Jack Templar and the Monster Hunter Academy: The Templar Chronicles: Book 2 by Jeff Gunhus Read Free Book Online Page A

alive.
    The wolf seemed to have the same revelation at the same exact time. I felt his body grow tense as a growl snarled from deep within his throat. He rolled back and forth to get out of the deep snowdrift we were in and scrambled to his feet.
    I grasped my sword and clawed my way out of the hole as fast as I could. Before long I found myself in the open stretch of the road, facing the wolf. He was a giant black wolf with white fur on his chest that formed a perfect cross.
    The wolf Daniel had warned me about.
    One of Eva’s crossbow bolts stuck out from the beast’s front left shoulder. Not very deep, but firmly stuck there as if lodged into the bone. The wolf kept its weight off that paw, but seemed just as lethal balanced on the other three.
    We circled one another in the middle of the snow-covered road, the distant sounds of the chase echoing from a distance deeper in the forest.
    Close up, I saw details in the wolf I hadn’t noticed before. He was larger than any wolf I’d ever seen, every bit as large as the devil-wolf form that my Aunt Sophie took the first night I became a monster hunter. He was stocky and muscled with thick tufts of black fur, except for the mark on his chest.
    Under different circumstances, I might have marveled at how impressive a creature he was. However, since I expected an attack at any second and a fight to the death to follow, I found it hard to appreciate his good looks. He looked hungry, and, unfortunately, it appeared that I was on the menu.
    But then I noticed the heavy trail of blood on the snow behind him as we circled one another. Soon, his other front foot gave out and he put pressure on his injured leg to keep from falling. He let out a yelp and nearly fell. He licked the wound, in turns whimpering and then growling at me.
    Finally, whether too weak from the loss of all that blood or giving into the pain from the bolt, the wolf’s legs gave way and he crumpled to a pile.
    Sword raised, I edged up closer to him, careful that it might be a ploy to get me to lower my guard. But after a few steps toward him, he didn’t even raise his head to look at me. He lay there, taking short, labored gasps of air.
    I raised my sword over my head and prepared to strike a finishing blow.
    This movement caught the wolf’s attention and he tilted his head with all his might. He looked at me with enormous brown eyes and I saw an intelligence there that I hadn’t expected. Even though it seemed like he knew what I was about to do, he just lay his massive head back on the ground and closed his eyes.
    There was something about this simple gesture that took me off guard. I knew what I should do. Strike hard and fast, then move on to find the others.
    But I couldn’t.
    I thought of what my Aunt Sophie had looked like in her devil-wolf form, waiting for death at the hands of Ren Lucre. Was I to be no better than him? Suddenly, I didn’t have the stomach to kill the wolf.
    I lowered my sword to the ground and put both hands out in front of me so the wolf could see them.
    “All right, my furry friend,” I said. “Don’t make me regret this.”
    The wolf looked up at me with renewed interest. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he looked genuinely surprised.
    “Shhhh,” I said. “The bolt is poisoned. We need to take it out.” I eased closer, ready to jump back if the wolf made a lunge for me. But he didn’t. He cocked his head on the ground so as to get a good look at me, but he stayed still. “That’s it. Now, I’m working on the assumption that if I help you, you’re not going to jump up and bite me. Can we agree on that?”
    The wolf let out a huff of air. I couldn’t be sure, but it seemed like an agreement to me.
    I wrapped my fingers around the shaft of the bolt sticking out from the wolf’s shoulder. It was in there solidly, right into the bone. The wolf whined from the pressure on his wound.
    “OK, here we go,” I said. “This might hurt a little.” I yanked back as hard as