Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 42655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 213(@200wpm)___ 171(@250wpm)___ 142(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 42655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 213(@200wpm)___ 171(@250wpm)___ 142(@300wpm)
“I can follow them,” he said.
“You’re not going alone,” Caleb said.
David looked past the she-bear’s form to see the pack had followed them.
Joe was there with a jacket, which he threw over the young girl.
“You need to get her to safety,” David said. “I’m going to go after Heather. Thank you.” He looked at the girl. “I will never forget this.”
“I can help,” she said.
“The best way for you to help me right now is to gain control of your bear. My mate is going to want to see you when she returns.” He turned to Caleb. “I don’t care what the rules are. Humans have taken her. I will get to her.”
“We’re all coming.”
“Your mate?” David asked.
“Do you think I can look my mate in the eye if I let you do this alone?” Caleb asked. “I’m coming. A pack against these humans is better than one.”
“And I’m coming, too.”
David looked behind him to see Heather’s uncle coming toward them.
“You don’t have to.”
“I’m not leaving. Heather needs to be safe, and you need all the help you can get.”
****
Heather heard the crowd going wild as another creature joined her. She smelled the air and knew without a doubt the wolf that was in the fight cage with her was a shifter.
This wasn’t a wild animal.
She turned her head and looked straight into its eyes. The open scars that decorated his body were clear. This shifter had been fighting for its life.
The noise of the stadium seemed to all become a blur.
“You’re not wild.” The words whispered across her mind, and she quickly stood on all fours as she looked at the creature.
“How are you doing that? You’re not pack.”
“True, but us shifters, we have a certain … bond. All of us. If we allow ourselves the chance to tap into who we really are, we would be unstoppable.” He sighed.
The crowd went wild and she looked up.
So many people.
“They want us to kill one another.”
“No, that’s not a sport. They want one of us dead. The other to be a victor. You’re a mated female, and you’re different. What are you?”
“I am mated, but I’m no different than you.”
“You didn’t want to kill that animal.”
She growled. The memory of killing another innocent being was more than she could stand. She had vowed never to harm others and yet, that was exactly what she’d done, and she hated herself for it. All in the name of survival.
He snarled right back.
When he took two steps toward her, she stiffened, ready for an attack.
“There is no getting out of here. Accept your fate.”
“I don’t believe that. I will be free. My mate will find me.”
“Funny thing, how did you come to be here again?” he asked. “No mate of mine would ever get the chance to be alone.”
She snapped at him but didn’t close her teeth around his neck.
They were clearly not good entertainment as a raw piece of steak was thrown into the cage.
“Ugh, that’s disgusting.”
“A juicy piece of steak. You don’t want it?” he asked.
“No, I really, really, really don’t.” Just the smell of that thing was enough to make her feel sick. It reminded her of the crimson blood spilling from the white wolf.
The bait hadn’t done what her kidnappers wanted. She sat back on her hind legs while this new shifter went to the piece of steak and began to eat it.
His sheer hunger surprised her.
“They don’t allow us to eat. They think it makes us more bloodthirsty.”
“How many have you killed?” she asked.
“Enough. They don’t allow me to feed on them for too long. They like to use electrical rods to stop me.”
She looked up and saw the men were unhappy. The crowd was bored.
“I don’t want to kill you.”
“Honey, you’re not going to get the chance to kill me.”
“I think it’s time we made this a little more interesting,” one of the men who had taken her said.
The crowd once again cheered at the prospect of more excitement.
There was a lot of noise, a lot of laughter, and she glanced up to try to make out what the hell was going on.
“What’s happening?” she asked.
“No, idea. They’ve never done this before.”
That wasn’t a comfort.
“You know, if we turn, it will freak them out enough for us to possibly make an escape.”
“Are you crazy? I’m not turning in front of them. We can never expose ourselves to the humans like that.”
“I didn’t say they were going to live long enough afterward.”
Heather looked at him and knew he must have lost his damn mind if he thought turning in front of them would somehow render him stronger. His wolf was weak. The way he attacked the steak, the fact he was starving, it was why he still had open wounds.
Being a shifter was all well and good, but it also demanded a level of care that these bastards clearly weren’t taking.