“And fixing that family of yours,” Rogue commented. “I have to leave in the morning anyway to see what I can do about these Berserkers running loose. We’ve both got important stuff to do.” He brightened up. “So, thanks for the hospitality, Cedric Snow.” He started digging inside of a random cabinet. “You know I’m going to snoop around the whole time I’m here, right?”
“Do what you want.”
Rogue smirked and offered an elaborate bow. “Thank you for your permission, Master Owl.”
Cedric ignored the feline, took off his dress shirt and pants and submerged himself under the fluffy comforter. He let the mattress form around him, and he stared at the picture of his wife and daughter.
How would he ever be able to apologize for being so neglectful, so hurtful and cold? Opal probably saw him as a stranger. Would Terry want to try to fix this with him?
Cedric thought about the Blue Wolves and their Fated Mates. Moon Marks, Lunas Sigils. Lunas. He never knew about any of that stuff. The Snows hardly recognized the Moon at all beyond it being the reason they could shift. They never treated it as a god, with respect and admiration. This kind of blasphemy was what made one Berserker, according to Blue Pack’s history. It seemed the Snows should have been rabid animals, but it was different. They embraced what they were and loved themselves most of all. Max, the almost Berserker wolf Cedric knew, had hated his wolf. Cedric thought he would lose the fight and become full-on Berserker, but then he met Ava, the Black Witch Cedric had hated with every fiber of his being. And things changed.
They fell in love. The Moon marked them as forever lovers, and they both crawled out of the darkness threatening to swallow them up.
Cedric had learned more about the world during his time in Moonwatch than he ever had before. So, Terry wasn’t his Fated Mate. Maybe he didn’t have one at all, but he was fine with that. That didn’t mean things couldn’t work. Julie and Howard were mates, Blue Wolves. They didn’t have a Lunas Sigil. They weren’t Fated Mates, but they were happy. All of Blue Pack was close, a family, unlike Cedric’s family.
He wanted that closeness. He wanted it so badly. It was a physical ache in his chest.
Since he became a slave and was then set free by wolves, he realized how empty his life was. The emptiness kept growing, and now he was desperate to fill it up. Somehow. A person as empty as he was couldn’t live for long. He wanted to live.
Chapter 4
“MOM?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“Are you hurting?”
“No.”
Stella hugged Russel tightly so he’d believe her. How her boy was so kind after having grown up with this abuse from Tyler, she didn’t know, but she was grateful for it. He did whatever he could to relieve her pain after Tyler’s attacks. Unfortunately, since they had access to very little locked up in this old but sturdy cell, all he could really do was lie down beside her and keep her warm with his body next to hers. It did help. They were each other’s only source of heat. Russel did more than that though. He kept her heart full, and that was the most important thing. Without her heart, she would be dead.
“The new girl is crying,” Russel said.
“Yes,” Stella whispered.
“That means he hasn’t turned her yet, and she still smells human.”
There was hope in her son’s voice, but Stella couldn’t respond. She didn’t want to feed a false hope, but she didn’t want to dash it away either. Tyler would turn that girl. It was only a matter of time. She sounded young, the poor thing. It reminded Stella of when Tyler first raped her at the age of fourteen.
“Is she going to be okay?” Russel asked.
Stella scooted back on their hard cot so her back was resting against the cement wall. She gathered Russel in her arms and closed her eyes. She didn’t answer. It was only a matter of time. It was only a matter of time for all of them.
Russel was all Stella had. Why Tyler hadn’t ripped him away from her yet was a kindness the universe showed her in these long years being used and abused by a Berserker.
Stella placed her hands on either side of Russel’s head, weaving her fingers in his light brown hair. Like her, his hair had natural gold highlights, but the dust caking their bodies made them look more gray than anything. She leaned down and kissed his dirt-stained forehead. Her beautiful boy looked up at her with questioning golden-brown eyes.
“One day, I’ll be strong enough to get us out of here,” he told her.
“No,” she corrected. “I’m going to get us out of here. I’m just waiting for the right moment.”
