Predator Code (Tales from Wildhearth #1)

Chapter 21 - Glad to Have Ruined Your Day

The fear remained, but these past few weeks had hardened something in Jett's brain, feeding her will to survive. As the wolfkin leapt at her, trying to rip her throat out with a single bite, she folded down into a crouch in the blink of an eye. His lunge went over her head, and she planted a shoulder into his stomach before shooting upright with a piercing scream of exertion.

Putting all her strength into the push, she tipped the charging wolfkin head over heels, and he crashed to the carpeted floor with a curse. Jett bolted for the stairwell door, pulling it most of the way closed behind her before stopping and turning. She heard the scrabbling of her attacker's claws as he raced after her.

Jett counted to three, then closed her eyes and flung her whole weight against the door.

It flew back open, the reinforced wooden structure slamming straight into the charging wolfkin on the other side. The massive impact shook Jett's body from snout to tail, and she heard the crunch of breaking bone. Poking her head around the door, she found the wolfkin lying flat on his back, whimpering and clutching at the smashed ruin of his snout.

Whirling around, Jett bolted down the stairs with the clattering paws of the other wolfkin echoing down the hallway in pursuit. Scampering and bounding, taking the steps two or three at a time, she careened around the bends, on the edge of pitching headfirst down into oblivion at a moment's notice.

A sudden bang from beneath her made her slow, and she paused to look down over the banister. She let out an involuntary growl of annoyance at the sight of another wolfkin who'd entered the stairs further down, trying to run up and cut her off. Behind her, she could hear the clatter of claws as the rest of the enforcer pack continued to give chase.

Cursing under her breath, she twisted towards the nearest door and rammed her way through onto a lower floor. An identical arrangement of corridors greeted her, but she didn't slow down, pelting towards the opposite side of the building and another stairwell. The door slammed open behind her, and she spotted the startled heads of several of the warrenary clientele poking out to see the cause of the commotion.

She blazed past them without a word, and at the sight of pursuing wolfkin, most ducked back inside the safety of their rooms. Jett ducked and swerved as armbow shots whistled down the passage, ripping splinters from the walls around her. Skidding low, she twisted around a corner out of sight, racing down the passage and trying to retain her bearings in the chaos.

Jett turned left at the next junction, only to find two more wolfkin waiting for her. Yelping in surprise, she blasted the first in the eyes with the flashgun, sending him stumbling back into his comrade. The bigger of the pair, the second wolfkin shoved his partner roughly aside with a growl and lunged for her, but Jett was already moving again, continuing straight down the hall.

They were boxing her in—she could feel it, the terror of being prey beginning to seep into her bones. She no longer had a straight route to the next stairwell, which didn't leave a lot of options. Twisting through several more hallways, she kept finding her routes blocked, while one or two always maintained a position behind her to stop her doubling back. She'd lost her bearings, but it seemed they were corralling her towards the corner of the floor. If that happened, she would be as good as dead.

At the end of the passage, the burly male wolfkin came into view, blocking the way ahead, and Jett's blood chilled at the realisation she couldn't go back the way she'd come. She paused for an instant, looking back to see the female leader and another enforcer emerge around the corner in pursuit.

Strangling the grip of the flashgun, her mind twisted with indecision before a door suddenly opened down the hallway ahead of her. The perplexed face of an elderly otterkin emerged.