Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 23283 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 116(@200wpm)___ 93(@250wpm)___ 78(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23283 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 116(@200wpm)___ 93(@250wpm)___ 78(@300wpm)
I just wish he would—
Ah! Fuck!!!
My bear roars out—agony mixed with fury—as white-hot pain pierces our back leg. It cuts through our thigh with a scalding burn. The pain is intense.
He swats his massive paw and connects with the wolf shifter. The man flies backward and takes out some branches before hitting the ground hard.
His long sharp Samurai sword is wedged in our back thigh. Blood is pouring down our leg, matting our fur, and turning the soil into red mud.
“Fucking hell,” Jackson mutters as he rolls his eyes. “Damn amateurs. You want something done right, you got to do it yourself.”
He slams his fist into his palm and approaches with a determined look on his face.
My bear growls and hobbles forward to meet him.
With my Kodiak distracted, the slippery Frenchman slides up and yanks his sword out. My bear roars in pain. Unfortunately, I feel it too and it’s worse than anything I’ve ever felt before.
Blood pours out as the two bears phase back into their human forms.
My bear lashes out at Jackson, but he jumps out of the way. We’re losing a lot of blood. Our movements are heavier. Muddier. Stiffer. Slower. They circle us.
Jackson tackles my bear and grabs my back legs, flattening them to the ground. At the same time, Ryker grabs my front left leg and Grayson grabs my right.
Remy grins as he walks in front of me with his bloody Samurai sword. I can see the red drops dripping off it.
“Well, that was fun, mon ami,” he says as positions himself beside my head. My bear snaps at him, trying to grab his leg, but we’re pinned down and can’t reach. We can’t fucking move.
This is it. This is the end.
The moment I’ve been waiting for.
Then why do I feel so… sad?
I think it’s because I never got to see her. I never got to meet my mate.
After all the shit I’ve been through, I guess deep down, I never gave up on hoping I’d find her. That someday I’d get to gaze into her beautiful eyes and see my soul mate staring back at me.
That I’d get to touch her soft skin and bathe in her warm scent.
It hits me that she’s still out there and it brings a bit of fight back into me. The apathy crumbles off and the will to live bursts through.
I add my strength to my bear’s as we try to break free.
But it’s too late.
The Frenchman raises the sword over his head and grins as he brings it down.
CHAPTER TWO
Layla
“Is he gone?” my cousin Matt yells. “Does anyone see him?”
He looks up at me and my sister Dawn. “Do you see him, Layla?”
We’re higher up on the cliff, so we have a better view. I scan the treetops of the forest and my stomach sinks when I see the trees shaking.
“He’s over there,” I say. “About one hundred and fifty yards out.”
“Can we get down?” Matt asks.
My other cousins, Peter and Genie, are already climbing down. Peter’s best friend Corey is too. He lets out a frustrated groan when he picks up his smashed iPhone.
“I had pictures in here,” he says as little bits of glass fall to the ground.
“Of what, your lizard?” Genie says with a chuckle.
He frowns at her. “Yeah, so? I made him a little top hat. It was adorable.”
“You’re sure he’s gone?” Matt says in a shaky voice as he clings to the cliff. He was always the most fearful one of us. Whenever we played hide and seek as kids, he’d always avoid the basement, closets, and laundry room—basically any dark places.
“He’s gone,” my sister Dawn tells him. She’s a little bit lower than me and she’s already climbing down.
I’m still staring at the trees with a sinking feeling in my stomach. Who are those guys? What are they doing to that bear?
He’s hollering up a storm.
Everyone was afraid when he strolled out of the forest, but I was intrigued. It was the most beautiful animal I’d ever seen.
I felt almost drawn to him.
I almost climbed down to get a better look, maybe even to touch him, but then Corey dropped his phone and some sense came back into my head.
But that sound… That roaring of engines… That growling and yelping…
I don’t like it.
“They better not be hurting that bear,” I say under my breath as I watch the trees trembling. Something is going on over there.
I hear a yelp and my body starts moving. I fly down the cliff, quickly rappelling down as I pass my younger sister.
“Look at my phone,” Corey says when my feet hit the ground. He thrusts his smashed iPhone in front of me. I barely glance at it as I yank off straps and unbuckle my harness.
I toss it all on the ground and sprint to the trees.