Three steps and Maizie’s confidence evaporated with the rustle of movement off to her left. She froze, adrenaline tingles racing up her spine. She flicked the light to the left. A sapling and a cluster of tall ferns swayed. Had something brushed past them or were they moved by a breeze she only now noticed sifting through her hair?
Maizie dragged the light farther left, taking in all she could. There was nothing there but vegetation. She scanned the other way and found nothing out of the ordinary.
She forced a half laugh she didn’t feel. “Paranoid much?”
No sooner had the words left her mouth than another movement, this time on her right side, iced her to the bone. She swung the light, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever was moving out there. Nothing.
She stared for several long minutes. Without moving her feet, she dragged the flashlight beam in a circle around her, her body twisting to cover as much area as possible.
She started to turn back and felt the familiar thrum of invisible fingers at the base of her neck.
The light swung fast in the direction she’d come and reflected off two glowing white eyes. “Oh shit!”
Her feet scrambled backward without benefit of thought or the shifting of balance to keep her upright. She landed hard on her ass, but didn’t hesitate for even a second. Flashlight forgotten, her hands and feet dug at the ground, crab-walking as fast as humanly possible.
Without the reflection of the light, white eyes turned blue in the cool darkness and fixed on her. Maizie couldn’t look away, didn’t dare or risk the animal’s inevitable attack catching her unaware. Somewhere in her brain a voice screamed Get up! Get up! But Maizie couldn’t find a moment she was willing to spend on getting to her feet rather than moving away.
Watching those eyes, the same kind of wolf eyes from her childhood, the same frightening eyes from hundreds of nightmares and sleepless nights, meant she wasn’t watching where she was going. The hard smack of a tree against her head stopped all progress.
She dropped to her ass with an oath. For one slim heartbeat she closed her eyes, her hand going to her head on reflex. She snapped her eyes open again and found the haunting blue orbs were still watching her-only closer. She could see the full body of the wolf now, big, muscled and…honey-brown.
This wasn’t the same wolf Granny talked about. This wasn’t Maizie’s naughty silver wolf. This wasn’t even the wild beast that’d chased her the other night. This wolf was male and big, with a crazed look in his eyes.
The animal growled, its lips curling back from huge white teeth, its thick fur vibrating from the sound. Maizie pressed back against the tree, her sneakers digging at the ground as though she could push herself through the thick trunk to the other side.
“Nice doggy. Now, go away. Go home.” It was worth a shot. But the massive wolf came nearer. Slow, deliberate steps, its eyes focused on her so intently she could feel the icy chill of it working to paralyze her body.
She had to get away. Maizie leaned to her right, pivoting against the tree trunk, ready to spin around to the other side. But just as she shifted her weight to her hip, a warm wash of air rippled over her shoulder and the side of her face.
She glanced sideways and caught the snarling jowls of a second wolf. Its coat was a light brown, the ends tipped with blonde. The female wolf that’d chased her the other day. It was close enough its saliva dribbled over her shoulder, the hot wetness soaking through her T-shirt.
Shit, how’d it get so close without her noticing? Maizie didn’t waste time wondering. She spun the other way and got to her knees before a third brown-sugar wolf met her face to face-eye to eye. “Fuck!”
Maizie pushed back on reflex, landing on her ass again. She pressed her back to the tree, shoved herself up and managed to get her feet under her. The shortest of the three wolves came to her hip at its head. The tallest, the male with the honey-brown fur, was only a half inch shorter than her silver wolf had been.
The growls mixed and merged, uniting to become one low rumbling sound that vibrated through her body like nothing she’d ever heard or felt before. They were too close, the larger wolf creeping nearer, snarling and drooling. Caged with wolves in front and on both sides, with the tree at her back, she was running out of escape routes fast.
Maizie rocked around the tree and ran. The soft fur of the wolf waiting at her left pressed against her leg, snagged through her fingers as it lunged to try and stop her escape. She got away.
No. They let her get away. On some level Maizie knew it was true. Why? Screw it. She didn’t give a damn why they’d let her go.
She was free, running full-out toward the flicker of lights from Wood Haven. Maizie’s panicked mind raced, trying to map the most direct route, but something was wrong.
She could only see one light now and it was fainter, as though a thick blanket of trees blocked it from sight. Where were the other lights? The dozen or so street lamps, the warm glow from living rooms and TV screens? There should be more lights. They should’ve been closer.
For a split second she shifted her attention from the hope of a single flickering light to the forest around her. The faint overgrown path she’d been following was gone. In her panic she must’ve run the wrong way. So what was the light she was running toward if not Wood Haven?
The soft thumping sound of padded feet crunching behind her chased the question from her brain. They were coming. The wolves had given chase. The hunt was on. Is that why they’d let her go? So they could chase her?
Maizie’s heart thundered in her ears, her blood pumping adrenaline-rich oxygen through her body. Her lungs burned but she wouldn’t slow up, couldn’t, or risked being caught, eaten. Oh God.
Up ahead a huge fallen tree blocked the way and she veered to the left to go around it. She barreled through the old limbs, cutting the distance she had to travel by several feet. The instant she broke through her whole world slammed to a halt.
A wolf. A fourth one, every bit as tall as her big silver wolf and only a few pounds lighter, stood before her. Its fur was the same brown-sugar color as the other two, its eyes a haunting luminous blue. Its lips hiked over its canines, trembling with a low menacing growl.
A trap. She’d been herded to the slaughter like a stupid sheep. The forest crunched and rustled as the other three wolves caught up and circled in. The brown, blonde-tipped wolf jumped to the fallen tree, towering over her right shoulder. The other smaller wolf stayed at her back and the last, the big darker-furred wolf, came around to her left.
Maizie’s muscles trembled from the sprint, from fear and the overpowering urge to run. Her body tingled, flight instincts warring with common sense and odds of success. There had to be something she could do. Some way to get out of this, to get help. Only one glimmer of hope came to mind.
“Gray.” She spoke just above a normal tone, unsure what the wolves’ reaction would be. The growls rose in volume but otherwise they remained where they were, each a good four feet away.
“Gray, help! Help me! Someone hel-” The wolf in front of her stepped two feet closer then stopped. Maizie’s breath caught. Shut up. Shutup shutup shutup. Self-preservation and fear screamed at her not to make another sound or risk the beasts’ attack.
Intelligence told her, her voice was her only hope. She needed to use it while she still could. She breathed deep to get as much volume as she could. “Heeeellllp-”
The big dark wolf on her left lunged, slammed into her, knocking the remaining air from her lungs. Maizie opened her mouth with a silent, breathless scream as its sharp teeth snagged on the hem of her shirt, barely grazing the skin. The biggest wolf lurched toward her, but his massive body slammed into the darker wolf and they both tumbled into the weeds.