From the Ashes (Force of Nature #1)

by Amber Lynn Natusch

  Maybe it was.

  While I stood there reinforcing the wisdom of my decision to move to the woods, a sound from behind me startled me, and I whipped around to find a massive bear lurking near. When I moved to cover my mouth and the scream that threatened to escape it, he stood up on his hind legs and growled, pawing wildly at the air around him. When he landed back on all fours with a thump, shaking the ground I stood upon, I let out a shrill cry of my own in an attempt to frighten him off. It didn't have the desired effect, but it did seem to give him pause. He cocked his head at me strangely.

  Then a growl came from somewhere behind him and my heart raced, thinking another bear had heard his buddy's call and would soon be joining our little standoff. Two huge grizzlies versus little old me didn't seem like favorable odds. I would have bet against myself for sure.

  But it wasn't a bear at all. Instead, a light gray wolf came leaping from behind the bear, landing on its back, sinking its enormous teeth into the back of the grizzly's neck. The bear shook wildly, trying to force its attacker off, but the wolf didn't budge. Staring at the fight in disbelief, I realized how evenly matched they were when they shouldn't have been. I'd watched enough National Geographic with Dean to know that the size of a wolf paled in comparison to that of a bear, let alone one as big as a grizzly. This wolf, however, was well over half the bear's height and weight. I should have realized then that I wasn't looking at an ordinary wolf, especially given that I knew full well that werewolves existed, but I'd never seen Kat Change before. I had no idea werewolves could be so large. What made me finally understand what was fighting the bear in front of me was the wolf's constant eye contact with me, as though it was trying to tell me something, willing me to act.

  Run. It wanted me to run.

  And so I obliged it, darting through the woods carelessly, too scared to keep track of direction or landmarks at all. I wanted to flee as quickly as possible for various reasons, not the least of which was that a supernatural creature had found me. Yes, it had helped me, and I was grateful for that, but the supernatural community, though vast, was still pretty tight. If word got out that I had surfaced somewhere, Merc would be on my doorstep after nightfall, and I'd be dead. I needed to pack up my newly-put-away shit and run. Run far away from what I'd thought would be my new temporary home.

  Wrong again, Piper. Wrong again.

  By some act of God Himself, I found my way back to the cabin, though I was pretty certain it had taken me way longer than it should have. Long enough for someone else to have beaten me there. Someone I was really hoping to avoid.

  “You live here?” the shirtless man asked, rapping his knuckles against the log exterior of the cabin before walking toward me. He brushed his shaggy blond hair out of his face, exposing the most beautiful sage-green eyes. Eyes that casually assessed me and my disheveled appearance.

  My breath that had been coming hard and ragged stopped entirely. I was pretty certain I was screwed. Really and truly screwed.

  “I'm renting it. Temporarily. In fact, I was thinking of leaving today...”

  “Looks like you still haven't unpacked everything yet,” he noted unhelpfully.

  “Well, I'm not really sure I'm cut out for this 'roughing it' kinda life.”

  He eyed me up and down, then smiled.

  “I'm not really sure you are either.”

  “Guess I should start packing up the car then,” I said, forcing a smile. I moved to walk past him, but he caught me gently by the arm, turning me to face him. Those piercing eyes met mine, searching for something in them.

  “You know what I am, don't you?” he asked, sniffing the air casually as he did. His tall frame loomed over me, leaving me with little to look at other than the lean muscles of his upper body.

  “Yes.” My reply was a ghost of a whisper.

  “I know you're not human,” he said, letting go of my arm. “But I can't seem to nail down just what it is that you are.”

  I choked on a laugh.

  “Join the club,” I muttered under my breath, which was a pointless gesture. Werewolves could hear just as well as vampires.

  “Well, if you don't possess superhuman strength, might I suggest not picking fights with the local wildlife. They can be a bit testy.” He winked at me before turning to walk back into the surrounding woods, the sunlight picking up the lighter blond pieces in his hair. “And I think you should stay for a while. It'll give you a chance to prove my assessment of you wrong,” he called out over his shoulder just before he disappeared into the thick brush. “The name's Knox, by the way.”

  “Pi—“ I started before cutting myself off. The last thing I needed to do was tell some werewolf I didn't know my real name. The vamps would have the supernatural equivalent of an APB out on me. I might as well just turn myself over to them if I planned to be that reckless. “Pepper. My name's Pepper.”

  I heard the rustling of leaves stop.

  “I'll be back in an hour to pick you up for dinner, Pepper. See you then.”

  * * *

  The hour he'd promised turned out to be more like thirty minutes; not enough time to make my escape.

  A loud knock on the cabin door let me know that Knox had arrived. He really had intended to pick me up. Whether or not that was for dinner remained to be seen.

  “Pepper?” he called, pushing his way into the main room of the tiny one-bedroom home. “Ah, good. You're still here.” He eyed the few boxes of provisions by the front entrance, not bothering to point out that I'd obviously planned to be gone by the time he came back for me. His expression said it all with his self-satisfied smile. “The boys are looking forward to meeting you. We need to hurry though, or we'll be lucky if there's anything left over by the time we get there.”