Russel opened his mouth to argue with her when the earth abruptly shook around them. Chunks of cement and grains of sand began to fall from the ceiling. Then the door to their cell blasted open with a deafening roar that left Stella’s sensitive ears ringing. She did her best to shield Russel from the incoming debris by curling around him. She encompassed every inch of him she could manage with her own body and became his shield. She felt a few sharp pains as fist-sized hard debris smashed into her already bruised back. The pain was just starting to become unbearable when the world stopped shaking. Stella’s ears rang and a cloud of dust burned her lungs.
She tore away from Russel when she was certain the earthquake, or whatever it was, had ended. She checked his body to make sure he hadn’t been hurt. He hadn’t. Russel was moving his mouth, trying to tell her something. She couldn’t hear anything but the ringing. She could see the fear in his eyes though. She quickly shook her head and pointed at her ears. Russel got the message. Smart boy.
She stood up and helped her son do the same as they looked at the new blown in entrance to their cell. The cement around the new opening was jagged and old rusted pipes stuck out of it haphazardly. There was nothing keeping them inside of this room now, but what about outside? Stella and Russel walked forward, a bit wobbly on their feet because the ringing threw off their equilibrium, but they made it to the hole in the wall and peeked around the corner. No one was there. It was nothing but an empty hall in the same sorry state as their cell.
The ringing in Stella’s ears began to subside, and she heard a familiar sound. A howl. Tyler’s howl.
Gasping, Stella grabbed Russel and held him close when she also picked up the scent of a grizzly bear. It was mixed with Tyler’s scent. Growling, bodies smashing, and bones cracking grew into a rolling thunderstorm coming their way. Then she saw them barreling down the hall. A big brown grizzly bear and Tyler’s mangy wolf were snapping at each other and pushing against each other like they were racing to something and fighting dirty to get their first. Tyler was a large alpha wolf shifter, but the grizzly was much bigger. The bear slammed into Tyler with all his weight, smashing him against the wall with so much force the cement cracked. The grizzly tried to stand on his hind legs and roar, but he was taller than the ceiling. Blood and spittle sprayed from his mouth as he continued to roar. Then he grabbed the stunned wolf and threw him at the fucking window. The glass shattered, and the shining Crescent Moon in the sky bore witness to Tyler’s fall.
They were on the seventh floor! Even for Tyler, that landing was going to hurt and more than likely break bones.
Stella froze and stared at the broken window. Tyler was gone. She heard the thud when he hit the ground. She heard the crash and resounding snap of bone.
She pulled Russel back inside their cell. That grizzly was as crazy as Tyler. He’d rip her and Russel apart without a second thought. His smell was so dangerous, her nose felt like it was on fire.
The grizzly roared again, but the sound diminished until it was more man than bear.
“Fucking wolf!” the man bellowed.
Stella’s heart was racing as she backed Russel into the far corner of their room. Hopefully, the grizzly would overlook them. She, Russel, and the new girl were the only ones with cells blown wide open. The grizzly must have tossed a grenade or something down the hall before shifting. She didn’t know what happened. It was madness.
“Stay
here, Russel,” Stella said, doing her best to keep her voice from trembling. She had to try to save that girl. This was the chance she had been waiting for! They could finally escape and put Tyler behind them forever. She’d find a way to give Russel the life she always wanted for him.
“Mom!” Russel hissed, trying to keep his voice low.
Stella climbed over the rubble to peek out of the blown in entrance again.
The man was right there.
He grinned down at her with bloodstained teeth and dark wild eyes. He rolled his shoulders, showing off his powerful muscles and veins pumped full of adrenaline. He could snap her neck in an instant. Stella stalled. Her breath caught in her throat. The dangerous shifter looked past her and spotted Russel.
“You’re not my girl,” he said. A low growl was ever present in his voice. “But hey, you’re free now, so take the chance while you’ve got it, puny wolves.”
