Winter Wolf(60)

“Shit, we’re too late,” Bass muttered.

Katalina’s head whipped around. “Too late? What do you mean? BASS!” Katalina’s heart pounded in her ears, her knee jiggled faster, her fingers trembling. She wanted to scream, her mind on the edge of hysteria.

Bass didn’t answer her as she shouted at him. Instead, he scanned the tree line; his eyes focused and calculating. The car swerved sharply, bouncing them into the woods. Arne barked beside her.

“Bass, what are you doing?” she screamed.

“Trying to find…”

“I don’t understand. What is this?”

He didn’t answer.

“Sebastian!” She felt the wolf in her rise to the surface, her growl coming through in Katalina’s voice.

Bass slammed on the brakes, nearly sending Arne through the windshield. Bass turned to her, his face like stone, his eyes dark and hungry for blood.

“Dark Shadow have done this. They’ve trapped them in and they’ll slaughter them all.” His voice held the raspy edge of rage.



“What?” her voice a haunted whisper, picturing all of the people she’d met, dying. Toby, Cage, Karen… They can’t die.

“Bass, Bass, they can’t die. We can’t let this happ-en,” her voice broke, the fear she felt overtaking her.

Bass turned and looked at her, his face fierce and determined. “Katalina, none of them will die. We’re going to drive through, okay?”

She nodded silently, swiping the tears from her cheeks. Katalina held the seat preparing for the drive, when she sensed someone. She met Bass’s gaze; his look told her he’d sensed them too.

She opened the door, looking for whoever approached.

“Katalina!” Bass hissed.

“It’s okay. It’s—” She never finished her sentence. Cage raced toward the truck a second later, his teeth bared, and the hairs along his back standing on end. He slowed as he saw her but his eyes never left Bass.

Bass slowly and deliberately made his way toward Katalina, positioning himself in front of her.

Cage changed. “You’d think I’d harm her!” he growled. “Scum, all of you Dark Shadows.”

“I’d be careful what you say if I were you!” Bass said in a low, hard tone.

“Or what?” Cage spat back.

“Oh, will you stop it!” Katalina stood between them, infuriated by their wolfy-testosterone battle. “We don’t have time for this. Cage, get in. We’re driving through.”

The forest around them was thick with smoke, the black plumes cutting off their air.

Bass started the truck as the smoke filtered through the vents. “Quick, Bass!” Katalina coughed.

He slammed his foot on the accelerator causing the wheels to spin in the snow. They reached the wall of fire. One second they were surrounded by smoke, flames and darkness, the next, bright glittering snow and a nightmare rolling out in slow motion lay before them. Blood and claws, screams and cries, and the victorious growls from the Dark Shadow wolves. There were too many Dark Shadow wolves for River Run to have any chance of winning. Katalina stared on in disbelief and horror, her eyes wide with fear. Seeing Toby struggling under the weight of two wolves, Jackson slowly losing his battle, more River Run out- numbered and badly injured, filled her with fury. The universe screamed death. The universe wanted blood.

Cage leapt from the still-moving car, changing into his wolf mid-jump. He entered the fray, no hesitation, no fear as he raced across the snow, tearing down those in his path.

She lurched forward as the car slammed to a stop. Her head whipped to the side, Bass having already climbed out, his clothes dropping to the floor.

“Stay in the car,” he ordered, before disappearing.

Her eyes tracked him, her shadow wolf, beautiful even as he dealt out death.

Frozen, stunned, detached from the world, each breath rasped in and out, her heart battered an unrelenting beat. She climbed out of the car, her hands trembling while the wolf within her stirred.

A scream caught her attention, she whipped around, her back pressed up against the truck; it was Karen’s scream. Karen’s eyes, huge and full of tears, stared at Toby, her arms held protectively around two small boys.

Toby was losing. She couldn't tear her eyes away. She watched in growing rage as he collapsed under the weight of three wolves.

“Toby!” Her scream tore from her, echoing around them.

The keening howls in reply broke her. Katalina’s clothes floated to the ground as she ran, her wolf bursting from her skin.

As white as the snow and as deadly as the predator she was, Katalina met the Dark Shadow wolves with the fury of her loss and her grief. With the slash of claws and the snap of her jaw, she used the weight of her wolf to barrel into them, sending them tumbling away from Toby. Crouching low and snarling, she crept toward the wolves. Her hackles rose, every cell of her being craving blood.