I run until my lungs are flayed open.
One second, I’m under the deck staring at something impossible disappearing into the trees with familiar golden eyes, and the next my body is moving before my brain catches up, pure animal panic ripping through me hard enough to burn.
Every breath scrapes through me raw while branches lash against my skin hard enough to leave welts. Twigs snap under my feet while damp earth slides dangerously beneath me, but I keep going anyway, lungs dragging in ragged breaths that never feel big enough. I barely register the pain because my brain is drowning under one impossible thought after another.
Wolf.
Wolf.
Wolf.
A f*****g wolf.
A giant animal with blood on its teeth and human eyes.
My thoughts slam against each other violently.
Not possible.
Not f***
