Page 157

“Selena.”

“Looking!”

The sixteenth male attacks from my right. I duck beneath his arm, turn inside his reach and finish him before his body can follow his momentum.

Sixteen.

Three minutes. Four remain. And none of them move. That bothers me.

My wolf feels it too. The four surviving rogues spread out. Slowly. Carefully. They're watching me differently now.

Not my claws. Not my feet. My movement. One looks at Selena. I shift immediately. His eyes follow me. Another moves left. I move left. His gaze flicks past me.

To Selena.

They know. My wolf growls.

They've been watching.

So have I. One steps backward. Another does the same. The space behind them opens. A clear path through the trees. Toward the pack house.

My heart jumps. There. The opening I've been waiting for. I shift left and force the nearest rogue farther away from it.

“Selena.”

“I see it.”

“Go.”

She moves. Selena runs as fast as her pregnant body allows, one arm supporting her stomach as she heads through the opening.

I turn toward the remaining rogues. None of them follow her. My wolf goes still. So do I. They're watching me. Not Selena. Me.

They're letting her go.

Cold rips through me.

Trap.

“SELENA!” She looks back.

One of the rogues raises something. A dart. Aimed directly Selena. My eyes widen… At her stomach. Oh HELL NO. I move. Selena screams my name.

“ARLENE!”

I launch between them. Pain punches into me. My body jerks. For the first time since this fight began, my feet don't land where I tell them to. I crash into the grass.

"Arlene!" Darian roars through the bond.

My claws dig into the earth. Get up. I push. My arm buckles. Something is wrong. Terribly wrong. My wolf snarls and tries to force strength into my limbs. Nothing happens. Then my body changes.

“No.”

The hair covering my arms recedes. My claws retract.

“No.”

My legs reshape. My muscles weaken. My fangs disappear. I'm shifting back. I didn't tell my body to shift back.