Chapter 14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A rustling noise outside my window woke me up from the deep sleep I was in. I glanced at the clock next to my bed. It was three in the morning. What could have made that sound? There weren’t any trees close enough to the cabin to be rubbing against the outdoor walls of my room.

I pulled the covers up to my chin, curling myself into a ball. The sound met my ears again. This time it was closer. Listening carefully, I tried to hear over the loud heartbeats coming from my chest. It sounded almost like an animal sniffing around, foraging for something. The sniffs were loud enough that the animal was probably bigger than a possum. Maybe it was an overgrown raccoon looking for garbage. I would have to make sure our garbage containers had the strap adhered in the morning.

Rolling over, I tried to ignore the animal noises outside my window. A low growl met my ears and made my whole body stiffen up. After a couple minutes my heart rate lowered, as I hadn’t heard any more strange noises. The animal must have moved on.

I closed my eyes, trying to get myself back to sleep. The single drink I’d had tonight was no longer in my system, and it had left my mind racing about the kiss. It had been a good kiss. Better than good. It was probably the best kiss I’d had in my entire life. The memory of his overwhelming frame pushing against me and the light scratch of his fangs sent tingles from my stomach to between my legs.

I crossed my legs under the covers, trying to contain the feeling. He was an alpha. A leader in the pack and one of the strongest Lycans. The boldness he’d had to take what he’d wanted really outshined any of the physical aspects of the kiss. There was a part of me that enjoyed being the one he’d wanted, and being submissive to his wants was something that felt refreshing to me. Having to take care of myself and my parents for the last several years, it felt good to let go.

Rolling over in bed, I squeezed my legs together even tighter. Maybe I had been letting other people decide for me lately. I just hadn’t had the mental capacity to decide for myself after the last whirlwind of a month. Helping my parents, graduating college, and moving to a new part of the country had taken a lot out of me. Everett’s power was intriguing.

I rolled over again, changing positions once more. The cool pillow beneath my head changed my perspective like the flip of a coin. This was another mistake that could derail the plans I had for myself. Everett wasn’t just a cute guy from the bar—he was a Lycan. A mythical creature. The second shifter I had hooked up with in the last week.

Ugh, this was not what I had planned. Not only was Everett distracting me mentally, he was also distracting me physically as I lay in bed with so much pent-up sexual tension. I needed to get some rest before this weekend. My research was behind from having spent the last weekend at Camp. I would need to work through the weekend to catch up.

Whisper-listing all the plants I had cataloged in my notebook, I tried to distract myself from the hormones running through my body. I made it about halfway through before my eyes got heavy and I fell into a restless sleep.

Later that morning, I woke up determined to get some research done. It was Friday, and that meant it was the second weekend of the tournament. The wards would be going up around noon. If I kept close to the cabin, within a couple miles, I could avoid them. I hoped.

The clock next to my bed said ten o’clock. Shit. I never slept in that late. This was Everett’s fault—if I hadn’t been up late trying to calm myself down from the kiss, I’d already be out in the forest. The last thing I wanted was to be trapped inside them again. This weekend I needed to get work done.

After packing my backpack with more collection containers and an extra stick of deodorant—just in case—I ran through the cabin and found Jenny typing on the couch.

“Why did you let me sleep so late?” I asked.

“Who wakes up early after drinking?”

There was no time for a big breakfast, although my stomach growled. I grabbed an apple off the basket on the counter.

Jenny closed the screen of her laptop and tilted her head to the side. “Sorry. I should have knocked on your door earlier.”

I filled up my water bottle at the sink. It was probably already hot outside. “It’s fine. I just wanted to get an earlier start.”

“I’m just glad you made it back from the bar this week!” she teased. “If I don’t see you the rest of the weekend, I’ll just assume you’re crashing with one of the many attractive guys you keep running into.”

“Ha ha. Very funny, Jenny. I’m about to head out and explore one of the trails on Robinson’s map,” I said.

“Let me know if you see any big wolf tracks. I keep finding wolf footprints, and I follow them, only for them to suddenly disappear. It’s the weirdest thing,” Jenny said. “I started wearing my necklace again.” Jenny pulled a small silver whistle out of her shirt. It hung around her neck from a dainty silver chain. “The sound is high pitched enough that it stuns them, giving you enough time to get a head start.”

If only I could tell Jenny why they were vanishing. Or should I say shifting.

Not wanting her to see how conflicted I surely looked, I headed out the front door before she could say more.

“Oh! Elise! The new satellite phone got dropped off this morning. I’ll install it so we can make our calls this afternoon.” I have her a thumbs-up on the way out.

After finding the head of the new trail I planned to explore on the map, I let myself become lost to the serenity of the woods around me and the sound of my footsteps crunching the gravel.

