I looked at Ayden. “What if it’s Cameron?”
He shook his head. “It can’t be. Whoever it is, is walking too slowly.”
I squinted in order to train my eyes to see better through the darkness, although a milky light was beginning to spread across the forest floor as dawn began to yawn and stretch, making the presence of a new day known.
“Shit!” Ayden whispered through clenched teeth. “It’s Master guards.”
Every muscle in my body tensed. I could barely breathe. I didn’t want to have a run-in with these guards, though there was no doubt in my mind that we would be able to shift and tear them limb from limb.
As if reading my mind, Ayden whispered, “We could rip them to shreds in seconds.”
I debated the shifting idea in my mind, glancing through the dense forest. I saw the guards in their camouflaged uniforms. They patrolled with machine guns on their backs, walking as if they had practiced these drills a hundred times. Stone faces, and icy, menacing eyes.
“I don’t know if it’s a good idea,” I said.
“Why not?” Ayden looked like he wanted the challenge.
“Look at what is on their backs,” I said. “They’re armed. Sure, we could shift, but what if they notice us before we get to them and shoot us between the eyes?”
Ayden looked crestfallen.
“It’s not worth it,” I added. “I think we should just try our best to bypass them and navigate undetected the best we can.”
Ayden nodded, but he stared ahead blankly.
“There are only two of them,” I said. “We can get past them. We know this forest better than they do.”
“Region has nothing to do with it,” Ayden said. “It’s the barrels of those guns I’m worried about.”
“Me too,” I said. “That’s why I think we should just wait until they turn their backs and then we can carefully sneak away without them spotting us.”
“If something happens,” Ayden whispered, “I’m not going to hesitate to shift and maul them to death.”
“As you should.” I nodded in agreement. It was our instinct to defend ourselves. “I am just trying to avoid the confrontation.”
“I wish we were armed.” Ayden scowled. “Then we could take care of the problem quickly.”
“But we aren’t,” I reminded him. “Now come on, let’s go. They are walking away from our direction. Now is our chance to get away.”
We hurtled away from the area as swiftly as we could, periodically glancing over our shoulders.
“They aren’t following us,” Ayden said after several minutes.
We were both panting and sweating hard.
“Good. Let’s take a breather.”
“Well, we are here,” Ayden mentioned and pointed north.
I looked over his shoulder. “How the hell did we get here so fast?” I was stunned. “Are you sure this is our bunker?”
Ayden gave me a sardonic smirk. “Who else’s bunker would it be?”
I drifted a few yards closer. Sure enough, I saw the heavy steel door leading inside, covered with underbrush.
“Wow.” I shook my head. I couldn’t believe we had made it here with only that narrow miss of the Master guards along the way.
Ayden slowly turned around in a circle, assessing our surroundings. “I don’t see Cameron.”
My heart sank, but I tried to keep my spirits lifted and my mind clear. “Maybe he hasn’t come through here yet.” It was certainly better than thinking that he had already trekked past and we had missed him completely. It would be a nightmare if we had crossed paths and had to backtrack toward the village again.
“Dawn is just cracking across the sky,” Ayden said and lifted his chin in the direction of the tree tops. “He hasn’t come back yet. I’m certain of it because it’s the way his curse works.”
“Should one of us go inside and grab supplies to carry back with us while the other stays here as the lookout for Cameron?” I suggested.
“Sure, I can go inside the bunker and do that,” Ayden offered.
“Only get what you think we can carry back without difficulty,” I said.
Ayden gave me a soldier salute. “I’ll take care of it.”
I watched him push the door open. “Be careful,” I said.
I felt a pang of nostalgia, but it just wasn’t going to be safe enough for us to stay here any longer. There were other shifters inside, but it was too risky for us to move them all with us.
Besides, I didn’t even know where we were going yet. I felt like Sophia was special. She had a target on her head, and it was important that we did what we could to keep her shielded against all odds.
Hopefully Ayden was smart enough to realize that we couldn’t take all the shifters with us, but maybe he could warn them that there might be scattered Master guards peppering the mountains and searching for any shifters they could get their hands on.
We didn’t want to call any attention to the bunker because it was still a place of refuge for so many innocent shifters. I hoped that Ayden would be able to get out of the bunker with some food and water without raising alarm or calling attention to himself in the process.
I kept glancing over my shoulder. I felt drained, yet also as if I was drowning in paranoia. Every single sound of the forest put me on edge and caught me off guard.
After a few minutes, Ayden returned with a satchel filled with food and drink and we divided it into our two bags to offset some of the weight.
That was when Cameron resurfaced, hobbling along from the south. He had already shifted back to his human form and looked worse for the wear. His hair was askew, his clothes disheveled and dirty. He had rugged posture and there were dark circles under his wild eyes.
I cringed, wishing that my surface emotions had an on and off switch because I didn’t want to offend him. He already looked like he was teetering on the edge of madness.
“Are you all right?” Ayden asked.
