Chapter Twenty-Two #4
Sweat forms on my brow, and my arm quivers from the strain of keeping the arrow drawn, but still I don’t fire.
“One of you better take the fucking shot,” Thorin warns quietly. “Now.” He’s a better shot than all of us, but his hands are full with Meera’s pups, who are doing their best to wriggle free and go to their mother.
It’s only then I realize that Zeke hasn’t fired either, but I don’t dare look away from the battle to see that pinch in his brow that tells me he’s worried about the same thing.
A moment later, Khalil roars in pain. Blood blooms through his shirt near his shoulder where the wolf’s claws shredded his skin to gain purchase.
My uncertainty fades as if it had never been, and Zeke and I fire at the same time, sending two arrows into the wolf’s side. It falls to the side with a yelp and Khalil shoves it off him with a groan before clutching his shoulder. Zeke steps forward to help him to his feet.
Nearby, a wolf howls and several more—too many to count—follow in a bone-chilling chorus.
“This isn’t over,” Thorin warns. His hands are free now to yank the rifle off his shoulder and quickly chamber a round. “The first two were tests of our strength. Get ready.”
I hear him flick the safety off his hunting rifle while my frantic gaze follows the sounds of the pups’ cries to a tree with a small burrow halfway up the trunk.
Rom and Remy are huddled inside, safely out of reach.
Meera is lying at the base of the tree, her shallow breaths coming too far apart to settle the knot in my gut.
We’re not far from the cabin. If it were winter, we would probably even see smoke curling from the chimney above the trees. We could make a run for it, but that would mean leaving Meera and her pups behind to be slaughtered.
Obviously, that’s not an option.
“Are you okay to shoot?” Thorin asks and I tear my gaze away from Meera and the pups to see him inspecting Khalil’s shoulder while Zeke keeps an eye out for more wolves.
“I’m fine.” Khalil’s jaw is clenched as he yanks the shotgun off his shoulder.
All around us I see the occasional flash of fur and hear paws hitting the ground, leaves rustling, and low growls as the remaining wolves surround us.
The guys try to form a circle around me, but I push through Zeke and Khalil and load an arrow just in time for the wolves to finally show themselves.
They push through the cover of the denser foliage to the small clearing where the four of us chose to stand our ground.
I realize with the force of a boulder falling into the pit of my stomach that they’re not like Meera. They don’t have the intelligent look I could swear I’ve glimpsed in her eyes. They look truly wild and, a few of them, alarmingly rabid.
My gaze flicks to the open wound on Khalil’s shoulder. He wasn’t bitten thankfully, but if even a drop of saliva had gotten into the wound during their struggle…
I take in a resolving breath to keep from spilling my guts and giving the wolves the weak link they are currently searching for.
“I count seven,” I whisper.
“Eight,” Thorin corrects.
“Nine,” Zeke says hoarsely.
We don’t stand a fucking chance. There are too many.
“Keep eye contact,” Thorin warns, “and whatever you do, do not fucking run.”
Thankfully, I’ve been living with predators for months now, so I already knew running would only trigger the wolves’ instinct to chase.
“Anyone got a plan?” Zeke asks.
“Yeah,” Khalil bites back sarcastically. “Don’t miss.”
A moment later, my ears are ringing from the thunderous crack that suddenly rends the air from too close behind me. The burnt and acrid scent of smokeless gunpowder follows, mixing with the petrichor of last night’s rain.
The wolves are attacking.
Thorin fires another shot just as Zeke takes the offensive and looses another green arrow at a black wolf that darts by.
There’s no time to wonder if the arrow hits its target because a wolf with tawny fur like Meera’s bursts over a fallen log and leaps for Zeke, whose focus is on the growth where the black wolf disappeared.
Swallowing the scream rising from the depths of my soul, I spin, breaking rank and leaving myself exposed. There’s no time to hesitate or second-guess. I let my arrow loose and then I’m frozen, watching it cut through air misted with blood, rain, and fear until it pierces the wolf’s eye midair.
