Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
In the dark, Raven ran for the tiger house, following the sounds of Luna’s growls and howls, furtively darting from building to building, passing the lodge, the restaurant, the souvenir shop, the entrance, and the parking lot, staying low to the ground and keeping buildings or trees between herself and the Headhunters as much as she could.
Behind her, smoke spiraled into the dark sky, blotting out the stars. Orange flames leaped and sparked along the storage building.
The Headhunters shouted in alarm. Several dark figures sprinted for the blazing building. The ruckus obscured her noise as she rounded the rear of the tiger enclosure, climbed over the perimeter fence, and dashed through the overgrown grass to the tiger house.
As if sensing her presence, the white wolf’s howls grew louder.
From somewhere outside the refuge came an answering howl—long and low and desperate. Shadow had found them. He was out there in the woods beyond the refuge, searching for his mate.
“I’ve got this,” Raven said under her breath, though the black wolf couldn’t hear her. “I’m going to save her, I promise.”
She hoped the Headhunters wouldn’t go after him, that they were too distracted by their food supply going up in flames. She had to focus on saving Luna. Shadow was safer outside the refuge—she could only pray he stayed that way.
The service door hung open. Raven ran inside and collapsed onto her knees beside the mesh gate. Luna lay on her side. Knotted ropes bound her paws. Other than the rope shackles, she appeared unharmed.
The wolf raised her head and pressed her nose against the mesh, whimpering frantically.
“I’m getting you out.” Raven slapped the button to raise the sliding gate, pulled her whittling knife from her pocket, and flicked it open. She climbed awkwardly inside to reach the wolf.
Luna writhed on the cement floor, so agitated that Raven had difficulty cutting the rope without accidentally hurting the animal.
“Hold still!” she hissed. “I’m trying to help you!”
Luna snapped. Her jaws closed an inch from Raven’s wrist. Adrenaline shot through her veins, but she held her ground.
“No,” Raven said firmly. She met the wolf’s frantic amber gaze and held it. “I said enough!”
Luna was frightened, bewildered, and furious. She was the alpha; she’d never needed to be submissive a day of her adult life. Until now.
“Let me help you,” Raven said. “I’m going to help you, but damn it, you need to do what I say for a change.”
They stared at each other for a moment. Luna wild, panicked, and distrustful. Raven fighting down her own desperation.
She kept her eyes fixed on Luna’s, willing her to understand. “We’re going to have to trust each other, you and I. You’re not going to bite me, and I’m not going to cut you. Understand?”
Luna’s ears pricked. She whined low in her throat. Her lips remained peeled back from her fangs, but she didn’t growl. She didn’t snap.
It was a good sign. At least, Raven chose to take it as one.
She held Luna’s foreleg down with one hand, sawing at the rope with the whittling knife. She worked quickly but carefully. If she accidentally cut Luna, she’d lose whatever fragile trust they’d built between them.
Each second passed with incredible slowness. She felt every beat of her heart, every panicked breath as she worked through the first rope.
In the distance, Shadow’s howls intensified. He sounded as desperate as she felt.
After an endless minute, the frayed rope finally snapped.
Luna attempted to scramble up with just her forelegs. Her hind legs, still bound, collapsed. She yelped in surprised pain.
Raven pressed her down again. “Not yet. Let me work, damn you.”
Pausing for half a second, she listened for the Headhunters. Their shouts and yells echoed in the distance. It was fully dark outside. The shadows inside the tiger house were so deep she could hardly make out Luna’s pale form.
With one hand, she felt along the wolf’s muscled flank for the rope, fumbling to Luna’s hind legs. As she sawed through the rope, the blade rasped through the thick fibers with agonizing slowness.
“Come on, come on. Hurry the hell up!” Beads of sweat gathered at her hairline. Her heart hammered against her ribs. “Almost there, I promise.”
The last rope fell away. Luna was free. In a blink, the wolf leaped up and shot out of the chamber, through the service door, and out into the park.
“Run to Shadow!” Raven whispered as she rose to her feet and sheathed the blade. “Run!”
She exited the tiger house, blinking to readjust her eyes to the night.
The sky was a glossy black. The bank of towering thunderclouds roiled closer. Not yet masked by the incoming cloud cover, the moon was a bright sliver, casting a luminous glow over everything—the trees, the buildings, the habitats, the flagstone pathway.
Then she saw them. Her heart stopped.
On the path, forty or fifty yards away. Three Headhunters sprinted toward them. Whooping and hollering. Their faces hungry, drunk on blood and vengeance. Scorpio was shouting, pointing at the white wolf.
Vaughn and Dekker held rifles.
Dekker aimed his rifle at Raven’s chest. Vaughn swung his gun toward Luna.
Raven didn’t think. She sprinted straight at the Headhunters. They were going to kill Luna. She had to stop them.
“Go!” she screamed at Luna. “Run!”
Luna made a sharp right, off the path, and streaked across the grounds.
Vaughn fired at her. The gunshot boomed.
Luna kept going. A pale white streak in a sea of black shadows.
Vaughn shifted his weight, planted his feet, and leveled the rifle, about to fire again.
Raven ran faster. She lowered her shoulder and slammed into his side. It was like smashing into a brick wall.
The rifle went off. The sound of the gunshot exploded in her ears. Vaughn had barely moved, but she’d struck his arm, shoving the rifle aside as he’d fired. Vaughn cursed loudly.
Raven staggered, dazed. Pain radiated up and down her shoulder, her right hip.
Luna loped north, headed between the enclosures, for the rear gates. She vanished into the darkness. Unharmed. Still alive. She’d made it. Outside the refuge, Shadow gave a long, high-pitched howl, followed by a swift yip of excitement. They’d found each other. Luna had reached Shadow.
