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.

from his throat and I dash to the side, my heart pounding

in my ears.

shut inches from my face. Nausea churns in my belly, courtesy of his rancid breath.

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 of

from my lungs as I hit the

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Ava: Fighting

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

in a rush. I’m pinned beneath Todd’s paws, pressing down on my shoulders with

his muzzle inches

writhe, but his claws are like

unyielding.

strength, I manage to free one arm and lash out blindly, my nails raking across his muzzle and smacking against one eye.

mark, but it startles him.

giving me a moment

the side, scrambling for

website on Gøøglᴇ to

in the moonlight. I’m bleeding. The scent of my blood mingles with the earthy aroma of the forest floor, a sickly metallic tang that pushes me to move

Ava: Fighting Back

Faster, damn it.

snatch the knife and whirl onto my back just as Todd crashes down where I’d been lying just moments before. His jaws snap shut with a resounding clack. Flecks of spittle and

gash across his ear, his neck. A guttural yelp rips from his throat as he snaps at my arm, ripping skin as I dash backward, scrambling to my

involved in their own struggles several feet away. How many have

worry about

deal

mine like a fucking freight train. I stumble, gasping for air as his claws rake across my

Agony.

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Ava: Fighting

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

shoves me to the ground with a wide movement of his head and upper body somehow and I backpedal, my heel

back with a startled scream, and he’s

position to dodge. I have no time to think.

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,

slick streaks of crimson. A strangled whine escapes his muzzle

his rancid breath. There’s no breath at