If she doesn’t know for sure, she’s about to because I won’t let anything bad happen to her. Not now. Not on my watch.
Red is on her stomach on the ground. One of the men is standing behind her, his foot pressed into her back. The others are sneering as he taunts her, telling her all the horrible things he wants to do, making promises he’s just not going to be able to keep.
I shift silently and sneak up to the clearing. While everyone is distracted by Drew and Red, I nail Johnson on the side of the head with a rock. He drops like a sack of potatoes. Literally. The other four shifters all turn to look at me. Red can’t see me from where I am, but it doesn’t matter. She’ll know soon enough and they’ll all wish they hadn’t messed with her.
They’ll wish they’d never been born.
I’m coming for you, baby.
I’m going to save my girl.
“Nash?” Drew asks. He’s a shifter who also happens to be Jeffrey’s right hand man. His chest is covered in jagged scars. Drew never backs down from a fight. His eyes narrow as I approach and he glances behind me to see Johnson on the ground. “This doesn’t concern you.”
“That’s where you wrong,” I say simply. “You have two choices: you can leave now and I won’t slit your throats the way you deserve,” laughter erupts, but I continue. “Or we can do this the messy way.”
Drew stays put, but the other men quickly shift and leap at me.
The messy way it is.
9.
Red
I try to slide away from the bare foot digging into my back between my shoulder blades. I wiggle, but the foot presses harder and I finally give up. I can hear the fight, but I can’t see anything from where I’m lying.
Who is my rescuer?
A million thoughts race through my head, but they all settle back on one thing: I should have known better.
Did I really think I’d be able to escape? Did I really think I’d be able to hide away until I reached a reasonable conclusion?
Sometimes life doesn’t turn out the way we want it to. I’ve struggled for years to be the good girl, the sweet girl, the kind girl. I’ve tried to be a good student, a good granddaughter, a good person.
And for what?
It certainly didn’t save my grandmother’s life and it’s certainly not saving me now. Maybe if I had been smarter, wiser. Maybe if I’d been more of a badass, things would be different. I shouldn’t have wandered into the deep, dark woods on my own.
Not without protection.
I think of Wolfy and squeeze my eyes shut. My ears are filled with the sounds of growling, fighting, howls. I can smell the fight: blood and fear. I don’t have to be a wolf to smell those things. Even my human nose can tell that this battle isn’t pretty.
And it’s all because of me.
I think of Wolfy back at the cabin and I wonder why I kept on pretending not to know what he was. Maybe it was just nice to have someone understand me for a little while.
Maybe it was just nice not to feel so alone.
I didn’t call him out because part of me worried that he would leave me. Then I’d be truly alone instead of just mostly alone. I still don’t know what or who he is. I still don’t know why he chose to protect me, of all the woodland creatures, but I know that right now, I’m filled with regret.
I wonder if this is the end.
Any moment now.
Any moment and I’m going to feel the sharp fangs of death tearing through my body.
Any moment now.
I squeeze my eyes shut and focus on my breathing, trying to push out the sounds around me. Screaming. Blood spilling. Death. Fear. I squeeze my eyes shut and try to center myself on the idea that maybe things will be okay.