  “You're not alone out here?” I asked, my blood pressure rising rapidly.

  “How many werewolves do you know that roam alone?”

  He had me on that one.

  “So it's you and your pack then?”

  “Yep. Just me and my boys.”

  “No girls?” I inquired, knowing it was a fairly stupid question. Women didn't weather the Change well. The ratio of male to female werewolves was significantly unbalanced. Kat was by far and away the exception to the rule.

  He smiled.

  “Nope. Just you. But if it makes you feel better, the boys have been warned to be on their best behavior or else.”

  “Or else what?”

  “They die,” he replied with a casual shrug.

  That seemed simultaneously comforting and not.

  “And this is just dinner? Right?” I asked, squirming under his heavy gaze.

  His smiled widened.

  “We might watch a movie afterward if that's not too scandalous for you.”

  Point taken.

  “Only if it's PG.”

  He laughed.

  “I'll see if Foust still has that animated movie with the lions that he loves so much. Will that work for you?”

  “I guess so,” I said, fighting back a giggle.

  Knox was inherently charming. Almost all shifters were in their own way. They weren't always as good-looking as the vampires, but they had an undeniably sexy way about them: a swagger that couldn't be ignored. In Knox's case, he had that in spades, and it was combined with a clever sense of humor and level ten good looks. Tan, messy blond hair, and a smile that could melt a girl's heart? He was trouble waiting to happen. Lucky for me, I was pretty immune to all those traits.

  Baggage can make you immune to almost anything, especially the charms of any man or beast.

  “Shall we then?” he asked, making a gallant sweeping gesture with his arm.

  I laughed that time. I just couldn't help it.

  “Not before I make something perfectly clear to you: I'm not interested. Okay?”

  He looked at me strangely

  “In dinner? Fine. I'll eat yours. Feel better now?” he asked, walking out the front door. “Though I have to admit, I think a few calories might d
o those chicken legs of yours some good.”

  “I do not have chicken legs!” I shouted after him, storming out of the cabin.

  He shrugged again.

  “That's a matter of opinion.”

  I watched him saunter down the front steps, never bothering to look back. He knew I was coming, a fact that was most irritating. But that was the confidence of werewolves; they knew when they had you beat.

  I stood there with a smile on my face, despite my best efforts to hide it. Against my better judgment, I was warming up to Knox, which was stupid when the possibility of walking into a trap still loomed over my head. There was little to nothing to do about it, other than plead my case to the wolves in the event that they knew who I was and who was hunting me. Maybe they'd be willing to help me escape. Not everyone feared the enforcers. Maybe they fell into that category.

  Then again, maybe they didn't.

  With growing trepidation, I followed Knox off into the woods like the proverbial lamb to slaughter. Perhaps that was a bit melodramatic, but it didn't feel like it. I thought about turning and making a break for it, but outrunning a werewolf fell into the highly unlikely to impossible category. Nope, I was going to have to wait out the night and see where it led.

  Only time would tell.

  * * *

  We must have hiked through the woods for a mile or so at a pretty brisk pace before we came to a bit of a clearing. There, in the middle, stood what I could only describe as a massive lodge. It must have had dozens of rooms, judging by the footprint of the building. Though it bore no resemblance, the grandiosity reminded me of the mansion.

  What a double-edged sword that memory was.

  “You coming?” he called to me. I hadn't even realized I'd stopped walking as I stared at it. He jogged back to where I stood, a genuine look of concern on his face. “I promise, it's like I said. They won't do anything to you. Scout’s honor.” With that he reached his hand out to me, a gesture of good faith, and I took it, wanting to mask my uneasiness with a carefree façade. It made the smile he seemed to love to wear brighten in the dying light of the sun.

  He led me to the grand front entrance of the place, where the doors were at least ten feet tall. The building was really more like a small hotel with a residential dwelling feel. Enormous but homey.

  “Prepare yourself for the melee,” he announced, pushing the doors open wide. “She's here!”

  We stepped into something of a grand foyer that was open to a massive living and entertaining room. The kitchen, with its island the length of a bowling alley, was off to the far right. It too was open to everything else. The vaulted ceiling gave the whole place a sense of grandeur and warmth that I enjoyed. The decor was nothing like the mansion's, lacking the sense of opulence that the vampires seemed to enjoy so much. The lodge was far more rustic, with a mix of woods, textiles, and lighting that was much more appealing to me. And antlers. There were copious amounts of antlers everywhere the eye could see.

  “I'm guessing venison might be in my near future,” I mumbled. That evoked a roar of laughter from the pack that had filed into the living area while I was taking the place in. When Knox spoke of his boys, I didn't realize there would be quite so many of them. Werewolves had large packs; that wasn't overly surprising. What was surprising to me was just how many belonged to this pack, especially one living in relative seclusion. It made me question why they had chosen this pack in particular, and if maybe they were trying to escape something just like I was.

  My anxieties dissipated somewhat at the thought.

  “Pepper, this is the pack. Pack, this is Pepper.” As if rehearsed, they all chimed in, saying “hi Pepper” in perfect unison. It was mildly creepy. So much for my decreased stress level. “Pepper is our new neighbor. Sort of. She's going to be here for...?” he asked leadingly, dropping his gaze to me.

