Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
I hated the way the gun fit into my hand. Weapons like these went against my animal instincts because they were the opposite of natural. They tore down communities and more, but they were highly effective in battle.
That reason alone was why Dad had trained us with firearms. He had emphasized that learning to fight with them was just as essential as learning to fight without them. He was right…but I hated the fact that we might have to use them again if we were all going to come out of this alive.
I preferred a bow and arrow, but there weren't any on hand, and they were bulkier to carry.
We needed to get to Killian and Sierra, but grabbing a few more guns might be worth taking a few extra minutes. Even though my shoulder throbbed, I pushed through the pain. Let's go grab another gun each.
Not waiting for him to respond, I turned and ran back toward the others we'd killed. Griffin ran close behind me, his anxiety flowing through our bond. He probably never expected to go through something like this, and here I’d waltzed into his world, turning his entire life upside down. I couldn't help but think that maybe he would've been better off if we hadn't met. He'd almost died once and was already in another battle—not even three days later. If we hadn't stumbled upon each other, he would probably be sitting at Dick's bar with Killian and Luna, drinking a beer.
Despite the thought being hypothetical, flames of jealousy flickered through me. I hated that Luna had gotten her claws into Griffin for so long. We hadn't seen her since the night she’d shown up drunk at his house, but she had clearly intended to hurt, if not kill me. Had I not caused her to fall into Killian's pool, there was no telling how that confrontation would've ended. Granted, she'd almost drowned because I hadn't realized she was that far gone until it was too late. Killian had jumped in and saved her.
I ran through the last section of trees. Looking at the bodies littered across the ground made my heart hurt, and somehow looked even more gruesome than I remembered. So many of these deaths could've been prevented.
Squatting next to the closest two bodies, I pried the guns from their cool hands—I could already detect the faint smell of decay. Holding my breath, I turned and handed another gun to Griffin while keeping two for myself.
Griffin’s fingers brushed my bullet wound.
Blood had soaked through the green shirt in that spot, and there was still an ache, but it was dulling. Silver wolves healed faster than any other shifter, and even faster than vampires when they drank blood. With a wound this deep and irritated, it'd probably take a day or two for it to be completely healed, but I should be able to move without wincing by tonight.
Maybe you should rest. Griffin's eyes deepened to a brown. You can head back to the Navigator while I get them out.
No way in hell would I let that happen. They were still grossly outnumbered, and even though Griffin was an amazing shot, I couldn't, in good conscience, run to safety while the three of them were in danger. I'm fine. I promise. I kissed him, taking an extra moment to reassure him. He had been almost panicked with worry ever since I got shot. It's already not hurting as bad. I slowly peeled the shirt away from the wound. See, the bleeding has already slowed.
In other words, you're refusing to stay behind. Griffin huffed as he caressed my face. Fine, but if it starts hurting worse or bleeding again, promise me you'll let me take the lead.
Promise. I couldn't deny him that, as long as I was there with him.
The air remained sulfur-free, which caused him to relax marginally.
Now, let's go. I was chomping to get away from all the dead people, as well as check on Killian and Sierra. If I wasn't worried about their cell phone distracting them or giving away their location, I'd have been texting them now. But we had to go in blind.
We sprinted through the woods in the direction of the cave.
The sound of shots firing echoed all around. I hadn't even noticed that it had been quiet until then. Maybe they weren't in over their heads yet.
I held my arm close to my side, attempting to ease the jarring of my steps. I gritted my teeth, trying to make sure that Griffin couldn't feel my discomfort. I planned on keeping my promise, but the pain wasn't unbearable…
At least, not yet.
Ten distinct scents hit me when we intersected the route the enemy had taken to reach our friends. I sniffed and tapped into my wolf so I could maintain a decent speed. Soon, Killian's and Sierra's scents mixed with theirs, which wasn't surprising. The enemy had been tracking them after all.
Unlike what I'd told them to do, Killian and Sierra seemed to have run in some sort of random pattern. There were sections where their smells veered off in two different directions. Killian must have been trying to confuse the enemy on where their end goal was by having them run in circles.