Raven turned to flee. Her legs wouldn’t work properly. She wasn’t fast enough.
Another gunshot exploded. The round whizzed past her ear and struck the wall of the tiger house in front of her with a dull thunk. The sound thundered in her ears. Everything went distant and tinny.
“Next time, I won’t miss,” Dekker said. His voice sounded like it was underwater. “Stop right there!”
Raven kept going. Her only chance was to escape. Her pulse roared in her ears. She stumbled, righted herself, and ran again. It felt like running through Jello.
Footsteps pounded behind her. Angry shouting voices.
Someone seized her arm and jerked her backward. Hauled her off her feet. She nearly collapsed, but the hand on her bicep dragged her upright.
Scorpio spun her around to face the others. Vaughn slung his rifle over his shoulder and held a flashlight, pointing it at Raven’s face. Scorpio tightened his grip, cutting off circulation.
Black soot filmed his enraged features. “You set fire to our food!”
“You owe me a wolf,” Vaughn growled. “Not just any wolf. That one.”
Raven lifted her chin. She said nothing. Tears stung her eyes. The fear was a winged black thing beating frantically against her chest, her ribs, her throat.
Dekker got right in her face. His eyes flat and dangerous. “You killed my brother. You stabbed him and left him to die like an animal. Admit it. You did it.”
She refused to give them the dignity of an answer.
Scorpio shook her hard. Her brain felt like it was rattling around in her skull. “You dumb as well as stupid?”
She clenched her jaw, bit back the scream of terror clawing at her throat.
Dekker sneered. “Tiger got your tongue? I can get you to talk. Give me five minutes, and I’ll get you to squeal like a stuck pig.”
Treacherous tears burned the backs of her eyes. She blinked them back furiously. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. She wouldn’t give them anything.
Dekker leaned in close and spoke softly, his breath in her ear. She could smell his sour sweat, could see the pores in his skin, the knife-sharp angles of his face. “When I’m through with you, you’ll be begging me for mercy.”
Raven repressed a shudder. She raised her chin, afraid but defiant.
Dekker smiled. It was an ugly, dead thing. His eyes held no mercy. He gestured for Scorpio to release her arm.
As soon as Scorpio let her go, Dekker punched her in the mouth.
Pain ruptured throughout her jaw. Her lower lip split. Blood trickled down her chin. She tried to keep her balance, but the force of his blow knocked her to her knees. Scorpio ripped the backpack from her shoulders and tossed it onto the ground at his feet.
“You came to us, you stupid little whore.” Dekker bent over her. “We didn’t even have to hunt you down. What a shame. I was looking forward to that.”
Dekker struck her across the side of her face with the back of his hand. Lights exploded across her vision. Her ears rang. Dizziness washed over her in waves. She felt like she was going to vomit.
Dekker kicked her in the stomach. She toppled, falling backward. Flagstone cracked against her skull. She shuddered, gasping, crying. She clawed at the ground, trying to rise to her hands and knees, to crawl away. Pain gnawed at the edges of her mind.
Dekker delivered a savage kick to her ribs. He knocked her down again. Agony lanced her ribs like a razor-tipped spear. She groaned, rising again to her hands and knees.
She licked blood from her split lip. No use. It ran down her chin. She attempted to stand.
Vaughn and Scorpio watched impassively, their faces in shadow beyond the beams of their flashlights.
Dekker pushed her over easily, as if she were nothing more than a sack of grain. He nudged her onto her back, then lifted his steel-toed boot and slammed it down on her ribs.
Something gave with a sickening crunch.
Raven writhed, groaning. White-hot pain blinded her. Pain so deep and wide it engulfed her whole body. Pain without beginning, without end.
The world glimmered in and out of focus. Blackness hovered at the corners of her vision. The moon and stars were hidden now. The sky a mass of dark clouds. A gust of wind swept over her.
She tasted ozone mingled with blood. The storm was almost here.
Distantly, she heard footsteps.
“Is this necessary?” Damien’s voice, sharp with disgust. “She’s no threat.”
“After what she did?” Scorpio scoffed. “She’ll be lucky if we don’t flay her alive.”
“But she’s a—”
“A what?” Dekker asked coldly. “A girl? Or a cold-blooded murderer?”
“You’re the murderers!” Raven spat between clenched teeth. She could barely force the words out through the agony spearing through every part of her body. It was like a gaping maw of pain swallowing her whole.
Scorpio sneered. “So, she can speak.”
“Haven’t you done enough already?” Damien asked. “Looks like you’ve gotten your pound of flesh, Dekker.”
“I haven’t even started.”
Her entire body hurt. Her ribs like molten lava, knives prying apart her bones. She clung to consciousness with every fiber of her being. The darkness yawned at the corners of her vision, rising beneath her bones.
“I thought we didn’t torture women and children.” Damien’s tone was beseeching. “Come on, Uncle. Stop this.”
Dimly, she saw Vaughn shrug. “Doesn’t count when they murder one of our own, son.”
Damien fell silent. His silence said everything. In the end, when it counted, he would fail her, like everyone else. She’d get no help from him. Or anyone.
No one was coming to save her. There was no one to call for help. She had no parents. No police anymore. No 911. No soldiers keeping the peace.
There was no one. No one and nothing.
This was it, then.
This was the end.
Her eyes burned. She didn’t cry. She refused to cry, refused to give these monsters an ounce of satisfaction.
Dekker bent over her, leaned in close. Above his looming form, lightning clawed the sky. The white pulse sharpened his cheekbones to blades, hollowed his eyes to deep black pits.
“You killed my brother.” He seized a handful of her hair and yanked her head painfully. A jolt like a live wire zipped up her neck. His fleshy lips touched her ear. “For that, you’re going to die.”