Chapter 18
Ford slammed into Colton and the momentum carried them through the open back door and outside.
His only thought was keeping the fight away from Darcy because she was tied up and helpless.
The two males crashed into the yard, rolling hard on the ground.
They both leaped to their feet, fists swinging.
Colton laughed even as he was bleeding from a busted lip. “You can’t win. You’re outnumbered.”
Before Ford could reply, his cronies Levi and Asher burst from the cabin, weapons glinting in their hands. Ford braced himself for the fight, ready to face all three.
Then he heard it: engines. Doors slamming. Boots pounding on the ground.
His herd.
Relief filled him as Crew, Avi, Grey, and Khyle rushed around the side of the cabin and joined him. “You didn’t think he was alone, did you?” Crew shouted. “Give up. Get the hell out of New Jersey or die where you stand.”
Colton didn’t answer. He just attacked. As the battle raged, Colton shouted that the farm was rightfully his, that Crew and his herd were the ones who would die.
And Darcy and the other females too.
At the mention of the mates, every male in Ford’s herd went berserk, himself included. He and Crew moved as one, fists and feet landing blow after blow, and pushing Colton farther from the cabin and deeper into the woods.
Colton managed to get away, and in the few moments he had ducked from view, he shifted, his body contorting and his clothes ripping as he turned into a stallion. He reared up, hooves high, and screamed.
Ford didn’t hesitate. His stallion was ready to fight and put an end to Colton. He called for his shift, swiftly pulling off what clothes he could as his body transformed.
Colton charged and Ford met him head-on, the impact making the ground shake.
They reared, clashing with hooves and teeth, a fight that was both primal and savage.
Crew shifted and joined the battle, and the two of them drove Colton back.
The air was filled with the sounds of the fight: the crack of splintering wood as they smashed against trees and the deadly blows of their hooves.
Colton lashed out, his hooves catching Ford in the side. He reared back at the sharp pain, but then surged forward, sinking his teeth into Colton’s neck. Crew kicked Colton from the other side, sending the male staggering away, blood pouring from the wound in his neck.
They didn’t let Colton recover. They both charged him again, slamming their weight into him. Colton hit the ground. Both Ford and Crew reared high into the air and brought their hooves down.
Once. Twice.
A final, crushing blow.
The fight ended in silence.
Ford, chest heaving, stood next to the body, watching for movement. Crew whinnied softly and Ford nodded.
It was done. Colton was dead. The male who had refused to leave their herd alone, had died at the hooves of the ones he’d wanted to destroy.
Energy spent, Ford and Crew trotted back to the cabin and were both able to shift back to human form. Normally, they would have needed to be in their shift for a few hours, but excessive stress like a fight for their lives, would allow them to return to human.
When they’d shifted, they found Grey, Khyle, and Avi with the males from Colton’s herd, lying sprawled and broken on the ground.
Three enemies, gone.
Ford grabbed his jeans and jerked them on, then hurried into the cabin. Darcy was still tied to the chair, eyes wide and cheeks wet with tears.
“Ford!”
“Are you hurt?” he demanded as he undid the ropes around her wrists and ankles. He hugged her and she fell against him with a soft sob. “I’m okay. Are you?”
“Hell yes,” he said. He leaned back, smoothing the hair away from her face. “They’re all dead. They won’t be a threat to us anymore.”
“I knew you’d come for me. But Colton did too. He took me to lure you here so he could kill all of you. And then me too, because I’m human and I know the secret.”
“He was psychotic,” Ford said. “He would still be alive if he’d just walked away. He lost everything, including his life, because he didn’t know how to accept defeat.”
He helped her to her feet and then lifted her into his arms.
“Why are you half naked?” she asked.
“I shifted.”
“Oh. You did?”
“Colton shifted first. It would be foolish to fight a horse as a man.”
“Is everyone else okay? I heard your friends come and the two guys who were with Colton ran outside and left me alone.”
“Let’s find out.”
He carried her outside where his friends were discussing what to do with the bodies.