The tactic was smart but risky. They were lucky that the others hadn't figured it out and caught them before they got to the cave. But it must have bought them some time, and was probably the reason the fight had just started.
We need to move quietly. The men stalking them would be more focused on what was in front of them instead of behind. They'd expect their friends to have taken us down. Where's my knife? I stopped and faced Griffin.
Here, he linked and handed it to me, along with the sheath.
I squatted and fastened the sheath around my ankle, already feeling more like myself. For some reason, this knife always made me feel safer. More grounded. Maybe because it had been my grandfather's. Okay, we should take out as many as we can without shooting.
Your shoulder, he growled.
I'll use my left hand. We'd been trained to use weapons with both hands, just in case our dominant side was injured. There’d been so many times I'd thought Dad was being dramatic, but all of those lessons were coming in handy now. It won't be a problem.
I wished I could tell my dad I was sorry and that he was right. I'd been so disrespectful at times—rolling my eyes and complaining to Zoe about how stupid it all was. Had I known what our future held, I would’ve taken it all more seriously.
Pivoting in the direction of the cave, I took off slowly. The sheath rubbed my skin a little more than normal because I was barefoot. Not only had my clothes ripped off my body, but so had my shoes. I was able to move more silently than I would have with the rubber soles of my tennis shoes, but I had to take Griffin's footwear into account as well.
Gunshots kept firing, which brought me peace of mind. If the enemy continued to fire, that meant Killian and Sierra were alive. They hadn't been taken out or hurt yet.
"What's the plan?" a guy asked, from not even a quarter-mile ahead. "They've got coverage, and every time we try to move so they're in view, they shoot. I don't know how the hell we're going to get to them."
Thank God my plan was working. Sometimes, even the most well-thought-out plans went awry.
A row of thick bushes appeared a few feet away, and I got down on my hands and knees and crawled toward them. Griffin moved beside me, following my lead, and soon, we were peeking through the branches.
Two enemies were standing about fifty feet away near a large redwood.
"We have to figure it out," the shorter one said hatefully. "We all have too much on the line if we fail. Besides, we don't need some woman alpha thinking she can rule over us. She needs to be put in her place like any bitch with visions of grandeur should be."
He sealed the deal.
Shorty would be my first target. Maybe I should stand over him all alpha-like as he choked on his own blood.
Okay, I didn't mean that. Even the idea of killing that dickhead turned my stomach, but I would kick his ass.
What's the plan? Griffin lifted his gun, aiming for the one on the right.
The problem was I had a hard time with the concept of killing people who weren't even aware that they were in danger. Call me a glutton for punishment, but it just never felt right. We'll charge them and try to incapacitate them by hand. If they raise their weapons at us, then we shoot in order to survive.
I love that you don't want to just kill them, but wouldn't that be the safer solution? Griffin asked as he touched my arm, bringing my attention to him.
Then we'd be the same as them. We couldn't throw our humanity aside and kill because they might attack. What if they didn't? Some of these guys didn't have horrible intentions radiating off them. They might be at the mercy of whoever had leverage over them.
Okay. Griffin sighed. Let's do it your way.
Our relationship had changed so much in such a short amount of time. He used to argue and fight with me, and now he was giving in because he could sense my inner turmoil. Let's go. I'll take Shorty and you take the other guy.
Rising to my feet, I adjusted my grip on the guns in case we had to fire. I couldn't foolishly pretend these men weren't going to attack. In fact, I knew they would, but I had to see it with my own eyes.
The two of them were so focused in front of them that they didn't see us move until the breeze shifted and blew our scents toward them.
Shorty stiffened and turned, his cold, dark eyes focusing on me. He hissed, "Stupid bitch. But this makes the job easier for us." He raised his gun, but before he extended his arm completely, a gun fired, and a bullet hit him between the eyes.
"Bo," the other guy hollered, and he charged at me. "You're going to pay for that."
However, he focused his attention on the wrong person. I wasn’t the threat.
