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.

side, my heart pounding in frantic rhythm. The rush of

my

inches from my face. Nausea churns

through fur and flesh. A guttural yelp tears from his throat, but his

all the force of a large adult wolf and an entire lifetime

from my lungs as I hit the ground,

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Fighting Back

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

on my shoulders with crushing force. His hot

inches

his claws are like miniature

unyielding.

adrenaline–fueled strength, I manage to free one arm and lash out blindly, my nails raking

mark, but it startles

back with a snort, giving me

scrambling for the

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

moonlight. I’m bleeding. The scent of my blood mingles with the earthy aroma of the forest floor, a sickly metallic tang

Ava: Fighting

Faster, damn it.

where I’d been lying just moments before. His jaws

knife with a white–knuckled grip, I lash out wildly, the blade slicing a shallow gash across his ear, his neck. A guttural yelp rips from his throat as he snaps at my arm,

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

worry about

have to deal

a fucking freight train. I stumble, gasping for air as his claws

Agony.

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Ava: Fighting

jabs of my hand. I hit something, because blood coats my

head and upper body somehow

startled scream, and he’s on

I

low and blind, grunting as his weight slams me into the ground beneath him. My fingers scrabble against the knife as I yank it out and stab again and again, even as he snaps and bites at my face, my shoulders, in between shrieks.

shudders violently, his blood coating my hands in slick streaks of crimson. A strangled whine escapes his muzzle before

his rancid breath. There’s no breath at all. Only blood and earth.