Holy fucking shit.
I’m about to ask if anyone saw that when Khalil screams my name, and I’m reminded in the most horrifying way that this is a battle for my life—our lives—and not target practice.
There’s a brown wolf with patches of gray fur sprinting straight for me, and I know there’s no time for me to react. No time to draw another arrow and load it before it’s on me. I’m most surprised by how easily my fate slides over me.
It never sat right with me that I was the one to survive and make a life for myself after the plane crash when so many others died. It was only a matter of time before the hand of karma pointed its finger at me once more.
The wolf lunges, and I close my eyes. A moment later, I’m knocked back and pinned to the ground by an impossible weight that knocks all the breath out of my lungs.
The fucking wolf is heavier than I thought.
Not wanting to see my death coming, I keep my eyes screwed shut and wait for claws and teeth to shred me apart. Someone screams in pain, but I realize belatedly that it isn’t me.
“Shit! Zeke!”
Hearing Thorin’s panicked shout, my eyes fly open at the startling realization that it’s Zeke on top of me, fending off the wolf that already has its teeth sunk into his forearm.
It only takes me half a second to realize how it happened. Zeke threw himself between the wolf and me. There wouldn’t have been enough time for him to hesitate or consider if I was worth it. For him, it was an easy decision that spoke to truths I couldn’t think about right now.
Zeke is in trouble, and the reminder of what will happen if I don’t do something is more terrifying than the wolves. Thorin and Khalil are still shooting, busy keeping the other wolves off our asses because if they swarm us, we’re done.
Do something! I scream internally.
In my peripheral vision, I spot the black wolf stalking us from the brush, its yellow gaze pinned on Zeke. Thorin and Khalil don’t see it, and from the sounds of the vicious swearing and commands coming from them behind me, stealing their focus away would mean certain death for us all.
There’s a knife tucked into my hip quiver, but it’s pinned under me and I can’t risk jostling Zeke to go for it.
My gaze is searching the ground for a weapon when I eye the crossbow that Zeke dropped.
It already has an arrow loaded. I splay and stretch my fingers toward it, but the weapon is just out of reach.
The black wolf stalks a little closer to the edge of the brush and I strain once more to reach for the shoulder sling.
The very tip of my fingers finally curl around the black strap, and I yank it toward me.
The black wolf’s claws dig into the dirt, readying to go in for the kill.
Twenty feet away, it darts into the open just as I raise the crossbow and pull the trigger.
The sear rotates, and my arm vibrates from the force of the bolt releasing.
Heart in throat, I don’t breathe as I watch the arrow cleave the air toward the wolf… and sail right past it.
Shit.
With the wolf closing in fast and no chance of stopping the inevitable, my mouth opens with a bloodcurdling scream that cuts short when a massive form with grizzled fur suddenly appears. Before the wolf can react, the bear snaps its jaws around the wolf’s hind leg.
The wolf yelps in pain, its yellow eyes shifting from that of predator to prey, and then it whines as the bear drags it back before snatching it off the ground.
A bear.
A fucking grizzly bear.
I’d seen one before of course but never this close—not even when I saved Meera’s pups from becoming a snack. Uselessly, I wonder if it’s the same one. Too much happened that day to trust my powers of recollection.
The brown wolf that still has a hold on Zeke lets go and races toward the bigger threat. It lunges onto the grizzly’s back, and the bear roars when the wolf sinks its teeth into it.
Zeke rolls away and immediately reaches for me at the same time I reach for him.
“Did it get you?” he asks in a panic while his hands roam all over my body. “Talk to me, princess. Are you hurt?”
“No. But you are.” Anguish like I’ve never felt before causes my hands to tremble. “Let me see,” I demand while reaching for his bleeding arm. “Let me see, let me see.”
Before Zeke can brush off my concern, I feel strong hands under my arms. “No time for that,” Khalil says as he hauls me to my feet.
“We’ve got to go.” He’s breathing hard and covered in sweat and blood.
Guilt tears at me immediately, and it doesn’t escape Khalil’s notice when he turns me around to face him.
