THE STRAGGLERS PROTECT

by Misha Anderson

  “It’s not a big deal, there are just some problems my family back in Alaska, Kay is helping. Kayden is very good in finding missing people and fugitives.”

  I know he’s stalling and that annoys me.

  “It’s not only that, is it? Can’t you tell me what’s going on?”

  Adam came close to me and tried to hug me, I pushed him back. Why can’t he tell me the truth, so many disconnected words, trackers, hunters, these guns, they are regular people, defend themselves from whom and why?

  “I told you it’s nothing, Sam, I only ask you to trust me.”

  “And these hunters, what do they hunt?”

  Adam’s hand went through his hair, he was annoyed, he got the leather bundle, put it over his shoulder and left the garage. I went after him, before he entered the house, I asked:

  “Please, Adam, talk to me.”

  He turned in my direction, changed, and he yelled at me:

  “Enough, Samantha, what do you want, what do you want to hear? I can’t give you answers. Even though you are accused of robbery I belied you, I trusted you, and I could be wrong, but nonetheless I trusted, the least I deserve is a little trust too.”

  Is he going to spit back in my face the trust the put on me? It’s not about trust, shit, after all, I just want to understand why these guns, this weird talk, why every man I date wants to keep so many secrets?

  “Are you going to throw in my face the trust you put on me, is that it, Adam? I’ll leave you alone, I’m sorry for invading your privacy, I’m going home, thank you for everything.”

  Adam yells for me to come back and I keep going towards the dirty road. After a few minutes I feel someone approaching me, when I turn, Adam gets me by my knees and throws me over his shoulder, how hateful!!!

  He takes the road back home and I feel my body shaking like a stupid bundle on Adam’s shoulder.

  I try hitting him on the back and at every slap I hit his back, he gives it back harder on my buttocks, slapping his hand on my butt cheeks.

  “Adam, you’re an idiot, let me go, you’re hurting me. I’m going to kick you in the balls when you put me down.”

  I get another slap, and he is supporting me with one hand on the back of my butt.

  “Then stop wriggling and be quiet, you’re annoying me, Sam.”

  Instead of going home, he went back to the garage. Adam pulled closed the door and put me down, before I could kick him in the shins, he dragged me by the waist to the truck hood.

  I struggled trying to run from his tight grab of my waist, but he fit himself between my tights and without me being able to protest, he took my mouth in a straight up assault, voracious and primitive.

  My tighten hands relaxed and the anger gave room to an insane horniness.

  Adam brought my hips his tense and engorged member, almost bursting the zipper on his jeans and rubbed his huge protuberance between my legs, through the smooth cotton of my panties.

  I moaned on his lips, wrapping my legs around his hips, I felt hot goosebumps on my skin when I felt the cold metal of the hood and Adam’s hands wandering through my stomach to my breasts.

  He free my breast from the dress and he took his mouth to my nipples, sucking them hard, first one, then the other, sucking and licking while his fingers checked how wet my pussy was.

  His fingers were wet with my fluids, coming and going, from the opening of my gash to my anus and his thumb circling my clitoris, giving little taps on my throbbing flesh. As if he was lighting beams of nerves on my sensible button, taking me to ask, to beg to be penetrated.

  “Adam, please, more... more...”

  Adam opened the zipper of his pants and took his hard and clammy cock from inside his underwear, he guided it to my vagina and rubbed it, spreading with his glans the juice from my pussy, up and down, between my vagina lips to my clitoris that was pulsing as if I had a heart beating between my legs.

  “More of what? Say it, my little bunny, I want to hear.”

  I need him to take me, to penetrate me, it’s a torment that I can’t stand anymore, the throbbing of my entire sex, the way my pussy contracts when he rubs his glans between my wet lips, I wriggle on the hood of the truck, looking for relief, for liberation.

  “You Adam, inside me, I want.”

  Adam smiled with narrow and shinny eyes of desire and nibbling my lips he put his penis inside of me slowly, filling the walls of my sex.

  He moved his hips like a master, in a destructive coming and going, uncontrolled.

