"Did you really think it would be that easy? I've invested centuries into you!" Beast was playing a game with me. I knew that now, but I was still going to win.
I moved back to the kitchen, grabbed the knife sharpener, and climbed on top of the fridge to the decorative window he had up there. The octagonal shape was small, but I was hoping if I shimmied enough I'd be able to fit through it. I braced myself for the hit and yelled as I rammed the knife steel into the glass. It didn't break, but there was a crack, and I was running out of time to get out of there before Beast found a way out of the basement.
Without hesitating again, I smashed the knife steel into the glass until I felt it shatter beneath my hand. Of course, that meant that my hand and wrist flew through the broken glass as well, so I ended up with cuts going all up and down my arm. At least I hadn't dropped the steel.
I used it to break away the rest of the glass and then began hitting the wood strips that divided the window up into squares and triangles. There were only four strips, and since they were only designed to be decorative it didn't take much to break them and then use them to help clear the remainder of the glass away. Finally, my exit was there. I pushed myself through the small window and wiggled. I could almost make it but my sweatshirt was getting caught on the remaining fragments of glass and wood.
My hands pulled at the fabric and it ripped where it had been catching until I was able to reach down and pull the loosened fabric through the window and up to my shoulders. The tank I was wearing underneath was the only thing left and as I shimmied forward I felt the glass and wood pull at that too, but it gave way more easily so I ignored it and kept pushing until I was tumbling toward the ground.
If my shifter reflexes hadn't kicked in I could have broken my neck from the angle I was falling and then Beast would be out of luck, but I would also be out of life, which was kind of the opposite of what I was going for. As it was, I landed on my shoulder and rolled; better than a broken neck though. I sent a silent thank you to my ancestors for the gifts that had been passed down to me, even if it was the major reason I'd been held captive for the last few centuries.
For a moment I was stunned. I had made it out. Never before in all my escape attempts had I made it this far. Sometimes I made it to the door but not often, and then I would be punished for days or weeks afterward, be left on the brink of death from lack of food, water, and sometimes sleep. He would leave me until I was too weak to do anything except comply, and if I tried to resist when he did bring me food? That's when I'd be force fed.
Fresh air caressed my skin for the first time in recent memory and I was almost overwhelmed by the scents and sensations that bombarded me. The moon was rising high in the sky as I took off running toward the forest at the back of the property. It was no surprise he lived in an isolated area with acres and acres of land around the cabin. Who would want to risk a project they'd been working on for centuries?
This project had a mind and will of her own though and for once I felt like I might actually make it and be free of this nightmare which put a burst of speed in my step. I ran and ran and ran as far and as fast as I could, not caring about the cuts on my feet or the fact that I was tripping and stumbling as much as I was running. Ducking and weaving through trees as I hopefully stayed in one direction and didn't just circle the cabin.
I kept occasionally checking the moon to make sure I wasn't getting lost, but sometimes she was hard to find through the branches and leaves. Her song called to me though, telling me to shift, but I couldn't, not until tomorrow; then we would see if I got my final tail or not.
Chapter 2
BODHI
My wolf had been scratching at my skin all day, so finally being able to run through the forest was one of the best balms I could ask for. Being able to do it with my pack mates? Even better.
We had run these woods hundreds if not thousands of times, and not once had I ever picked up on the scent we just passed. It was potent, enough to sting my nose, but there was something about it that scented as familiar as though it was someone I should know, but couldn’t place. I slowed my pace and let out a quiet whine to draw Ozzy’s and Gael's attention.
The two of them turned and we began tracking it. Their black and brown wolves followed mine as I could sense their curiosity and concern. Not only was there a scent trail, but a blood trail as well. Whoever it as we were following was hurt, and at the rate they were losing blood it wouldn't be long until we were looking for someone who was at least unconscious if not dead.
We were moving fast enough that I could tell the scent was getting stronger, and we were closing in on whoever was hurt. I had never been more thankful that we stashed clothes around these woods, because I could only imagine how they would react to a wolf suddenly appearing as they were bleeding out. I'm sure they would be super comforted.
The snow and leaves muffled the sound of our footfalls so whoever it was wouldn't be able to hear us coming. What concerned me almost as much as them bleeding out in our woods was that they might die from hypothermia before we got there. The last thing we needed was the police crawling around our property right around the full moon. I could only image how well that would go down with the rest of the pack.
Gasping breaths reached my ears and I slowed my pace. A flash of white among the trees made me pause, and I knew Ozzy and Gael had seen it too from the huff Gael let out. The woman running in front of us looked desperate, half-starved, and exhausted. I signaled for my wolf brothers to keep following her while I went in search of the closest stash of clothes.
It only took a few minutes since I could run as fast as I wanted and not have to worry about alerting our new friend to my presence. The shift was painless, as usual, but it didn't make the cold air any more pleasant on my naked body. I pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie from the stash of clothing as fast as possible before turning and running back toward the injured woman and my wolf brothers.