“Where is everyone else?” Cameron’s eyebrows knitted in concern and he ignored Ayden’s question. “Why aren’t you all back at the hotel in the village?”
Ayden and I exchanged a reluctant glance, but we had come here to fetch Cameron and fill him in on the events that had taken place in the village below.
Cameron listened to our retelling with thorough amazement and horror swimming in his eyes.
“But Sophia is okay? She’s unharmed? You got her out of there alive?”
He kept asking the same questions about her over and over again. It was nice to see the compassion and earnestness in the way he fretted over her. It was solid proof that he cared about her wellbeing just as much as any of us did.
“Sophia is okay. She’s back at the caves with Blaze, Otto and Leo,” Ayden assured. “We should head back there too. It’s not safe to linger in front of the bunker.”
“Thank you for coming back for me,” Cameron said. Gratitude reflected in his features. “I really appreciate not being left behind. Sometimes I feel like the odd man out.”
I gave him a fond slap on the back. “You are like a brother to us. We would never leave you behind.”
Cameron smiled. It was subtle, but present, nonetheless.
Ayden placed the satchel over his back and nodded assertively. “Let’s get back before the others start to worry.”
As we wandered through the woods, I hoped that we were in the clear for now and a future of peace was in our forecast, despite the ominous aura hovered like a mist through the mountains.
5
Sophia
I was sitting in the main cave with Blaze, Otto and Leo when we heard rustling on the bed of leaves just outside the entrance. The sound of the waterfall was loud in this part of the caves, and I was doing my best to keep myself calm in spite of being unnerved by it.
Nevertheless, because there was general silence in the cave and no one was talking, we were able to hear the crunch of leaves underfoot even through the whoosh of the waterfall.
Le
o stood up and visibly tensed.
I looked at Blaze. “Do you think they’re back?” I was referring to Ayden, James and Cameron. My heart pounded with hope.
Blaze frowned and gave Leo a glance. “Do you think they would be back already?”
Leo and Otto exchanged a reluctant look. “We better hope it’s them and not someone else.”
“I’ll go look.” Blaze puffed out his chest proudly and stood up as if he had already made the decision and none of us would be able to convince him otherwise.
“No.” I immediately leapt up too and shook my head. I gave him a pleading glance. “Don’t go out there alone.”
“It will be fine,” Blaze promised.
He took my hand and gave it a little squeeze. I felt his strength and bravery through his touch, and it gave me new life, but I still didn’t want him to go out there alone.
Before I had time to protest further, I heard the familiar chime of Ayden’s voice echoing through the caves.
“Hello?”
I looked amongst Otto, Blaze and Leo. Each of us let out an audible sigh of relief, one by one.
“It’s them.” Leo’s features were splashed with gratitude.
“They don’t sound distressed,” Blaze said.
“We’re back here,” Leo called out from where we stood inside the artery of the cave.
I held my breath and waited, hoping with every beat of my heart that they were able to bring Cameron back.
When they finally reemerged, I craned my neck and gasped with joy when I saw Cameron walking along beside them, carrying food and water supplies. I would have plunged right into his arms if not for the fact that he was top heavy and teetering with the amount of supplies practically spilling over in his grasp.
“You guys made it back!” I exclaimed with delight.
Cameron looked scruffy and shaggy as if he had endured a brutally long night, but James and Ayden seemed to be in good shape, if not just a little tired. We were all feeling the effects of the travel and lack of rest.
“We brought goodies.” Ayden beamed.
No matter what he might be feeling on the inside, Ayden always attempted to keep his confidence and positivity shining bright on the surface. I had to hand it to him, he aced the game.
I wished I could be as poised as he was all of the time. I tried, but I wore my heart on my sleeve much more than I cared to admit. But at the same time, I knew how to turn my emotions off, especially when it came to being under the thumb of a Master. It was a survival tactic.
We all had survival tactics in our minds, and those instincts were probably the reason we were still alive today. We were in caves, in hiding and on the run, but we were alive. There was something to show for coming this far and I felt like we deserved to give ourselves the credit.
We also needed to lift each other up and give each other boosts when necessary, and in looking at Cameron at that very moment, I knew it was one of those times. He looked like he was in desperate need for some emotional encouragement.
Cameron glanced around the caves with nervous hesitancy flickering in his eyes. They darted back and forth, moving as if he distrusted everyone. I didn’t know if he had encountered something dreadful in those mountainous woods or if he was just delirious with fatigue. Maybe it was a combination of both.
“You look exhausted,” I whispered and tenderly touched the small of his back.
Cameron flinched a little, but as soon as he met my gaze his features softened and he relaxed.
“It’s so good to see you, to hear your voice, to look into your incredibly stunning eyes,” he said. His voice was so hushed that it was barely above an audible whisper.
“The feeling is mutual.” I tried to give him my most consoling smile. “Do you want to go lie down? I can go with you if you want.”
Cameron nodded. He placed the water he had been carrying down on the ground beside our feet.
“I would love to get some rest,” he said. “It will especially help me relax if I know you are there beside me.”
