Chapter 23 · The Old Cage

"Rip her throat out!" Justin's order cracked across the clearing.

A gray wolf hit me before I could turn.

Its shoulder slammed into mine. Frozen dirt punched the air from my lungs, and snapping jaws closed inches from my face.

"Get off her!"

Kane's roar shook the trees.

Black fur tore through the pack. He caught the first wolf by the shoulder and hurled it into the next one. Bone cracked. The second wolf hit the ground with a yelp.

Kane stepped over me, his massive body blocking the rest of the Enforcers.

"Get up, Sia!" he snarled. "Run!"

I shoved myself onto one elbow. "I'm not leaving you!"

"You're already slowing me down. Move!"

"I woke you up! I'm not letting you crawl back into a coffin!"

His golden eyes flashed toward me. For one second, I saw the monster everyone feared.

Then his hand closed around my arm.

Heat burned through my sleeve as he hauled me upright and dragged me toward the thorn-choked edge of the Forbidden Woods.

"You want to die beside me?" he snapped.

"I want you alive!"

"Then stop fighting me!"

Behind us, Justin shouted, "Circle them!