Doug was the High Elder’s oldest son, and he was a fucking tool.
There was no convincing him to turn back and let us go. I would swear he got enjoyment out of sending young rabbit shifters to their deaths.
All my hatred for Doug found a new target when we pulled off on the side of the road behind a beat-up truck that looked older than me, and a man approached.
The headlights from our car lit him up like a spotlight.He had a gun—a hunting rifle.
His eyes glinted in the light like some monster in the night. He wore a worn black shirt with a faded logo I couldn’t make outand dark denim jeans that hugged his brawny frame, touting the power packed in his lean muscle.
You were supposed to be able to tell the color of their wolf’s fur by the color of their human hair. This man’s hair was silver. His pale hair was a shock against the dark swath of tattoos covering his body—his forearms, his throat. A barbed wire design even stretched from the edge of his sharp jaw and followed the perimeter of his hairline.
This guy’s whole vibe was backwoods cutthroat. He had no right to be so damn attractive.For all I knew, this was one of the wolves who’d eaten my sister.
He prowled toward my window, peering into the back seat.
Some of Hope’s excitement seemed to thin as she took in the approaching werewolf. “Is that one of the wolves? Why does he have a gun? Doesn’t he know we’re the sacred sacrifices?”
I turned on her, blinking. “What were you expecting? A red carpet? Wake the hell up, Hope. We’re about to be hunted down and eaten by wolves.”
Her lower lip trembled, and her sky-blue eyes filled with tears. “Don’t you think I know that? But we’re doing our duty to keep our burrow safe. Our sacrifice is going to save lives. I’m proud of that. I just thought…”
“That they’d be more appreciative of what we’re doing for them,” Sawyer muttered.
The tightness in my chest made each breath I took short and shallow as I watched the man approach the driver’s side window.
“Predators don’t respect their food,” I murmured.
The werewolf kept his gaze on me the entire time he spoke with Doug. Even as he pointed to Hope. “You first.”
My cousin glanced at me, and the look in her eyes drove a knife into my heart.
I’d always thought my cousin to be kind of an idiot who just did what she was told. But in these last moments I knew I hadwith her, I saw her in a different light. She was just making the best out of a situation she had no control over. She’d been told by our Elders and her own parents that this was herdutyto the colony.
So, Hope, being the good girl that she was, was going to do this with a smile on her face.
Even if she was screaming on the inside.
Me? I had no intention of being so compliant.
Hope moved to get out of the car, but I reached across Sawyer and snatched her wrist, preventing her from leaving. “Let’s go together.”
The male’s jaw flexed, and something almost akin to amusement flickered over his inked face. “Yeah, see, that’s not how this works, Little Bunny. Say your goodbyes now.”
“It’s okay…” At Hope’s brave smile, an uncomfortable pang burrowed into my gut. Nothing about this situation was anything close to okay.
I wanted to comfort her, to tell her to run as hard as she could. But there was no time. She pulled her wrist from my grip, opened her door and disappeared into the woods with the gunman.
Sawyer stared into the darkness that enveloped Hope. Without turning to face me, his hand crept over to mine and gripped it tightly. I resisted the urge to shake him off. At that moment, we needed each other.
Doug flipped on the radio and leaned back in his chair, humming along to John Denver’s “Country Roads.”
My mind grappled with what to do. My list of options was slim. We weren’t given any time to prepare, but one of my brothers had managed to press a small pocket knife into my hands while hasty goodbyes were given.
Doug wasn’t armed. He had no reason to be. Every Sacrifice was so thoroughly brainwashed that every bunny before me happily flocked to their slaughter.
Except me.
I’d just started to imagine sinking the blade into the back of his fat neck when the silver-haired male reappeared. Doug started to get out, but the werewolf was already at the door, ripping it open.
