Vera
I ran.
The wolves followed after me.
Their paws hit the earth like war drums and thunder rolling straight through my bones. My breath was on fire. My lungs and thighs screamed, my heart was a grenade about to detonate, but I didn’t stop.
Even while I hated him, and every instinct screamed he was the one who sent them, I still prayed he’d come.
The thought was pathetic and desperate and I clung to it like it was oxygen.
“Drake.” His name slipped out between gasps.
My foot snagged a root. I stumbled hard, palms scraping dirt, but I shoved myself upright and kept sprinting. The trees were thinning now. Ahead, the ancient oak loomed rising like the only safe harbour left in the world. I barreled toward it the way a drowning person reaches for anything that isn’t water.
“Drake, ple