When I caught up with them she was starting to stagger and slow down significantly from when I'd seen her a few minutes earlier, which was concerning in and of itself. What was also concerning was that not only was the blood trail coming from the fact that she was running around in winter barefoot in the forest, but the scrapes and cuts that seemed to cover her petite form as well, the most significant of which was on her thigh. Her hand was clamped over the wound, but I could see the thick, red liquid oozing from between her fingers, which were already stained red.
"Excuse me, miss?" I asked after clearing my throat gently behind her. "Do you need help?" Dumb question. Idiot. I was just so surprised to realize she was a shifter as she turned around, and a gorgeous one at that, that my brain short circuited.
Her eyes were wide with fear, their amber color seeming to glow in the bright moonlight. She wasn't wolf, I knew that much already, but her scent was unfamiliar in terms of her animal, which was why I hadn't recognized it as shifter right away. My wold still acted like he knew her though, while my huam side was filled with curiosity. What was she? That was a mystery.
I felt my hands up and open over my shoulders as I said, "I'm not going to hurt you. You're injured and alone in the biggest forest in the state and it's freezing. I just want to help."
"Why are you out here then?" she asked through chattering teeth.
I had to admire her backbone, it was a logical question, I just didn't expect an injured woman to ask it of a man who approached her in a strange forest. "I was out for a run," I said honestly.
Maybe she scented my honesty or maybe she was just too tired to put up a strong front anymore, but she seemed to crumple into herself slightly. "Can you get me out of here?"
"Happy to," I replied. I moved closer and saw her flinch which made my wolf stir. Who had made her so afraid she could barely even accept help? Instead of moving closer again I just held my hand out to her as I turned my body slightly to the side, making myself appear smaller. I was having to treat her as I would a feral wolf. Even after I got her safely o
ut of the forest and healed I knew that wasn't going to be enough. I needed to find out what happened, find who did this to her.
I had averted my eyes as I waited for her. My wolf knew she was moving closer, inching her way toward me as though she was ready for me to lash out at any time. The second her fingers touched mine though I felt like I'd been hit by lightning. I couldn't stop from turning and looking at her; this woman I'd stumbled across in the forest, this was my mate? Could she sense it? Did her shifter side react the same way even if she wasn't a wolf?
Looking at her meant seeing all the blood and injuries and pain that was written across her face and body. Someone had hurt my mate. The low growl that came from my wolf in my head almost made it out through my lips. When I wouldn't let it past my wolf took things into his own hands and my body contorted into a shift, ruining the clothes I'd been wearing and scaring the shit out of my mate.
A shocked gasp came from her as I moved up to her side just in time to catch her on my back as she fell. I wasn't sure if it was the blood loss or the shock of seeing a giant white wolf or something else. All I knew was that she was unconscious and draped over my back. She barely weighed anything which was concerning as well.
When my brothers emerged from the trees I was met with confused whines. Gael's black wolf moved up to my side and sniffed at her, making a growl rip from my chest especially as he nudged her. The human side of me knew that he was likely just trying to get her further on my back or stabilize her position but the freshly mated wolf in me wanted to rip his throat out for touching our woman. As soon as the sound hit the air Gael backed off.
The three of us moved through the forest like ghosts, slower than usual because of the precious package I was carrying, but no less stealthily. When we reached the car there was an awkward moment where Gael and Ozzy had shifted back and I needed to but I couldn't with the woman's unconscious form on my back.
"Want us to put her in the back seat?" Ozzy asked while Gael just stood there staring at her, adoration shining in his eyes, which made me want to snap at him. Instead I replied to Ozzy with a snuffling sound we used as a yes when in wolf form.
My pack mate reached down and I had to fight my wolf to let him pick her up. The gasp that sounded from him was eerily similar to the one I let out in the woods when I felt the mate bond snap into place. As soon as her weight was off my back I shifted and words tumbled from my mouth. "She's my mate."
Ozzy's head snapped toward me, as did Gael's as they each said, "Mine, too."
Multiple mates weren't unheard of, but they were unusual. "Do either of you know what type of shifter she is?" I asked.
They both shook their heads.
I nodded as I pulled another set of clothes from the trunk and got into the car. The drive back to our house, which was just on the edge of the pack's woods, took about half its usual time, and I think I even managed to scare Gael once or twice, which was funny since the man was a thrill seeker. Part of me wanted to take her to the pack doctor, but without knowing how she would react to being on a wolf pack compound, or to the fact that we were mates, I didn't want to risk it.
We walked in with me carrying our injured mate and Gael and Ozzy trailing close behind me. The scent of her blood was making my wolf go a little crazy and if I wasn't careful I'd be forced to shift again. I set her down on the bed and stared, unable to move now that I had a moment to look at her. White hair spilled around her shoulders in gentle waves while her dusky pink lips were full and luscious. I couldn't let my eyes wander any more, not while she was asleep.
While I had been staring, my more coherent pack brothers had gone to get supplies to clean her up and encourage her wounds to heal. Now that her body wasn't fighting off hypothermia I expected she would heal much faster; shifters always did. The three of us worked to clean up her feet and put a temporary bandage on her thigh where the biggest cut was. We left her clothing intact, mindful of the state she was in when we found her.
