We screamed. All three of us, a harmony of terror that would have been funny in literally any other circumstance.
The wolf’s massive head swiveled toward us, lips pulling back to reveal teeth longer than my fingers. But its eyes, those horrible wild eyes, locked on me specifically. Nothing but feral hunger and terrible purpose in that gaze.
“Run!” Mika grabbed Vivi with one hand and me with the other. “Go go go!”
We scrambled for the alley door, feet slipping on glass and foam and things I refused to think about. Behind us, the beast lungedforward, claws scraping on my hardwood floors with a sound that would haunt me forever.
The alley door loomed ahead. Just ten feet. Five. We burst through into the narrow space between buildings, and I spun around.
“Go!” I shoved them toward the street. “Call the police! Get help! I’ll hold the door!”
“Are you insane?” Mika tried to grab me but I was already slamming the reinforced door shut.
“RUN! Get help!”
They ran. Good. At least they’d be safe.
I fumbled with the lock, hands shaking so badly I could barely work the mechanism. The reinforced door was supposed to protect against break-ins, not... this. But maybe it would buy them time. Maybe it would-
The door exploded off its hinges.
I flew backward, concrete rushing up to meet me. Pain shot up my arm where I landed wrong, skin scraping away in a burn of agony. My jeans tore at the knee, more skin sacrificing itself to the alley floor.
The wolf stalked through the ruined doorway, taking its time now that its prey was cornered. Foam dripped from its muzzle onto my legs, and I scrambled backward on my ass because dignity was for people who weren’t about to die.
Nowhere to go. Brick wall behind me, monster in front. The beast loomed over me, so close I could see myself reflected in its crazed eyes. This was it. This was how my parents died, torn apart by things that shouldn’t exist while camping in woods that supposedly held no danger.
“Please,” I whispered, though I knew it wouldn’t understand, wouldn’t care.
The wolf lunged.
I closed my eyes, not wanting its face to be the last thing I saw.
A massive impact shook the alley, but not on me. Snarling erupted, vicious and violent. My eyes flew open to see another wolf, this one pure black and even larger than the gray, slamming my attacker into the alley wall with devastating force.
They fought with violence that belonged in nightmares. The black wolf moved with deadly grace, keeping itself between me and the rabid gray. When it glanced back at me, just for a second, my heart stopped.
Gray eyes. Intelligent, aware, familiar gray eyes in a wolf’s face.
But before I could process that impossibility, hands grabbed me.
“MOVE!” Mika and Vivi hauled me to my feet, because of course they hadn’t actually run for help, the beautiful idiots.
They dragged me back through the destroyed doorway while the wolves tore into each other behind us. We stumbled through my ruined shop, glass crunching under our feet, and I caught one last glimpse through the shattered window.
The gray wolf lay still in the alley. The black wolf grabbed it by the throat and began dragging it toward the tree line that bordered the back of the buildings, those gray eyes scanning the street once before disappearing into the woods entirely.
We huddled in the shop for another thirty minutes, listening to sirens wail their warning to a town that had forgotten monsters were real. My arm throbbed where I’d scraped it raw, blood seeping through my torn jeans, but I was alive. Somehow, impossibly, we were all alive.
I pulled out my phone with shaking hands, texting Sarah first: “I’m okay. At the shop. Are you safe?”
Her response came immediately: “Thank god. I’m fine, doors locked. Stay inside sweetheart.”
I texted everyone else I could think of, needing to know they were safe. The relief as each response came through was overwhelming. Mika and Vivi did the same, the three of us creating a weird texting circle of reassurance.
The news trickled in through messages and social media. Sightings across town, people reporting massive wolves in the streets. But from what we could tell, my shop had taken the worst hit. Lucky me.
“That’s it,” I announced once the sirens finally went quiet. “You two are taking a cab home. Together.”