“Y-you’re not going to hurt us?” Stella stumbled on the words but stood tall, ready to sacrifice herself if it protected Russel. She was an omega wolf. Of course she was stuttering and scared. She couldn’t take on a damn grizzly, but that didn’t mean she’d just let him take her baby.
“No.” The grizzly spat blood on the floor.
Stella noticed the man had found a pair of pants somewhere. He wasn’t entirely naked. He was bleeding, wild and enraged, but he was not like Tyler after all. He could think and speak clearly. However, there was an old and deeply rooted scar on his chest that looked worse than any of his new wounds. More accurately, it was a twisted and gnarled row of scars, probably given to him by another grizzly bear. This man was a brawler. Dominant. Alpha. Whatever word was used to describe a monster grizzly like him.
“You wouldn’t give me much of a fight,” the grizzly said darkly.
He turned and waltzed into the neighboring cell. Stella heard the young girl inside scream at the top of her lungs. She forced her legs to move forward, to see what was happening. But then Russel was right behind her.
“Russel,” she said sternly.
The grizzly came back out with the girl slung over his shoulder. She was pounding his back with her fists as he held her legs captive.
“I’m taking you home.” He growled. “Stop hitting me or I’m delivering you unconscious.”
The girl swallowed hard and slowly stopped what she was doing. Even though she was covered in grime like Stella and Russel, she had just arrived a night ago, so she still looked like a human being. A rich human being. She was wearing designer clothes, had fancy colors in her hair, expensive jewelry. This teen was from money, and someone had no doubt offered a lot of money for her return. This grizzly was a mercenary of some sort. Dangerous man indeed.
“Also, the cops are coming,” the bear said nonchalantly.
The man dashed down the hall with the girl slung over his shoulder and disappeared.
“Russel, this is it,” Stella said as she knelt in front of her son. “We’re free.”
“Is he dead?” Russel asked.
“I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter because we’re going far away, and he’ll never find us.”
Russel nodded and tugged on her hand. She got to her feet, and they ran. Just as the grizzly said, cops were on their way. Stella could hear the sirens. They’d take care of the other unfortunate women who were still locked up and alive, new wolf shifter or Berserker. There was no reason for her and Russel to stay.
Stella and Russel hit the ground floor just before the cops arrived. They had no shoes and the cold snow bit at their soles, but they were wolves, and they would survive. As soon as they could travel unseen, they would shift. They would run fast, stick to the shadows and the dark of night. Then, when they were far away, they would start over.
Stella and Russel made it out of the most populated areas of Kansas City. They were warm because they had allowed their wolves to surface and were blanketed in fur. Though their coats were dingy and matted, they still served the purpose of keeping them warm.
The shift was hard on Stella because of her new wounds, but they were mostly superficial. What made her shift hard was the fact that she was pretty much nothing but skin and bones. Russel had a hard go of it too, but they pushed on. They always did, and now they had more reason than ever to continue pushing.
They were free.
They had ran for at least an hour straight. Stella’s little boy was being a trooper, but he was slowing down, and so was she. Their stomachs were growling in protest and every step in the new fields of snow they found was a chore. There were no houses on this land. They could curl up against some trees and sleep for the rest of the night, but Stella was afraid neither one of them would wake up if they did. They needed food.
She hadn’t hunted in years, but the instinct was still there. She trotted forward in the snow with Russel trailing behind her. She didn’t know how her soft-hearted boy would feel about hunting, but it was their only option. They had to eat in order to survive like every living thing. They had the right to fight to survive.
They walked deeper into a thicket. Stella slowed and quieted her steps. Russel followed her lead. Her ears were pointed forward and her eyes were alert, searching for any sign of movement. She smelled prey. Then she saw it, a white rabbit hopping around in the snow. As soon as it took a moment to stop and clean its whiskers with delicate paws, she bounded forward. The rabbit didn’t see her coming. She caught it in her mouth and killed it with a decisive crunch of her jaws. Quick. Silent. Deadly.