  I sank my nails on his shoulders to stand the intensity of the pleasure that was inside my guts, more and more giving at every thrust, Adam raised my hands and tangled his fingers on mine, dizzily climbing my body, making me cum with him, both, as if we were free falling from a cliff, lost.

  After cumming, Adam swept the hair off my face and kissed me, asking me to stay with him, for him.

  “Please, don’t go away, I want you to stay and I know you want to stay too. The same way you asked me to trust you, now I’m the one asking, trust me, one day I’ll explain it all to you, for now, don’t ask me questions, just trust, please, my little bunny.”

  I nodded and kissed his soft chin.

  “Forgive me, I shouldn’t have eavesdropped, I’ll trust you like you trusted me. Is there anything ilegal that I should worry about?”

  Adam adjusted my dress and laughed.

  “Of course not, none of my brothers nor I do anything illegal, where did you get that from?”

  “I’m sorry, I just got scared.”

  “There’s no need to be afraid with me.”

  Adam lowered me from the hood and we entered the house, hugging.

  It was over midnight and I couldn’t sleep, Adam was calmly sleeping.

  I got the book Hunter lent me and went to read it in the living room.

  I was sitting cosy on the couch, with a blanket over my legs and a cup of hot chocolate when Hunter appeared in the living room, probably with insomnia too.

  “Hi, Sam, you can’t sleep too?”

  “Yeah, I decided to read a little.”

  He also had a book, I asked:

  “Do you want some hot chocolate to accompany the book?”

  Hunter smiled and sat on the other couch.

  “It would be nice.”

  There was a some left from what I had made and I gave him a cup that the thanked me for, and then said:

  “I couldn’t help hearing the two of you arguing, don’t be upset with him, we are really reserved, Sam, we have to be to continue to survive.”

  Hunter looks at me really serious.

  “What do you mean, continue to survive?”

  Hunter took his hot chocolate and sat by my side.

  “We are different, Sam, and what’s different scares us.”

  What do they have that’s different? I couldn’t understand.

  “Different because of your Cherokee blood?”

  He smirked and nodded.

  “You can say that, there’s nothing you can or should know, Sam, at least for now. I can only guarantee, that my brother is the most honest man I have ever met in all my life and he’s completely on fours for you, Samantha.”

  Hunter hugged and I went to sleep... My head was full of questions without answers, but my heart was in peace.

  CHAPTER 14

  SAMANTHA THOMPSON

  Love is a big bow

  A step towards a trap

  A wolf running in circle

  To feed the pack

  Its arrival is compared

  To the escape of an island

  As fattening as it kills

  Like a daughter’s woe...

  (Missing a piece - Djavzn)

  TRACKING DANGER

  Kayden said good bye yesterday to look for the murders of some friends, at least that was what I got from this crazy story.

  Adam gave him some weapons and a necklace that it seemed to me part of the Cherokee belief, as if he was blessing him, and he was gone. Hunter t
old me they are different, and there’s a lot of difference in there! But how? Why? No one tells me.

  My shift as a waitress at Mathews today is in the morning, Adam surprises me and comes by at lunch time, kisses my cheek and says what’s worrying him:

  “Sam, I’ll follow up the searches with Kay and uncle Quinn. I didn’t like Kay going on this mission, but as the Garrets are friends of the family for so long, I couldn’t stop Kay helping to track, I mean, to look for evidence in this crimes, but I don’t have a good feeling about this, I prefer to see it with my own eyes if Kay is alright.”

  I agree with him and hug him tight, I was taken over by a pressure in my chest that’s bothering me. How can I tell Adam that I too have a bad feeling about him going to do this search?

  I say goodbye to Adam avoiding kissing him even more and didn’t want to seem like a fool, and he is out at full speed going to meet Kayden.

  Night falls and the two brothers haven’t returned, Hunter is having tea trying to seem calm, but I notice that he’s worried.

  The hours pass and they don’t come back home that night, maybe it’s because the search has extended beyond their wishes, in any way Adam has to come back tomorrow, he has his job as sheriff, he an extremely responsible guy with his professional life, tomorrow he’ll certainly be at the police station for his shift.

