Dani Harper - First Bite

The great golden wolf knocked Meredith down with such force that her face slammed against the floor, stunning her. Neva gasped as his enormous jaws snapped shut at the back of her twin’s neck. There was no blood and no bite, however, and the big animal didn’t linger. Within a nanosecond of his teeth ringing together, his powerful hind feet pushed off of Meredith’s body, driving the air from her lungs as he launched himself for the door. Travis’s voice filled Neva’s mind with a single word:

Run!

Startled, Neva spun and shifted to wolfen form, then raced beside Travis down the long hallway. I know a way out. That is, as long as Sonje had been telling her the truth, or this would be a damn short trip…In her mind she could hear her twin screaming for her pack to stop them . Meredith’s voice increased in volume and power, a stabbing, twisting knife in the head, and Neva felt sorry for the wolves who could not resist such a painful compulsion.

As the terrible voice ceased, she couldn’t help but be glad that Meredith wasn’t going to lower herself to chase them herself. Of course, it also meant she had total confidence that they couldn’t escape.

Neva veered to the right, straight into the grand reception room where Meredith had once held a fake party in her honor—and instead, had changed her life forever. This time, however, she wasn’t hanging around for her deranged twin to grab her. Running full-out, she crossed the expansive floor in a handful of bounds and lowered her head to ram the glass doors leading to the patio. Travis was there a heartbeat ahead of her and broke the glass for both of them. It exploded into a shower of beads that clung to their fur, but they didn’t slow down. This way , Neva said as she ran to the edge of the stone balcony—

And leaped over the side.

Sonje had been right about the roof that lay directly below. Of course, now Neva remembered that the white wolf had said to run along to the left , not straight down. Because no other roof jutted out beneath this particular area.

Neva scrabbled with her claws to gain purchase on the sloping surface. Travis dropped down beside her and likewise struggled to keep from sliding. She could see the other two roofs, about a hundred feet away, which would act almost as stair steps if they could make their way over there. If she fell off this spot, however, it was a sheer drop of forty feet or so to a flagstone patio—and she didn’t want to find out if werewolves bounced.

Lie down flat! Travis dropped to his belly. Now!

She followed suit and was relieved that the skidding and sliding stopped immediately.

Get your head down—we need to be invisible.

Neva dropped her chin between her paws and even flattened her ears. She made sure that her tail was stretched out along the shingles as well before she followed Travis’s gaze.

Crap. Dozens of wolves seemed to pouring in from the outer walls, other buildings, courtyards, and gardens, all converging on the mansion. Meredith had obviously called for all hands on deck. But that wasn’t necessarily bad. Neva shared her thoughts with Travis. She thinks we’re still in the building.

It won’t take long for a search party that big to figure out we’re not. Are we heading for those rooftops over there?

Yup. And we do a one-and-a-half gainer into the pool from the last one.

Not very quiet, but at least we won’t break our necks. Okay, be ready to move. As soon as those wolves are close to the house, we’re leaving.

Do you think we can avoid being seen?

Not a chance in hell. But we’re going anyway.

They watched, not daring to move until the last stragglers disappeared from their line of sight. Neva was first to get to her feet—if it could be called that. She elected to slink along with her belly almost touching the shingles. She didn’t look back to see if Travis was following suit. Knowing him, he was probably trotting along as if it was a ground-level sidewalk. She jumped down to the next roof and then the next, hoping that it wasn’t making a huge amount of noise indoors. She crept along to the side of the roof that overhung one of the sparkling blue pools. Travis pulled up beside her as she contemplated the drop. Water or not, it was still a long way down from here.

Do it this way , he said, placing his front feet far beyond his nose. Just like a human, point your arms—your front legs—out ahead of your face. Tuck your head.

It doesn’t look deep enough for a dive.

Trust me, there’s lots of water. And this way, we’ll keep the splash down—this is the wrong time to do a cannonball. Without any further warning, Travis launched himself.

The splash was minimal, just as he promised. It seemed to take awhile for him to come back up, but then she spotted him swimming along the bottom, staying under the water—and out of sight—as long as possible. Neva took a deep breath, then another. Truthfully, she was afraid to make the leap herself, but it was all relative. Jumping into a goddamn active volcano would be less scary than being recaptured by her psychotic twin.

Forgetting to tuck her head, Neva hit the surface awkwardly, sending chlorinated water jetting into her sinuses as she arrowed straight to the bottom. At the last moment, she managed to pull up before she smacked into the bright-blue tiles, and floundered her way along. Swimming underwater in a lupine body was nothing like swimming as a human—and she wasn’t particularly good at that , either. She flailed in an approximation of a sideways dog paddle until she reached the big golden wolf and came up coughing.

Quiet! He’d been waiting for her in the shaded shallows, where tiled steps led up and out to the patio. Every part of him was submerged but for his nose and eyes. Somehow he’d folded his ears to keep them below the waterline, too.

She thought she’d strangle as she attempted to suppress her sputters and coughs, and settled for exposing her nose and snorting out as much water as possible.

Where do we go from here? He glanced toward the house, watchful for any sign they’d been discovered.

She hadn’t asked Sonje that particular question, but it wasn’t hard to decide on a plan. Neva knew the layout of the grounds—and she remembered exactly where she’d managed to get over the wall herself. On the west side, behind the greenhouse. We can get there in short runs so we have cover—from the pool house to the stand of cedars, along the rose hedge and west of the garage.

Kind of like a covert military operation.

She snorted some more. Maybe they’ll make a movie out of it. On three…

They mounted the steps until they were on dry land—or rather, dry tile—but they didn’t take the time to shake the water from their pelts. Nor did they move like wolves. Instead, they crept, panther-like, from point to point, as fast as they dared, keeping close to the foliage or in it. Everything went smoothly until they wriggled between the junipers and the brick wall of the enormous multicar garage. A howl sounded long and loud from the mansion steps and was taken up by a multitude of voices around it. Neva could hear the excited yips and barks of the pack as it spread swiftly over the grounds. They’re hunting us. Should they lie low or run for it? They were well hidden where they were, but—

Travis had already thought it through. They’re just going to pick up our scent if we stay here. We have to make a run for it now.

They loped along the side of the garage under the protection of the prickly junipers, then bolted across the short open space to the greenhouse area. Neat nursery rows of tall, ornamental trees and thick rosebushes surrounded the big glass building, providing replacements for gardens and beds all over the estate—and welcome cover for the two fugitives.