Russel came forward and sniffed the bloodstained dead rabbit when she dropped it in the snow. She nudged his head with her nose, telling him to eat. He didn’t fuss. As soon as he got started, he dug deeper and ate faster, stripping off as much meat as he could to fill his stomach. He stopped when the rabbit was half gone and pushed it to Stella’s front paws, offering her the rest. Stella pushed it back, but Russel growled at her and trotted away to lie down at the base of a maple tree where there was less snow.
Russel was right. She should listen to him. They didn’t know if they would be this lucky again, and Stella had to keep up her strength too. She wouldn’t be able to protect her boy if she didn’t.
When she finished the rabbit off, she lay beside her son, huddling for warmth and comfort. This was probably as good a place as any to spend the night. Stella was about to lower her head to her paws and close her eyes when something caught her interest. She wasn’t sure what it was exactly, but she saw something between the tree trunks that looked like it might be a building or shelter of some sort. She stood back up on tired legs and trotted forward until the trees were no longer obscuring her view. It was a cabin. A large one. It looked deserted from here.
Stella doubled back to tell Russel to stay put while she checked this out. If someone was there, they were probably equipped with a rifle. With all this land around, she couldn’t imagine the cabin would be anything other than a hunter’s base. She didn’t want anyone shooting at her pup.
Whoever owned this cabin was loaded. They had all of this land to themselves. This was all probably private property. She hadn’t seen any signs about that, but she hadn’t seen any other buildings either.
The closer she got to the cabin, the bigger she realized it was. It had two floors, but they were large floors, several rooms in each or very large rooms. The wood was cut and arranged in intricate patterns that looked like floating feathers or swirling snowflakes. It looked more like a work of art than a cabin.
There weren’t any cars or fresh tracks outside. The building and everything surrounding it was covered in new snow. She spied a frozen pond not far off. Other than that, it was all clear fields of snow, trees, and the lone cabin itself.
She trotted up to one of the windows and stood on her hind legs as she placed her forepaws on the windowsill so she could peek inside. No lights were on. However, thanks to her wolf vision, she could see well enough. All the furniture was covered up with thin sheets. Those sheets were topped with a thick layer of du
st. No one had been here in a long time. Perfect.
Stella howled for Russel to tell him it was safe, and he joined her a few minutes later. They searched around the cabin for a way to get inside, but the place was locked up. Breaking and entering it was then.
Stella found a large rock, shifted, and picked it up. It was a handful and heavy, but since she was a wolf shifter, she was strong enough to throw it with the force needed to shatter one of the windows, so that was exactly what she did. She found another rock after that to crush the jagged pieces of glass into dust so she and Russel wouldn’t cut themselves on the way in.
Once satisfied, Stella gestured to the open window. “Jump in, but be careful with the shattered glass on the floor. And stay wolf for now. You’ll be warmer. Find somewhere for us to sleep. I’ll clean up the mess and see if I can find us some clothes and more food.”
Russel did as he was told. He jumped through the window and landed with ease, avoiding the glass altogether. Stella climbed in after him, tiptoeing around the glass, and watched as her son walked cautiously through the dark, dusty building. He sniffed things as he went and sneezed a few times. It was too cute, and Stella tried not to laugh. Her son was exhausted. What he needed most right now was a good night’s sleep.
Stella stalked through the house, searching for a broom and dustpan. She found those in the kitchen and made quick work of sweeping up the glass. When she was done, she returned the broom and dustpan back to where she found them and pulled off one of the dusty sheets covering the furniture. She stared at the window and debated about how she wanted to plug the window. She settled for folding the sheet over the curtain rod. It helped, but the wind still blew the fabric open, so she pushed a chair against the bottom of the fabric to reinforce it. That would have to do for now. She was too tired to think of or do anything else.
Next, she searched the cabin. She looked through the cabinets in the kitchen first, seeking food this time. Nothing. She turned on the faucet and discovered they had running water, so that was excellent. It ran hot and cold, even more excellent. She drank her fill straight from the faucet, washed up a little, cleaned out her wounds that were already starting to heal, and felt ten times better than she had moments before.
Her Noble Owl (Marked By The Moon Book 4) Page 3