Chapter 8
Chapter
Eight
In my dreams, the way the alpha spoke set my soul on fire. I lived for the low melodic rumble of his voice moving through me.
My love. That’s what he called me, letting the sound linger on his lips as if savoring each syllable.
But not now.
Now, I was just a hard and caustic you.
But I suppose I had no right to expect a warm welcome. I had just shot him point-blank with a .45, after all.
It was a miracle he was still standing. A bullet that big this close should have left a gaping crater in his chest. If he were a regular man, he’d be halfway to heaven by now.
But there was nothing regular about the ferus. Everyone knew they were tough, sure, but absorbing that much lead without batting an eye? That was next-level kind of resiliency.
The shells in that .45 are gonna feel like bee stings to a ferus.
All I could do was thank God that Chuck had been right about that…and pray the alpha wasn’t about to stain the trees with my blood.
“I-I’m so sorry,” I started, sputtering with a mixture of fear and adrenaline. “I didn’t mean to shoot you. I—”
The alpha cut me off with a roar, one that echoed through the trees, and made it clear he wasn’t in the mood to listen to any apologies or excuses.
“What the hell are you doing in the Wilds?” he repeated, his voice vibrating with anger.
“M-my friend,” I sputtered as a brand new rush of adrenaline flooded my veins. I was already breathing so fast and hard that the edges of my vision were turning fuzzy. If he yelled at me again, I’d probably pass out. “She w-was taken.”
“Taken?” The alpha’s lip curled up as he spoke, showing off his thick, elongated canines. One wrong answer and he’d use those to tear open my neck. I just knew it. “Taken by who?”
“I don’t know.” It wasn’t as if he’d formally introduced himself. “Another alpha. Like you.”
“Describe him,” he commanded.
Teetering on the edge of panic, I was barely able to string basic sentences together. How the hell was I supposed to give a detailed description? Especially when my mind was already overwhelmed with the sight of the deadly threat currently in front of me.
“Big,” I said. “Tall. Strong. Mean.”
The alpha growled again, this time in frustration. “That’s all of us.”
“S-Sorry.” Heaven help me. Now, I was really hyperventilating. The fuzzy fog around my vision pushed in deeper. I couldn’t manage even a single clear thought. “I’m so afraid.”
The alpha pulled his head back slightly, his gaze becoming more assessing. Whatever he saw in my eyes convinced him I was telling the truth because just a moment later, I watched as his long canine teeth retreated, slipping back into his gums with astonishing speed.
It was the same with his claws. Even though they were hidden behind me, I could still feel them snicking back into his nail beds, the outline of his fingers instantly becoming more recognizable on my back.
More human. Less monstrous.
“Better?” he asked.
That depended. Sure, his appearance might be less overtly threatening, but seeing him just like he appeared in my dreams was its own kind of unnerving.
“How are you real?” The question slipped out of my spinning mind. “I mean, I’ve seen you in my dreams so many—”
“That’s not what I asked you,” he growled brusquely.
“But—”
“Stop!” My heart nearly seized up in fear at his harsh tone. “Unless you’re describing that alpha, I don’t want to hear it.”
I didn’t understand. Clearly, he knew who I was. We’d both recognized each other at first sight. So why was he talking to me like I was an annoying stranger?
I didn’t know...and I wasn’t about to ask.
If he didn’t want to talk about our bizarre connection, that was fine by me. Heaven knows, I’d retreated into denial plenty of times in my life.
The only trouble was that looking into his gorgeously familiar face wasn’t making me forget how to speak.
But maybe I didn’t need words.
“Wait,” I said. “I don’t have to describe him. I can show you.”
“How?”
“The phone.” With my body still firmly pinned to the tree, I could only jut my head awkwardly in the direction of the light shining up through the leaves. “We were recording when it happened. You can watch the video.”
His green gaze sharpened in suspicion. Maybe he didn’t understand half the words I’d said, or maybe he just didn’t trust me not to pull another gun on him the second I was free.
But at a certain point, curiosity must have gotten the better of him because the pressure of his body against mine eased enough for me to slide free.
Even though my back stayed to him as I reached for my phone, I could feel the weight of his stare bearing down on me. One wrong move and I was afraid that would be the end of me.
My fingers were shaking so badly that it took me several seconds to pull up the recording. I tried handing over the phone once the playback had started, but the alpha refused to take it.
Instead, he moved in close to peer down at the screen from over my shoulder.
