Marked (The Coldest Fae Book 3) by Katerina Martinez (novel24 .txt) 📗

The wolf backed away and started to circle me, watching me from a short distance away. He was panting, his hot breath coming out of his snout in puffs of steam. He was goading me, testing me, doing the exact same thing Mira had taught me to do to my opponents—sizing them up. But he wasn’t talking.

I growled at him. “What are you waiting for?” I asked, and the wolf stopped in its tracks, his ears perked up.

He snarled, bearing his fangs and lowering his head. He looked like he was ready to strike, but he hadn’t. He was keeping his distance, and I couldn’t understand why.

I made a move toward him, as if I was going to lunge, and the wolf backed up another couple of steps, still snarling, still growling. His face was all teeth and anger, but his posture was defensive. He didn’t want to attack, maybe because he knew I was stronger than him, or maybe that was just what he wanted me to think.

It was totally possible he was playing mind-games with me.

“We don’t have to fight,” I said, “Look, I did the wolf thing. I’m like you. Can we just go back, now?”

The wolf arched its back and started yipping, making quick bursts of sound that… I somehow understood. It wasn’t speech, not really; not the way I had come to understand it. But it was some form of communication that I was able to pick up and process.

He could hear me, he knew I was talking, but he was afraid. Jaleem didn’t know how I was able to do what I was doing. He thought I was going to kill him.

I shook my head. “I’m not going to kill you,” I said, “I didn’t come here to kill anyone. I just don’t want you and your people to kill my friends. We need help.”

Lies was the impression I got from his sudden shift in posture. When he snarled now, it was somehow angrier, and more intense, with lots of tongue. He didn’t believe me. Jaleem thought I was going to kill not only him, but all his people.

“What?! I wouldn’t!”

You are the death of us, he growled, and then he came for me, forcing me to defend myself. He was fast and smaller than I was, which made for an interesting change considering I was usually the tiny one. I tried to avoid his bites, his nips, his snaps, but it was difficult to keep him away from me, and then when I did finally find an opportunity to bite him, he had already moved somewhere else.

As Jaleem clamped down on one of my hind legs, forcing me to yelp with pain, I realized instincts were driving the car, but they alone weren’t going to get me through a fight. I wanted to use my hands, grip a dagger, make use of those opposable thumbs I had. But this form called for a completely different kind of skill if I wanted to handle it well, and I didn’t have that skill yet.

I yanked my foot out of his mouth and pulled away from him, but the sudden surge of pain made it difficult to kept myself upright. Maybe if I shifted forms again, if I turned into a human, I’d have more of a chance. Don’t be stupid—he’d eat you. That’s what Gullie would’ve said in response. Just heal like before.

It was hard to concentrate on the pain with a snarling wolf circling around me again, but I tried it anyway. While keeping Jaleem in my sights, I focused my attention on the wound, on the pain, and tried my best to squash it, to remove it, to erase it. Slowly, the pain eased, but the wolf wasn’t going to give me a chance to finish the job.

He lunged again, all teeth and claws and hair. This time, I didn’t try to get out of his way. I put my weight on my hind legs, and I threw myself at him, aiming for his throat. I needed to learn how to use my power and size to my advantage, and there was no better way to learn than right here, and right now.

With my front paws I was able to keep him from biting me, and as we tumbled to the ground, I sank my teeth into his throat, pinning him against the snow. I could taste blood in my mouth. I knew I had pierced the skin, but I didn’t want to go too deep—I didn’t want to kill him. I wanted to keep him there until he calmed down.

But Jaleem had other plans.

He stuck his hind legs into my stomach and started kicking and scratching until I was forced to let him go or let him tear into my underbelly. The wolf slipped out from under me and went scampering into the dark, running at full speed to try to get away from me.

“I’m not trying to kill you!” I yelled, but he was gone. I had his scent, of course. With his blood in my mouth, I could almost see the trail he’d left as he sped off into the night, but there was something else in the air, something I had just picked up at the edge of my senses. More blood, but not his, and not mine.

Someone else.

Gullie floated down from the tree. “What are you waiting for?” she asked, “Go after him!”

“Do you smell that?” I asked.

“Smell what?”

“Blood.”

I kept sniffing the air, trying to get a fix on it until I found where it was coming from—and I couldn’t believe it. It was weak, and distant, but urgent enough that I immediately broke out into a run to chase it down. That smell, I would’ve recognized it anywhere because I had been fantasizing about it ever since I left the castle.

More than that, I felt like it hadn’t left my side over the past couple of days.