The sun was high in the sky when I finally stopped for a water break. Glancing around, I saw more of the brown patches about ten yards off the trail. Putting my water bottle away, I stepped carefully until I was next to the brown, withered foliage. It looked like the plants I had seen before, but this was a new area. I took out my clean containers and gloves and started gathering the plant material. A buzzing sound entered my ears, then disappeared. I absently waved my hand around my head in case anything was flying past me.

Quickly, I finished gathering the specimens and zipped everything in my backpack. Time to go back.

Back on the trail, I started heading back the way I’d come. It was around lunchtime, and my stomach was rumbling.

I made it ten steps before something zapped me. Static electricity in the woods? Had I gotten stung by something? Odd. I turned slightly and took a few more steps. Zapped again. I held out my hand cautiously, reaching in front of me. My hand shook. There it was again, the zap. I pulled my arm back against my body. No.

I bent my knees and launched myself forward, shoulder first. My body bounced off an invisible wall, and I stumbled, trying to catch myself before I fell. The wards weren’t that strong, were they? Maybe I could power through it. I went slowly this time walking forward, driving my feet into the soil as leverage. I braced myself and pushed my shoulder against it. My muscles strained as I pushed. I vibrated with the electrical current of the wall flowing through my body.

It wasn’t budging. The invisible wall pushed me back for a second time. I tripped over my feet before righting myself. The ward was stronger than I’d thought. I reached out with my hand, my fingertips searched for the barricade. I found the invisible wall, and tiny electrical shocks danced along my fingertips. It felt eerily like the last weekend when I had been knocked unconscious.

Maybe I was on the outside of the wards. It was a giant invisible wall, right? I was probably on the outside, I tried to convince myself. I hadn’t traveled too far from the cabin. My fingers grazed the ward as I walked quickly along the wall. I continued feeling small zaps skipping along my fingers as I traced it. At some point, if I was on the outside of the wall, I would stop feeling the buzz and know I’d made it past the ward. The ward had to end. I wasn’t trapped inside. I was on the outside. I had to be.

My fingers continued to feel the zaps as I walked along the invisible partition. Drips of perspiration fell down my back, tracing my spine. I couldn’t be… This wasn’t happening. I wasn’t trapped inside, was I? For the second weekend? I shouldn’t have slept in. Should’ve paid more attention to my surroundings. The wards wouldn’t open again until Sunday night. I couldn’t be stuck in the forest all weekend. I didn’t have any food or supplies with me.

A stick snapped behind me, and I turned to find nothing. I continued along until I heard another snap, this one closer to me. Twisting around, I came face to face with a brown wolf with his lips curled, showing his sharp white teeth. Instinctually backing up, I hit the ward with the side of my body and lost my balance. I fell onto my side, halfway on top of my backpack. Swiftly, I got up onto my hands and knees looking up at the wolf, who was in the middle of shifting.

He slowly morphed into a towering man with sandy-brown hair. The process of shifting still wasn’t pleasant to watch. All the stretching, bone elongating, and nakedness both shocked and disgusted me after he’d finished. The shifters seem to have no qualms about nudity.

“Hey, Kip! Get over here. I got a live one.” The man paraded over to me unclothed, his appendage swinging back and forth. My brain tried to focus on what was happening around me as my eyes took in what was in front of me. Where had I heard the name Kip before?

Another man made his way out of the woods, equally tall and equally naked. “Good find, Elijah. Not a rogue, but a plaything. She’ll make the weekend much more enjoyable.”

Kip and Elijah. Kip and Elijah…

My brain flew through the names and faces I’d seen at last weekend’s opening ceremony, and suddenly I recalled where I knew these two men from. They were the hunters from the Juniper Pack that Kleio had told me about. She had said nothing good about them.

Still crouched down, I scanned my surroundings for a stick or something I could use in defense. I saw a decent-sized stick a few feet away, and I scurried over to grab it. Standing up in a defensive position with my new weapon in front of me, I stood ready to protect myself from these assholes.

“Stay away from me!” I yelled. They didn’t even flinch.

“Look at the human with a stick. She’s a feisty one,” Elijah said. “We like a little fight in our girls, don’t we?”

They stalked around me.

“That we do,” Kip said. “I’ll let you have the first go with her since you got the last rogue. Don’t tire her out too much, though. I want some of that fight left in her.”

With the ward to my back, I had nowhere to go. I swung my stick at them like an amateur fencer, trying to get them to back off. My actions seemed to only excite them. They laughed at me as if this was a fun game. Their naked bodies were showing how excited they were as they got closer and closer to me, licking their lips hungrily.

“Get back!” I yelled again as loud as I could.

