by Amira Rain
Skye's wide eyes suddenly got a little wider.
Swallowing, she made a faint whimpering noise then spoke in a whisper. "I think he just did. He's behind you. And there's another wolf, a smaller one, not too far behind him."
I heard a low snarl, immediately followed by one further away, before I could even turn around, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I hadn't been fast enough. I did not reach Skye in time. And now I was going to die. She was going to be violated. When Richard's scenter wolf scented me as infertile, I doubted they'd even wait a second before killing me.
I stifled a sudden, wild urge to laugh, realizing that I was never going to have to tell Chase and Grayson about my fertility deception after all. I was off the hook about that.
Even though I knew death was likely near, I made a split-second decision. Though maybe it was less a decision and more a realization about what I already knew I was going to do. I was going to fight. I was at least going to make an attempt to defend myself, even if I only lasted a second or two.
To just lay down, accept my fate, and allow the wolves to rip me to shreds seemed cowardly. And though I'd never contemplated it much before, I realized that a coward wasn't who I was.
Still facing Skye, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my little pocketknife. "I'm going to go down fighting. Close your eyes."
"Ro, please don't. Please just beg them-"
"I love you, Skye. Close your eyes."
Another low snarl, even nearer behind me this time, made me turn around without even making sure that Skye followed my instruction, though I prayed that she would.
Maybe ten paces in front of me stood a massive gray wolf at least as big as Chase and Grayson. At least. Fingers trembling so badly I almost couldn't complete the task, I pulled out the blade of the pocketknife while keeping my gaze on the alpha.
I wanted to get in at least one or two good stabs at him, and I knew if he pounced on me while I wasn't looking, that wasn't going to be a possibility. It would be all over.
Still keeping my gaze locked on his glittering greenish eyes, I curled a fist around the knife handle and lifted it. "Maybe you're going to kill me. But I'm going to hurt you first."
Taking a deep breath, I decided to charge him before he could charge me. Before I even could, something strange happened. Richard burst into a fireball. A literal fireball. His howls rose above sudden gasps from Skye and me while flames engulfed every inch of him.
He’d suddenly and inexplicably burst into flames, I thought I'd seen a flash of white light coming from somewhere to my left. I turned my head to try to see from where it might have come, or from who it might have come, just in time to see a dark figure walking over from the lane, extending something like a long stick or a staff. A shadowy shape on the dark figure's shoulder suddenly cawed.
Dropping my knife in the dirt, I gasped. "Rose!"
Ignoring me, she pointed her staff at Richard's small scenter wolf, who stood maybe ten or fifteen feet behind his flaming alpha, who was now clearly dead.
"Would you like some, too? Because there's plenty more where that came from."
The small wolf stared her down for a long moment, snarling, fangs bared, before abruptly turning and streaking into the forest.
After watching for a few moments, walking stick still pointed in his direction, until he'd faded into the dark spaces between the trees, Rose lowered her stick and began walking over to Skye and me.
"We'll let that one go, because as winded as I still am from trying to keep up with you going down the lane, Rowan, I'm not about to chase a wolf through the forest.
“Not to mention that...well, that was the first time I've ever actually used my powers to take out a wolf, and I'm not positive I can do it again right away. Not sure exactly how much gas I have in the tank, so to speak."
The next several minutes flew by in a happy haze of hugging Rose and hugging Skye while Richard's carcass burned to ashes. With tears of joy streaming down my face, I even leaned in to plant a kiss right on Jack's pointy little beak, and, docile as ever, he let me.
Once I'd freed her from her rope restraints, Skye also gave Jack a kiss, sniffling. "I don't even know exactly why I'm kissing this bird, but I'm just so happy that we're all okay and safe that I guess I'm doing it anyway."
Chase and Grayson soon arrived after having realized I was missing, once all the Bloodfur wolves back in Shadowfen had been killed.
As I'd suspected, they were mad at me for leaving the cabin. They were very mad, actually. However, more than anything, they seemed relieved that I was okay. When they heard the story of why I was okay, they both stared at Rose briefly, seeming to be incredulous, then pulled her into their arms, thanking her and kissing the top of her gray-haired head.
She at first protested she hadn't really done anything, but then she immediately burst into tears, telling them they were very welcome for her help.
That night, Skye slept at Flora and Hunter's, since they had a three-bedroom cabin. Chase, Grayson, and I all spent the night together at mine, making love until the wee hours of the morning.
We didn't use any toys or Ticklers, because for some reason, on this particular night, I just wanted to take my pleasure from the touch of their hands and the feel of their bodies alone. It just felt right.
The next morning, they left not long after dawn to go deal with the disposal of the all the Bloodfur wolf carcasses littering the lane. Maybe a half-hour or so after they'd left, there was a knock on the door, and I dashed over to answer it, thinking it might be Skye. Instead, it was Flora, grinning from ear-to-ear.
“Can I come in?"