“How are you?” Crew asked Darcy. “We have a friend who is a medical doctor at the park if you need anything.”
“I’m okay, just a little sore from being tied up. I had a headache from when they knocked me out, but it’s gone now.”
“If you need anything, just ask,” Crew said.
“What’s going to happen to them?” Darcy asked.
“We don’t leave shifter bodies for humans to find, so we’ll burn them, but we’ll do it back at the farm.”
They’d come in two vehicles, but it was dangerous to try to carry two dead bodies and a dead horse on the road to the farm, so it was decided that Avi and Grey would shift, and they’d wrap up the bodies and the guys would take them through the woods to the farm with Crew in his human form to watch out for them.
“I’ll drive one of the vehicles,” Khyle said. “You guys can drive the other.”
“We’ll meet you at the far end of the field,” Crew said as Grey and Avi began to strip and hand their clothes to Khyle for safekeeping.
Ford put Darcy on her feet and finished dressing.
They didn’t want to leave anything behind.
“We’ll be there,” Ford said. He sent Darcy to sit in the truck so that she didn’t have to watch them handle the bodies.
They used a tarp, blankets, and rope they found in the cabin and made a large, makeshift stretcher for the two males to pull together.
It wouldn’t be an easy trek through the woods, but the cabin wasn’t actually that far from the farm.
They’d found a place just far enough away that Grey hadn’t been able to track it.
Ford had only been able to find the cabin because of his connection to Darcy.
When they were on the way, Khyle and Ford walked through the cabin and made sure there wasn’t anything incriminating or that would identify Colton and his people. They gathered the pipe bomb material to dispose of at the farm and then headed to the vehicles.
When Ford was behind the wheel of the truck, he turned on the engine and looked at Darcy. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’ll be much more okay when we’re away from here and back at home.”
“Home?”
“The farm.”
His brows rose. She’d never called the farm home before.
She smiled. “All I could think about was you and the herd. Since my parents died, I’ve never really felt at home anywhere.
I had a home, but it wasn’t the same. It was just a place, a bookmark in my life.
But with you, I feel at home for the first time.
And I definitely want to move in. For real.
I don’t want to stop doing something because I feel like it might be too fast or Cruz might get mad.
I want to be with you because you’re mine. ”
“You’re mine too,” Ford said, his voice rough. He could have lost her tonight. But he didn’t. They’d come out on the other side of this ordeal victorious, their herd safe.
When they reached the farm, he left her with the females in the farmhouse, who fussed over her and welcomed her back, and then he, Khyle, and Dexter went to meet the guys at the back of the pasture.
By the time Crew and the guys arrived, Ford, Khyle, and Dexter had dug a huge hole and gathered the accelerant that shifters used to ensure the bodies would burn fast and leave no trace. The bodies were dumped into the hole and covered with accelerant.
Before he lit the match, Crew said, “He was warned when he came against us the first time, that we would use deadly force to defend ourselves and our mates. He tested us and he found out the truth: no one messes with the Little River Herd. As alpha, I declare the herd safe and our people victorious.” He lit the match and bent over, touching it to one of the bodies.
It whooshed as the flames took hold, and they all stepped back from the heat.
The accelerant not only made the fire burn faster and hotter than normal, but it also produced a low amount of smoke so it was less visible. They were legally allowed to burn things on their property, so no one would mess with them anyway.
“Darcy’s okay?” Dexter asked.
“Yeah. Shaken up, but not hurt.”
“Good. We can finally close this chapter and move on.”
“Hear, hear,” Avi said.
Grey offered to take first watch over the fire. Once the bodies were turned to ash, he’d call for help filling in the hole. Ford found Darcy in the kitchen with the females, and she rushed into his arms.
“I love you,” she said, her voice trembling.
“I love you too, sweetheart.”
He kissed her softly, pouring every ounce of emotion into the gesture. She was his mate. He would do anything for her.
Fight for her. Kill for her.
Live for her.
And that’s what he was going to do.
The nightmare was over. She was safe in his arms and the herd was safe from the Shenandoah Valley Herd forever.
At long last, the farm was safe.