“Do you guys mind if I go and talk to him while he falls asleep?” I asked the others as Cameron began to absentmindedly walk away.
“Do what you need to do,” James said with an approving nod. “That dude looks like he needs some TLC anyway.”
I glanced over my shoulder and winced. “He seems like he’s in pretty rough shape right now.”
“We all need to get some sleep, but especially him.” Blaze pointed at Cameron with a worried expression and furrowed eyebrows.
I hurried to catch up to Cameron before he bumped himself into a wall. I steered him in the right direction, hooking my elbow around his.
“Come this way,” I whispered.
I led him to a little secluded area where Blaze and I had been resting earlier while we waited for the others to return. Cameron seemed to be climbing down from whatever mental ailment had been probing him.
His eyes weren’t as paranoid. There was tranquility about him now and he wasn’t as skittish as before.
“Everything is all right now,” I said. “We are back together, the way it should be.”
“Thank you.” He looked at me as if the words I said magically inspired him, even if they were simple.
“Blaze and I were lying here,” I said. “We used this rock as a way to prop ourselves up and used our backpacks as pillows.”
I gave him a chagrined look. “Sorry. I know it’s not much. It’s certainly not the cozy hotel room with the soft mattress you were probably expecting to return to.”
Cameron gave me a sentimental look. “It’s fine. It’s not your fault that we have to be here. James and Ayden told me what happened in the village.” He took my hands and I was filled with instant warmth. “In my eyes, it’s a miracle that you all even made it out of the village alive and in one piece.”
I exhaled slowly. “For a while there, it honestly didn’t seem like that was going to work out for us.”
Cameron kissed the top of my forehead. “I’m just grateful to be back with you.”
“I’m thrilled about that too.” I returned his smile.
“I’m going to have a little nap, and then I’m going to take a much-needed refreshing shower in that waterfall back there.” He chuckled and gestured his thumb over his shoulder.
I cringed and shuddered. “You are more than welcome to do that, but I probably won’t be joining you.”
Cameron frowned with concern. “Are you still a little wary of…large bodies of natural water in the wild?”
“I’m trying not to be,” I said. “I probably should get over it if we are going to have to continue wandering the woods aimlessly.”
Cameron stroked my cheek. “Sometimes the only way out is through.”
I stared into his eyes, compelled by his advice. “No one has ever said such a profound thing to me in my entire life.”
Cameron yawned and stretched, then lay down and attempted to get comfortable, although it was difficult for both of us.
“Get used to it baby,” he said with a wink. The wildness of his nature was back, sparkling in his eyes.
My Cameron was coming back to me, slowly but surely. He still looked fatigued, so I sang him a lullaby that my mother used to sing to me when I was a child. Sometimes I would get scared that there were monsters under my bed.
My father would pretend to hunt them down with flashlights, making me giggle as my mom whispered soothing songs into my ears.
If only I had known what kind of monsters were really lurking outside of my house, I never would have been afraid of a trivial little shadow in the night.
I stroked Cameron’s shoulder length hair. It was a little grimy, but he was still so handsome. He was earthy and a bit grungy but in a sexy, smoldering, and rugged type of way. I rubbed his back and relished the goose bumps of pleasure prickled on his skin.
He glanced at me over his shoulder with a dreamy smile on his lips and a giddy happiness in his tired, droopy eyes.
“
Thank you for taking care of me,” he said. “You are the best thing that has ever happened to me. And I really mean it too. I don’t hand out compliments unless they are warranted.”
I was truly touched by his comment. “I’m so lucky to have you too,” I whispered softly in his ear and massaged his shoulders.
A few minutes later, Cameron began to lightly snore. I was relieved that he was able to relax enough to fall asleep so quickly. I knew that he was beyond exhausted and I was happy to know that he was going to get to refuel for a bit while we brainstormed what our next steps should be going forward.
Once I knew that he was asleep, I stood up and drifted back to the main part of the caves where the others were. I was tired too, but my mind was restless. It wasn’t a good combination, but it was all I had to work with.
I would just have to train my brain to get used to functioning on no sleep and constant travel. The no-sleep part should come easier. I was always restless and paranoid in the dungeons of Thom’s castle.
As I edged closer to the main cave, I heard the hushed hum of conversation floating through the hollows of the rocks.
“Hey,” I said and wandered into the circle to join the group.
Everyone looked up to me.
“Is Cameron asleep now?” James asked.
“He is.” I nodded.
James leaned back against the smooth surface of a rock wall. “Well, we can discuss the next steps while he gets some shut eye, then we can update him when he wakes up.”
I sat down beside James with a sigh and patted his knee affectionately. “That’s what I was thinking too.”
“Leo and Otto have some ideas to get us started,” Ayden said. He eyed the rest of us as if he daring us to protest that the outsider humans could have anything valuable to bring to the table.”
I was the first to show him I approved. There was no reason not to trust Leo and Otto. Leo had let us sleep in his hotel, bringing us in like we were part of his own family.
“Okay, what are they?” I glanced at the brothers expectantly.
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