Tangled

<79 Ava: Fighting Back

79 Ava: Fighting Back

Todd’s wolf form prowls closer, his hackles bristling with menace. His eyes burn with a feral hunger that sends tremors through me. Anticipation hums in the

air between us.

The tree trunk is rough against my back as I use it for support, forcing my body to its feet. The cool weight of the pocketknife in my hand keeps me centered.

I will not cower.

The mysterious energy from before, that primal force filling my veins, is gone. It’s a fleeting whisper of the past, eluding my grasp no matter how desperately I

search for it.

All I have is my training and the small knife I’d stolen from home.

I flip open the blade with a flick of my thumb, the soft click lost amidst the snarls and growls of the ongoing battle around us. At least, I hope it’s lost. I know wolf hearing is keen, but I don’t know its limitations.

Todd’s lips peel back in a vicious snarl, revealing

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79 Ava: Fighting Back

yellowed canines. It figures that even his wolf’s teeth

would need some work. His breath had always smelled

like those tuna sandwiches he eats.

He lunges, a blur of ruddy fur and gnashing jaws.

Instinct has me diving to the side, scrabbling for purchase on the uneven ground. He whirls to face me as I roll to my knees, gripping the knife tightly as I swipe at his muzzle. The blade catches a superficial level of skin and fur, drawing a thin line of crimson that only seems to enrage him further.

rips from his throat and I dash to the side, my heart pounding in frantic rhythm. The rush of

in my

from my face. Nausea churns in my belly,

the blade slicing through fur and flesh. A guttural yelp tears from his throat, but his momentum carries him forward,

with all the force of a large

from my lungs as I hit the ground, the

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Fighting Back

grasp. Stars explode across my vision before it fades, just

on my

muzzle inches from my

are like miniature daggers digging

unyielding.

strength, I manage to free one arm and lash

my mark, but it

a snort, giving me

side, scrambling for the knife as he

website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the

blade glinting in the moonlight. I’m bleeding. The scent of my blood mingles with the earthy aroma

Ava: Fighting Back

Faster, damn it.

knife and whirl onto my back just as Todd crashes down where I’d been lying just moments before. His

gash across his ear, his neck. A guttural yelp rips

involved in their own struggles several feet away. How many have set upon us? Too many to count. Did the entire pack make it

worry about them.

to deal

lunges again, his body slamming into mine like a fucking freight train. I stumble, gasping for air

Agony.

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Fighting

stab into anything I can, wild jabs of my hand. I hit something, because blood coats my hilt and my

me to the ground with a wide movement of his head and

sprawl back with a startled scream, and he’s on me again.

no position to dodge. I have no

into the ground beneath him. My fingers scrabble against the knife as I

his blood coating my hands in slick streaks of crimson. A strangled whine escapes his muzzle before he finally goes limp, his full

air, no longer suffocated by his rancid breath.