Chapter 20
Promise didn’t sleep well once they were back at the cabin, but she hadn’t thought she would. She was too keyed up to do more than doze and startle awake.
And even after Artem had sexed her up good and she’d been bone tired, she still hadn’t slept.
She kept wondering if Nero would come for them. If he was watching them right now, or if he’d bide his time until they weren’t on edge anymore and then strike. There were a lot of ways that their lives could go sideways if he attacked them.
She just didn’t want anyone to get hurt. Especially Artem.
As she stared at the ceiling with Artem snuggled at her side and breathing deeply in sleep, she thought about the things she’d learned as a kid about hunting. Her dad had told her that it was always best to be still and watch, to wait for the perfect opportunity to strike and not to rush. Young wolves tended to want to just barrel into the woods and chase anything that moved. But the veteran wolves knew it was better to follow the scent trails and wait for just the right moment.
She wasn’t the most patient person on the planet, and maybe less so when she was in her wolf form. But the best luck she ever had hunting always came when she took her time and didn’t strike right away.
Her mind flitted to Nero.
He was a wolf but he was also dangerous and probably a little insane too. She was certain he was going to come after them. They had not only gotten her away from him, and he saw her as a valuable asset, but they’d also gotten the authorities involved and shut down his warehouse and fighting league. She didn’t know how many fighters got away and whether Artem was right and he had some kind of safe house elsewhere that others knew where to go to meet up with him.
But Nero was dangerous all on his own and he certainly didn’t need an army of fighters with him to hurt her and Artem and the people they cared about.
He just needed to strike at the right time.
Which would be…when?
A branch’s shadow that had been making a lazy pattern on the ceiling in the moonlight moved suddenly in a strange way. Promise’s wolf let out a curious sound, and she had the urge to get up and look out the window.
Gingerly, she extracted herself from Artem’s embrace and slid from the bed. Grabbing Artem’s shirt from the floor, she tugged it over her head and crept over to the window.
The large window had black-out curtains but they hadn’t been closed before they went to bed. She moved slowly and peered around the edge of the window.
What had she thought she saw? A branch moving?
What if it was just a squirrel?
Her heart was pounding in her ears and she couldn’t hear anything else. Inhaling deeply, she blew the breath out slowly and tried to calm her flying pulse.
She was sure she’d seen something.
There was nothing outside of the window but darkness. The moonlight wasn’t bright enough to really show anything but shadows. The large bedroom was at the back of the cabin and overlooked the woods.
Wait…was that shadow moving?
She stared for a long moment, holding her breath, and didn’t see anything.
But she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something out there.
Someone.
As she turned to wake up Artem so he could share in her worrying, she saw a strange flame appear in the woods.
It was small and moving side to side. It suddenly arced in the air and grew larger as it came toward the house.
She screamed Artem’s name and raced for him, tackling him and rolling, taking the two of them off the other side of the bed where he landed on the floor and she landed on top of him.
“What?” he asked.
Something hit the floor on the other side of the bed and exploded, filling the room with bright flames.
Shit!
Artem was only sure of two things in that moment: someone had sent a Molotov cocktail through the bedroom window, and somehow, Promise had saved his life.
He scrambled into action and put her on the floor next to him, and they hurried through the bedroom door on their hands and knees as the room filled with flames and smoke. He shut the door to keep it as contained as he could.
As he stood to head toward the front door, Promise grabbed his hand.
“We have to go out another window or something.”
“Why?”
“Because the fire came from the back of the house, so they have to expect us to use the front or back doors. Not a side window.”
“Good point.” He covered his mouth to cough as the smoke billowed from under the closed door. Nothing like a house made entirely of wood to go up like kindling in a fire.
They moved to the laundry room and shut the door. He peered out the window, careful to keep out of sight.
“I don’t see anything,” he whispered.
“This has to be Nero doing this.”
“Yeah. And he’s probably got friends with him.” He stared into the darkness, his beast wanting to shift in case he needed to fight, but if he shifted inside the house, he’d never get out the window, so he’d wait.
He opened the window all the way and brought the screen inside.
Then he leaned out and looked both ways to ensure no one was watching them. When he was certain the coast was clear, he helped Promise out. She dropped to the ground with a soft grunt.
“Run to my parents.”
“I’m not leaving you!” she whispered harshly.
A branch broke in the woods and Promise froze with a whimper.
Artem dove out of the window and rolled to his feet, grabbing her hand and taking off for the front of the house. He had only a heartbeat to glance back and see the back of the cabin go up in flames when he heard someone running toward them.
Several males stepped around the corner of the house and Artem didn’t have to have good lighting to know the male in the middle was Nero.
With as gentle a shove as he could manage, Artem sent Promise into the woods and called for his beast. As he shifted, he bellowed out a call and shouted, “This ends now, Nero!”
His last words turned into a roar as his beast came out ready to fight. Like the minotaurs of legend, Artem was much taller and bigger than the males with Nero, but he still needed to keep his wits about him.
“Get the girl,” Nero said.
One of the males veered off and Artem grabbed him by the hair and hauled him toward the house, throwing him through a window.
Artem growled and settled on his haunches, daring any of the males to move.
“You can’t keep her safe forever,” Nero taunted.
I can and I will.
As Promise brushed sticks from her bare knees and stifled a groan at the sudden aches her tumble into the woods had given her, she knew that Artem had pushed her into the woods to keep her safe.
She stood in a moment of frozen indecision.
She knew she should run to get help. Get his parents and the rest of the baro, because not only was Nero and whoever he’d gathered to help fighting Artem, but the cabin was on fire and that put other cabins in danger.
But she didn’t want to leave her mate.
Her wolf paced in her mind as she watched from the shadows as Artem fought Nero’s males. He was in his minotaur form, a huge, hulking impressive male who used not only his hands and feet, but also his horns as weapons. Every time someone tried to come her way, Artem would stop him. It had started with three, but more showed up. Most of them went airborne when they crossed Artem. Some got to their feet after their flight, but many didn’t.
How many more males were going to come for them?
And how long could Artem hold them off?
She should go for help.
Then she realized that one of the males was facing her.
She was still in the shadows, still hidden. But he seemed to know exactly where she was and she was certain it was Nero.
He took a step back from the fight, where Artem was tangling with three males at once.
And then he took another.
Artem was too distracted by the fight to see that Nero was slowly making his way toward her.
Oh shit.
She should have gone for help.
If she ran away, she could maybe get to help before Nero caught her. Was he fast? Was she faster?
Her wolf let out a demand in her head. This male had tried to kill her mate twice. He deserved every ounce of pain he’d ever inflicted on others and he couldn’t be allowed to harm anyone else for profit.
As long as he was alive, she and Artem would never be able to relax and have peace.
She couldn’t imagine what that would be like.
Pulling Artem’s shirt over her head, she tossed it aside and called for her wolf, shifting as fast as she ever had before. With a furious howl, Promise leaped forward as her beast’s words slid through her mind: I will end this for my mate and our future. Tonight.