Live Free or Die Complete Series Boxed Set: Age Of Madness - A Kurtherian Gambit Series, Hayley Lawson [books you have to read TXT] 📗

He would die before he let that happen, and she would do the same to save her best friend’s life. There were a few good people left in the bunker, Ryder and Terrier were two of them.

“Where the hell’s Ivan?” Ryder asked Terrier as they walked over to join the other hunters. “He was supposed to meet us here.”

Terrier frowned. “I couldn’t find him anywhere, and the women in the kitchen haven’t seen him.”

“That jerk,” Ryder complained. “He begged me to let him come with us, said he’d trade extra rations if I showed him how to hunt.” She wanted the extra food for Terrier. Ryder shared her own rations with him, being much smaller than him she didn’t need as much food but she worried that he never got enough to eat. He was always hungry, and at six-foot-three and big-boned to boot, she could understand why the standard food allocation wasn’t enough for him. Physically, they couldn’t be more different. Terrier was a big, hulking man, who wore his hair in long dreadlocks, and Ryder was lithe and athletic and sported a buzz cut. She’d spent her whole life pretending to be male, and the hair—or lack thereof—enhanced her disguise. They looked like the odd couple when they were together, although they weren’t an actual couple—just a great team.

Ryder and Terrier joined the other hunters, Pavel, Yegor, Nestor, and Sergei.

“Why would that pansy-ass be here anyway?” Sergei asked. Sergei was the self-appointed leader of their hunting group and had nothing but contempt for piss-poor hunters. He was a big guy, but he had nothing on Terrier and he knew it.

“Because I invited him,” She wasn’t in any mood to argue with Sergei, but Sergei was itching for a fight. Ryder had stepped over the line too many times.

Sergei got in her face. “You?”

He might have been much taller than Ryder, but he was also much slower and dumber. He always acted before thinking, which had led the group into many dangerous situations during their hunts.

“Yeah, me.” Ryder was just about done with Sergei’s attitude and the hunt had not even begun yet. She pulled her blades from her wrist sheaths.

Terrier was right beside her, ready to back her play when suddenly, the howling of wolves echoed around them.

Pavel cocked his head in the direction of the wolves. “Shut up, you bickering old women, or I’ll put my boot up your asses! Wolves are on the menu tonight, but you probably can’t hear them over the sound of all your bullshit.”

Ryder didn’t back down from Sergei.

He glared at her for a moment, and then he snarled. “This isn’t over, but it’s time to hunt.”

Ryder sneered. “I’m ready when you are.”

Sergei headed toward the forest, trailing after the others who had already left. He caught up to them, and they disappeared between the trees.

“Where are your axes?” Ryder asked, eyes narrowed as she peered at Terrier’s empty hands.

Terrier looked down at the loops on his belt where his axes normally went and shrugged. “I forgot them.”

Ryder stared in disbelief. “What are you waiting for? Go get them!”

Terrier shook his head. “I don’t need an axe when I have these.” He flexed his biceps, each the size of any other man’s thigh.

“Those will make a tasty snack for a Siberian tiger,” she grinned. “Go get your axes!”

Ivan’s hunger was unbearable. He stumbled blindly through the woods hunting for something—anything— to subdue his hunger.

He ran mindlessly, his mad dash only halted when his upper body slammed into a tree. The top layer of skin on his hand came off completely when it scraped against the bark. He stared down at the blood and the raw muscle but felt no pain. He tilted his head to inspect it more closely, it smelled oddly delicious.

His tongue darted out to lick his hand almost against his will. He recoiled at the action, flinging his hand away from his mouth as total and utter panic set in.

“What’s happening to me?” He screamed, hoping that someone would hear him. A guttural cry left his lips, startling the birds in the trees. There was a muffled clap as they flew away in alarm.

Even they knew something was terribly wrong with Ivan.

Ivan experimentally pushed down on the exposed muscles, but he couldn’t even feel the pressure. His nerve endings were dead and numb, he felt nothing. He pulled at one of the tendons, and his middle finger rose toward him in a twisted parody of the gesture he’d thrown back at the guards as he left that morning. He let go, disgusted, and it dropped back into place.

Ivan freaked the fuck out, screaming for help and running frantically.

He shook his fists impotently at the sky. “What’s happening to me?” That was his last coherent thought before the madness took him over completely.

Ryder heard screaming. She couldn’t tell who it was, but they sounded like they were in trouble.

She thought one of the hunter gangs might have tracked down a “traitor,” and were about to collect another head for Afana, but she hadn’t heard of any recent runners so she quickly discarded the idea.

Fuck it. She ran toward the voice, keeping her senses on high alert in case it was some kind of trap. When Ryder neared the tree line she found Ivan running in her direction.

“Ivan, what the fuck are you doing out here on your own? I put my ass on the line for you.”

Ivan didn’t pause to answer her. Before Ryder could open her mouth to berate Ivan further she heard growling from the trees. Ivan stopped dead as wolves crept out of the woods and surrounded him. He screamed in desperation as he tried to keep his distance from their slavering jaws.

There was nowhere for him to go. They had him.

One of the wolves leapt into the air gripping Ivan’s neck between its jaws to pull him down. Ryder watched in horror as the other wolves joined the fight, eager to subdue