She walked over to Rowan's bookshelf. She had already been working her way through some of them but figured she would try something else for tonight. As she gripped at the hard spine of the book, her hand brushed against something cold. She gasped as it slid over the edge of the bookshelf and towards the floor. Mia's hand automatically shot out towards it, just barely grabbing the object in time before it crashed onto the hardwood.
She sighed with relief and opened up her palm. She stared intently down at it, and she felt as if she were going to cry all over again. It was half of a circle, but the clay had been smoothed out from someone scrubbing it furiously. Seeped into some of the cracks were veins of dark red, which Mia realized might have been blood.
Suddenly, she felt herself being transported back into that time. She saw Rowan’s body dangling from his father’s arms, the blood soaked through his clothes as he was rushed towards a car in the street. It would have been in his pocket. Mia eyed the blood stains forever stuck in the clay, unable to be scrubbed out no matter how hard Rowan had tried. But Mia was more surprised that he had kept it, after all of this time. She looked back at the shelf to find her own half of the ornament there. She grabbed it, and knowingly placed the two halves next to each other. They were uneven from age, the clay rugged on either side, preventing them from touching all the way.
Mia crossed over to the couch, staring down at the words 'Best Buddies,' painted clumsily on the clay. She wished Rowan could be here now, and maybe they could make the pieces fit together. She thought that had been the case earlier that night when they had shared themselves with one another. But Mia thought of the empty spaces in the cracks of the ornament. No matter how hard she had tried to make them fit, they couldn't.
She placed them on the coffee table in front of her. Suddenly she didn't feel like looking at them anymore, or else she would feel sick. Just seconds later, she heard a sharp crash, followed by a loud thud that almost made her jump right out of her skin. The wind howled louder now, and Mia clutched a blanket from the couch to block out the cold as her feet took her towards the source of the sound. She ducked behind the wall of the sitting room.
It could be Rowan, she thought. But then again, Rowan would always go for the bathroom after he had shifted back. She would know. After all, she was the one who had found him naked and muddy on the floor the first night she had stayed over. She inched closer to the kitchen. The moonlight appeared much more sinister now that it was glowing through a gaping hole in one of the windows.
As she stood in the kitchen, she felt the blood drain from her face as she looked down at what had flown into the cabin. On the floor, covered in shards of gleaming glass, was a large brick. Mia’s feet turned to lead. There weren’t any bricks around here, just stones and chopped wood surrounding the house.
An unsettling wave of dread settled over her. Rowan wasn’t coming back. But something else, someone else, had.
Mia could only think of one other person that could have discovered her out here.
Grey.
She thought she should wait for another sound, just to confirm that someone else was here trying to get her to come out, but she was completely helpless out in the cabin by herself. She realized that she needed to find Rowan right away, even if it meant risking her life to run out into the woods to find him. She picked up the brick and thought long and hard about what to do.
Mia was shaking so much that she was afraid she wouldn’t even be able to run. But she could at least try to divert whatever this threat was long enough for her to gain some distance from them. She dropped the blanket from her shoulders and crept back into the living room, grabbing the fireplace poker.
She tiptoed back through the kitchen and down the long hallway back to Rowan’s room. If it was Grey, or Craig and one of the other police officers, they would surely be able to smell her in the cabin.
There was the t-shirt that she had been wearing earlier that day. She kept her body low to the ground and hid next to the bed, worried that if she walked around openly, she would be attacked right there and then. She figured that whoever was out there was calculating their next move just as she was.
She grabbed the shirt, wrapping it around the brick. It would smell enough like her, at least she had hoped it would. Just before she was about to step back out into the hallway, she froze and held her breath as a shadow passed over the floor. The outstretched crude shadow of a man lingered in the beam of moonlight in front of her. A pair of arms reached up, trying to get a better look inside. Mia shrunk herself further against the bed.
