The Wolves and the Vipers

Chapter 20 - Feral

The injured wolf had stopped whimpering. It was just lying there, breathing heavily. I could see the whites of its eyes from here. It knew that the feral was going to run out of entrails and sample something a little warmer. I knew that, too, and now I was wondering what I was going to do when that happened.

Right now, Kara and I were safe. If I decided to do something, I would be putting both of our lives in danger. If I didn't do anything, I was going to have to watch that pack member die a slow and excruciating death. But ... there was a good chance that would happen anyway. Blood loss aside, were those injuries even survivable? I doubted it, somehow.

The feral wolf had gulped down a few more stray pieces of gut. Every movement was ... frantic in a way it shouldn't have been, and it unnerved me in ways I couldn't explain. Inevitably, he realised that it was poor fare and lifted his head to regard the helpless wolf in front of him. And then he lunged forwards with terrifying speed to snap at the half-chewed forepaw. It only took one bite — and one heart-rending whine of pain from the injured wolf — before I realised I could not watch this.

I slipped my arms out of my t-shirt and started the shift. I ended up lying over Kara, who had the sense not to wriggle. Slowly, I pushed myself off and began to stalk towards the feral wolf, trying not to make any noise. My best chance would be sneaking up on it.

"When I attack him, run," I told Kara through the link. My wolf hammered the words home with a wave of dominance. Yes, Kara had shaken it off in the house, but she would find that much harder in wolf-form.

"Don't kill it," was her reply. "Don't, Emma. Please."

Fat chance of that. If I got a shot at the throat, I was going to take it.

The ground was wet, and there was a tiny squelching noise as one of my paws came down. With horror welling within me, I watched the feral lift its head and sniff the air. The wind was behind me, so just like that, I knew we were screwed. The wolf got one whiff and went from a standstill to a frantic sprint in the span of a heartbeat.

Straight towards me. And straight towards Kara too.

I didn't think he realised how close we were. He was running so fast that he went past us, close enough that I felt the displaced air rippling through my coat. I watched a coal-black eye slide backwards in its socket as it spotted us both. Inevitable, really. My pelt was white, and that was hard to miss, even in the dark. Less than a heartbeat later, he skidded to a grating halt and came at me in a flurry of teeth and saliva.

I lunged over Kara to meet it jaw-to-jaw. My teeth were locked around his muzzle. His were crunching down on my tongue and lower jaw. One of those things was stronger than the other, and we both knew it.

I tried desperately to disengage before he broke my jaw. We were too tangled for that to work, but I got lucky. In all the chaos, one of my canines had found his eye. He gave a sharp yelp and then snarled at me in earnest before ripping backwards. He took a piece of my tongue with him.

I could taste blood — so much blood — and most of it was not his. But before I even had a chance to swallow, he was on me again. Lurching backwards, I avoided the first few snaps of his jaws. And then, more out of panic than anything, I turned away from him to make sure he didn't get an easy mouthful of my throat. It left me scrambling sideways. My paw caught in a bramble, and I went tumbling. The ground rushed up to meet me all too quickly, knocking the air from my chest.

He was on top of me in a heartbeat. Any chance of refilling my lungs was lost beneath all that weight, and I felt the pain starting in my ribs as they strained to expand.

Another flash of pain seared through my shoulder. Hotter. Sharper. It took me a moment to realise why. He was biting into my pelt and ripping it backwards, trying to get at the muscle underneath. That was not hunting or fighting behaviour — no, it was how wolves ate. As far as he was concerned, he had brought his prey down, he had rendered it helpless, and now it was dinner time.