Chapter 4
The wolf shook its head with my arm trapped in its jaws.
Pain ripped from my elbow to my shoulder. My fingers opened and closed against the snow, no longer obeying me.
The second wolf was coming fast.
I planted both boots against the steel feed gate and shoved myself toward the narrow corner. The first wolf followed its grip, pulling harder, until its neck crossed the edge of the gate.
I kicked the loose steel panel.
The gate slammed against the animal's throat.
Its jaws opened in a strangled yelp.
I tore my arm free.
Blood spread beneath the ripped wool. Three punctures burned above my elbow, deep enough to matter but not deep enough to stop the arm from moving.
Not yet.
The second wolf hit me before I could stand.
Its shoulder struck my ribs and rolled me into the fence. I caught the wire with my injured hand and nearly blacked out.
The revolver lay beneath the gate, six feet away.
I crawled.
The wolf snapped at my boot and caught the heel. Rubber tore. I kicked backward with my other foot and felt bone beneath fur.
It released me long enough for my fingers to close around the wooden grip.
I rolled onto my back and aimed.
The wolf in front of me filled the sights.
Behind it, three more shapes crossed the open snow.
One bullet would kill one animal.
Then the others would reach me while the cylinder clicked empty.
I lowered the barrel again.
From the control room, someone struck the glass. Camille wanted the shot. She wanted me to spend the last choice Nolan had given me and discover it changed nothing.
I pushed onto one knee.
The feed gate stood half open behind the split-eared wolf. It formed a narrow throat between the fence and a concrete divider. Only one animal could pass through at a time.
If one fell there, the others would have to climb over it.
The largest wolf reached the gap.
It did not hesitate.
I waited until its front paws left the ground.
The fear in me did not disappear. It climbed into my throat and screamed for me to fire too early.
I held the sight on the center of its chest.
The wolf opened its jaws.
I pulled the trigger.
The shot cracked across the preserve.
The animal folded in the narrow opening and struck me with its full weight. My back hit the snow. The empty revolver flew from my hand again.
For a second, I could not breathe.
The dead wolf lay across my legs. Blood poured onto the packed snow and through the feed gate.
The animals behind it stopped.
One lunged at the body. Another snapped at its shoulder. Hunger pulled them toward the blood faster than obedience pulled them toward me.
I shoved the weight off my thighs and crawled along the concrete divider.
Beyond it, a maintenance slot ran beneath the outer fence. Fourteen years ago, the grate had been wide enough for me to drag Nolan through after I killed the wolf on his chest.
The opening had been reinforced since then, but snow had bent one side of the lower panel away from its frame.
I reached it and drove my good shoulder into the gap.
Metal caught my coat.
Behind me, the wolves fought over the body. Their snarls filled the narrow run.
I flattened myself and pushed harder.
My injured arm buckled. I struck the ground and bit down on a cry.
Above the gate, Nolan stepped closer to the control-room glass.
He had seen me refuse the bullet.
He had seen me turn it against the death he planned.
For the first time that night, his expression was not calm.
Camille noticed.
She moved to the control panel.
"Camille," Nolan said over the speaker.
It was the first warning he had given her.
She looked at him, one hand covering their child.
Then she pressed the red switch.
Metal groaned inside the trees.
The secondary run began to open.
Five more wolves poured into the preserve from the north enclosure.
Camille did not leave her hand on the switch. She looked straight at me while she released it. Nolan could still have shut the second gate. He let it stand open.
The dead wolf blocked only half the narrow passage. The first animal behind it climbed over the body, slipped in blood, and snapped at the next one. For a few seconds, hunger turned the pack against itself.
I used every one of them.
I shoved backward beneath the fence rail, dragging my bleeding arm tight to my chest. Snow packed into my collar. My heel caught on a buried root, and panic surged so fast that I nearly wasted the opening by fighting the ground.
"Move," I told myself aloud.
My voice sounded frightened because I was frightened.
I pulled again.
The nearest wolf cleared the body and lunged. Its teeth closed on the back of my boot instead of my leg. I kicked until the leather tore free from its jaws.
Above the fence, Camille's face appeared at the control-room window beside Nolan's.
She had opened the second run after watching the first wolf bite me. Nolan turned toward her, but he did not reach for the switch.
That choice belonged to him too.
The empty revolver lay beside the gap. I caught its grip and looked up at Nolan through the glass.