A pack of wolves.
Thank God.
The woman hissed, her vampire fangs distending onto her bottom lip as the man went to the front of the tent.
“Paladins?” the woman asked.
He shook his head. “They aren’t stupid enough to come on our land for a little demon girl. It’s a pack of Wolf City wolves.”
She cursed. “Get Butcher.”
Butcher. Was that a name or a profession? Because I really needed it to be a name…
The man leapt out of the tent as the woman grabbed a pair of pliers from her desk and stalked over to where I sat, hands and ankles bound, leaning up against the wall.
I watched the pliers in her hand as she gripped them in her fist and then reached out lightning-quick and grabbed me by the back of the head.
“Hold still, I just need one eye.”
Oh fuck that.
Fear surged up inside of me as my wolf shook my skin like a cage, begging to be freed.
If I died, or lost an eye, these cuffs would be to blame.Sawyerwould be to blame. I couldn’t let that happen, I liked living too much.
I let her get close to me, leaning in to try to take my eye, and that’s when I came up with my zip-tied hands, holding both fists balled together, and cracked her so hard under her chin that I heard her teeth break.
She stumbled backward, screaming in pain as I leapt from the fireplace wall and hopped like a bunny across the room. I almost lost my balance as dizziness washed over me, but knew staying upright was my only shot at living. When I reached the door, I threw my shoulder into it and leapt out of the house.
Oh shit.
Many things hit me all at once.
One: this was a tree house. Two: I was falling very rapidly to the ground. And three: Sawyer had just shown up with over thirty wolves, armed to the teeth.
By some trick of fate, the tree house was only about six feet off the ground, maybe to help with flooding or ground insects. There was a pile of freshly raked leaves that I crashed into, softening the blow, and I sent up a quick prayer of thanks to whomever raked them. Still, it hurt. Everything hurt so damn much from my first fall that when I slammed into the leaves a howl ripped from my throat, followed by a whimper.
“Demi!” Sawyer’s voice was panicked and raw. As I’d been falling, I’d seen him in human form, coming up the ridge with the others. He must have seen me fall out. I rolled over the bed of leaves and popped back to my feet, jumping again like a bunny, just wanting to get to Sawyer and his men so I could be safe.
He came for me. I knew he’d come for me.
“Look out!” Sawyer yelled, and everything in me tensed as someone grabbed me from behind, their strong hand coming around the back of my throat and a sleek steel knife going to the front.
This person holding me radiated power I could sense and smell. When he pulled me to his chest, I knew it was a different man from the one who had originally kidnapped me.
I was panting, out of breath and out of hope as Sawyer and his wolf pack finally reached us.
Doors slammed and ropes descended from the trees, and suddenly over a hundred Ithaki were gliding down from the tree houses and meeting their leader, who I was one-hundred-percent sure was the man holding a knife to my throat.
Sawyer was wearing a full black camouflage jumpsuit, knives and guns at his waist, and another held loosely in his hand.
The Ithaki held bows and arrows and spears, all aimed at him.
“Let. Her. Go.” Sawyer’s voice was barely human. Fur kept trying to erupt from his skin as his wolf tried to take control.
The man behind me laughed. “Finders keepers. You’re trespassing, and so was she when we found her. It was all legal, by the book.”
Sawyer clenched his jaw. “She fell. She didn’t wander. You will release her to me right now and I will pay you for the trouble.” Sawyer snapped his fingers and a young male wolf stepped forward with a suitcase, but the knife dug harder into my skin and I yelped.
