My Hockey Alpha novel Chapter 56

Nina

“James… Run.”

“What?” he said. “I’m not gonna leave you out here.”

I cocked my shotgun as the yellow eyes continued to stare at me from the darkness, accompanied by the sound of a deep, horrifying growl.

“You have to run, James,” I said, raising the barrel of the gun to point it at the creature in the forest. “Get Enzo.”

James grabbed my arm. “C’mon,” he begged. “It’s not safe!”

“Go NOW!” I yelled, spinning around and pointing the gun at him, tears in my eyes. James threw his hands up in surrender and backed away, then turned on his heel and ran off toward the camp.

I turned back toward the creature, which was now emerging from the woods; it was a werewolf.

Not a rogue like the one I saw that night when I was running from Luke, though. Instead of some mangy, mutt-looking creature that appeared half human, this one was a huge, brown wolf that towered several feet over me. Its paws were bigger than my head, and the teeth that it bared were at least five or six times as big as the one that K had shown me around his neck in the coffee shop.

Had he even truly shown me a werewolf tooth, or was it all a lie?

My hands shook as I pointed the gun at the werewolf.

“Stay back!” I yelled, backing away. It only continued to approach me, saliva dripping from its massive mouth.

Suddenly, the giant wolf pounced.

Instinct took over. I shot the gun, the recoil slamming me hard in the shoulder and sending me to the ground in agony. The wolf yelped in pain; I just barely managed to roll out of the way before it fell on top of me, blood pooling on the ground beneath it.

It was dead.

Or, so I thought.

The wolf began to shift, massive legs and paws turning into human hands and arms and legs, its fur disappearing to reveal…

K.

I gasped and scrambled to my feet, backing away. He groaned and rolled onto his back, clutching his chest. I watched in horror as the hole where the bullet had buried itself in his chest began to close.

“You’re such a fucking idiot, girl,” he growled as he healed, standing and walking toward me as if he hadn’t just had a silver bullet shot straight into his chest. I kept the muzzle of the gun focused on him, but as he approached me, I went into too much shock to shoot again.

He walked up to me and grabbed the barrel of the gun, yanking it out of my hands with ease and throwing it to the ground several feet away as he cracked his neck.

“It’s gonna take more than one of those to kill me.”

He grabbed me by the hair and started dragging me into the woods. I tried to fight, but he was so much stronger than me even in his human form that I felt helpless. All I could do was scream and hope that Enzo would come for me.

K put his hand out flat in front of him like he was pushing on a wall and started whispering some strange incantation while I struggled against him.

Something started to happen that I couldn’t explain. It was small at first, but grew larger and larger; a big, swirling portal in front of us.

“Where are you trying to take me?” I cried, tears streaming down my cheeks.

K looked down at me with a maniacal look in his eyes. “Unfortunately, I was asked to bring you back in one piece,” he replied, hoisting me kicking and screaming up onto his shoulder like I was nothing but a sack of potatoes.