Breathless, I stand up and look around the clearing. It’s similar to the one in my dream, but mine never had flowers and green grass like this one. The one in my dream is always so dark and ominous looking.
I hear bushes shift to my right and spin around. “Ryker?” I ask, but no one answers. “Ryker, is that you?” I ask again, this time a little louder.
My heart that was beating wildly only a second ago stops, and my stomach sinks to the ground. He stands in front of me, looking as he did last night, his soulless black eyes staring at me as he stands, observing the area around us. White foam still leaks from the sides of his mouth, and his patchy fur looks even worse in the daylight.
The red wolf.
“Shit!” I shout. When I had asked Ryker earlier today about the wolf, he had promised it had been taken care of. But someone is lying because that mangy animal stands only yards away from me.
His lip lifts in a guttural snarl, and he stalks forward. I can’t help the scream that escapes my throat as I watch in horror, unable to move this time. My body is frozen in place, even though I’m screaming at it to move. I was just running faster than I have in my entire life, and now I can’t get my legs to cooperate.
“Run! Get out of here!” Ryker’s voice doesn’t sound right when it bellows across the clearing, and I turn and gasp when I see him. His eyes are glowing gold, and his teeth have elongated into… Fangs?
What the fuck?
With a running start, Ryker lunges at the wolf, and all I can do is stand there and watch the transformation take place. One second I’m looking at the tattooed man I’ve been with all day, and the next I’m looking at the black wolf that occupies my dreams. I can’t even gasp in surprise because, like my legs, everything else has stopped working, all I do is stand there slack-jawed and wide-eyed.
I want to blame what I’m seeing on the concussion from last night, but I can feel the ground shake as the two wolves charge each other, and the rush of air blow over me when the black wolf flies past me.
The black wolf—Ryker—slams into the red wolf, and it’s a mess of claws and teeth before they finally come to a standstill a few yards away.
They slowly circle each other, each of them waiting for the other to make a move. It’s the red wolf that finally grows impatient and attempts to take a bite out of the black wolf’s leg.
But the black wolf is quicker and swats his attacker away with a large paw, wasting no time on a counterattack. He springs, and his teeth sink into the shoulder of the red wolf.
The smaller wolf cries out in pain and uses his sharp claws to scratch and swipe at Ryker’s face, who has no option but to let go or be blinded by his opponent.
The red wolf is smaller, but he’s quick. He moves so fast I barely see it happen, but suddenly he has hold of the black wolf’s leg, and the sound of bones snapping makes me cover my mouth in horror. The black wolf throws his head back in a howl of pain, and it causes something in my heart to break.
No!
I did not spend the past ten months dreaming and obsessing over this black wolf to watch it die protecting me. I reach down and find a decent-sized rock, and without much hesitation, I hurl it at the red wolf’s head.
The satisfying clunk it makes when it connects with his skull is short-lived with its soulless eyes looking at me. He lets go of Ryker’s front leg and charges me.
I’m only able to back up a couple feet when my foot snags on a tree root, and I land on my butt. The red wolf’s teeth are only inches away when they try to bite down on my leg, but something pulls it away just in time.
Looking over the red wolf’s shoulder, I find Ryker’s teeth locked onto its back leg, and the snapping noise of the red wolf’s leg is a welcomed sound.
Moving so fast I barely caught the movement at all, the black wolf releases the hind leg and shoots forward, his powerful jaw locking onto the red wolf’s neck. The smaller wolf doesn’t even see it coming and doesn’t have time to react when his jugular is crushed. It makes a whimpering noise, and after a minute or so of struggling, it finally stills.
The black wolf shakes his head in an action similar to what a dog would do with its favorite chew toy in its mouth. He shakes the lifeless animal, a low growl emitting from his throat, and all I do is watch, not knowing what I’m supposed to do.
The sound of movement behind me makes me turn around, and I gasp when three more wolves enter the clearing, all various shades of silver, gray, and black. The two larger ones head for where the black wolf refuses to drop his prey while the smaller silver wolf slinks over to where I still sit on the ground.
“Oh, no,” I whisper nervously. After the past twenty-four hours, I have the right to be a little gun-shy around these animals. “Nice wolfy?” To my surprise, the animal makes a noise I swear sounds like a laugh. “Are you laughing at me?”
The animal shakes its large head before turning to watch the other three. The two larger wolves are softly barking and whining at the black wolf, trying to get his attention away from the carcass. I cringe when I see the blood dripping from his mouth.
“That’s disgusting,” I say aloud, even though I know no one will answer me.
But