  In the morning neither of them have came back and I start to worry, I go to work and when I finish my shift at Mathews I go by the police station and find out through Cumming, Adam’s detective friend, that he didn’t showed up to work.

  All his colleagues find it peculiar, he never missed a day’s work before, this information makes my heart shrink to a pea size, where can Adam and Kayden be? What happened to them?

  I get to the Vaugh ranch and Connie is arguing with Hunter about the boys absence.

  “Hunt, o... old man, we ne... need to g... get out and lo... loo... look for tho... those two and if the hun... hun.. hunters cau... caught them?”

  What is this talk about hunters, hunters of what? Why would hunters get Adam and Kayden? I enter and Hunter and Connie look at each other, changing subjects while I greet them.

  “Good evening, boys, are Damy and Kay back?”

  Connie tries to explain the inexplainable.

  “Da... Damy m... m... must ha... have ne... needed to s... s... stay to he... hel... help the se... sear... search, oh f... fuck, understand?”

  Connie was stuck, he was nervously drying the sweat off his face with his shirt, he’s stuttered more than ever and he’s visibly a pile of nerves.

  That’s not good! I start to get desperate, I look at Hunter and he shakes his head, saying that he’s certain they’ll return later.

  I wander through the house at night and I give up trying to sleep, I lay down on the living room couch, I prefer to stay here, this way, when Damy gets here I’ll see him right away, soon they’ll be here, if it’s God’s will.

  In the morning I’m a wreck, two huge panda shadows under my eyes ruining my face. Hunter is sitting alone on the porch, it’s early, he hasn’t slept as well waiting for Adam and Kay, I complain with him louder than I would have wished:

  “What are you or Connie waiting for to register a complaint that their are both missing? If you don’t go, Hunter, I will...”

  Hunter raises his hand and tries to calm me down in vain, but he’s in pieces with the boys absence, it can only have happened something!!! I sit beside him on the porch and cry low, without affectation, he hugs me and promises me:

  “If they don’t come back today, I’m going after them, but Adam wouldn’t like me to leave the house vulnerable. Let’s have a little more patience, I don’t want to call the police on this.”

  “It’s because of your Cherokee beliefs? Is there anything to do with that?”

  Hunter confirms and enters the house, leaving me alone on the porch.

  The hours go by and my eyes burn because of the two badly slept nights, it’s over seven in the evening, I hear in the distance a suffering howl, and now another one, longer and more agonizing, the howls are getting closer.

  Hunter and Connor come running to the porch, looking at each other in a weird way, I ask them:

  “There were never wolves here, weird, isn’t it? it seems like this wolf is so near.”

  Another long and suffering howl cuts through the night, Hunter goes down the stairs, opens the wood gate and howls longly towards the sound that’s coming from behind the trees.

  Holy shit!!! How does Hunter know how to howl like that?

  From between the ranch trees comes a huge and scary brown wolf, almost seven feet long.

  It walks with difficulty, twisted, I see it dragging with difficulty towards the entrance of the ranch the body of another wolf, gray and likely huge.

  Pulling it in its teeth, the teeth are interwoven in the gray fur, and the body of the other wolf is dragged through the ground completely inert, faint.

  Connor is by its side and falls to the ground, his legs lost its strength, his muscular body is defeated, crying and howling as if he were in transe towards the moon.

  That’s all just putting some shit inside me, what the hell is going on here?

  It’s a scary scene unraveling around me, I’m in panic, my whole body is shaking, I have got goosebumps, I try to run, but I can’t find strength in my legs.

  Hunter walks towards the two wolves, he crouches down looking at the gray wolf and yells at Connor:

  “Come here, Connor, I need you, hell, move, he’s still alive.”

  Connor staggers to the two wolves and he and Hunter get the gray wolf by its legs and drag it to the porch.

  A twisted arrow is located sunk in its left flank, the wolf is breathing slowly, its eyes are closed.

  I look to the object around its neck and I recognize the necklace with a long fang that Adam gave to Kayden.