How much time would she have until Grey and the others broke in? She waited for what felt like hours before the shadow decided to leave. Mia rushed into the hallway, keeping her head down low as she cradled the brick in her arms. She stood by the front door for a moment. She could hear voices, multiple ones, speaking in hushed tones. For a second she worried that they could hear her breathing.
Then, the doorknob wiggled sharply back and forth as someone tried to open it from the other side. Mia waited, and then there was a thud, and another as someone lunged their entire body into the wood. Mia panicked. She had the shirt and the brick, but would it be enough? She remembered something, though, when she was in prison. Trent, that large officer, had tried to shift after Mia hit her head. He wanted her blood.
She knew what she had to do. Slipping back into the kitchen, she grabbed a shard of glass and headed for the back door of the cabin, near the other side of the fireplace in the living room. It would have to be her only way out, and she desperately hoped that Grey and the others wouldn’t be there on the other side when she opened it.
Mia closed her eyes as she held the window shard to the palm of her hand, wincing as she felt the slight burn of the glass sliding against her skin. She stared down at the ruby-red blood seeping from the fresh cut, and immediately tried to cover the t-shirt with it. “Sorry, Rowan,” Mia said under her breath, though she figured he would understand.
She readied herself, knowing she had no time left to spare. With a quick flash, she opened the back door, where she had previously let Rowan out. Her feet left the solid footing of the wooden floor, and out into the cold forest. She could hear the voices clearly now, deep and menacing. She looked to her right. There was a ditch there, sloping down into a deeper part of the woods.
Mia held her breath again and held the brick high over her head. With one swift motion, she flung it as far as she could. It soared beyond the cabin, towards the ditch. It tumbled loudly as it slid through the rustling dead leaves. The voices grew louder as they ran towards the sound. It wouldn't be long before they knew it was a trick.
Mia's feet carried her as fast as the day she ran from the other wolves, but this time she didn't look back. She knew that Rowan wouldn't be there, only something horrible, and this fueled her to run as fast as she could. The freezing air stung her eyes, making them tear up. Each breath was sharp and frigid, painful. But not nearly as painful as it would be to be captured by Grey.
She could hear something now, large and rustling. She finally dared to look back, unable even to see the cabin. If they had shifted, there was no way she could outrun them. They’ve caught up to me, she thought. But her legs carried her over another steep hill. She was getting tired now, her thighs burning with each step.
The sound was louder now, made by something large. Mia thought of Grey, his massive form now pictured as a wolf as he sunk his jaws into her. She needed to keep running. She needed to find Rowan. As she reached the top of the hill, her ankle gave out from under her and she slipped, tumbling further and further down the other side. She landed hard against the ground, realizing now that the sound was right next to her.
“Shit…” she said, and scrambled to her feet, searching for anything to use as a weapon. If she was going to die, she would do it here, fighting while trying to find the man she loved.
But it wasn't a wolf. Instead, Mia was face-to-face with a massive brown bear. It moaned at her, almost as if
he were the one afraid of her. Mia froze in her tracks. Wolves were one thing, but she knew she would die instantly in the claws of a bear. She stood perfectly still, staring into the bear's eyes. It came closer to her, and she remembered all those things about pretending to be dead. She almost fell onto her side, but the bear was inches from her now, sniffing her carefully.
Then, in a second he was twitching, its incredibly large body shuddering as it transformed smoothly into a large mountain of a man. He was naked, but he covered himself at the sight of Mia, slightly embarrassed. Mia's mouth fell open as she looked at the bearded man in front of her. Another shifter.
“Uh, hi,” the man said awkwardly. “Wow, I wasn’t expecting to meet you like this, but…I’m Brian.”
CHAPTER 15: SURROUNDED
Mia watched curiously as Brian carried on ahead of her. She tried not to look at his large toned backside as he walked, his muscles gleaming in the moonlight.