The next shot fired, and the guy's eyes widened as he realized his mistake. Griffin fired off two shots, each hitting the center of the enemy's torso. He clutched his chest—as if that would stop the blood—then dropped his gun. Tears streaked his cheeks, and he dropped to his knees as the life began to leave his body.
But I couldn't feel bad. They’d forced our hands. We’d tried not to come at them with weapons first thing.
Forcing myself to turn away now that neither of the men was a threat, I raced with Griffin toward the cave. The gunfire had stopped, and fear dug inside me.
Please let them be alive, I chanted internally, over and over again.
The cave came into view, and I scanned the area for threats. All I found was body after body of the enemy, dead on the forest floor. However, I couldn’t see Killian and Sierra from my position. All I saw was the dark opening.
"Who's there?" Killian called out. "Don't take another step toward us or you'll force us to shoot." He could hear us but wasn't able to tell who we were.
I counted bodies and realized that, between the two groups we'd killed, all twenty of our enemies were dead. "It's us. They're all gone."
"Sweet Jesus," Sierra gasped. "I didn't think we were going to make it out alive."
That made two of us. "We need to get out of here in case they have backup coming." If their leader didn't hear back from the crow or someone soon, there was no telling how many people they would send next time.
The two of them stepped from the corner of the outside wall of the cave and into view. Neither appeared injured, so that was another miracle that we all had to be thankful for.
"Why didn’t you guys go inside?" I asked.
Killian shook his head. "They were firing right at us, and if we ran in, it would’ve been directly in the line of fire…so, we found a divot in the side where we could shoot from our angle, and they had to come into our line of fire to see us." Killian frowned when his eyes landed on the spot of blood on my shirt. "What happened?"
"I got hit, but it's already healing." I took Griffin's hand and squeezed lovingly. "Griffin removed the bullet—that's why it took us longer to get back to help you."
"You shouldn't have gotten hit in the first place," Griffin grumbled, as his guilt slammed into me.
"It wasn't your fault." There was no way my injury could've been prevented. He and I had done the best we could under the circumstances.
"Come on." Griffin tugged me back toward the house. "You’re right. We need to get moving."
If he thought I'd be dropping this conversation, he'd soon learn differently. But getting the hell out of here had to be our number one priority.
"Grab more of their guns." The more we had, the fewer they had. "At least the ones nearby."
"Good idea." Killian bent down and picked up several guns.
Sierra grabbed one and held it awkwardly away from her body.
"Here, give me that." I took it from her. "You're going to get shot like that, which means you need to learn how to shoot when we get back."
"Uh, I'd rather not." She lifted a hand and blew out a breath like she was relieved that I'd taken it from her.
"Unfortunately, you're lumped in with us now, which means you must learn how to protect yourself." There was no room for negotiation. "Now let's go before we have to fight again."
The four of us trekked through the woods, running as fast as we could with our hands full of weapons. When my house came back into view, I had honestly expected to see more vehicles there, but no one new had shown up. Hope ballooned in my heart that we might get out of here without another battle.
"You two need to ride with us," Griffin commanded as he pulled the keys from his pocket and unlocked the car.
"No, I have fix-a-flat. We can be ready to roll in a few minutes." Killian sped up, running faster than I could with my injury. He reached his truck and got out what looked like a metal canister.
Griffin opened the Navigator’s passenger door and helped me get settled. My shoulder screamed at the movement of climbing into the tall car. By the time Griffin jumped into the driver’s seat, Killian was done with the tire and getting into the truck, Sierra already buckled in on the passenger side.
We peeled out of the driveway, heading to the neighborhood exit, with Killian squealing right behind us. My breathing grew rapid as we sped around the final turn.
When both vehicles turned onto the main road, racing away from my old home, my heart began to settle. That was until my gaze landed on the drawer that sat between my legs. There was no telling what I might find in there, but there was no time like the present. Who knew if we would make it back to Griffin's home?
I inhaled sharply and bent down, resolved to figure out everything I could from the hidden compartment below.