Smiling, I said of course, knowing she was about to tell me about her second miracle. Not two seconds after I'd shut the door behind her, she did. We embraced, sniffling and laughing, though I couldn't deny that her news was bittersweet.
I wanted desperately to experience what she was experiencing myself, and I knew I never would.
Soon Flora gave me one last tight squeeze, pulled away, and handed me a plastic bag. "I brought you something, because by the time I ever need these again, if I ever need these again, they'll be expired."
I took the bag from her, looked inside, and saw at least a half-dozen Ashcrest-made home pregnancy test kits.
With an ache in my chest, I shook my head, handing the bag back to Flora. "No. Thank you, but I'll never need these. You should probably give them to Skye."
Flora took the bag, frowning hard enough to make a deep crease between her big blue eyes. "Why don't you think you'll ever need these? What are you talking about?"
With the ache in my chest intensifying, I heaved a sigh. "I'll have to explain later, because first, I need to talk to Chase and Grayson, then Skye. And I need to do it right now, before I lose my nerve. It's time. I can't put this off any longer. I can't live a lie for one more day, for one more minute, even. It's just not right."
While Flora continued frowning at me, I took out my phone and began composing a text I was going to send to both Chase and Grayson, asking them both to come back to my cabin as soon as possible. Once the text was complete, I hit the send message button on my phone's screen, praying Chase and Grayson would allow me just one more embrace, just so I could feel their strong arms around me one last time, before they sent me back to Greenleaf.
CHAPTER TEN
Not a few seconds after I'd sent Chase and Grayson a text asking if they could come back to my cabin, my phone rang, but it wasn't one of them responding. It was Skye, using a spare cellphone at Flora’s cabin, and she sounded scared.
She spoke quietly, with a little tremor in her voice. "Lily's still sleeping, and maybe she'll stay sleeping through the whole thing. But no matter what, I'll keep her calm and safe. Tell Flora that, Ro. I'll keep Lily calm and safe. I promise."
Alarmed and miles beyond confused, I responded with a little tremor in my own voice. "I'll tell her, but what are you talking about? What's going on?"
“Oh! Make sure you
r front door is locked tight. Windows, too, if they're not already. I should have said that first."
Being that it was an unusually warm May morning, two of the windows in my cabin were halfway open, as they'd been all night. The front door wasn't locked, tightly or otherwise, because I'd seen no reason to do so immediately after Flora had arrived to share her happy news. Now, while Flora looked at me quizzically, I went over and locked it.
"Okay, Skye. The door is locked, and I'm going to do the windows now. But, please...while I'm shutting them...tell me what's going on."
Before she could respond to me, Flora, who was standing on her tiptoes, looking out of a pane of decorative glass near the top of the front door, gasped. "Wolves in the lane. Not ours. Windows! Shut 'em!"
I was already there, at one of them, anyway, and I slammed it shut and bolted the lock before dashing over to the other half-open window and doing the same, my trembling fingers flying. "We're all locked up now, Skye. Are you, too? Did you make sure to get every single last window in the cabin?"
Flora and Hunter's cabin was large, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and I knew that unlike my one-room cabin, there were at least a dozen windows throughout the whole thing.
Skye answered in the affirmative, saying that she'd double-checked to make sure all windows were locked, as well as the front door and a side door. "I just finished checking for the second time, actually, and Lily is still fast asleep in her little bed. Can't believe none of this is waking her up. They're already fighting in front of the cabin, and it's loud. Snarling, howling...it sounds like they're already in the thick of it."
"You mean our wolves are already fighting them?"
"Well, some wolves are already fighting some wolves...but as far as which ones are 'ours,' I can't really tell, just because I've never seen 'ours' before. But one of the fighting groups is definitely a more silvery, lighter gray...kind of a very pale smoke gray, even. The other group is still a silvery gray, but a much darker gray. A charcoal gray, really."
Leave it to Skye to be so descriptive about nuances in color even while a shifter fight is raging nearby, I thought. I wasn't really surprised. She'd always been into art and had been obsessed with colors and gradations in colors ever since we'd been kids. It wouldn't have been like her to simply say: "Some of the wolves are light gray, and some of them are dark gray."
I clutched the phone to my ear, praying that the answer to the question I was about to ask would be what I hoped it would be. "Does one side or the other seem to be winning the fight? And which side? The lighter wolves or the darker ones?"
There was a long pause before Skye responded, and I clutched the phone hard enough to break it.
"Um...I'd say the darker wolves seem to be winning the fight, if anyone. Still looks kind of close, though."
I heaved a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. Good. The darker silvery-gray wolves are ours. I think the much lighter ones are a pack that's been giving Chase and Grayson problems for the past few months. Bet they heard about the Bloodfur attack last night, figured Chase and Grayson's pack would be weakened and tired, and decided to take their chance."
"Well, it's definitely looking like this lighter-colored pack is beginning to lose now. There's...there's starting to be a lot of blood, and...and wolf parts all over the lane. I think I'm going to turn away from this window now and go check on Lily again. Just stay on the line with me. I'm still just a bit freaked out, and that's putting it mildly."
