To my utter astonishment, the new monster doesn’t aim for me.
No.
The colossal red and gray wolf slams into the encroaching white wolf, and all hell breaks loose.
A cacophony of snarls bounces off the trees all around me. And like an idiot, I stand there completely dumbfounded as I watch the giant wolf bite the white one. He doesn’t shake his head like a natural predator would. No, he throws the white wolf, sending it sailing through the air, farther than should be possible. My horrified awe at his strength doesn’t even have time to kick in before he’s spinning just in time to meet an attack from another wolf.
A gargantuan black and gray beast charges me from the right, and I scream as I swing my branch at it. Anger fuels the hit, and my makeshift bat slams into the wolf’s muzzle. The contact jars me, but I hold tight to my weapon, satisfied that I showed it I wasn’t going to make this easy.
Take that, you fucker!
Instead of whimpering or flinching at my attack, the wolf turns its head and snaps at the branch, its powerful jaws breaking it in half like it’s nothing more than a matchstick.
No!
For a millisecond, I panic. I didn’t knock the bastard’s head off like I was hoping. I swing again with the smaller branch, not doing much damage but throwing it off balance. Which means it plows into me instead of immediately ripping me apart.
A jolting sting shoots up my spine when I land on my ass, making me suck in a pained breath. Despite the ache radiating through me, I kick at the wolf, nailing it in the leg, as I scramble to get back on my feet. An ungodly growl rips from my lips as I desperately try anything to keep the fucker away from me.
Out of nowhere, three more colossal wolves spill into the fray. The new arrivals attack the original pack. Flashing teeth fill my vision and when the wolves collide the very air seems to vibrate. Growls bombard me and a shiver of terror burrows deep into my chest.
Yes! Fight each other! That’s it!
I scurry to my feet, ready to make another run for it, but one of the fighting pairs crashes into me and I go down again hard. Smashing to the ground on my side, I wail as the menacing creatures tear and claw at each other on top of me. They’re over my legs, jumping, snarling, biting. Saliva flings onto my ankle and I can see every single one of their dagger-like teeth.
There’s no chance I can run now.
I was so close.
Despair slides its fingers over my body as if it relishes every defeatist thought going through my mind.
Covering my head, I try to squeeze into a protective ball while paws and fangs flash, slash, and snap terrifyingly close.
Mom, I’ll see you soon—
Teeth clamp down on my calf, and I scream as agony abruptly rips through my leg. A sharp, crushing pressure shreds through muscle and compresses my bones. It feels like my leg is being dipped in fire.
One of the wolves has me.
“No-no-no-no.” I scream, but all that comes out is a ghost of a sound as my voice abandons me.
A strong tug hauls me out from under the fighting wolves, and I claw desperately at the ground to keep the mongrel from dragging me to my death. My nails bend back painfully until one rips, but I can’t stop the powerful beast from taking me. There’s nothing to hold on to. There’s nothing to stop this thing from ripping me apart.
I flip over to try to kick it with my good leg as I’m yanked away. My cloak is a bloody-looking smear on the ground, as if it’s foreshadowing what’s about to become of me.
Panic rattling every bone in my body, I lash out. With my good leg, I kick at the pitch black wolf, which thankfully makes it let go of my leg to snarl threateningly at me.
Desperately, I throw dirt in the animal’s face and then shock the hell out of myself when my fist connects with the wolf’s head. Terror and rage pump wildly through me, and I hardly feel the impact of my punch, though I see it and hear it.
The wolf yelps, I think more in surprise than pain, because it just stares at me, and I swear I can see approval in its gray eyes. The wrongness of that once again shrieks in my mind like a wailing alarm. I know these things look like wolves, but there’s nothing natural about them.
After a tense beat where the black wolf just watches me, it starts to back away.
For a moment I’m too stunned to do anything other than pant shakily. I lean up on my elbows to keep the retreating wolf in sight. Confusion blasts through me as I watch the wolf retreat more.
How the fuck did that work?
There’s no way that I just punched a fucking monster into submission. Behind him, the other wolves still brawl, teeth slashing. All threats and action.
The bite on my leg throbs in time with my racing heart. I look down to see that my calf is bloody, but it doesn’t look completely mangled like I was afraid it would. Survival instinct slaps me across the face, and I roll to my stomach and start crawling away. I’ve barely managed to go half a foot when the burning ache in my leg morphs into a full-blown inferno.
I gasp at the sudden change in sensation, but that’s all I can do before I’m engulfed in white hot agony.
I scream—or at least I think I do—as pain shreds me.
My muscles feel like they’re tearing away from my bones. And my bones feel like they’re snapping apart, only to be fit back together so they can break again.
Mindless and lost to the anguish, I beg the moon and the stars, every god I’ve ever heard of. I even beg the four colossal wolves themselves that are now standing above me watching…waiting.
Stop! Please make it stop!
I plead and keen and writhe, but it doesn’t stop.
Inside my chest, my heart blasts off like a missile, rocketing faster than it ever has—until it feels like it will break the sound barrier.
BOOM.
My chest bursts apart and suffering seizes my voice, contracting my throat as torment tugs at every part of me.
The forest all around me is suddenly gone, and flashes of confusing images strobe behind my eyes. I blink and I’m walking up the steps of my first foster home. Then I’m pulled further back in time—making pancakes with my mom in our kitchen.
Pain flares, searing me from the inside out, and the vision of my memories is replaced by a dingy warehouse. I search my strange, fuzzy surroundings for anything familiar, but all I see is a large man angrily striding away. He yanks a door open, and the sunlight blazes in and swallows his silhouette.
Torment flickers through my limbs, and I’m strangely aware that even though my mind is focused on this dreary warehouse, my body is elsewhere suffering. It’s as though I’ve fractured somehow—and I’m terrified I’ll never come back together.
A whimper pulls me from my frenzied, agony-filled thoughts, and I turn to see a group of kids huddling in a far corner. They’re dirty and thin, and their fearful gazes toggle between the door the man disappeared through and me. My eyes land on a boy who has his back to me. I think he has bruises running up his side, but it’s hard to tell under the grime layering every exposed inch of him. His hair looks dark. Black maybe when it’s absent of dust and debris.
My heart aches for him. I feel it deeper than the ripping misery currently attacking my body.
I need him to turn. I need it more than I need this agony to stop. I need it in a way that doesn’t make sense, because this seems like a memory, though none of it’s familiar. None of this…except for him. The longing inside of me expands and grows, blooms into a thudding ache of its own.