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Wolf Bonded (Wolfish 1)

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I pictured that if my dad ever found us here, I’d put up one hell of a fight. But now, as he drags me toward the beat-up old car parked behind the cabin, I find myself unable to make my muscles move.

A terrible, high-pitched sound has filled my ears. The ringing is deafening—but somehow not deafening enough to drown out the sound of my own mother’s screams as he yells at her to get in the “fucking car” before he rips the hair from my scalp. I can’t fight back, I can’t cry, I can’t even breathe; all I can do is be dragged and shoved into the back of a car that immediately starts to drive away.

My vision blurs in and out, everything moving so quickly that I can’t even tell what direction we’re heading.

It’s all I can do to focus on not passing out.

This is it. I’ll never see the boys again. I’ll never see any of this again. I’ve lost, and my father has won.

Just like I always knew he would.

And after the way I left—Rory, Marlowe, Kaleb—they’ll think I did this on purpose. They’ll think I left them.

There was a moment there as I ran outside the cabin when I was sure they were coming to save me. That they’d secretly followed me after all.

But now … now …

I don’t want them to see me like this.

So, maybe that’s for the best.

I’m about ready to fully descend into this abysmal pit of self-pity when a new sound pierces through the noise in my head.

It’s my mother’s voice.

“Watch out!”

It pulls me back into the back seat of the car, and for a second, stills the tilt-a-whirl of my vision just long enough for me to make out the tree-lined road in front of us. One moment, it’s all empty road and dark forest, the next, the car suddenly swerves to the side to avoid something streaking across our path.

My father swears and tugs the steering wheel in the opposite direction, but greatly misjudges his own strength—as always—and sends the car careening off the road.

One moment we’re flying down the curving roads, the next we’re jolted to a sudden, violent stop.

In any other case, I imagine the world crashing to a halt with us. My vision would be spinning, my ears ringing, my stomach turning as it was before the crash. But as it is … the crash is what it finally takes to snap me back to my senses.

My chest heaves from where I’m seated, braced like a stone statue between the seats. It takes me a second to realize we’ve stopped moving, and then one more to glance up through the cracked windshield to see another flurry of movement on the other side of the glass.

What was I thinking before? I can’t resign myself to this.

I seize the chance to kick my door open and stumble out of the car.

It isn’t until my unsteady feet have landed on the damp piles of leaves that I dare take in a breath. It racks my lungs, burning almost as much as they did that day down by the river.

I double over, hands on my knees, as I struggle to catch my breath for a moment. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch something darting through the trees. Something distinctly … wolf-like.

I straighten up so suddenly that for a second, the forest around me tilts again.

Rory. Marlowe. Kaleb.

I feel a swell of emotion inside me so strong that it nearly knocks me over.

They must have followed me after all.

There’s a rustling noise from behind me as my parents start to stir back in the car. Part of me wants to run back to make sure my mother’s okay, but the other part of me knows what’ll happen if I do.

I can’t be trapped again. I can’t be sure the next time he hits me won’t also be the last. He could always blame the car crash. It’d be easy. Everyone would just think it’s another terrible accident.

I glance back towards the car, then back at the forest, torn between the two.



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