Read Online Moon Rise (Twilight Shifters Book 2) by Kate Danley - Free Book Online

Finn's mind spin, wanting to protest against getting out first, but the wolf relented.  Using Lars's back as a ladder, the wolf scrambled his way to safety.
    And then Aein pulled with all her might.  Lars already outweighed her, but with the armor and the weight of the muck, she feared she might go into the bog with him.  She managed to get him to the road.  He rested his elbows on the wooden slats.  Lars swung one leg up, his toe catching the side, but couldn't hold it and fell again.  He was exhausted and had to pause to gather his strength, but the mud would not let him.  Finn paced back and forth, searching for some way to help.
    Aein leaned down and wrapped her arms under Lars's armpits.  He clung to her neck like a frightened child.  She wriggled herself into a sitting position and leaned back, using all of Lars’s weight to fall backwards.  He came out of the muck with a squelching sound.  They lay there for several moments, too exhausted to move.  Finn came over and desperately began licking both their faces.
    "I'm okay!  I'm okay," protested Lars, pushing him away.  "Just give me a minute."  Finn stepped back, shifting back and forth on his haunches as if ready to leap upon them again the moment they recovered.
    Lars rolled off of Aein and fell beside her, his head resting on her arm as they caught their breath. 
    "Thanks," he said, opening up his eyes just long enough to look at her.  He tapped his palm on his heart.  "I thought I was done for." 
    Aein rolled over and hugged him tight.  Her body was still shaking from terror.  She thought she had lost him and in those moments it had felt like the whole world was going to end.  She never wanted to let go of him ever again.  "You're welcome," she whispered.
    The moment was broken as Finn began to whine and bark.  Aein turned her head to see what was disturbing him.  "It's that damned bird again," she grunted.
    "Maybe we should play dead," said Lars.  "I feel like I could play dead very well right now."
    Finn continued barking, the insistence in his voice becoming clearer.
    Lars rolled onto his side, pausing for a moment on his hands and knees before pushing himself up to a standing position. He held out his hand to Aein.  "Duty calls."
    Aein struggled to her feet.  She was encrusted in a layer of filthy brown.  Finn and Lars were in even worse shape, covered from head to foot in muck.
    Lars turned and rested a hand on Finn's shoulder.  "Thank you," he said.
    The wolf gave a whine.
    Lars walked to his terrified horse and was able to unwind the rope from around its neck.  "Idiot animal.  Don't you know we execute soldiers who desert?"  He removed a shirt from his bedroll and tied it over the animal's eyes like a mask.  Immediately, it calmed down.  He gave it an understanding slap on its shoulders.  "Don't worry, my friend.  I feel the same way.  No one goes willingly into the swamp if they know what is in there."
    As if to punctuate his words, a biting wind blew down the planks of the road.  Aein tried to tell herself it was just because the temperature was cooler beneath the trees, but she couldn't shake the sense that something watched in the shadows.  She shivered.
    As they walked into the swamp, the fog was still present, but it did not wrap around them like it had in the past.  Aein wondered what had distracted it.  To generate fear seemed to be its only reason for existence. 
    Moss dripped from bare branches like spider webs.  A layer of bright green algae covered the water, rippling sluggishly as it lapped the roots of the trees.  They walked on and soon came to the clearing with the bush.  Aein peered in.  Though the bush was still there, there was no sign of anyone from the Haidra kingdom.
    "Where is the guard?" she murmured to Lars.
    He shook his head, as mystified as her.  Finn crept beside them.  The fur on his back was raised, but not aimed at anything in particular. 
    They continued on for hours.  Aein