“Sorry you have to see me, you know, naked,” he said casually. “Let me just take care of that.” He strode over to a tree trunk and reached into an opening near the roots. There was a thick package, wrapped in plastic. Brian unwrapped it, pulling out a pair of pants and a thick flannel shirt. “Got a few stashed out here, in case of emergencies,” he explained as he dressed on the other side of a tree trunk.
“Were you out here looking for me?” Mia asked. She knew that other shifters existed, but she wasn’t expecting to see a bear shifter on this night. Brian buttoned up his shirt, nodding at her.
“Of course,” Brian said. “My question is, what were you looking for?”
Mia crossed her arms, trying to keep out the cold. “I’m trying to find Rowan,” she said. “There were wolf shifters, trying to break into his cabin.”
“Oh yeah,” Brian said. “He told me about those. Sounds like you’ve got a crazy ex on your hands.”
Mia refused to laugh, and Brian seemed to notice. “Sorry,” he said frantically. “I make bad jokes when I’m nervous.”
“It’s fine,” Mia said. “It’s not like my ex is out to kill me or anything.” Brian could sense the sarcasm and nodded with approval.
“I like you already,” he said. “Rowan’s said a lot about you.”
She perked up at the sound of his name. “Do you know where he is?” She asked, hopeful.
“That I do,” Brian confirmed as he reached back under the tree trunk. He pulled out another wrapped package. “He’s going to need these when he wakes up.”
“Is he okay?” Mia asked. Brian’s face turned somber. “He looks a little rough,” he said.
“Rough, how?” She asked.
“Rough as in…shot,” Brian said. Mia’s stomach churned, and so many questions suddenly flooded her mind.
“He’s not dead,” Brian assured her. “But he’s not looking so good either. I got a camper nearby. We need to get him back there ASAP.”
Mia rushed behind Brian as he strode through the woods. He seemed to know every nook and cranny out in the forest. He dodged over rocks and tree trunks as if he'd done it thousands of times before.
"So, how do you know Rowan?" She asked.
"Saved him from a bar fight," Brian said as he pulled away a tree branch for Mia to pass through. "He's got a temper from what I've learned about him. He really needs to get his shifting under control."
"He tried," Mia said. "But apparently the other shifters couldn't help him."
“No,” Brian clarified, “Rowan wouldn’t let them help him.”
“What do you mean?”
“Rowan is pretty stubborn, I mean, you know that. Once they uncovered what Rowan’s trigger was, he refused to cooperate with them.”
“And what was that?”
Brian turned to face her, his expression confused, as if Mia should already know these things about Rowan.
“You, of course,” Brian said nonchalantly. “But he said it could be from stress or when he’s overwhelmed.” "I mean, yeah, that's a common factor that brings on a shift. But usually, there's one thing. I don't know if he'd want you to know this or not…but Rowan feels really terrible that he didn't get to be with you. He thinks that he could have prevented a lot of horrible things from happening to you if only he had been there in your life."
Mia reflected on Brian's words and almost wanted to feel hurt. Rowan had been there for her in their childhood, and it pained her to think that he couldn't be with her. But there was something wrong with his logic, despite his best intentions.
"I had to make my own mistakes," she told Brian somberly. "Even if he was there, I don't know how well he would have been able to stop them from happening."
“It’s all a lot easier to look back on what we should have done, isn’t it?” Brian asked. “Even when it’s too late.”
They finally came to a clearing, where a large tree trunk had fallen on its side. Mia's eyes trailed to the sharp points of wood jutting out from where the tree had broken from its roots. They followed the trunk, all the way towards the branches, where a wolf was lying on its side, its breath heaving.
"Rowan!" Mia cried as she ran towards him.
Brian stayed behind, watching as Mia collapsed on her knees by Rowan's side. He had an entirely different demeanor from the menacing one she had witnessed in the cabin. He lay perfectly still, except for the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed.
Mia believed that Rowan was still in there. His eyes were closed, his breaths ragged as they left his muzzle. Mia looked at his sharp rows of teeth, less intimidating now that Rowan was out cold. She carefully placed her hand on the back of his neck, her fingers trailing through his rugged fur. She was almost afraid to be this close, but now Brian was here, and if Rowan awoke in a frenzy, his friend could certainly bring him back down to earth.
