Chapter 9 #2
“I guess you have our answer.” Damen lopsidedly grinned. He allowed his gaze to linger on Troy’s still outstretched finger, and his eyes flashed. “We’ll take it from here.”
Troy made a frustrated sound, throwing his hands into the air. “You do what you want. I’m going back to the truck! When you”—he pointed at Finn, Bryce, and Brayden—“are done saying goodbye, we’ll head back down.”
Then he spun on his heel and stomped back to the vehicle.
“Normally, I don’t appreciate your theatrics,” Julian said, tilting his head as he watched the ranger’s retreat. “But this was well-deserved.”
“He’s been getting on my nerves for a while.” Damen pursed his lips and put on his leather gloves. “And I don’t want her to be the last thing he remembers.”
“Why?” I asked. “You said he didn’t know who we are.”
Damen and Julian froze, their attention turning to me. A long moment passed before they answered.
“No reason,” Damen said.
Julian turned his face upward, expression tired, as a thread of resignation tickled the bond between us.
I looked to Brayden, who still stood at my side. “What are they talking about?” I asked, so low only he—and possibly Titus, who didn’t seem to care anyway, as he was still sniffing the air—could hear.
“He was checking you out, little sister. Titus’s warning didn’t sway him all that much.
” This time, Brayden’s grin didn’t reach his eyes.
A dark curl fell over his forehead as he came forward, touching his pointer finger to my nose.
“But anyway, this is the perfect time to give him what he wants,” he said, gaze flicking toward Damen.
His meaning was lost to me, but after a second, previous events came rushing back.
Yes, Damen wanted a fight. He would soon learn not to underestimate me.
“Okay,” I said, holding my fists to my chest. “I’ll think of something.”
Brayden grinned in response, his features hardening on his heart-shaped face, and his eyes glittered dangerously. “Good. And don’t worry about anything else. Even if the monster is real, it’s nothing that the five of you can’t handle.”
My breath caught in my throat— the five of us .
How should I act when we found Miles? What should I say?
And how would Miles explain his abandonment?
“Let’s go,” Brayden said, turning from me and crossing the few feet between us and Bryce. He pulled on Bryce’s arm.
Bryce was startled, Brayden’s touch bringing him back into reality, and he dug in his heels. “But what about the Snallygaster?”
“It’s fine. I’ll give you the play-by-play in the car,” Brayden replied, already steering Bryce to the vehicles.
Bryce pulled away, his jaw set. “We can’t leave her behind. She’s my wife!”
Brayden froze mid-step, his hand dropping. Slowly, he turned back to Bryce with a look of sheer disbelief. “Please don’t ever say that again. Ever. It’s creepy.”
“But it’s true,” Bryce insisted, clutching at the collar of his shirt. “And if a dragon eats her, I’m the one who’s going to look bad!”
“I swear to you,” Brayden muttered, his voice dry, “if a dragon eats her, it’ll have nothing to do with you.” He gave Bryce a firm push, attempting to guide him forward.
Bryce stumbled but shot Brayden a baffled look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You heard me.” Brayden shrugged.
Titus—who had been paying attention after all—frowned at the two of them. “No dragon is going to eat her. Don’t you trust me?”
Brayden gave Titus a slow, deliberate once-over, his eyes narrowing. “I did . But I’ve been rethinking a lot of things lately.”
Damen clapped his hands sharply, stepping between them. “Enough! You’re holding us up.” He made a shooing motion toward Brayden and Bryce.
“It’s not safe for her to go!” Bryce said, ignoring Damen entirely as he threw an arm in my direction. “She should come to the hotel with us while you run after him. And don’t give me this ‘he won’t come out unless she’s there’ garbage. What is he, five? Besides, it’s improper and dangerous.”
Damen narrowed his eyes. “Are you insinuating something?”
But Bryce’s attention remained on me. The disapproval in his gaze caused my ire to rise.
Little did he know that wilderness survival was nothing new to me.
Meanwhile, I doubted a single strand of his overly conditioned hair could survive such harsh conditions.
In fact, I bet that my left pinky toe held more survival experience than he contained in the entirety of his overly muscular frame.
What a waste of manliness.
“Now she’s angry at you again.” Brayden stepped between us.
He pushed the other man’s shoulder hard enough to cause Bryce to fall back a step.
“We should leave before she tosses you off a cliff. Besides, if they want to chase Miles through the mud, let them. We’ve got a five-star resort waiting for us. It even has a twenty-four-hour bar.”
“I’m not drinking.” Bryce frowned at Brayden.