Close enough that I could feel his chest begin to rumble again as Felicity started talking about Hannah Carter’s kidnapping.
“I’ll fast forward to the important part,” I said, already zooming ahead to the point where her abductor emerged from the darkness.
At the first flash of the beast’s face, I felt the alpha stiffen behind me, intense anger radiating out from every muscle in his body.
“Lash,” he snarled. “I should have known.”
“Excuse me?” I paused the video. “Lash? Is…is that a name?”
My dream alpha didn’t answer that question. He was too busy making another demand. “Show me more.”
“Yeah, sure.” Despite my confident choice of words, I ended up fumbling with the play button a couple of times before I managed to hit it.
My regret was instantaneous.
Reliving the scene was like stabbing at an open wound. The expression of pure terror on Felicity’s face as the creature closed in on her tore at my heart. Her screams ripped at my soul. Tears flooded my eyes, spilling over as I was forced to listen to the monster hurl his threats again.
Eventually, I couldn’t take any more. I tried to turn it off, but the alpha grabbed my wrist, stilling my hand before my thumb could reach the button.
“I need to see this,” he snapped.
Well, I didn’t. Not again.
“Then take it,” I said, thrusting the phone into his hands as my whole body started to shake. I only managed to get in two steps before my legs gave out underneath me, and I collapsed onto the ground.
The alpha stared down at me for a full second, his face a shadowy mask, before turning his attention back to the phone. Was he angry? I didn’t know. And honestly, I didn’t care.
All I knew was that I’d rather face whatever physical pain he might dish out than endure another second of that psychological torture.
But of course, it wasn’t completely over. Even though I couldn’t see the images, the muffled audio still drifted my way. Cupping my hands over my ears didn’t make a difference. The sound of my panicked voice, first begging for Felicity’s life, then threatening Chuck, still found a way through.
Then, after what felt like eternity, the sound suddenly cut off. Thankfully, the recording had finally ended.
Opening my eyes and unplugging my ears, I looked up from the forest floor. The low angle made the alpha seem even larger as he loomed above me. And as his hard gaze slid from the phone to my face, I realized that while the video might have ended, this waking nightmare was still going strong.
“When did this happen?” he barked.
“Half an hour ago,” I answered. Or maybe an hour. I couldn’t be sure. This constant state of heightened fear was playing tricks with my mind. I couldn’t trust any of my senses.
“That’s too long,” he grumbled to himself. Then, tilting back his head, he drew in a long breath, testing the air. But whatever he was searching for, he clearly didn’t find it. He shook his head in disgust. “The bastard could be anywhere by now.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. “I have to find her.”
“Who?”
“Felicity.” Who the hell did he think? “The woman in the video. She’s my best friend. She’s the reason I’m here.”
But the alpha just gave his head a dismissive shake. “She’s already dead.”
“What?” Heart pounding, I sprang up from the ground and grabbed the front of his blood-stained shirt with both hands. “How do you know? Did you find her? Oh God, what did that monster do to her?”
The alpha’s gaze slid down to where my fingers were tearing into his clothes. The muscles lining his jaw ticked at the recklessness of my touch.
“No,” he said. “I haven’t seen your friend.”
“Oh, thank God.” My knees buckled again, this time from the intense relief sweeping through me.
But my dream alpha seemed determined not to let me hold on to even a sliver of hope.
“But I know Lash,” he continued. “He’s both cruel and violent. If he said he’d kill your friend, then that’s what he’s going to do.”
Going to…
Future tense.
“So there’s a chance he hasn’t done it yet,” I tried. “Felicity might still be alive.”
The alpha shrugged. He didn’t strike me as the kind of man who put much stock in mights and maybes.
“If she is, it won’t be for long,” he said. “The second Lash tires of her screams and thrashing, he’ll put a stop to them.”
Oh God.
“Then we can’t waste any more time,” I said, pushing off his chest and heading in the direction that Chuck’s gun had flown. Lowering myself down on hands and knees, I rooted through the bushes. “We need to get back out there and keep looking for her.”
The alpha cleared his throat before letting out a bitter laugh. “We?”
Shit. Yeah, it was probably too much to ask the person I’d just shot to help me search for a stranger in this endless wilderness. Honestly, I should just be grateful that he hadn’t ripped my head off the second he’d laid hands on me. I couldn’t in good conscience ask for more.
And yet I did.
The second my fingers felt the cold steel of the revolver underneath a twisted tangle of yarrow stalks, I turned back toward him.