Chapter 4
CHAPTER 4
S erafina
“You do know I’m going to kill all three of you, right?” I say with my teeth clenched as soon as Ronan pulls open the backdoor of the huge black pickup truck.
He doesn’t blink, flinch, or show any other sign that he’s bothered by my declaration. The flat set of his mouth gives a bored expression. It makes me want to rip his perfectly quaffed, wavy, brunette hair out of his scalp. I bet even then his expression would give nothing away.
The man is a freaking stone. His voice never rises in volume, and his perfectly ironed and starched button-up shirt never wrinkles.
He’s the picture of perfect control.
Even when threatening to spill my secret to the Nightwolf pack, a secret I only shared with him and his brother all of those years ago. Back when I started to believe they’d accept me as their mate no matter my shortcomings.
Boy was I wrong about that.
“So you’ve mentioned it once or twice,” Noah replies over Ronan’s shoulder. “The threat would have more of a punch if you hadn’t said it a million times.”
Ronan turns his head to look at his brother. They don’t exchange any words out loud but Noah grunts, gives me one final look, and then heads off toward the two story, cabin-style home we’ve pulled in front of.
I know they must’ve done that silent, talking-in-their-head thing alphas can do with family members and mates. Some alphas can communicate with every member of their pack via the bond.
It doesn’t work the other way around, though.
Worse still, I hate the outsider feelings that stir up inside of me, knowing these three men can talk amongst themselves in a crowded room.
Reminding me yet again I’m out of place.
The sound of the passenger side car door opening and closing draws my attention. Montgomery just vacated. Noah drove the entire five hours, Ronan sat in the passenger seat, while Montgomery sat in the back beside me.
Not quite beside me. He sat so damn close to the door, it looked like he was trying to escape me, when I’m the actual kidnapping victim here.
Am I that bad, that he doesn’t even want to sit next to me?
I swallow the stupid, useless self-pity.
It’s not like it matters to me whether he wants to come into contact with me or not.
“Get out of the car, Serafina,” Ronan orders.
I ignore the goosebumps that ripple up my arm, chalking it up to the colder weather here in the valley of the Colorado Rockies.
“It’s Sera. And fuck off.”
They’re the only ones who call me by my full name and I hate it.
I peer straight forward, refusing to move. I can’t overpower them and I’m practically useless without my bow and arrow, but I won’t make this kidnapping easy.
“Take me back— What are you doing?” I startle when Ronan reaches inside of the car, around my body, and undoes the seatbelt. “Let go of me, you damn animal.” I punch him as hard as I can with my free arm.
He grunts and his grip loosens enough that I can yank my arm free from his grasp.
I shove my finger in his face. “If you think I’m going to sit around while you three manhandle me, you’ve got another thing coming. Keep your damn hands to yourself.”
“It’ll be a lot easier if you simply do as you’re told.”
“Ha!” I let out a snarling laugh. “Have you even fucking met me? I’m not the ‘do as I’m told’ type.”
His comment pisses me off so much that I have to move. I shove him out of the way to get out of the truck, and scramble around the truck for the woods behind the property. The long dress I’m still in causes me to stumble.
“Where the hell is she going?” Noah grunts behind me.
I don’t stop or turn to look at either of them. Do I have any idea where I’m going?
No.
Does that stop me?
Again, no.
My heartbeat starts to race with the anticipation of either Noah or Ronan coming up from behind me to yank me off of my feet to carry me back to the house. If I had to bet, my money would be on Noah.
Just like in New Mexico.
Most of the time, Ronan’s blank expression looks like he couldn’t care less. He’s only a half a step better than Montgomery in showcasing his obvious disdain for my presence.
Noah’s a hothead, so any perceived inconvenience or disobedience can set him off. It’s not because he wants me here anymore than his brothers do. He just doesn’t like that I don’t listen to him.
Fuck him, I think as I continue to trudge toward the woods.
Footsteps sound behind me, picking up speed.
I quicken my pace until I’m full out running to get away from the three monsters that tried to kidnap me.
“Serafina! What the hell?”
I leave Noah’s question at my back as I run, duck, and dodge behind one tree after another. No, I’m not as fast as a shifter, but I am great at hiding. For some reason, shifters have always had a difficult time picking up my scent.
Also, I’m much faster than the average human.
A fact which has always confused me.
Never as fast or as strong as a shifter. But faster and stronger than most humans. What the heck does that make me?
Lost.
That’s exactly what it makes me. Which is also how I find myself in the middle of the woods surrounding Noah, Ronan, and Montgomery’s home and pack.
Lost.
Though I’ve been out here once or twice before, I’m not familiar enough to know each nook, corner, and cranny. At this point, I don’t even care. I’d rather be lost in these woods than anywhere near Noah, Ronan, or Montgomery.
How dare they think that I’ll uproot my life to go along with being their mate. Especially after the way they discarded me all those years again.
Then their grandfather, and former alpha of their pack, gets sick, and all of a sudden the first two come back to claim me as their mate.
Even though Montgomery wasn’t there when they initially rejected me.
His all but ignoring me is all of the evidence I need to tell me how the past would’ve played out if he were there.
“No.” I shake my head with a stubbornness my aunt used to tease me about when I was growing up.
Aunt Wilma.
The thought of her makes my insides ache. It’s been more than a decade since she died in an accident, but I still miss her.
I shake that feeling off as well. I don’t have time or the bandwidth to mourn the death of my aunt that happened years ago. What I need to do is figure out how to get away from the three Blackclaw brothers permanently.
Then I need to figure out how to speak to Emery to ask her the questions I held off. I can’t return to the Nightwolf pack now, but maybe I can find a way to reach Emery. She’s a storyteller, and the seer I came across months ago told me it would be a storyteller who helped me put the pieces of my past together.
Now that I’ve missed her wedding, though, I don’t know how I’m going to get those questions answered.
“Unf!” I grunt when I trip over a rock, twisting my ankle and tumbling to the ground.
“Great, Sera!” I scold, ignoring the minor pain. “Exactly what you need is a twisted ankle.”
I briefly consider taking off the sneakers Ronan so carelessly tossed in the backseat after putting my half-packed suitcase in the bed of the truck.
Relatively soon, the ache starts to wear off.
Just a minor setback. A glance over my shoulder doesn’t reveal anyone lurking among the densely wooded forest aside from some birds and a few squirrels.
From what I can detect, there’s nothing out of the ordinary.
Yet, that doesn’t explain why my heart starts racing as I rise to my feet. I do a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree spin, scoping out the area around me.
My fingers begin twitching.
The need for my bow and arrow in my hands rises inside of me. Something’s amiss but I can’t put my finger on it.
Is it my three captors? Have they gotten enough of toying with me, making me believe that I’d gotten away from them, only to ensnare me in some trap to drag me back to their house.
Or worse?
I glance up at the sky, noting the darkening clouds. That’s never a good sign .
One thing I know about the weather in this part of Colorado is that it’s unpredictable.
I turn back in the direction from which I came. Correction, the direction from which I think I came, and wonder if I should make my way back. At the very least, the three knuckleheads who took me know their way around this area better than I do.
I doubt they would let me die of hunger or exposure out here.
Unfortunately, everything looks the same. I can’t tell which direction I came from. Was it left? Right? North? South? Which direction is even north?
Moments like this, I know I don’t belong among wolves. Most wolves would easily be able to sniff their way back from wherever they came.
“Shut up, Sera,” I scold again. Now is not the time to ? —
My thought cuts off when a low growl sounds behind me.
I spin on my heels and come face to face with a snarling gray wolf.
Shit.
He’s definitely not one of my mates, either.