by Ava Benton
I lingered around the edges of the group, gauging the way his absence affected everybody else. For the most part, it was all right. I saw a few glances in the direction of the other fire, the Family Only fire. I saw a few frowns, heard a few whispers. But nothing serious. Yet.
He didn’t see it.
That was the most disturbing part of all. Jordan was completely oblivious. Mr. Family Man. We were supposed to be a family, all of us. His family. He forgot to mention that we were only taking the place of his real family until he could reconnect with them.
“What’s up?” Lance sidled up to me with a characteristic grin. “Want a drink?”
I wrinkled my nose at the sight and smell of the beer he held up to me. “Where did you guys get beer?”
“There’s a store maybe two miles down the road,” he said, shrugging. “A bunch of guys went down and picked up a few cases.”
I frowned. “Do you think that was a good idea? Broadcasting that we’re here?”
“Honey, it’s a camp site. People are here all the time.”
I put my hands on my hips. “How many times have I asked you not to call me that? God, you are so patronizing.”
His bright white smile flashed in the light from the fire. “Relax. I’m only teasing.”
“Yeah, well, you have a way of making teasing sound pretty serious—and demeaning.”
“Wow. Somebody has a hair up their ass tonight.” He turned to walk away, and I put a hand on his shoulder.
“Sorry, sorry. You’re right. There’s a hair up my ass. There. I admitted it. Okay?”
He turned with a grin. “Wow. Nia admits she has an attitude. If I had a diary, I would write it down.”
“Ha, ha.”
He looked around at the rest of us. “Listen, I wouldn’t normally condone getting blitzed by the campfire, but everybody needs a little something to take the edge off. Yeah, the hunting’s good, it’s a gorgeous place, but not having answers to where we’re going next or how long we’re staying here is becoming a problem.”
The hair on the back of my neck stood up. “I knew people would start asking questions.”
“Only a few, here and there, but yeah. And it’s natural, of course. There was never a real hurry before because we never felt an immediate danger up until now. Things are changing.”
“I know. It worries me that he’s not paying attention to what’s happening to us.”
“Do you think we should talk to him?” Lance asked, looking over to where Jordan sat.
“Honestly, I do. And I think it would be better if we both did, together. This way, he won’t think it’s just a case of me overreacting.”
He smirked. “Jordan would never accuse you of overreacting. He knows you too well for that.”
My first thought was, yeah, well, I don’t know what his son has been telling him about me. “I still think it would be better to present a united front.”
“I’m fine with that. Whatever you think will get through to him.” He took a swig of beer and ran a hand through his golden hair. “Do you think he even wants this anymore? Wants us, I mean?”
I felt sorry for Lance, because I knew he’d been through the same life I had. Jordan had found him living in a group foster home for troubled kids. Without his guidance, Lance would probably be dead—either after living out in the wild with nobody to turn to, or after shifting in front of the wrong people. We all owed Jordan everything, but some of us looked at him as a father figure.
“I’m sure he does,” I lied. “It’s an adjustment. There hasn’t been much time yet for him to get used to having them around.”
“Yeah. You’re right.” He emptied his plastic cup, then crumpled it in his hand.
I was about to tease him for it—was I supposed to think he was strong for crushing a plastic cup?
But I noticed Layla watching from the other side of the fire and guessed the gesture was for her, not me.
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling. “You should go talk to Layla. She’s looking this way. Maybe she needs something.”
“She’s probably looking at you, not me.”
“Somehow, I doubt it.” I patted him on the back and winked.
“Where are you going?” he asked as I took a step back.
“I don’t know. For a walk. Maybe a quick hunt.”
He frowned. “Alone?”
“So?”
“You shouldn’t go alone.”
I raised a brow. “What? You think I can’t handle myself? Like I’ve never hunted on my own before.”
“This is different.”
“Okay, okay. You’re the boss or something.” I shrugged it off with a laugh, but had no intention of listening to him.
He wasn’t the boss of me, no matter how important Jordan treated him.
“Hey!” A voice called out behind me, but didn’t stop walking out to the lake, where I figured I would get undressed before shifting.
I felt restless and hungry and was in too big a hurry to stop—and I figured the odds were against my being the person they were talking to, anyway. Most of us were out, hanging around.
“I said, hey! Nia!”
That stopped me. And I knew the voice. Deep, with a little bit of gravel. A lot like his father’s.
I sighed and reminded myself not to do anything as stupid as standing naked in front of him before turning around.
“What’s up?” I asked.
He frowned. “Where are you going?”
“To hunt.” Like it was the most natural thing in the world—which it was.
“Alone.” It wasn’t a question. More of an accusation.
I looked around me. “It’s just me, right?”
“That’s not a good idea.”
“I can handle myself. We’ve been patrolling for days, and there hasn’t been so much as a suspiciously broken twig to raise concerns. I’m not going to keep from doing what I need to because we’re all a little jumpy.”
“This is more than being a little jumpy.”
