Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 242728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1214(@200wpm)___ 971(@250wpm)___ 809(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 242728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1214(@200wpm)___ 971(@250wpm)___ 809(@300wpm)
I blinked, falsely believing he would leap to his feet and prove he was too powerful to be hurt.
But he didn’t wake up.
He remained on the ground, his blood trickling black in the rising moonlight. A small pebble rested by his head, stained crimson from striking him.
I stumbled in numbed shock, looking up.
My eyes landed on a young hunter, Lida. I’d watched her training with Kivva and a few others over the past month. She was tiny compared to the other hunters, but she was deadly accurate with a leather hurler. I’d been awed how she could sling rocks at targets and take down birds from the sky with just a simple leather strap.
She caught my gaze, her chin tipped up even as tears rolled down her cheeks for what she’d done. Her delicate hands clenched around her dangling weapon.
Tral’s mouth dropped open as he looked at Darro’s sprawled form. The Nhil hunters shifted behind him, sucking in a worried breath. Kivva had the audacity to smirk, his arrogant face full of pride. “Told him I’d kill him.”
“Kivva,” Tral choked, his eyes still locked on Darro’s unconscious form. “What have you done?”
Aktor grabbed Kivva’s arm, his black eyes landing on the snarling wolf pack. “You need to go. Now—”
A rumbling growl sliced through the night, freezing everyone.
The night air crackled with stormy venom, lightning filled with hate and death-delivering thunder.
Natim struggled in my embrace as the hair on my nape prickled. Tumbling growls grew louder, deeper, angrier, vibrating with vehemence. Rage ignited through the pack—a wildfire of revenge and revulsion. It thickened and tangled until their fury was so thick, so black, I tasted it, saw it, felt it.
I flinched as Salak howled a vicious war cry.
Kivva tripped backward.
Tral yelled something in Firenese.
Aktor gripped his spear.
Salak pounced.
The giant predator soared through the sky, blotting out the stars, his mouth opened wide with carnage.
Kivva didn’t stand a chance.
The huge alpha landed on Kivva, bowling him to the ground. He vanished beneath dense fur and wiry muscle of the wolf as other Nhil hunters screamed and scattered. Yells and bellows clashed into one maddening noise as Salak raised his head, bared his teeth at the moon, then sank his sharp teeth into Kivva’s throat.
Kivva’s legs kicked, his fists batted at Salak’s muzzle. He sucked in a breath to scream—
But it was too late.
With a feral snarl and vicious shake, Salak tore out Kivva’s throat, breaking through his windpipe and crunching through his spine.
Sickness crowded my belly.
Natim bleated with fear, squirming away from the stench of death.
I shuddered as Kivva’s lifeforce was cut short, ripping him from this life and into nothing.
The prickle of his ending felt like a thousand bee stings against my skin.
Planting his paw on Kivva’s dead chest, Salak yanked up, taking a mouthful of bleeding gristle with him.
Tral retched, and Aktor screamed, but it was Lida who caught my horrified attention.
The young light-skinned girl dropped her leather hurler, trembling so hard her knees gave out. Her auburn braids danced and chimed as she clasped her hands together as she sobbed a Nhil prayer for mercy.
She’d been the one to strike Darro first.
She knew she was next.
Salak spat his mouthful of Kivva’s remains to the ground, his gums bloodied and lips drawn back over ruby-dripping fangs. Lowering his massive head, he stalked the girl. His claws sinking into the churned grass as his back rippled with power.
His haunches gathered to pounce.
He would kill her as surely as he killed Kivva.
He would tear out her heart for daring to harm the man he’d chosen as his packmate.
Lida sobbed and ran backward, her eyes locked on Salak as Nhil men tried to stop the alpha’s slinking attack. They threw spears and hurled staffs. Stones were cast only to bounce off his dense fur. Salak paid the other men no heed. He snapped at their spears and snatched at their staffs, breaking every weapon that came near him.
Aktor took a running leap, jabbing his spear at Salak’s back.
The alpha merely spun and sank his teeth into Aktor’s thigh, throwing him to the side as if he were nothing. Tral bellowed and landed on his knees beside his son, pressing his palms against the pumping wound.
The wolves scented blood.
Salak had drawn the first drop; it was their turn now.
They moved forward in terrifying synchronicity, going after the Nhil hunters who broke into a run, vanishing into the grasslands.
They gave chase.
Everywhere I looked, chaos rained.
The anarchy of terror and panic suffocated me. The Nhil’s horror overwhelmed my sensitivity, and I buckled onto all fours, struggling to breathe through ripe, sour extinction.
My vision faded in and out.
My pulse skittered and fluttered.
I felt their pain.
Their desperation.
Their dread as beasts hunted them down, running, running, running...
I choked as I felt the wolves’ triumph.
Their steadfast eradication of mortals who’d dared trespass and harm. They were diligent in their duty. Unremorseful as they delivered revenge.