Short Anubis excerpt (Patreon)

This is the excerpt that will be in the newsletter tomorrow. $3 and up tiers get the full excerpt

“Quiet.” Caspin jerked his attention to the shadowed woods filled with briars and dead limbs. He stood. “You were followed.” He didn’t look at Isaiah when he said it.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

A deep growl rolled out of Caspin’s chest. A sound normal vocal cords couldn’t make. Isaiah was so caught off guard he nearly missed the wind shift carrying in the scent of wet fur.

Isaiah’s wolf flashed in his periphery and in reaction he dropped to the ground. The cur burst from between the trees claws extended. In that second Isaiah knew he’d never outmaneuver the creature. He would die there in the woods leaving behind too many who needed him.

Light collided with the dark taking it out of the air.

It took him a moment to process what he saw, the white wolf. A Fenrir. The first in over a millennia. The two wolves spiraled, kicking up dirt, jaws locked on different limbs.

A second black wolf landed off to Isaiah’s right. Rocks, roots, rotting wood, shredded to nothing under its massive claws. Isaiah rolled, and grabbed the shot gun. The cur lunged. Isaiah pulled the trigger and its head disintegrated.

The white wolf turned. Its blazing blue eyes a mass of stars, it fur smeared with red. Remnants of the cur hung from its muzzle.

Then Fenrir retreated in a web of white leaving Caspin. “You need to go, there will be more of them.”

“How—”

“Go. Now.”

Isaiah made a run for the truck. Another beast tore through the underbrush and Caspin lept, his body vanishing under white threads. He jerked the cur out of the air.

Two more emerged.

One turned toward Isaiah as he got to the truck. A spray of gravel shot up from under the wheels before gaining traction. Isaiah steered the vehicle in reverse.

The cur made chase.

Isaiah jerked the steering wheel. The truck spun and the bed collided with the cur tossing it into the trees. Isaiah hit the gas. Ruts, gaps, holes, it knocked the pickup back and forth.

The cur reappeared in the rearview. It would only take seconds before it caught up. Isaiah slammed on the breaks, shifted into reverse. The cur dug its feet into the ground but before it could stop the tailgate slammed into its face. Momentum flung it forward feet over head. The deep thud of its body echoed through the truck frame and the roof of the cab buckled.

It landed on its side blocking the path. Bones jutted from under its black fur and its jaw dangled from its skull. The cur staggered to its feet, wounds stitching as fast as it regained its balance.

A crack of thunder cut the air and its neck shredded. Tanner rushed from the bushes and yanked open the passenger side door.

He climbed in. “What the hell?”

Isaiah put the truck in gear. “Not now.” The shocks on the truck protested with each dip of the hood. Another quarter mile and the ground smoothed out and the vehicle picked up speed.

Caspin had done the impossible. Phasing without contact with his wolf? It was unheard of. And if somehow Luca had tapped into the *** Isaiah would have at felt it. So whatever reconnected Caspin to his Fenrir went against the laws of the tie.

Tanner spoke but whatever he said was lost under the boom of the passenger window exploding. Isaiah fought the steering trying to keep control of the sliding truck while the cur bulldozed it off the road.

The rear of the truck dropped into the culvert and the tires spun spitting up wads of mud.

Metal screamed and the vehicle rocked two more curs landed in the bed.

“Fuck.” Tanner stuck the shotgun out the window and fired.

The cur pushing the vehicle flew back thrashing on the ground.

“Run, I’ll distract them.” Tanner fought with the door.

“Don’t be stupid.” Isaiah might have been stronger than a human but wouldn’t get half a mile before they ran him down.

One of the curs in the back leapt onto the hood, punching holes into the dented metal. Isaiah turned the steering wheel in the other direction letting gravity pull them farther off the road. He just needed a little speed and for the tires to catch.

The truck rolled and he gave it some gas. “Come on, come on.”

The cur on the roof moved to the hood as if confused as to where its prey had disappeared to.

But cur’s weren’t known for being smart.

Just as the cur turned the truck lurched forward and the creature lost its balance. It hit the windshield and cracks spider-webbed across the surface. The truck picked up speed and it fell from the hood. Isaiah used the speed to climb the incline at an angle and back onto the road.

The cur he’d knocked off the hood met the truck as it made it to the road and the creature still in the back rammed the rear glass. Tanner turned shoving the barrel of the shot gun into its gaping mouth and pulled the trigger. The cur in the road charged.

Caspin ripped through the trees colliding with the cur pinning it to the ground.

“What the ever-living fuck--” Tanner stared wide-eyed at the white wolf as it shredded the smaller cur.

As quick as the wolf appeared it was gone again. To fight off more curs or escape? Isaiah had no idea. He took the gravel path to the main road. Tanner was watching the area they’d fled.

Vibrations rattled the beat to hell truck and wind cooled the blood soaking Isaiah’s back.

Tanner turned. So much hope, want, sadness, shadowed his gaze. When he spoke his voice cracked. “Caspin has his wolf back.”

“I know.”

“How?”

“I have no idea.” Tears blurred Isaiah’s vision. He wiped them away with the back of his hand. “But we’ll find out.” Somehow some way.

For all of them.

Isaiah had to.