“I’m not talking about you.” Brayden smirked, then narrowed his eyes as he looked at Damen. “But Damen, it’d be such a shame if they misplaced a certain brand of whiskey while we’re there.”
Damen froze, his frown deepening. “You wouldn’t dare.”
Brayden’s grin widened. “Try me. If she even gets a scratch, I’ll make sure you can’t find a single drop of liquor for the rest of the month. Think of it as motivation to get her back to the resort safely.”
“Are you threatening me?” Damen’s tone was low, his gaze narrowing as he studied Brayden.
“I don’t make threats.” Brayden tilted his head slightly, the innocence in his voice at odds with the challenge in his eyes. “I make promises.”
Titus confidently led us through the trails for at least two hours.
It’d been some time since the once-wide pathways narrowed down to a point where only one person could pass through at a time.
It was just around that length of time that Damen had started cursing loud enough for me to hear even from his place behind me in the trails.
However, not even Damen’s mouth could ruin the tranquility of the moment. It’d been a long time since I’d been so deep into the forest, and soon after our journey began, my anxieties had faded. I could almost imagine the rustling of the leaves, and my skin hummed as the earth cushioned my steps.
I’d missed this.
Titus glanced back, lips curling as he held another flexible-looking branch from the path.
Very nice.
I pulled it, testing its springiness under my fingers, before stepping forward and letting the branch swing back, smacking Damen in the chest.
“Ow!” he complained again. “Why?”
“What are you whining about?” Julian, who was behind Damen, was more than amused. “Maybe you wouldn’t keep getting hurt if you weren’t so clumsy. You should pay more attention.”
“I’m not clumsy!” Damen protested. “She’s doing it on purpose!”
“I highly doubt it.”
Yes, the longer we moved through the woods, the lighter the atmosphere became.
However, the mood shifted when Titus called us all to a halt as the sky began to darken. We’d come across a small, flat clearing and had to stop without locating Miles first.
I knew there was a possibility that we wouldn’t find him immediately, but my heart still sank.
“We’ll camp here for the night.” Titus looked around the area. Then he turned to me. “Here, princess. Unless you want to also ‘accidentally’ stab Damen with a spike, it might be better if you collect some firewood while we set up the tent.”
I gasped—stabbing was never an option—but he had rejoined Damen and Julian, who were already hard at work unpacking supplies and setting up the tent.
I stood awkwardly watching the boys and feeling quite out of place before remembering my instructions.
Firewood.
I could do that.
This was also the perfect opportunity to check the area for predators—though I highly doubted Titus would have missed any—and give in to my biological needs.
It was easy enough to slip out of the clearing, poking around the nearest woods while I accomplished all three of my tasks. The others were close enough… There was no need for panic.
So imagine my surprise when Damen stumbled over himself to get to my side the second I returned with an arm full of sticks.
“Let me help you, baby,” he said, his tight expression a picture of restlessness as he collected the wood from my arms. They’d set up two modestly sized, rounded orange tents, and Julian had already begun to trace a circle into the dirt for the firepit.
Titus was crouched beside Julian. The both of them looked up at Damen’s outburst.
“You shouldn’t go off alone,” Damen lectured. “What were you thinking?”
I chewed the inside of my lip and met Titus’s gaze.
“I asked her to get firewood.” Titus placed another rock around the circle. “You talk about Julian, but you’re doing the same thing.”
“I’ve gotten better,” Julian responded smoothly. “And our motives are different. I’m not overcompensating in my struggle with unresolved, deeply-seated psychological issues.”
“What am I overcompensating for?” Damen shot Julian an annoyed glance.
“Besides,” Julian continued, “she needs to go to the bathroom at some point. It’s not like you can follow her everywhere. Unless, of course, you must go with her.”
I gaped, horrified that Julian would suggest such a thing. He wouldn’t—
“Good idea!” Damen pressed his mouth into a thin line and nodded. “I never would have thought of that.”
“No!” I poked my finger into his chest. There were many things I’d put up with, but that was not one of them. “I will do my… stuff alone.”
“But what if you get lost or hurt yourself?” he asked. “It was fine this time, baby girl. Titus could hear you. But what if you trip over a rock and scar that beautiful face?”
My throat closed, and my eyes shot to Titus, who pointedly looked away from us.
He could hear me peeing ?
How could I not have thought of that possibility? How could he not even have the decency to look ashamed ?
“Who cares?” I pressed my shaking fists against my thighs as I responded. “It’s not like I don’t have any others.”