  “Oh, um, a while?”

  “A while,” he repeated, clearly amused by my answer. “You all have already been read the riot act so I won't bother to do it again.” Their faces sobered slightly at his mention of the warning they'd been given earlier. “Shall we eat?” He looked down at me again, still smirking.

  “Oh, you're asking me?”

  “Well I'm not asking them. This isn't a democracy, Pepper. You know how these things work, I imagine.”

  “So you're just being gracious for my benefit?” I countered.

  “Exactly.”

  I turned to address the congregation of werewolves occupying the house.

  “What do you guys think? Should we eat?” Their deafening cheer sufficed as answer enough. “Looks like we should eat,” I told Knox, smiling up at his rather shocked expression. Before he could say another word, I bravely made my way into the kitchen and the crowd of hungry werewolves piling food onto plates the size of platters. The bowling-alley-length island (which, upon further inspection, really was made of an old bowling lane) was piled high with various foods from one end to the other.

  “I've never seen anything like this,” I said to myself as one of the guys placed a plate in my hands.

  “Yeah. Sorry about that. We're running a little low on food, but we did what we could. I hope it's still okay for you.”

  I looked up at the brown-haired, blue-eyed boy like he had three heads. To the takeout queen of NYC, this was a veritable feast for the masses. No apologies necessary.

  “Pretty sure it's fine. Thanks.”

  I wove my way through the wall of bodies, trying to get to something that resembled a salad with little success. There were just so many of them, and they were big. Not enforcer big, but tall and strong, and no matter how big the kitchen was, it wasn't designed for all fifty of them to be in there at once.

  “Let me help you,” a voice said from behind me as the owner reached a rather muscular arm over my head to shove some bodies out of my way. “Fucking move, assholes. We have a guest.” Once there was enough room to turn around and look at him, I found a pair of chocolate brown eyes looking down at me. There was an unmistakable twinkle in them, a boyish mischievousness that contrasted his hard appearance. His scruffy beard and long, messy dreads pulled back from his face made him look more like a delinquent biker than a werewolf. But his inherent charm spoke to the latter. “Name's Foust.” He reached out his hand formally to shake mine.

  “Pepper.”

  “So I heard,” he replied in a strange tone. “Knox mentioned you earlier.”

  “Funny. He didn't say a thing about you,” I quipped.

  That detail seemed to amuse him.

  “That is funny. Normally he doesn't shut up about me. But that's because he loves me so much,” he replied with a wink. “At any rate, you need some food, girl. Those legs aren't going to get any meatier on their own.”

  “What is it with you guys and legs?” I blurted out, exasperation in my tone.

  “It's a guy thing,” he replied with a shrug. “Besides, you're not going to outrun whoever's looking for you on those scrawny things. You wouldn't make it fifty yards before they caught you.”

  A shattering sound cut through the ruckus in the room, drawing all eyes to me. I'd dropped my plate when Foust said that. They know, I thought to myself, trying to back my way out of the crowd strategically. Oh my God, they know...

  “What the fuck is going on here?” Knox growled from somewhere on the other side of the island. When the sea of men finally parted wide enough for him to see me, I was shaking. “Foust, what just happened?”

  “Nothing, dude. I swear. I was trying to get her access to the food and then she just dropped her plate. I never touched her.”

  “Then why does she look like she's about to have a seizure or something?” Knox growled, jumping up onto the island strategically so as not to land in the food. With an elegant leap, he was at my side. “Pepper! Pepper, look at me. What happened?” My eyes shifted to his, but what he found in them did nothing to improve his mood, which did nothing to lessen my fear. My silence didn't seem to help things either. “Everyb
ody out. Now!” he yelled and the wolves seemed to disappear in a matter of seconds. When the sound of the final door closing rang out through the house, he softened his expression and placed his hands gently on my shoulders.

  “I want to go,” I said, my voice wavering slightly.

  “I can see that. What I want to know is why.”

  “I shouldn't have come here tonight,” I continued as though he hadn't spoken at all. “I should have left when I had the chance.”

  “Why? Why do you have to run, Pepper?”

  “Piper,” I snapped, finally gaining some measure of control over my body back. “My name is Piper.” I watched his eyes for a flash of recognition. I found none there. “Shit,” I gasped. “Shit, shit, shit...”

  “Please. We can help you, but we can't if you don't tell me what the hell is going on here.”

  “Nothing. It's nothing. I'm just a little paranoid. Foust said something and I misunderstood him. That's all,” I lied, pulling out of Knox's grasp to head toward the door. The darkness of night that I found awaiting me stopped me in my tracks.

  “Scared of the dark?” he asked, coming up behind me.

  “No,” I replied weakly. “I just don't know which way to go.”

  “Liar,” he said casually, as though he hadn't just blatantly accused me of something he couldn't prove. “Tell me what Foust said to you.”

  “He said I wasn't going to outrun whoever was looking for me on my scrawny legs.”

  He paused.

  “Well, he has a valid point there. If he offended you, then I will drag him down here now and make him apologize. Will that make you feel better?”

  “Yeah. Sure,” I muttered.