain—as long as it wasn't life-threatening, I could endure it.

I had trained myself to. It was one of the few things I had learned to do to survive in this cruel world.

"Catch her! Tear her apart!" another guard-turned-wolf roared.

They're really going to do it, I thought numbly. They're really going to kill me.

I clenched my teeth, tasting blood in my mouth. "Not tonight!" I shouted back, but even I could hear the fear in my voice.

Not like this. I won't die like this.

Where was this defiance coming from? I'd spent my whole life being meek, obedient April. The one who didn't make waves.

But that April died at the altar. After she got her heart broken and her entire world crushed.

This April? This April was going to survive.

Luke's words echoed in my head. 'You need to go away from here. Your life is in danger.'

I laughed bitterly through the tears streaming down my face. "Danger? You think I don't know that already? First my father strips me, then May steals everything, and now they call me a traitor? And now I'm being hunted like a criminal?"

I kept running without looking back, but somehow the wolves kept blocking me, toying with their prey.

"How could I attack May?" I barked out a bitter laugh that turned into a sob. "How ridiculous! She has a wolf, I don't. I couldn't touch her if I tried, and moreover, she's my sister no matter what!"

But even as I said it, something stirred in the back of my mind. A whisper. A presence that felt... weird.

'You want her dead. You want all of them dead,' the voice whispered.

No. I was imagining things. Had to be the adrenaline.

"You all ruined my wedding, you stole my birthright, and now you hunt me?" I cried into the wind, tears stinging my eyes. "What more do you want from me?"

'Everything,' a female eerie voice whispered in my head again. 'They want to erase you completely.'

I shook my head violently. Where were these thoughts coming from?

I was bleeding from my back where one of the wolves had slashed deeply. Blood was dripping down my head—I must have hit it when I fell. The skin around my arm had been torn open, and I was bleeding badly.

Maybe it was the lack of blood that was causing me to hallucinate.

I thought of Stephanie, my only friend. The one person who never looked at me like I was broken.

"I'm sorry, Steph," my voice cracked. "I'm sorry I won't make it to your birthday next month. I'm sorry I never told you how much you meant to me. I'm sorry they're going to kill me anyway, and you'll never know what really happened."

The necklace she gave me—the wolf pendant—pressed against my chest under my jacket. Even now, even wolfless, she'd believed in me. Believed that I would one day discover my wolf.

Tears blurred my vision. "I hope you find a better friend than me."

A wolf slammed into my side, and I felt its claws punch through leather, through skin, scraping against bone. "Aghh!"

I punched wildly with my free hand and felt my knuckles connect with something soft. An eye. The wolf yelped and fell away, but another immediately took its place.

Another lunged, jaws wide, aiming for my head. "No!" I ducked at the last second and felt the teeth snap together inches from my skull. The wind from its jaws ruffled my hair.

Oh fuck, that was too close. Way too close!!

A third wolf clamped onto my leg with jaws like a vice. "Let go!" I kicked hard, but it held on, teeth sinking deeper.

This is it. This is how I die.

Then—instinct. Pure survival instinct.

I reached down and grabbed the wolf by its ear, yanking its head to the side with strength I didn't know I had. It yelped and released just enough for me to kick it off.

I rushed to grab my bike that had crashed on the ground.

I swiftly started Ice back up, and the wolves let me.

They kept growling, surrounding me, taking chances to tear me up whenever they had an opening.

They were fucking playing with me!!

They wanted to kill me slowly, giving me hope I could survive and then taking it back again.

This was hell on earth for me. My vision was getting blurred, and my body was weak and in pain, yet I still did not give up.

I swerved, Ice throwing up stones and mud.

"I won't die tonight! Do you hear me?" I shouted at the pack chasing me.

"I'm not your prey!"

I said it and I meant every word.