Page 17 of Justice
In front of us was a row of wolves, taller than any of us. Their muscles bunched tightly as their wide frame coiled with aggression. There weren’t many of them, maybe eight of the wolves against the five of us, but what they lacked in numbers they made up in mass. The largest of the group took a slow step forward; its eyes fixed on us as it stalked its prey, and I stepped back, straight into Sterling.
“We’ve got this,” he assured me, though I didn’t feel the usual confidence that came with his words.
A low growl sounded from the lead wolf, and those behind him followed, mocking his sound with a rumble of their own. They were furious, their bodies shaking with their need to destroy us. Their leader took another step forward, his teeth bared, glistening in the rays of our flashlight. It was easier to have confidence in our success when the danger wasn’t so immediate. The row of wolves in front of us and the wall of molten lava and stone monsters behind us made our situation dire.
Oak dropped my hand, and I immediately missed the faux protection his touch had offered. His voice nearly resigned as he broke through the growls with his words, “Liberty, get behind us, we’ll try to clear the way.”
It was sacrificial, really. But I couldn’t allow it. I may have started off this journey weak, but I was gaining my strength and confidence, and if these boys were going to die on a mission I dragged them on, then I was going to die alongside them, our blood mingling and pooling together on the stone slabs below our feet.
“No.”
“Liberty. Now is not the time to –”
I cut off his words. “We were tossed into this mess together, and we do it all together.”
He glanced at me over his shoulder, his beautiful eyes locked onto mine for a pause longer than was deemed safe at the moment before he gave me a slight nod. “We do this together then.”
Oak took a step forward at the same time the wolf did, its snarls growing louder. It would be another five seconds before they pounced. Ellis struck first, his knife swinging at the beast as its jaws opened, prepared to lock its teeth around Ellis’ throat.
Within seconds, the others followed, their bodies jostling under the weight of the wolves. But right in their midst, a single wolf stood, large and looming as he stared at me, his golden eyes unblinking as he moved a paw forward. I heard someone scream my name, the sound followed by words, but I couldn’t register them, not when I was locked into the wolf’s gaze.
“The necklace!” It was Oak. “He has the necklace around his neck!”
Oak screamed the words at me as he shifted his feet, merely avoiding a jaw chopping onto his legs. His words, though, barely registered—those eyes. I was mesmerized. Trapped. The wolf growled, and still, I stepped toward him, not even raising my blade for protection. He snarled before falling back to his hind legs and springing forward, clashing with my body and taking me to the ground.
I felt his jaw clamp at the base of my throat, and though I tried to move from under his weight, it paralyzed me. I couldn’t fight him; I couldn’t stop the teeth from tearing into my skin or my blood from trailing down and pooling into the dirt below me.
Oak appeared, his body glowing with rage, and reached around the beast’s neck and jerked him backward, using all his weight to pull him away from my body, stumbling to the ground while struggling against the vicious animal. He turned in Oak’s arms, this time, his rage amplified as he bared his teeth, saliva dripping down and gathering on Oak’s chest.
“Liberty, you have to do something! He has the necklace!” Oak’s words were clipped. My brain too fogged to understand them.
Sterling appeared, and without a second thought, he jumped onto the beast’s back, struggling along with Oak to contain its strength. But the creature didn’t seem to notice Sterling, past the nuisance his weight was, and shifted sharply, throwing Sterling against the stone before bringing his focus back to Oak.
His jaw widened above Oak as he leaned in, hovering over Oak’s face. Oak was struggling, his strength waning after repeated fights for the day, but still, he pushed against the animal. Grabbing handfuls of fur as he attempted to shove him back while trying to grab at his neck.
A glint of stone and metal caught my eye, and Oak’s words finally registered. The necklace was on this wolf’s neck. This was what we needed to get and be gone. Oak wasn’t trying to save himself; he was trying to break free the necklace, and while he sat and struggled, I stared on in an uncontrollable trance. And now, it was too late.
The wolf’s mouth was open, its teeth only millimeters from Oak’s skin. He snapped, the sweet scent of Oak’s blood floating toward me, but it was only a graze. Oak’s skin brightened with power as the beast roared, and they both fought, equally matched with will and strength. But the wolf hadn’t been battling obstacles for hours, and it was getting the upper hand.
His colossal head rammed into Oak, pushing his skull back into the dirt, stunning Oak long enough to allow the wolf’s mouth to open one last time. His jaw pulled wide, stretched to the max as he leaned toward his next meal, and Oak, he was dazed, still recovering from the blow, not seeing the threat coming. I screamed, the sound of Oak’s name leaving my body in guttural torment a moment too late. I’d done nothing to stop it, nothing to save him. I froze. The wolf made a sound of satisfaction as his teeth touched Oak’s skin, and I couldn’t . . . I couldn’t handle it, I couldn’t watch him die.
“STOP!” I screamed, the words leaving my mouth with such force that my eyes slammed closed for a moment, and all sound around me stilled.
Silence encased us, and I opened my eyes, seeing the last remaining wolf’s body poised over Oak’s, frozen in place before it pulled back slightly. Oak wasted no time. He used the stillness of the beast to his advantage, reaching up and pulling the necklace from the wolf’s neck before throwing it to my feet.
I stared down at the jeweled treasure for a moment before bending and picking it off the ground. My breath came quickly as the jewels pulled at me before pushing energy into the surrounding cave. I looked up at Oak, his watchful eyes curious as my hair lifted, and there was a shift in the air around me.
Then as quickly as it started, the motion stopped, and there, before me, crouching over Oak where a wolf once was, appeared a man. One furious, ticked off, naked man.
Chapter 9
JUSTICE
I stumbled backward,pushing myself away from where my naked body was straddling some guy’s thighs, and practically crab crawled against a dirty stone wall. Me? The fucking king, covered in dirt and grime and using a wall at my back as my only protection. Where was Horo?
The eyes on me sat heavily, waiting for me to speak, which seemed presumptuous since I hadn’t the slightest clue what the fuck was going on. Still, I swallowed past the dryness in my throat and pushed a scratchy word out. “Horo?”
Why did it hurt so much to speak?