Chapter Eighteen #2
She paused, almost like she expected an answer. The wolf was silent, but very much alive within her. That was still an improvement. Maybe she had expected too much too soon.
Cutting her hair and learning self-defense were outward steps she knew she could take.
Coming to terms with the fact that she was not broken and that she was not innately weak or worthless as a shifter, as her father had made her believe, had pushed her ever closer to that ultimate goal.
She searched for nirvana, total self-acceptance, and some sort of shifter enlightenment.
Shifting again was the last challenge, the last barricade, the last lock before she could have herself back.
Disappointment and doubt lingered not far off, ready to latch its talons in her, but she refused to let them nip at her heels. She would try again and keep trying. Along the way, she would work on herself and give them both time to heal. She’d practice the grace they deserved.
She sat back and tilted her head as a gust of wind blew through the forest. Leaves rustled like a rising and falling hiss as it came and went.
It almost masked the sound of footfalls on the path behind her.
Her nose couldn’t pick out a distinct scent, even as the wind brought a few dozen her way. Rabbit, deer, grass, nothing unusual.
But the footfalls did not belong to Shane. She would have sensed him coming. She would have smelled him as she did on that night they ran into each other in this very spot. Additionally, the cadence of the steps didn’t seem right. Slow, cautious, stalking.
She looked behind her and spotted the shadowed figure of a man making his way through the trees and toward the creek. Her body went cold and almost boneless as her mind flashed with every terrible possibility.
She was alone. She was naked beneath her robe.
A little forethought told her to stay at least partially clothed in case Shane came early, but she didn’t recognize this man.
A stranger. She couldn’t tell if he was a shifter or not.
Her brain short-circuited between the fight or flight response, and she could barely sense time from one massive, quick heartbeat to the next.
She just knelt there, petrified until everything revved back to life.
The man stepped up to the tree line, now fully distinguishable.
She discerned he was human and looked rather ordinary.
Nothing about his face screamed that he was dangerous, but the rest of him did.
He wore a black, long-sleeved shirt, a black vest that reminded her of a SWAT or military uniform, with lots of bulging compartments.
He wore a similar belt with little pouches and what her brain told her was an empty gun holster, but she couldn’t be sure in the dark.
His black matte boots crushed the grass and leaves beneath his feet as he strode closer, an unreadable look on his face.
He looked like the kind of guy one saw on the street and forgot in an instant.
Nameless and plain. Kimberly’s first guess was that he belonged to the police force for Tolstone.
Maybe one of Cole’s officers? But some intuition told her this man was not a servant of the people.
The vibes, the tension around him, the manner in his approach, and the fact that he either had no scent or wore something that thoroughly covered it, all proclaimed he wasn’t safe to her.
He watched her with dark eyes, and they both seemed to take a beat to understand the situation.
His right hand was behind his back, and she remembered the empty gun holster.
She couldn’t freak out. She had to stay calm, despite all the alarm bells sounding in her head.
If she could somehow play this off, she could buy enough time until Shane showed up …
No, she couldn’t rely on Shane. She had to get out of this by herself, by whatever means necessary.
She sensed her wolf rise up within her, ready and waiting.
She stood and put on her best convincing smile.
“Oh, thank God! This is really embarrassing, but I’m trying to find the parking lot.
My husband and I are camping out here, and he said he was going to our car to grab extra batteries for our lantern, but he was taking a while, so I decided to go try and find him, but I got turned around.
Everything looks the same out here. Can you point me in the direction of the parking lot? ”
It was a good thing the man wasn’t a shifter or he would be able to sense the lie in her.
“What kind of car?”
He was testing her.
“Red Toyota Camry.” Naming a car she knew for a fact was out there was the safest. “Did you see him?” Kimberly shook her head and started to march forward like she was going to start down the trail behind the man.
“I swear, if he’s sitting in the driver’s seat checking the football scores or something, I’ll—”
The man whipped out the gun he had hidden behind his back and pointed it right at her. “It’s not football season.”
Kimberly mentally cursed herself. She had hoped something that vague would have slid under the radar. She knew nothing about sports.
She froze and held up her palms. “What do you want?” She tried to keep her tone even and calm, but perhaps that was not convincing when being held at gunpoint.
“What are you doing here…” He tipped his gun at her robe, “dressed like that?”
Kimberly swallowed. “I’m trying to find my husband.”
The man narrowed his eyes. “How come you don’t have a map?”
“It’s at our campsite. I didn’t grab it.” She decided to stick with her previous lie.
He grimaced. “Stop lying. Why are you here?”
“Why are you here?” Kimberly countered. “You’re not a ranger, and I don’t see a badge so you’re not a cop. If you were out hunting…”
She wanted to say that if he were out hunting, he wouldn’t be doing it with a handgun.
Shane took her hunting once and his weapon of choice was a crossbow, but she knew rifles or shotguns were proper for hunting animals, unless …
Her thoughts went into a tailspin, and she wondered if that gun was loaded with silver bullets.
He jerked the gun toward the ground again and took two steps closer, both hands gripping the weapon for accuracy. “Get on your knees. I’m going to ask you one more time and whatever you say, it better be more convincing than that bullshit you shoveled at me.”
Kimberly didn’t kneel, even when her legs lost half of their strength.
She would submit to no man, even at gunpoint, even if he was a shifter hunter.
She glared and felt like growling. Something told her that he expected it.
He probably expected her to lash out with claws and fangs or even shift and attack.
The fact that she didn’t might have given him just enough doubt to make him second guess if she was the prey he was looking for.
She had one last chance to bluff. One last chance to convince him that she deserved to live.
Then again, he might have seen her as a loose end, a liability.
If he let her go, she could report him to the police for stalking the woods and pointing a gun at innocent women.
The likelihood of making it out of this alive was dwindling by the second.
So, she played a different card. “Why don’t you tell me why I’m here?”
He adjusted his grip on the gun, fingers flexing, the only tell that he wasn’t completely confident in this situation.
A twig snapped some distance behind the man, but she was sure he didn’t hear it. It was too faint and too far away for human ears. The wind carried a welcoming scent. The smell of Shane’s body wash. If she thought right, Shane was unlikely to detect the man’s presence without some help.
Kimberly made sure her voice carried by the slightest degree. “Either you believe what I say—that I’m trying to find my husband and lower that gun—or you tell me who you are and why you’re here dressed like you’re ready for war.”
She heard Shane’s sudden stop in the forest and the subtle sounds of a man undressing and shifting into a wolf. Again, the hunter wouldn’t hear any of it.