  How is it possible? The brown wolf went to a vigil position by the porch entrance, Hunter is trying not to cry, petting the gray wolf’s fur, whispering:

  “Kayden, open your eyes to me, please, for Mother Nature powers, I beg you, open your eye to me, my brother.”

  I frown, looking disturbed and lost at the wolf, Hunter, Connor and the huge brown wolf that’s on the porch entrance.

  Kayden? How can this wolf be Kayden?

  God, what is going on here? I leave them and my legs, too, lose their strength, I fall down on my knees at the porch, the brown wolf approaches me and I recognize it.

  Its strong and firm eyes look at me and undress my soul, it’s the same brown wolf that revenged and protected me that night in the forest.

  Connie comes closer and tries to pet the brown wolf, but it dodges, it seems angry, uncontrolled, in an alert state.

  “Da... Damy, he’s going to b... be fine, eve... everyth... everything will end fi... fine, Da... Damy.”

  Hunter yells at me and I haven’t woken up from the shock that had paralyzed me.

  “We need you, Samantha, otherwise Kayden won’t resist. Go to the bathroom and bring back the first aid kit, I need distilled water, scissors, needle and thread. Under Adam’s bed there’s a case, get a brown vial with herbs plaster, bring it quick to me. Connor, I’ll need your help to remove the arrow.”

  I remain still looking to both of them, the gray wolf breathing hard and the brown one patrolling the porch in constante vigilance.

  Hunter yells at me:

  “Samantha, we need you, I promise I’ll explain it all, now move, fast, otherwise Kayden will die.”

  An injection of adrenaline took over me, I went to the bathroom and I got with my trembling hands the first aid kit Hunter asked for. I went to my and Adam’s bedroom, I found the case Hunter talked about, I open it in a hurry, there were many vials, leaves, seeds and dry roots, I got the only brown flask from the case and went back running, giving everything to Hunter.

  Connor held the wolf’s left flank and Hunter carefully removed the arrow, he smelt it and threw it a far, mumb
ling furiously:

  “The arrow is poisoned!! Fuck, Kay, my brother, what did they do to you?”

  The wolf gave out a faint moan and grunt, Connor held its back legs, the tears were falling free from his face, he was speaking comfort words to the wounded animal.

  I resist in believing, fooling myself that everything isn’t but a nightmare, a misunderstanding, but the fact is that this wounded and agonizing wolf, inexplicably... is Kayden.

  Just as the big brown wolf, proud and in attack position that’s patrolling the porch entrance is Adam, the man I love.

  I’m taken over by some unexpected courage and I call in a low voice:

  “Adam, can you hear me?”

  While cleaning Kay’s wound and anointing the plaster, Hunter lets me know:

  “He can hear you, don’t be afraid, Samantha, just avoid getting too close. Adam is frisky and in alert, it’s not safe to get too close. He must be thirsty.”

  I watch him impotent, sitting straight on the porch threshold, the self-assertive head watching it all, the long ears standing, the tongue reaching out the mouth, dry, he must really be thirsty.

  I don’t think, I don’t analyze how absurd all this is, I just follow my instincts, to me is simple, if he’s thirsty I’m giving him water. If he wanted to hurt me he already had two chances, in the forrest and today, on contraire, I see in his eyes a grand drive to protect me.

  There’s no logic explanation, I’m guided by my most primitive instincts. The fact is that I feel weirdly safe in front of him.

  I know somewhere, his human essence recognizes and hears me, so if he recognizes me, if the man who loves me is inside this being, I’m sure he won’t hurt me.

  I go to the back porch, I get a big bowl, I fill it with water, I come back to the front porch and put the bowl with water near the threshold.

  He gets near the water bowl and watches it, suspiciously, then he slowly drinks the water I offered him.

  Before I go to the bathroom to get a clean towel, Hunter holds my hand, surprising me:

  “Thank you, Samantha.”

  After spending a long time putting on a bandage on Kayden, Hunter closed the wound sewing it and asked for my help and Connor’s to bring Kayden inside the house.