Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Raven headed for the woods.
She ran as fast as she dared in the dark, too afraid to use the flashlight Damien had given her. Her legs pumped. Her pack thumped against her spine. Her pulse was a roar in her ears. Tears burned her vision. She blinked them away fiercely.
Reaching the back of the park, she sprinted between the bear and hybrid paddocks. One of the peacocks veered into her path. She nearly tripped over the damn bird but managed to keep her footing. Finally, she reached the wide double gates, still propped open with the rocks she’d placed earlier.
The forest loomed, rising before her like an immense black wall—bleak, foreboding, bristling with unknown terrors.
She hesitated for an instant, glancing back over her shoulder. She peered through the fog. The faintest shine of moonlight pierced the haziness. It would be morning in a few short hours. This was the longest night of her life.
Come on, Shadow. Come on, Luna. And Vlad, Suki, Kodiak, all the others. She couldn’t wait for them. She had to trust that they could find their way out.
She turned and sprinted into the woods. She’d played in this forest her entire childhood. She knew it well, though not so much at night. She’d once had a favorite fort she’d built herself, and it was there that she headed now.
Burrs and brambles clung to her clothing. Thorns snagged her hands. The underbrush was thick and dense. The woods smelled of crushed pine needles and damp, dank earth. The skeletons of the trees stretched long bony fingers to scrape the sky.
The darkness closed around her like a fist.
She kept her eyes open wide, wary of every flicker of movement, every sigh of the leaves, every pulsing shadow in the underbrush.
A second of inattention might determine the difference between living and dying.
A single wrong move—tripping on a tree root or stepping wrong on a felled branch—would alert predators to her presence.
She moved as swiftly but quietly as she could. Shadows spilled all around her like ink.
In the dark, she lost her way a few times and had to backtrack. The deer path was incredibly difficult to follow, though she’d explored these woods a thousand times.
Sweat beaded her forehead and dripped between her shoulder blades. Every footfall seemed to announce her presence to the night, to all the creatures that called this wild forest their home—and possibly to some that did not.
Raven searched the darkness for shifting shadows, for the gleam of predatory eyes. She strained for the sound of padded paws slinking through the forest. Or worse, human footsteps pursuing her.
Thirty minutes later, she finally stumbled upon the familiar ring of stones surrounding her childhood firepit.
A few yards behind it stood the lean-to fort she’d built herself seven years ago.
Several of the branches had fallen, though most still stood, creating the small shelter in the crook of a boulder and a giant spreading oak.
The moss roof she’d worked so hard on had crumbled long ago, but it didn’t matter. This place was comforting and familiar. She needed that.
Her legs shaky from exhaustion, she sank onto one of the log seats that surrounded the firepit. Above her, hints of starlight glimmered between the black tangles of branches.
She looked down at her trembling hands. Blood stained her fingers. Blood from a dead man. A dead man who’d tried to kill her.
Strangely, she felt no guilt. Like every wild creature, she’d instinctively protected herself. The drive for self-preservation was innate.
But now the dead man’s brother and his entire gang would soon be hunting her in earnest.
The weight of it struck her then. Unbearably heavy, like a thousand bricks pressed against her chest. Her loneliness threatened to overwhelm her. The impossibility of the task that lay before her.
Would she live to see another day? Was she about to lose everything that she loved?
She could still run. She still could.
She leaned over and vomited.
Shaking, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
A flash of silver streaked through the trees on her right. A twig cracked on her left. Adrenaline thrummed through her veins. Swiftly, she reached for the hunting rifle, unslinging it.
Ten yards away, a great white wolf stepped between two trees. A black wolf glided beside the white one, a shadow among shadows.
Raven released a tense breath. Relief flooded every cell of her body. Wetness blurred her eyes. She choked back the flood of tears that threatened to overwhelm her. This was no time to lose it.
“You came back for me,” she whispered. “You came back.”
Luna lurked at the tree line, but Shadow trotted right up to her. The black wolf brushed his powerful shoulder against hers, nearly knocking her off the log. She took several steadying breaths and glanced at Shadow.
His ears pricked. His tail swished slowly, expectantly.
She managed a grim smile. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you.”
Gradually, the mind-numbing terror faded. Her heart rate slowed. Now that the wolves were here, she felt immeasurably better.
She had never been afraid of the dark or of these woods. But tonight, surrounded by predators of all kinds, the last thing she wanted to be was alone.
Would the wolves stay with her? She almost didn’t dare to hope. She wasn’t sure she could bear the profound disappointment if they left her again. She felt stronger in their presence. Braver.
Raven unzipped one of the outside compartments of her pack and withdrew three strips of dried venison. She gnawed on a strip herself and tossed a piece to the wolves. Shadow sniffed at the venison, unconvinced that this strange object was food.
She took a swallow from her water bottle and wiped her mouth. “It’s good, I promise.”
Shadow licked it, gave a little whine, then gulped it down. Luna sniffed hers daintily and lifted her nose in disdain. Shadow happily ate her share.
A wave of dizziness washed over her. Her eyes were gritty. She could barely stand, she was so exhausted. The adrenaline from the fight was wearing off.
She was incredibly weary. Her eyes burned. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept. Not last night, and not the night before, either.
Luna and Shadow regarded her, their heads tilted, ears pricked as if asking, What now?
“Rest,” she said, climbing to her feet. “I need to get some rest. I don’t know yet what comes next, but I have to get some sleep. Can you stay here with me? Will you warn me if someone or something gets close?”
The wolves just looked at her.
“Well, good night then.”
Exhausted, she crawled into the lean-to on her hands and knees, dragging the pack and rifle behind her. Quickly, she swept handfuls of leaves over the ground and tossed aside several twigs and rocks. She was too tired to do much else.
Night sounds filled the air: crackling branches, the hoot of an owl, the raspy song of crickets and cicadas. With the pack as a pillow and the rifle clutched in both hands, she closed her eyes and tried not to dream of blood and death.