Bending down towards his ear, Mia gently stroked Rowan’s back. “Rowan, it’s me,” she said calmly. “I’m here.” The wolf’s body took a deep ragged breath, and soon its eyes opened, a beautiful hazel looking back up at her. But his expression was pained. He whimpered softly, his ears tucked firmly on the back of his head. Mia shushed him gently as she felt the slightly cold touch of blood that had stuck onto Rowan’s fur.
It was matted down, and Rowan whined in protest, small sharp cries of pain as Mia took her hand away from the wound on his shoulder. She could see where the bullet had hit, and most likely it was still in there.
“What can we do?” Mia asked, pulling her sleeves over her hands to keep out the cold. Brian shrugged as he knelt down on the other side of Rowan.
“We can try to carry him back to my camper,” he said with determination. But judging by his face, Mia could tell Brian was skeptical.
Brian slid his hands under Rowan’s limp body. “It’s alright buddy,” he whispered as he began to lift Rowan’s head from the ground. Rowan whined louder, and the more Brian moved him, the more upset he sounded. “I know it hurts,” he said. “But it’s for your own good. Trust me.” He tried again, but Rowan, still a wild animal at heart, let out a sharp yelp of pain as he snapped his jaws out at Brian.
“Are you serious?” Brian said, yanking his hand away. “Didn’t think you’d be the one to bite a friend.”
“Join the club,” Mia said, holding up her bandaged hand.
Brian shook his head. “I don’t think he’s going to come with us like this,” he said. “We’re going to have to try to get him to shift.”
Mia was puzzled. Rowan was always trying to keep himself from shifting. How would they be able to convince him to do the opposite, let alone while he’s an animal?
“If I’m his trigger,” Mia said. “What can I do to make him shift?”
“Maybe it just helps him to hear your voice,” Brian suggested.
Mia bent closer towards Rowan, softly stroking the top of his head. She knew how strange this was, but she didn’t know how much time he would have, and they needed to get him out of the forest before Grey and the others would find all of them.
“Hey,”
Mia said quietly to the wolf beside her. “I’m not sure if you can understand all of this or not, but I think Grey and the others might have found me in the cabin. They could be on the way right now.”
Rowan didn’t move. He stared straight up at the sky, his breath heavier than before. Mia gave an unsure look towards Brian.
“Rowan, you have to get up,” she said with more determination. But Rowan wouldn’t comply. Mia somberly lifted his head, being careful not to let her fingers get too close to his teeth, and lowered it onto her lap. Rowan was struggling to hold on, and Mia could feel herself getting more frustrated that she couldn’t bring him back.
“Please, Rowan,” she pleaded. Rowan’s eyes began to flutter, and soon Mia realized that maybe they were already too late. “No!” She cried. “Rowan, wake up!” Her heart was breaking right in front of her as she clutched her best friends head towards her chest. She looked at Rowan’s ribcage, just barely lifting. He was slowing down, inching his way closer to death. Mia shook him, frantic. “No, no! You have to stay!” She commanded, feeling her face burning despite being out in the freezing woods.
Mia looked up at Brian with tears welling up in her eyes. “It’s not working,” she said. Soon her body felt as limp as Rowan’s. She rested her head against the wolf, her tears flowing onto his fur. He smelled like earth and the cold night air, and a familiar musk emanating from his skin. If only she knew how to bring him back. She had finally found him after all this time, only for him to be taken away from her once again. She felt a large hand clasp on her shoulder. But it wasn’t trying to comfort her. It was trying to warn her.
“Mia,” Brian said, very serious. “Looks like we’re not alone here.” Mia looked up from Rowan’s body, her eyes blurred from crying.
Seeking The Alpha (Wolf Pack Chronicles Series Book 1) Page 10