Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
“Shit,” the curse falls from my lips in a stunned whisper, and then I snap out of it, yelling, Run!”
Flipping over, I try to scramble to my feet, but I’m tackled to the ground by Jonah. It knocks the wind out of me long enough for him to turn my onto my back again, grab my wrists, and pin me down.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“They’re here!” I scream inexplicably as I wrestle to get from under him. “We need to leave!”
Jonah blinks at me through his glasses like I’m crazy, and then he sneers. “Nice try, thief. There’s no one out here but us.”
“Get off me!” When all he does is nudge my thighs apart and wedge himself between them, I scream. It’s not until Jonah attempts to stuff a meaty paw down my tights, and I scream again, that I realize why I’m screaming or, rather, who I’m screaming for.
My mountain men.
“Yeah, you’re not going anywhere, princess. You—”
I hear the familiar whistling sound of another arrow cleaving the air and then a wet, sickening crunch as it finds its target this time.
My struggles stop as I stare up at Jonah in horror.
His grip on my wrists loosens, and then his astonished gaze lowers. He tries to speak when he sees the bright green arrow piercing his chest and the red bloom slowly spreading, but only a hoarse, hollow gasp escapes.
“Hey, Jonah,” Ronnie calls out. “You all right, man?”
Only a gurgling sound answers back, and then Jonah’s eyes roll back before he collapses.
“Oh, shit!”
I push their friend off me while Pete and Ronnie panic. Sam is the only one whose shock won’t let him make a sound. He’s also the only one standing between me and freedom.
This time, I don’t hesitate.
I make the cold and calculated move of trying to push past him for the van, and just as I predicted, he reacts and backhands me hard enough that I go flying.
By the time I blink the stars away and look up, Sam’s clutching his bleeding throat. This time, the arrow sticking out of his neck is yellow from the compound bow. My bow. Our gazes lock as he chokes on his own blood, and then he falls to his knees first before faceplanting in the snow. I cringe when the arrow is shoved deeper from the impact and punches through the back of his neck with another sickening crunch. Shaking it off, I step over Sam’s body to get to van now that he’s no longer in my way.
I can feel bad about what I’ve done later.
“Yo, what the fuck!” Ronnie screams as I climb into the front seat.
“Sam!” Pete cries in vain. His friend doesn’t answer. Sam’s eyes are still open but unseeing as his crimson blood stains the snow red. “I think…I think he’s dead!”
Ronnie panics and tries to run for cover, but another yellow arrow to the leg keeps him from getting far. He collapses to the ground with a scream for help, but the only thing that answers is four more arrows, both green and yellow, when he tries to crawl away. After far too long of trying to cling to life, Ronnie eventually slumps in the snow with a haunting death rattle.
“Aurelia,” Pete calls for me, and I tear my gaze away from the steering wheel to meet his through the dirty window. What’s happening?” His hands are shoved in his red hair and he’s crying. He’s the only one still alive, and it’s because Seth, Thorin, and Khalil want it that way. They’ll want him to suffer in order to punish me.
I’m not even aware of my hands leaving the steering wheel and moving to the door handle until I’m already standing on the other side and moving over to Pete. I’m careful not to look at all of the blood and bodies staining the once white snow.
When I reach out for Pete, he flinches and backs away from me, and I don’t yet understand that I’m the unknown thing he’s afraid of until he speaks. “Please don’t hurt me. I’m sorry, okay? We just wanted to have a little fun. You wouldn’t have even remembered anything!”
What? “Pete…” I try once more to reason with him—to save his life. “We don’t have time for this. We need to go.”
His eyes fly over my shoulder without a word, and I know then it’s already too late.
I feel his presence like an angry cloud looming over my head before he even speaks.
“Wolf.”
Hearing Thorin’s voice, I squeeze my eyes closed. I can feel the other two there as well, adding to Thorin’s fury with their crackling energy and endless deluge. If Thorin is the cloud, then Khalil is the lightening and Seth the rain that makes up this storm I’ve caused.
The three of them try to close around me, to cut me off from Pete, so I turn to face Thorin, Khalil, and Seth before they can, using my body to protect Pete’s. My gaze bounces between my three captors because I can’t decide which one is my best chance to reason with.