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I was not sure whether it was just ized I was about to ask hiht of his face He’d frozen, his ears perked up, and his eyes fixed on the trees behind us

Fear rushed through ht’ve just spotted hunters, or even worse, one of their mutants But then, a few seconds later, three broolves burst froed forward, positioning his

"What are you doing here?" Bastien snarled

"On patrol for conniving hunters roa our lands," one of the intruders shot back "What are you doing with one of them?"

Oh, crap They think I’m a hunter My uniform certainly did not help

"She is not one of the

"Who else would she be?" another wolf growled, stepping forward He had a wide scar slashed across his right eye

"She is just a girl!" Bastien insisted

The broolves were done with talking To my horror, the three of the thrust of his hind legs, Bastien sentinto the river The current irip the thick root of a tree that jutted out from the bank I was safer down here than up there as Bastien took on the three wolves at once He gnashed and thrashed with his jaws and claws, and although outnuest of the four In a blur of black and brown, one of the attacking wolves let out a groan of pain and darted backward Where his right ear had been was a gaping wound dripping with blood Bastien had torn it right off

This caused the other two to cower back a bit

"I said she is just a girl," Bastien seethed

They looked anything but convinced--still baring their teeth and growling--but it was clear that it was an empty threat The injured one did not want to lose a second ear, and the other two did not want to lose a first Besides, they would beco Slowly, they backed away into the trees Then they turned around and sca by now Although rolling and falling into the river had roughed it up, now that ainst e, his eyes searching forrip hold of his fur Now that ere up close, I realized he hadn’t gotten away unscathed He had a nasty gash in his shoulder, but he did not seem to notice as he returned with me to the bank Then he said in a low voice, "Noe h the woods, I couldn’t help but ask hi freely He just grunted in response I guessed it couldn’t have been too serious because it did not seehtest