“I haven’t seen anything to convince me we’re in danger yet,” I snarled. Pretending to be friendly was just too much damn work. “I don’t need you following me around, trying to freak me out.”
“I wasn’t trying to freak you out.”
“You could’ve fooled me.” I shook my head and took a step away from him. I couldn’t be near him anymore. I didn’t even want to look at him. “Just… give me some space, okay? I don’t need this.”
“Nia, come on.” He took a step in my direction.
I held up my hands to stop him.
“Don’t, okay? Just don’t. Leave me alone. Go back to your family.” I spat the word like it was something dirty I needed to get out of my mouth in a hurry.
He winced.
I was sorry. But I wouldn’t take it back, either.
There wasn’t much I hated more than a cry-baby drama queen who made everything about herself, which made it tough to stomach what I had just done.
I wasn’t only trying to get away from Drew when I hurried away from the bonfire into the woods.
I had to get away from the person I was becoming. I didn’t like that person. She reminded me of all the buried shit I had never dealt with because, well, who has the time? I wasn’t exactly pausing everywhere we stopped to visit with a therapist.
I was alone when I reached the water’s edge—Drew didn’t follow. Maybe he knew how to take a hint, or maybe he was tired of me. Not that I could blame him. He’d be out of there soon enough, at any rate. I hoped. And things could go back to normal.
I stripped quickly and placed my folded clothes on a rock before letting the shift take place. What a relief: letting go. Not having to control myself, not having to ignore the animal urges that were always there, just beneath the surface of human consciousness. I didn’t have to ignore part of me that sometimes seemed stronger, bigger, more real than the side I showed the world.
I landed on all fours, my ears moving in all dir
ections as I tuned into the night sounds. Bats flapping their wings, breeze swaying the trees and ruffling my butterscotch fur, the croaking of frogs and chirping of crickets. And the low, gentle lapping of the barely-there waves on the water’s surface.
I filled my lungs with warm, sweet air and didn’t waste any time stretching my legs—I ran.
I felt so much better the longer I ran. Why didn’t I make it a point to run flat-out all the time? I would be in a better mood.
My heart pounded harder the harder my paws hit the ground. I welcomed it. A good hunt was just what I needed. To track something and hunt it down and pin it, taking away all hope of escape.
Snap!
I stopped on a dime, hair standing up on my neck.
Somebody was there.
Drew?
I sniffed the air.
No. Not Drew. Not anybody I knew.
A human.
More than one.
Adrenaline flooded my system and the urge to flee set my feet moving.
Danger. Danger, there was somebody there, and they didn’t want to be my friend.
They wanted to catch me. I turned tail and broke into a sprint.
There were shouts behind me and the sounds of heavy footfalls.
I dodged back and forth, trying to hide myself in the shadows, and ended up running straight into the woods.
I could lose them under the cover of darkness.
Who were they? What did they want from me?
I didn’t see the fallen tree until it was almost too late to stop. I scrambled to keep myself from running face first into the massive trunk with its jagged limbs and overgrown branches—I could’ve impaled myself without even trying.
“Hah!”
I spun, panicked, as two tall figures bridged the gap between us.
“Where are you gonna go now?”
There was nastiness in that voice, violence, hatred. They wanted to hurt me. Or more.
I tried to feint left, then right, hoping I could throw them off. I had done the same thing with much bigger animals before. I had survived a lot of close calls.
This one was different.
I could see their eyes.
Hard, sharp, glistening eyes to go with hard jaws and hard bodies. Dark clothes. Rifles. One of them raised their rifle and leveled it at me.
I let out a little whimper, almost too soft to be heard.
A roar shattered the air around us, and a blur of dark fur landed in front of me. His jaws snapped as he snarled and growled and advanced on them. Like he was daring them to shoot him, too.
“Shit!” One of the men hissed.
He scrambled backward like he wanted to run away. He wasn’t the one holding the rifle, so he wasn’t the threat.
I thought about chasing him, showing him how it felt, but I was too busy cowering against the fallen tree.
The man with the rifle swung it in a wide circle instead of shooting, and the dire wolf swatted it from his hand like it was a toy.
Then the wolf was on him, pinning him to the ground with his fangs bared.
The man cried out in shock and pain. “Please! Please, let me go! Oh, please!”
It was past time for begging.
The wolf caught the man under his jaw and tore at his throat.
Blood sprayed in all directions—some of it spattered on my fur, but most of it soaked into the ground.
The man’s legs shook and twitched for a few breathless moments, then stopped. It didn’t take long at all.
Only when the body had stopped twitching, did the dire wolf turned to me. He was panting. His face was covered in blood. His eyes glowed from deep inside his dark fur. I knew who it was.
I felt him.
Drew.
He nodded. We have to get out of here.
I didn’t need him to tell me twice.
We ran from the woods and splashed in the lake to clean up before going straight back to camp.
I didn’t even bother to take my clothes or even shift back. There was no time to waste.
Drew ran at my side.
I realized I had nothing to worry about as long as he was with me.