I lunged forward, trying to jab my stick into Kips torso, but he was too quick. He yanked it out of my hands with little effort. Taking the stick with both hands, he snapped it over his knee like a twig. Throwing the broken pieces behind him, he nodded to Elijah.

I turned my head just in time to see him charge at me, grabbing my right forearm. He swung my body around, holding my back to his chest. Grabbing my other wrist, he pinned my arms behind me, holding both wrists with one of his massive hands. I could feel the dull zaps and pulses of the ward as he held my body against it. The front of my body was being repelled off the ward, pushing me into Elijah’s back. My backpack kept my back from contacting his chest, but I could still feel the hard bulge of his erection against my backside. I gagged as he bent over and started trailing his tongue along my ear. I tried to squirm away, but any movement either zapped the front of my body or pushed me against Elijah’s naked body.

“You taste sweet. Kip, come have a taste.”

My eyes squeezed shut as I felt Kip approaching. I waited for his tongue to run over my skin, but it never happened. A loud growl vibrated my body, and my eyes shot open in surprise. A huge black wolf leaped toward us, landing on the ground with four giant paws. The ground trembled with the impact.

No sooner had the wolf landed than Kip’s leg was in its jaws. A loud crunch of cracking bones made me grimace. He cried out in agony as the wolf kept his broken leg in his mouth and began shaking him violently back and forth. In his human form, Kip was no match for this massive wolf.

“Oh, shit,” I heard Elijah say under his breath as he continued to hold me against him.

As Kip’s cries became louder, Elijah began looking around for an escape route. He backed away from the ward, still holding me against him. I wanted nothing to do with this crazed wolf man and his intentions for me. As he continued to retreat, I took a risk and slammed my foot down on top of his bare one. He yelped in surprise, loosening his hold on my wrists.

Spinning my body around, I broke his hold and quickly lifted my right leg to meet his naked cock. I easily made contact with my shin, and he doubled over in pain. Rolling to the ground, he cursed me out as I backed away slowly. Looking behind me, I saw the giant black wolf in a wrestling match with a smaller red wolf, which had a broken leg hanging from its torso.

The red wolf, Kip, seemed to be growing tired, probably from the blood loss and injury to his leg. He snapped at the black wolf a couple more times before he backed away and retreated into the woods, dragging his leg.

Behind me, bones were cracking, and I turned to watch Elijah transition to a silver wolf. He snarled at the black wolf who was pacing behind me. I turned slowly to face the black wolf, whose white teeth were still showing as he snarled.

I backed away, raising my arms in surrender. This wolf might have saved me from Kip and Elijah, but I didn’t know what its intentions were for me now.

Then a gray wolf leaped from behind me, placing himself between us. My hands stayed up as the gray wolf quickly shifted back into his human form. With elongating of bones and retracting claws, I watched the gray wolf turn into Wilder. Or at least a scruffy, bearded version of him.

“They’re gone, man. She’s fine,” Wilder said. He approached the black wolf, who was still pacing near me. He fell down to his knees and tilted his head to the side, exposing his neck.

Before I could question what Wilder was doing, I spotted a large cut along one of the wolf’s front legs that oozed blood.

“You gotta shift, man. You’re hurt,” Wilder tried to reason.

The wolf’s gold eyes stared me down, and I all but fell into the swirls of gold. Everett.

“Tell him you’re fine. He needs to hear it from you.” Wilder’s voice was growing more frantic as he looked at me and backed up, trying to stay between me and the black wolf. I didn’t know who this Wilder was, so concerned about not only Everett but apparently me as well.

“I’m fine,” I said. I lowered my hands as I walked closer.

Everett tried to lie down on the ground slowly but collapsed as he got close to the dirt. A small whimper left his mouth as he shifted. Claws and paws retracted as his spine lengthened. His snout sunk into his skull as his face took shape. He had a brown, scruffy beard covering his face, and his brown hair stood disheveled on his head.

I ran to his side as he lay on his back with his eyes closed. Wilder was there, leaning over Everett, trying to take stock of his injuries. I knelt on the other side and took his arm into my lap. It was a deep enough cut that I could see white bone underneath all the blood. Blood soon soaked my leggings as it poured out of his arm.

“What do we do?” Wilder asked, looking up at me. “This is deep. I don’t have any first aid supplies with me.”

I searched around the forest, taking stock of what was around, and grabbed some large-leaved aster from the plants growing low on the ground. They were a plentiful forest “carpet” this time of year, and I layered them over the wound.

“Hold them tight against his arm,” I said. I moved my hands as Wilder took their place, putting pressure on the gash. “Let me go see what else I can find.”

My eyes to the ground, I walked several yards away in search of yarrow. The forest around here seemed to have plenty, and it had done wonders healing my head wound last weekend. The white flowers of the yarrow caught my eye, and I rushed over and began gathering the leaves.

