Mated To The Alpha: A Standalone Wolf Shifter Romance, стр. 55

She'd heard rumors of her father shooting an arrow into one unlucky wolf's eye before, piercing its brain. Maybe he thought he could repeat that feat now, to impress her?

"Oh no, you evil beast. You aren't getting away from us that easily." Her father aimed the words at the wolf's slowly retreating tail.

"Keelyn, here's your shot at your first wolf. Take point, I'll cover your back."

Keelyn was torn. She always assumed that when she was confronted with her first wolf she'd take it down as emotionlessly as she'd shoot a deer, or a rabbit. But the wolf's seeming acknowledgement of her kill went against everything she'd ever heard about wolves.

She had no issues killing for meat, or even for rent since everything she'd ever seen or heard about wolves in general were how evil, barbaric and destructive they were. But in this wolf, despite her hackles rising in awareness, she had seen no indication of ruthless evil. She'd seen the respected acknowledgement of one intelligent hunter to another.

Her father had already taken off in chase though, despite his telling her to take point, so she followed in his footsteps as he ran after the wolf.

Damn, he was quick for being the old man he kept claiming to be.

Keelyn picked up her pace, trotting after him as he chased the wolf through the trees.

She saw her dad take another shot, this one piercing the wolf's hindquarters. He reloaded immediately and aimed again, shooting the wolf through the shoulder this time.

Keelyn knew that you had to shoot a werewolf through its heart to kill it. That was one of the reasons werewolves were so valuable. The killing of a werewolf was so dangerous that few people ever killed a single one, let alone made a living from it.

With this third wounding, the wolf seemed to decide that it was done retreating. As her dad loaded another arrow and took a deep breath, taking more care in his aim this time, the wolf suddenly swiveled, facing her father instead of continuing to run away. With a sudden, speed-blurred, running jump, the wolf launched itself at her father. Its strong paws hit him squarely mid-chest, knocking him to the forest floor and sending his bow flying.

The wolf bent its head with a fearsome, low, rumbling growl, and took a bite out of the left side of her father's throat, ripping skin and muscle.

Her father's initial scream of pain and terror quickly died off, as he soon no longer had a throat to scream with.

She stared at her father's bloody body in shock as the wolf then turned to face her. Its eyes no longer held intelligent respect, but instead glowed with an animal blood lust. It may have initially been willing to walk away, but being attacked and shot at must have pissed it off.

The tang of blood from her father's body filled her nostrils, and she saw the wolf drink in the scent as well. The iron-rich smell reminded her that her father lay dead at this wolf's paws, but the wolf seemed to revel in it. The scent seemed to feed its blood lust, driving all intelligence from the wolf's eyes and filling it with the need to kill again.

The wolf bared its teeth, growling as it took a few steps toward her, its intent clear. It was her turn to die. In that heartbeat of staring her own death in the face, her brain fed her the oddly calm thought this is why my father hunted them. I won't be taken in again by their intelligent eyes. I will remember this day, and I will make him proud of me as a were-hunter, from this moment on.

She fought down a suddenly rising bubble of rage at this beast killing her father, and managed to squash the fear, pain and sudden need for revenge deep down inside her somewhere so that she could function long enough to take this wolves' life in exchange for her father's.

It was the sudden silence of the forest that finally got Keelyn's attention, flipping her from shock and grief-filled observation, to action instead.

Her dad's screams had stopped, obviously, but that just seemed to leave a void in the noises of the forest. Not a single bird or tree frog stirred. Only the werewolf's threatening growl reached her ears as she raised her bow, aiming it for where she knew the wolf's heart would be, just as it pounced at her.

Her aim was true, unlike her father's.

Her arrow pierced the wolf's fur, driving through its chest wall, sliding smoothly between its ribs as the beast's paws hit her chest and shoulders, driving her to the forest floor just like it had taken down her father.

Only this time, instead of ripping out her throat, the beast made a growly, gurgling noise above her as its heart was torn apart. Falling on her only drove the arrow in deeper. The wolf twitched, a warm, bloody, dead weight above her, pinning her to the ground as its life drained from its body, like her father's had moments before.

She shut her eyes and screamed.

She screamed again and again, filling the forest with the sound of her panic finally taking hold of her young body.

She struggled to get out from under the heavy weight, suddenly finding that the wolf's body got lighter, slick skin against her pushing hands instead of matted, bloody fur. She rolled out from underneath it and stood beside its body in a low crouch, ready to fight for her life if need required it.

But there, where the wolf had fallen, was a human's body instead.

There was a tattoo on its right shoulder blade, a dark, intricate, complicated knot. She poked and prodded the body with the toe of her doe skin boot, darkening the leather with blood as she rolled the human body over onto its back.

It was female, and old.

Long grey hair flowed from the now human shifter's head. She had to