8
Drew
She sat with her hands clasped between her knees, rocking back and forth just a little, staring off at nothing. Like somebody who had just gotten a big shock. And she had.
It would’ve been her own stupid, stubborn fault if those two had killed her or taken her prisoner. Didn’t I warn her?
Every time I turned in her direction and wanted to remind her that she should’ve known better, the look on her face stole the words from me.
She didn’t need to hear how I had told her. She was hurting enough.
Her big eyes looked bigger than ever.
Haunted.
Dad was about ready to explode. His face was beet red; his fists clenched as tight as his jaws.
“Where is he?” he snarled.
“I can show you where. We left him there—I wasn’t sure what to do.”
“There should be enough cover to keep him out of sight there,” Dad guessed. “And you said the other one was scared shitless?”
“I’m pretty sure he pissed or shit himself or both,” I nodded. “He won’t be back, at least not right now. I guess he never saw one of us before.”
“He didn’t care when he saw me,” Nia whispered.
We both looked at her, sitting on the sofa in my cabin, wearing one of my old t-shirts and nothing else—it reached her knees, practically a nightgown—and we both softened a little bit. But just a little.
What she had done was unforgivable.
“You know you shouldn’t be hunting alone right now, especially at night,” Dad muttered. “What were you thinking?”
She sputtered. I jumped in. “I was going with her but got distracted. The whole reason I was out there was because I was following her. I just wasn’t fast enough to catch up until they stopped her.”
He looked me up and down. “She still shouldn’t have made a move if you weren’t ready.”
“I think she learned her lesson.” I couldn’t bring myself to look at her again. Every time I did, my insides twisted up, and I couldn’t think straight. A pressure built in my chest every time I looked at those haunted eyes, staring blankly at nothing.
“I’ll go out with Lance and your brother to look at the body,” Dad said. I gave him directions and watched as he left. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out exactly who the man was and why he was there. Waiting for one of us to break away from the pack just long enough to pounce on us. And it had to be Nia.
Carter and Lance joined up with Dad, and the three of them hurried into the woods.
I hoped the body was still there. I hoped nobody else had gone in to see what was taking so long—there was no telling how many of them were lying in wait, all over the campground.
I felt better when Roan and Slate followed not far behind them. Still, I wouldn’t breathe easy until they came back.
I had to deal with her. I didn’t know what to say, though. What was there to say? That I was glad, I had been there in time to save her? That I didn’t regret ripping that bastard’s throat to shreds?
If anything, I regretted that I had to in the first place. She should’ve listened to me.
What would’ve been the good of telling her that? There wouldn’t have been any. I wasn’t into kicking defenseless animals when they were down, and she was way down. Lower than I had ever seen anyone.
I looked at her out of the corner of my eye. What happened to the confident, brash girl who drew everybody’s eyes and attention just by entering a room? What happened to the girl who faced off with me at the lake, standing there without a stitch of clothes on, daring me to look at her? She was less than a memory.
“I’m sorry I made you do that,” she whispered.
I had to strain my ears to hear her.
“You didn’t make me do anything.” It was curt, perfunctory, the sort of thing I knew
I had to say because it was the right thing to say—but wasn’t the truth. She had forced me into it. Otherwise, it would’ve meant leaving her to die.
“You know I did. I know I did. You don’t have to lie to me.”
“I would’ve done it for anybody.” I went to the window to check for Dad.
It was way too soon for him to be back, but that didn’t stop me from looking. Anything to put space between the two of us.
“Why won’t you look at me?”
“I didn’t know I was supposed to be looking at you,” I said with my back to her.
“You hate me now.”
I turned my head enough to see her. “That’s not true.”
“Then I hate me enough for the both of us. How could I have been so stupid?” She lowered her head into her hands and held it there. Her shoulders shook as she sobbed. I couldn’t stand the sight or sound of it.
I went to her and sank to my knees at her feet. “Don’t do this to yourself.”
“If it wasn’t for you…”
“But I was there, right? Nobody got to you because I was there.”
“But if you weren’t.” She barely raised her head, just enough to look at me. Her eyes were red rimmed and swollen. Her cheeks were wet. I reached out to wipe the tears away without thinking about it.
“I was. That’s all that matters.”
“I was never so scared in my life. Not ever.” She took one of my hands and squeezed, eyes darting back and forth over my face.
“Do you want to know a secret?” I asked as I squeezed her hand back. “Me, neither.”
“You?”
I nodded. “I was never so scared as I was when I saw them pinning you down. I knew what they were going to do to you, and I had to stop them, but I didn’t want to make either of the fire and maybe hit you. If they shot me, they would still get to you. I had to make the right decision, and I didn’t have any time to think it over.”
“You didn’t seem scared. You were scary.”
I thought back to those few seconds everything else hung on. How intense they were.
All that mattered was keeping her safe, even if I had to kill to do it.
So I had. And I would do it again.
“I wasn’t about to let anybody hurt you. I didn’t care what I had to do to make sure you were all right.”