Chapter 37
Thirty-Seven
J ust as the taste of freedom was within her reach Bastian and both brothers had begun tracking Ren out into the wilderness surrounding the castle.
Not being as cunning as she needed to be, they found traces of her presence back at the scene of the crash that had brought her to them.
They had obviously cleaned up the car. When she realized that her link to the past was missing, she slithered away and moved on. She thought perhaps that would be a means to being able to shift back into her human form again. Being this large snake was hard work. She was growing wary with the further distance and the cooler temperatures.
Before long they were upon her.
She had coiled up in a tree with the reddest autumn foliage she could find, and tried to blend in with her black as night scaly skin mixing into the large trunk of the tree.
But this was the land of the brothers, and nothing was able to squirm free of their grasp if they wanted to hold onto it.
“You don’t have to keep running.” Grayson called out.
They caught her unaware, the quiet of the night shattered by the raw display of power and anger. She thought they were still much farther away than they were. Grayson’s voice had just sounded so distant.
Bastian ran at the tree and blasted the hundred year old maple to splinters. Her large form fell to the ground.
“You will never leave me. I own you, pet.” He took one swipe at her diamond shaped head and somehow missed when she ducked below and slithered away with a speed she didn’t know she possessed.
“I will find you!” She could hear Grayson yelling.
Yet, against all odds, Ren managed to escape them, her heart pounding as she moved silently into the cover of the night.
The brisk air tasted of victory on her tongue, each breath a sweet confirmation of her hard-won freedom.
It seemed the brothers had reconciled their differences on their hunt.
Despite Grayson and Bastian being no match for her new serpentine form, they were terribly cunning in their approach and managed to do some damage before she could get away. The splintered wood was at odd angles protruding from her scales where she had held onto the tree while it disintegrated to little more than kindling.
She survived the ambush, but as she moved further away from the mansion, Ren couldn't shake off the image of Callum, left behind to face his brothers' wrath.
Freedom was hers, but at a cost she hadn't anticipated, Callum didn’t share as much of the malevolent brutality his brother’s employed in their deeds. He was generous and gentle despite his savage natural instinct and abilities. The way he touched her drove her wild with passion.
She had cared for Grayson, and felt the raw savagery Bastian was capable of, sexual in its own way.
So very pleasurable.
But Callum was love.
Callum was peace.
She felt it deep within herself.
Within her soul.