I brought the plant over to where Wilder was kneeling next to Everett, keeping pressure on his arm. I found two medium-sized stones and put the leaves on one stone. Using the bottle from my backpack, I poured some water over the leaves and got to work grinding it into a paste. My arm was sore, and my palm had a fresh blister on it when I finished, but the paste was decent. I scooped the medicine into a fresh green leaf and carried it over to where Everett was lying.

Wilder looked at me with distrust. “Are you sure that’s going to work?”

“I don’t think you can carry him yourself, can you?” I asked. “I know I won’t be of any help.” Everett was huge. It would probably take a couple of men to lift him if he was dead weight.

“What is that, even? How do you know it isn’t poisonous?” Wilder asked.

“I’ve made this for myself many times. It’s safe. This is our best chance to stop the bleeding before he loses too much blood,” I said.

Wilder tried to argue again, but Everett’s deep voice cut him off. “Let her use it.”

Sighing, Wilder followed his alpha’s commands and moved out of my way. Standing above me, he looked down while I lifted the bloodied leaves and began packing the yarrow paste into the wound. It was deep. If I had a needle and thread, I would have sewn it shut, but that wasn’t an option out here.

Everett grunted and grimaced as I applied the paste. The bleeding slowed and eventually stopped by the time I had finished. Finding some more large-leaved aster by me, I placed them over the cut. A couple feet away I found some long grass to use as string. I tied the leaves to his arm, taking care to not wrap the grass too tightly.

When I was done, I looked to see Everett’s eyes on my face. “How does it feel?” I asked.

“Much better.” Some color had returned to his skin.

I found my water bottle next to the rocks I’d used to grind the leaves and held it to his lips as he took several sips.

“We need to get out of here. If any of the others know you’re down, we’ll become a target,” Wilder said. He was standing and looking around, scanning the woods.

Everett used his good arm to push himself into a seated position. Despite his ragged breathing, he managed to start moving again.

I picked up my things and brushed my hands against my thighs, hesitating. I knew there was no getting past the wards, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to go with them either.

Everett looked at me with resolve. “You’re coming with me,” he said.

Wilder groaned and argued. “We can’t bring a human back with us again. She’s too much of a liability.”

“You don’t get to make the decisions, Wilder, I do,” Everett said with a labored voice. “She’s coming back with us. She’s touched the ward too many times. They already know she’s here.”

I opened my mouth to argue. “I can’t spend another weekend at Camp! I have a life to get back to. I have work to do!”

Everett cocked his head at me, staring with an intensity that made my body stiffen. “I would apologize to you for this inconvenience, but I will never apologize for keeping you safe.”

His words sent shivers down my spine. What did he care if I was safe? Maybe he felt he owed me something since I had taken care of his arm. Everett was sending so many mixed signals I didn’t know which way was up. He flirted with me, provoked me, kissed me, and then walked away. Now he demanded that I follow him back to Camp. What was with this guy?

Howling filled the surrounding air. I had no choice but to look toward Wilder and Everett for guidance. The wards had apparently alerted everyone that I was here, and with Everett injured, I doubted he could fight at full strength. Standing slowly, he lifted himself one vertebra at a time. I’d forgotten how tall he was when he’d been lying down. I couldn’t help looking past his stomach at his incredibly large…

“Like what you see?” Everett asked. He had his trademark smirk plastered on his face. I knew he was part animal, but jeez—the size took me by surprise.

I quickly looked away, feeling my face turn red.

“You can’t be bashful around me, Elise,” he said. “I’m sure it’s nothing you haven’t seen before.”

I looked back at him with an angry look in my eye. How many times did he think I’d looked at a naked male body?

“Or maybe it’s nothing like you’ve ever seen before?”

Was he flirting with me again? Two could play at that game.

“Oh, it’s something I have seen before,” I snapped. “Seems like something average. Nothing special. Don’t worry—it’ll soon get lost in the slideshow of male dicks in my head.”

Everett raised his eyebrows at me. I didn’t think he’d been expecting a rebuttal like that. It felt good to have the upper hand. “So, she has her own thoughts. I was wondering when you would start to speaking up for yourself. You are a lively little one, aren’t you, Lyka.”

Wilder interrupted our banter. “This is all so cute, but you’re barely standing up straight, Everett. We need to get out of here.”

Everett let out a wheeze as he pulled his eyes away from mine. Losing his gaze made it feel like the tight thread between us had snapped, leaving me with the ricochet.

Another howl, this time closer, met my ears, and I was ready to follow Wilder and Everett to safety. Wilder led the way, and Everett motioned me to follow before he took up the back of our line. Sandwiched between the two shifters, we traveled along as fast as we could without losing Everett. I could hear his ragged breaths behind me as we stumbled along.