Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 70338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
I scream and kick, falling on my hands and knees.
The snake slithers back under the rocks.
Oh God. Was it a rattlesnake? Am I in big trouble right now?
I try to climb to my feet, but I only hobble a few steps before I can no longer bear weight on the foot. It swells to twice its size in less than sixty seconds.
My hands shake. My breath is coming in audible sobs. I’m already going into shock. I reach for my phone, but it must have fallen out when I tripped. Darkness is falling fast as I try to crawl back.
Oh fuck.
Please no. Please tell me this isn’t happening. I see my phone sticking out of the same crevice the snake disappeared into.
There’s no way in hell I’m reaching my hand in there.
And if I thought I wasn’t already completely fucked, things get even worse. Because I hear the scrape of rocks behind me.
It’s not another snake.
It’s worse.
A giant grizzly bear barrels toward me on four legs, its giant maw open in a roar.
Abe
She didn’t come.
I’m not as cocky as I pretend to be, but I did think she would come. I know she enjoyed our time together this past weekend. She said I made her feel things again.
I know she’s not hung up on that ex of hers.
So why isn’t she here?
I check my phone for the fifteenth time to see if she’s answered any of my texts, but she hasn’t.
I step out on the porch of the cabin, trying to decide what to do. Should I go to her place? If so, do I go in wolf form to spy or stay in my human form and crawl in her window again?
I’m caught suddenly by my brain glitching, and I stumble back against the cabin, pain searing behind my eyes and through my skull. I gasp and pant, trying to calm my body and bring my human eyes back.
Is Lauren near? I didn’t catch her scent. That’s not what set me off.
The hairs at the back of my neck stand up. This feels different.
Something’s…wrong. Very wrong.
Even though I can’t see, I force my legs to move toward my Range Rover. The need to get to Lauren overwhelms me.
Before my vision clears, I hear the crack of underbrush. The sound of something big moving very quickly toward me.
I tense, my body preparing to shift to protect myself. I catch the scent of the bear the moment before my vision clears. It eats up the space between us with a huge bounding gait. I’m about to shift, but I catch sight of something between its powerful jaws.
A woman’s sandal.
Lauren’s sandal.
Rage spikes, and my wolf is irrationally prepared to fight this bear to the death if he harmed her. But the bear tosses his great head and throws the sandal at my feet, then wheels around.
“Where is she?” I shout as I pick it up. I’m already racing behind him.
He bellows loudly–a spine-tingling sound–but keeps running, so I follow.
My rational brain is starting to follow. He didn’t hurt her. He came here to get me. But she is hurt, then. Something’s very wrong.
That knowledge makes me run faster than I ever have before in human form. I nearly catch up with the bear.
And then I hear Lauren’s screams.
“Help!”
“Lauren!” I shout back, racing even faster. “I’m coming! Where are you?”
“Abe! Please. Over here.” She’s crying. Definitely scared.
My wolf is frantic. I’m frantic.
“Lauren!” I find her on her ass on some large rocks. Her knees are skinned up, and the foot with the missing sandal is ginormous.
I crouch beside her. “Did you fall? What happened, baby?”
She’s crying–sort of hysterical, hyperventilating sobs. “It was a snake!”
“Oh shit.” Her swollen flesh is streaked with dark marks up her veins, and I spy the puncture-marks at the ankle. “A rattlesnake?” I scoop her into my arms, turning to look for the bear, but he’s disappeared.
“I don’t think so. I mean, it didn’t rattle.”
I start running back toward my vehicle. This is bad. It must be a rattlesnake bite. The dark streaks are the poison traveling toward her heart. Will it kill her? I know they’re poisonous to humans. I’m not sure how deadly.
“No, some don’t. Humans kill the ones who rattle, so they’re evolving not to warn us anymore.”
Lauren wraps her arms around my neck. I try not to jostle her too much as I run as fast as I can back to the car. “Don’t worry, baby. I’m going to get you to the hospital. Or to my dad. Or whatever it is you need. It’s going to be okay.”
“After the snake bit me, a bear tried to attack me.” Lauren sounds insulted.
“What do you mean attack?”
“Like he came right at me. I screamed and threw rocks until he left.”
“I think that bear saved you. He brought your shoe to me, so I’d follow him back.”