Without a doubt. I was feeling the same.
Across the cabin, Flora was still on her tiptoes, peering out the glass panel in the door. With her big blue eyes wide, she now turned and looked at me. "Lily. I have to get home to her."
Striding across the living room, I shook my head. "No. You've gotta stay safe right here. Lily is just fine. Skye says she's still sleeping, and she says she'll keep her perfectly safe and calm if she wakes up."
Flora glanced out the glass panel again. "But I'm her mom. I should be there with her right now. All but a couple of the wolves that were outside have headed up the lane now, and if I were to just sneak across the lane and up behind the row of cabins on the other side, I could-"
"No." Shaking my head again, I came to a stop beside her. "No way, Flora. And I'd be saying this even if you weren't pregnant. It's just too dangerous, for anyone. We've just gotta sit tight. Skye says our men are already beating the attacking wolves. It'll probably just be a matter of minutes now before they take them all out."
Flora nodded. "All right." With a deep worry line creasing her normally smooth forehead, she glanced out the window again before turning her gaze to me. "Looks like all but one are headed up the lane now to the fight. I swear...with Lily, and now me being pregnant again, which I'd only just had a chance to tell Hunter before he was called away to deal with the carcasses this morning, my nerves just can't-"
Flora's words had been cut off by some sort of calamitous crash coming from the bathroom, the only enclosed little room in the cabin. The crash sounded like a combination of glass shattering and wood breaking, followed by a heavy thud. I'd been so startled, I'd dropped my phone.
I turned to Flora, hardly even daring to breathe, and spoke in a whisper. "There's a window in the bathroom. Do you think-"
"Yes. We can't head out the front door, because one of them is still in the lane. We need to grab weapons. Whatever we can find."
I scanned the living room area, immediately spotting some fireplace-tending tools in a tall brass pot by the fireplace. "The fireplace pokers. They're iron, and heavy. One for each of us."
We wasted no time in dashing over and snatching up the pokers, and not a moment too soon. The wolf in the bathroom began presumably hurling his body against the door in an effort to break it, making crash after thunderous crash. With each impact, vibrations rippled through the rough-hewn floorboards beneath Flora's and my feet. I knew the bathroom door, despite being heavy, wasn't going to last long.
Brandishing my iron poker, I stepped in front of Flora. "You not only have yourself to defend, but the baby inside of you, too."
I also didn't want to point out yet another reason why I thought it best for me to be the first line of defense. Flora was so petite, maybe only a hundred pounds or so, and such a delicately-built hundred pounds at that, that I feared her swinging her poker at the wolf first wouldn't have much of an effect on him. It would maybe just anger him, rather than slowing him down, or knocking him unconscious. Then, I'd have to deal with an even-more-worked-up wolf. I figured it was just best if I had the first crack at him. The first crack that would, hopefully, be the last, if I could get him right on the top of his skull, how I intended to.
While the wolf in the bathroom continued slamming his body against the door, snarling loud enough for it to be heard on the other side, I glanced back at Flora. "I'll try to bash him over the head with my poker before he even gets near you. Just watch your own poker around my head."
"Okay. I will."
I had no more time to plan our strategy any further. One more slam of the wolf's body, and the door swung open, splintering the wood near its hinges. The cabin then became almost deathly quiet while a large, light gray wolf padded out of the bathroom, fangs bared and greenish eyes glinting in a shaft of sunlight slanting in from a living room window.
Staring him down, I tightened my grip on the fireplace poker. This was definitely no coyote, like the little animal I'd taken on days earlier had turned out to be. This animal, whose shaggy gray shoulders had spanned nearly the entire width of the bathroom door, was unequivocally a wolf. Not just simply a "large" one, either, I could see that now. From the tip of his dark nose to the base of his tail, he was probably about six feet long. He was exceptionally tall, too. It appeared that his back was the height of my waist, at least.
I knew my task wasn't going to be easy. I also knew I didn't have any alternative but to stick to my plan. It was either that, or lie down and die, and allow Flora to be hurt and maybe even killed herself. Obviously
, I couldn't let that happen.
However, at the same time, I couldn't hold my heavy iron poker aloft much longer. My hands were beginning to tremble badly, and the muscles in my arms were beginning to shake as well. Though I wasn't exactly a weakling, I didn't have biceps like Chase and Grayson, either.
While the light gray wolf slowly stalked over to Flora and me with saliva dripping from his bared fangs, I knew it was now or never. I had to rush him. I had to bring my poker down on the top of his head, cracking his skull.
I didn't even allow myself another moment for a deep breath. I just suddenly charged, holding my poker high. But, to my horror, I didn't get far. Almost immediately, I tripped on the edge of a multicolored rag rug and went down on my hands and knees, dropping my poker. From somewhere behind me, I heard Flora swear, panic evident in her voice. I didn't have time to stand, glance back at her, or even blink before the wolf came at her, leaping right over me, snarling.