CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
The crisp mountain air bites at my cheeks as a deafening c***k shatters the stillness of the spring morning. I am on the ground before the echo dies, pain exploding across my chest in a blinding wave. My breath is a fugitive, stolen from me as if by magic. Panic claws up my throat, but it's Silas's roar that fills the space around us, raw and feral.
"Stay down!" Kyle's voice cuts through the chaos, his hand pressing against my shoulder, pinning me to the earth scented with pine and danger.
But I can't stay down; not when every instinct screams at me to run, to shift, to fight. My fingers dig into the soil, desperate to find purchase, to pull myself up and face the threat head-on. Yet, it's Silas who moves like a tempest unleashed, his dark blonde hair a wild banner beh