As though listening in on my thoughts Ozzy, my usually gentle pack brother, said, "I'm going to kill whoever did this to her."
Gael and I both nodded our heads in agreement. She would never have to worry about whoever it was that hurt her again because the second they tried to get close to her we would destroy them. We'd be ruthless in protecting her not just now, but for the rest of her life.
Chapter 3
SELENE
When I awoke it was with a start. As soon as my brain clicked on I knew what it was that had woken me.
Wolves.
The scent of them, not just one but multiple, filled my nose making my heart thunder in my chest. It may have been a long time since I’d been out in the world, but some scents are always instantly recognizable, and the pine and fur scent of the wolf was that for me.
If there was one thing I was sure of it was that I would not go from one prison to another. I pushed myself up off the bed and winced as my side hurt. I shouldn't still be tender from any injuries, my shifter nature should have healed them, unless I was so malnourished that my body felt like it couldn't spare the energy, which was entirely possible.
I supposed I should be thankful that they'd left my clothing intact and not tried to change me or clean me up too much, but then if I was to be their prisoner why would they bother? As I pushed to the edge of the massive bed I decided that if this was how they treated their prisoners then at least I'd taken a step up in the world. The lush bed and decor I could see left my cell in the dust. I pushed off the edge of the bed and yelped in pain when I tried to put my feet on the floor.
The noise was unintentional, and I immediately regretted it when I heard a set of boots stomping my way. Part of me wanted to hide, to try and escape before this situation became permanent, but what was the point? They knew I was here. They were wolf shifters, no doubt with the abilities that went along with that. Oh, and they were young, athletic men if the one I met was anything to go by, unlike the Beast who was old and out of shape.
At the thought of my previous captor I struggled to keep my breathing under control. I hadn't been out of his tender care for centuries and now that I was out on my own I immediately ran into trouble. That was how the wolf found me, struggling to hold my weight up while having a panic attack because I'd actually escaped.
When the door swung open I expected it to be the man I met before, not that we'd really introduced ourselves, but it wasn't, I could tell by the lack of tattoo on his temple. It wasn't that this man was without tattoos, there were just none on his face. He did have a large tattoo on his neck though, a detailed hourglass that was covered in filigree and much more elegant that I would have expected something like that to be. He also had eyes that were so dark they looked black whereas the man from the woods had amber eyes that almost verged on gold, almost like at some point he'd spent too long as his wolf and couldn't quite get his eyes to shift back to their human color.
We stared at each other for a moment as I drank in his appearance, after all his was only the second person I'd seen excluding the Beast in too many years. People on TV and in movies didn't count, there was something about their image being captured that lost part of who they were. Maybe it was just because my senses couldn't pick up on things like their heartbeat and their scent, whereas I could definitely pick up on those things from the man across from me.
His heart thundered in his chest much like my own, only it felt like mine sounded like a humming bird's while his sounded like the thumping of a wolf's paws as they pounded against the ground during a run. He scented of oil and alcohol, but there was something underneath all that, something masculine but delicate, that was just him. He also scented of confusion and hope and... lust? He found me attractive? No. It must have been too long since I had been aaround other shifters.
"Are you okay? I heard a pained noise..." He left the opening there for me to tell him what happened but I didn't want to, so I remained quiet. Also, I wanted to hear his voice again. The rich baritone that reverberated through his chest so
unded like heaven after the Beast's nasally demanding voice that always seemed to get under my skin. He must have seen my eyes flick to the door because he said, "You're not a prisoner here. You're free to leave if you would like, but at least have some food first, you're on the verge of collapse just from starvation never mind anything else."
I could feel my body shaking with the effort to stand and knew he was right. That didn't mean that I trusted him though. When I nodded he released a breath he'd been holding and his shoulders dropped slightly as though he could finally relax.
"I'm Gael. You don't have to tell me your name if you don't want to, I get that you were running from something or someone scary and I, we, just want to help. Do you like pancakes? Or are you more of a waffle girl?" he asked with a smile that was practically blinding. The man should have been a movie star, he was much more attractive than the ones in the last few movies I'd seen.
"Selene, and I don't know," I said quietly. I remembered hearing about them in commercials and had probably had a pancake as a child, but considering how long it had been and how everything changes, I couldn't answer the question. It wasn't like the Beast ever deigned to cook me waffles.
"I'll do both then," he said with an easy smile. "The bathroom is just down the hall, feel free to take a shower and freshen up. I've left some sweats and a t-shirt on the counter if you want to change. I'll be downstairs making breakfast. I'm the only one home right now so you have no one else to worry about."
It was bizarre. Being treated like a human after being nothing other than an energy and magic mule for so long. All I could do was nod. When he turned and left, leaving the door ajar on his way out, I couldn't help but start to believe him, although the skeptical voice in my head said that this could all still be a trap.
Bound to Change: A Limited Edition Spring Shifter Romance Collection Page 29