“No time for that either, Goldilocks. Move your ass.”
The bear roars again and shakes its body violently until the wolf that took a chunk out of Zeke is dislodged.
The bear immediately swipes its massive paw, sending the wolf crashing into a tree.
It doesn’t get back up, and three other wolves pounce on the bear in a coordinated attack that sends a chill down my spine.
We definitely never stood a chance.
Thorin swears, obviously realizing the same. “Shit, shit, shit! We need to run.”
I whirl on him with wide eyes. “But you said not to!”
“The bear is defending its territory, which means it thinks we’re food. Running while it and the wolves are distracted is the only smart option here.”
Leaving no space for argument, Thorin quickly scoops up Meera, since Khalil’s shoulder is damaged, while Zeke and I pluck the pups from the tree. Rom and Remy must realize we’re their best chance of survival because they don’t fight or try to take a bite out of us as we literally run for our lives.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire…
It’s a few heart-pounding moments before the sound of battle behind us fades and there’s only the pounding of my heart and our heavy, labored breaths.
The cabin finally comes into view, and we make our way into the clearing.
I stop only long enough to deposit Remy into the whiskey barrel. Zeke does the same with Rom before lifting the barrel. The weight causes him to clench his teeth, but he only waves me off when I try to take the pups.
The four of us hurry over to the truck parked on the side of the cabin now that all the snow has melted and the pass is clear.
It’s still treacherous to traverse unless you’re an experienced driver, so the guys still limit their visits to town, coming back with as many supplies as possible each trip.
Thorin carefully lays Meera on the bed of their truck while I open the back door for Zeke to place the pups inside.
I try to follow them in, but he shuts it down immediately and grabs my arm.
Sensing that they’re all pretty fed up with me, I don’t fight him as he leads me around the truck, but I also don’t expect for him to push me against the door and rest his forehead against mine.
He inhales deeply, and his entire body seems to shudder from the effort of holding back whatever he’s feeling inside. “Are you sure you’re not hurt?”
“I’m sure. You saved me.”
Zeke brings his face closer, and I’m not sure if his lips brush mine purposely or by accident, but it sends a wave of something desperate through me. I want the waterfall again. “You saved me first.”
My heart is racing, and it has nothing to do with what we just survived. “We’ll call it a new cabin rule then: we have each other’s backs no matter what.”
His lips skim mine again, and this time, I’m sure it’s not an accident. Something fiery explodes in my belly, and I surge forward for more, but Zeke pins me to the truck again with a possessive hand around my throat that feels like a hot brand. My pussy immediately wants more of his dominance.
“There are cabin rules?” he asks with a purr that says he knows I’m losing control while he’s got a firm grip on his. But he has tells too. For one, he’s breathing with short, quick breaths, and his pupils are trying to swallow all the green.
“Six of them to be exact. All of them for me. To keep me here. To use me.”
“Jesus.” He lets our lips touch briefly again like a reward for telling him. “Do I want to know?”
“Probably not.”
Zeke swears and then uses his hold on my throat to tug me away from the truck.
We almost died, and here I am wanting to beg him to fuck me.
He opens the door and then ushers me into the front passenger seat.
I jump a little when he slams the door shut, but mostly because it feels as if every single one of my buttons have been pushed.
Rom and Remy whine behind me, reminding me that their mother and only chance of survival isn’t out of the woods yet.
Thorin’s voice is faint, but I hear him ask Zeke if he’s good to drive. There’s a second layer to the question that has me turning in my seat. Through the back window, I can see the three of them standing together at the back of the truck.
Zeke almost died today. We all came close to death, but for Zeke it carries a different meaning. A bigger risk. If Bane had woken up, none of us would be standing here right now.
So… Why didn’t he?
I’m still turning over the many scary reasons when the driver’s side door is yanked open and Zeke hops in. I’m cautious enough to stay silent as he turns the ignition. A moment later, either Khalil or Thorin pounds on the back window, and Zeke immediately takes off down the only drivable pass.