Chapter 18: Two Wolves in the Road

Larissa's POV

Wynne had caught me on the stairs with my hair wet.

"He went without you," she said.

I had not stopped to be angry.

My father's truck needed three tries to start, and I spent them swearing at it, and then I took the mountain road with the pedal on the floor.

I saw the log truck across the asphalt before I saw anything else.

Then I saw the chain.

It lay in a closed loop around a man on his knees, and the man was Corbin.

Three Ashgrove wolves stood over him.

Bernard was crouched in front of him with a pen.

I did not brake.

I put the truck's nose into the ditch beside the log truck, killed the engine and was out the door before the dust settled.

"Larissa," Bernard said, and rose from his crouch with his hands open. "Sweetheart, this isn't what it looks like."

"It looks like silver."

"He signed of his own will."

"He didn't."

I walked straight at the nearest wolf.

He was a big brown animal with a split ear, and he lunged, and I hit him with my right fist behind the jaw as he came.

He dropped on the gravel without a sound.

The other two came together.

I took a bite on the forearm and did not feel it, because I had reached the chain.

I closed both palms around the silver.

It went soft, then bright, then ran down my wrists as liquid.

It smoked on the road and left blisters on my skin that vanished as I watched.

Corbin lifted his head.

His eyes were gold and half shut.

"Hands," he said.

"I know."

I dropped to my knees on the gravel and put both hands on the bare skin of his neck, where the chain had burned a ring into him.

The world split.

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