Tangled

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78 Ava: An Old Enemy

78 Ava: An Old Enemy

The terror that had gripped me so tightly finally begins to loosen its hold, washed away by the exhilarating rush of my feet pounding against the ground, the world flying past in my periphery.

It’s a simple rhythm.

One foot in front of the other.

Vault over an obstacle. Veer to avoid a tree. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ FindNøvᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

The wind against my skin is harsh, like a thousand icy whips snapping against my cheeks. But the pain is almost euphoric.

My feet pound against the forest floor, each step fueling the fire of freedom burning within me.

It’s a feeling unlike anything I’ve ever experienced- raw power, an almost frenetic energy, thrumming through my body with an intensity that steals my breath away. The trees zoom past in blurs of shadow.

I can hear the wolves keeping pace beside me, their breaths ragged growls that harmonize with the frantic beat of my heart. My unnatural speed helps me keep

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78 Ava: An Old Enemy

pace. I’m not faster than they are, but I’m far faster than their human forms.

They probably have questions.

I don’t know how to answer them.

But, that’s for another time. Right now, we need this.

There’s no fear now, no uncertainty. Only an overwhelming sense of freedom so pure and intoxicating that I want to lose myself in it forever. I am unleashed, unchained–a force of nature given

form.

My lungs burn with the effort, but I don’t slow. Can’t slow. This is what it means to be truly alive, to embrace what dwells within me. To hell with being human; right now, I am so much more.

Civilization. Safety. My throat tightens with a sudden surge of emotion–hope, relief, gratitude. I’m going to make it.

howl shatters the night, closer than before. My

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Ava: An

their lives by entering enemy territory

trees falls away, revealing the city of White Peak. An hour’s

foot.

I pour on

So

with a chilling resonance that raises the hairs on the back of my neck. The wolves

how Lucas and Vester crowd into me, teeth bared and hackles up.

the power within me surge, a tidal wave of energy that propels me forward with impossible velocity. The city is closer with every passing heartbeat, the

force that drives the air from my

fingernails gorahhling against the

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to stop my

into snarls and growls, of vicious, inhuman noises torn from the vocal chords of

I’m breathless and disoriented, the world spinning around me. Twigs and leaves cling to my hair, my palms stinging from the impact. I blink tears from my

eerie shrieks of pain interspersed between the rumbles. Fur and fangs clash in a frenzied melee, a tangle of

ground trembles with the force of their collisions, each impact punctuated by deep, guttural growls that reverberate through

blood.

wolf faces. But

Ag

An

rages on.

I have something far worse to worry about.

my hands clawing at the earth as a familiar wolf emerges from the shadows, its golden eyes locked on me with an intensity that chills me to the core. The raw hunger in that gaze

predator sizing up its

weak and sluggish in its wake. The euphoria of my newfound freedom has been replaced

to someone who can’t shift. I’ve seen him -hundreds of times through the

silence that’s somehow more terrifying than any snarl or growl. The air around him is filled with the energy of

promise of brutality

present.

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<

An

his wolf–yellow eyes that seems to strip away every last shred of my humanity, reducing me to nothing more than a trembling rabbit for

prowls ever closer. If he were human, I could envision the arrogant smirk that would be curving his lips right now, the