War of Wolves: Part 2

By Carrie Glass

Her home destroyed, Zora Agreeva has little left. As the city of Koldergard falls under attack by the armies of the wolf, her task becomes clear: vengeance upon the creatures who stole her old life. Yet before the battle can be joined, the secrets of the forest beckon. As Zora and her lover, the warrior Torvin, find themselves forging new alliances, they are drawn into an ever more complex web of questionable loyalties; for in the hour of the wolf, nothing is quite what it seems.

Approximate length: 9,820 words (a novella)

Part two of a series

Excerpt:

Another sound reached their ears; footsteps on the floor above. Torvin paused at his work and Zora held their breath as the heavy footfalls sounded over their heads. Without thinking, she ran to the bars, and passing her arm through, reached for one of the torches set into the wall. On her third attempt, she managed to grasp hold of it. Removing it from the socket in which it lay, Zora pulled it through the bars just as the sound of impact announced their visitor at the top of the stairs. As the door opened, a chill wind invaded the corridor, blowing out several of the torches. Aside from the one that Zora had claimed, only one other flamed poorly, plunging the subterranean jail into near darkness.

A fetid, animal smell reached their nostrils as Torvin soundlessly slid back from the bars. Holding a finger to his lips, he retreated to the far side of the bed, pulling Zora with him. Nervous eyes played over the torch she held; for several painful seconds, she wondered if they should put it out. Racked with indecision, she felt another wave of fear pass over her as the sound of movement caught her ears. Something heavy moved down the flight of stone stairs, the sound of footfalls accompanied by the rapping of something hard against the slate. It hesitated at the bottom, the smell washing through the hall. Zora could hear it breathing deeply, though from her position crouched at the back of the cell, she could not see it. Her body shook with unbridled fear as the beast sniffed the air. It hesitated, and like any trapped prey animal, she knew that they had been discovered.

The moment of silence that followed was enough to unnerve the steadiest of warriors. The air seemed electric as Zora's sixth sense came alive, overwhelming her other senses. She nearly cried out when she felt Torvin's hand upon hers, silently wresting the torch from her white knuckled grasp. In the glow of its flickering light, she could see his eyes intently concentrating on the bars.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Carrie Glass
• Release date: Mar 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311086488

Book preview

War of Wolves

Part 2

Carrie Glass

Smashwords Edition

~ Copyright 2014 ~

~*****~

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either a product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All Rights Reserved

The sounds of the forest had never seemed so monotonous to Zora Agreeva's ears. The gentle cacophony vibrated around her like a comforting blanket, a background hum that was never truly noticed until it vanished. Broken only by the sound of footfalls as Torvin and her passed, the vast evergreen expanse was an ocean of quiet noise.

It was in silence that Zora began to believe fear would be her constant companion. Despite the presence of Torvin, her loyal protector and new lover, Zora struggled daily to keep that most primal of emotions at bay. Ever since her village had been raided by the wolfkind, supernatural beings of preternatural prowess in the arts of mayhem and death, fear had existed within her like the threnody of life in the forest: in the background, yet hardly ever out of the frame.

As she crouched, hiding behind a low brush line, Zora's fear joined the silence of the surrounding forest in an almost poetic fashion. Her back rested heavily against a tree; Torvin, his eyes alert and watchful, scanned the forest from his position next to her. Zora struggled to keep her apprehension under control. Her breath was short as adrenaline coursed through her veins.

It was late in the afternoon of their second day of travel since leaving Torvin's cabin, the home that they had shared the last few months. Zora had hoped that their journey to the besieged city of Koldergard would be accomplished by now. Torvin had assured her that it was little more than a day's walk in favorable conditions, yet during that first day, he had grown ever more preoccupied and silent. As time had worn onward and evening had fallen, she voiced her fear to him, wary of the shape-shifting specters that hunted the night. Torvin had broken his silence then, admitting openly to her that he had not led them in the direction of the city that day.

Zora knew few words to express just how angry she had been at that moment; it was an overwhelming torrent of emotion that blocked out all reason. Looking chastened for the first time since she had met him, Torvin waited patiently for her anger to abate. Zora had not been able to accommodate that request until Torvin finally explained his actions.

She desperately hoped that the risk was worth the possible gain. They had spent the first night encamped high among the trees. Their safety was largely imagined. The demons that haunted the night could climb faster than any