Series: Werewolves of Wall Street Series by Renee Rose
Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 59360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
I lunge at him, lose my balance and fall. He waits until the last moment to catch me, scooping me up. We glare at each other, faces mere inches apart. I would choke him out if I could move my arms.
He curses. “I have to get you to safety.”
“L-l-let me go.” My teeth clatter.
“I can’t. Brick will kill me.”
“W-w-where–”
“He’s coming. The Adalwulfs are doing their best to stop him. It’s a dogpile.”
His shifter heat seeps into me, keeping frostbite at bay. “T-t-they d-dropped me here.”
“Yeah, I got that.” He carries me to the lake edge, hesitates. A howl breaks out, and his whole body tenses. “That’s Vance. Hang on.” His grip tightens, hauling me close, so he can run.
The snow blurs the world around us. His speed turns the snowflakes into needles, driving into my scraped cheeks. Everything hurts. My tears are frozen tracks down my face.
The howls have started up again. A wolf with a gray face and black back leaping towards us, and I flinch. It swerves to fall in behind Billy. I jolt, and Billy murmurs, “It’s okay. That’s Jake.”
I’m still gasping with the need to run away. After what I’ve been through, the sight of a strange wolf isn’t reassuring.
A second wolf, black with some rust markings on its sides and on either side of its throat, joins it. I bite back a warning because it seems to be guarding our flank with the first one. It has glowing amber eyes, like Brick.
Billy’s heading for the north side of the frozen lake. I hunch against him, ready for him to flounder in the drifts by the trees, but he simply gains speed and leaps high over the bushes, landing in a rocky area. We’re heading uphill, and both he and the wolves are running like they’re on flat land. Billy’s not even out of breath. Like Brick, his temperature seems hot, warming me through to my skin. I’m sweaty under my parka.
Above our heads, snow slides off a giant rock outcropping. Billy curses, narrowly avoiding the mini avalanche. Nickel peers down at us.
“This way,” he shouts. “We’ve secured a chalet.” He’s bare chested, but doesn’t seem to mind the cold.
Billy ascends to the rock, and Nickel falls in beside us jogging, naked. “Hello, little red riding hood.”
Billy snorts.
I hate them both. I’m too cold to talk, so I raise a frozen hand and extend my middle finger as far as I can.
Nickel smiles grimly. “Still alive, I see.” To Billy, he says, “Come on, we’ve got to get her out of the cold.”
“No, I thought we’d stop for tea,” Billy snarks. He and Nickel head higher, running through an obstacle course of trees and boulders like it’s a child’s play. The two wolves behind us fall back, standing on the rock as if looking out for enemies.
“Where are the Adalwulfs?” Billy asks.
“Scattered. I took two out and called for backup. Found this place.” He points up. We’re on the side of a mountain, and halfway up the peak, sunlight glances off a set of windows. “It’s an empty chalet. Remote, defensible. The road’s out, so it’s unreachable except by helicopter. We can secure it.” He says all this while leaping over boulders, not missing a breath. “Our Austrian allies are guarding the north and west perimeter in case more packs come to hunt the human.”
Hunt the human? Seriously?
“Where’s Brick?” Billy asks.
A roar echoes off the mountain. It’s answered by a chorus of chilling growls.
Nickel and Billy curse in unison and increase their speed. The trees fly by. Nickel dashes ahead. He jumps off a boulder and shifts mid-air, morphing into a giant white wolf. It lands on all four paws, its coat blending with the snow, and darts into the trees.
“He’ll try to distract them.” Billy’s voice is tight. “But I think they’re trying to stop us from getting to the–”
The trees part, and we’re in a huge clearing, right under the cliff that holds the chalet. And it’s a war zone.
A snarling pack of black wolves swarm a central figure. The creature in the center roars and throws five of them off at a time. The bodies go flying, one of them striking a tree trunk and cracking it in half. The other four gain their feet, shake their heads until the rabid foam flies from their fangs and leap back into the fray. The group writhes as they try to drag the center creature down.
It’s Brick. He’s in wolf form, his fur matted with blood, red staining the tan. There are wolves trying to bite his back, his sides. Giant wolves with red eyes and slavering jaws. He tears into them, flings them off, only for them to attack again and again. There are so many demon-eyed wolves. How has he survived?
Billy skids to stop on the edge of the clearing. The two wolves we left behind–Jake and the other, probably Vance–come hurtling past us and join the pile. They rip at the wolves attacking Brick, dragging them off one by one, and pinning them down to rip out their throats. Blood sprays, spattering the snow with bright red.