CORAM

by Bonnie Burrows

  She slipped her hand into her pocket, wrapping her tiny fingers around the large switch blade she had stolen from her father’s things. Whatever it was, she wasn’t going down without a fight.

  The rustle came again, and a large shadow bounded out of the trees and directly onto her path. Cambria screamed before she could stop herself, frightening the young deer standing a few feet from her and directly in her path.

  Cambria let out the breath she’d been holding and slipped the knife back into her pocket. She stomped her feet in the dirt, trying to shoo the deer out of her way so she could keep moving. But the deer didn’t budge. It just stood there, staring at her.

  The hair on the back of her neck stood when she realized that the deer wasn’t staring at her, but over her shoulder. Terrified to find herself face to face with a bear-or worse yet, her father, Cambria turned. She was ready to fight to the death for her freedom. She was done being a victim.

  She wasn’t prepared for what stood before her, and she barely registered the silver cost and the large head before she passed out cold. She heard her body hit the ground but felt nothing. And her final thought was that she was going to be ripped apart and eaten alive by a tiger.

  Cambria jumped awake, startled to find herself in a neat cabin, daylight streaming through a nearby window. The bed she rested on was soft and comfortable, the heavy quilt tucked lovingly around her shoulders.

  She threw back the quilt and looked down at her clothes. They were still dirty from her tumble down the hill and her run through the forest. Her boots had been removed, but otherwise she was exactly how she had been in the woods, before she’d come face to face with a tiger.

  Footsteps fell heavily in the next room, and Cambria gauged the distance from the bed to the tiny window cut into the outer wall.

  It was too far. The door opened slowly and a tall, slender man with a long face peeked into the room.

  “I see you’re awake. How are you feeling?” He asked, walking towards the bed with a steaming mug in his hand.

  “I’m fine, I guess.” Her voice sounded weird. It had been so long since someone had spoken to her instead of at her. She didn’t quite know how to react.

  “You had quite a scare and you passed out. You’ve a nasty bump on your head, but I think you’ll be fine. Would you like to call your parents so they know you’re safe?”

  At the mention of her parents, Cambria’s breath caught. What was she going to say to convince this man that she couldn’t go back to them without him alerting the authorities? If the police were called, she’d end up right back where she started. She couldn’t take that risk.

  She looked him straight in the eye and told him that her parents were dead.

  “In that case,” he said, “welcome to the family.”

  CHAPTER ONE

  The air rushed out of Cambria when she hit the ground, but she kept moving. She army-crawled under the barbwire, careful to keep her entire body as low to the ground as possible. More than once, her curly brown locks got tangled in the wire, but she pressed forward. She had a time to beat, and stopping to worry about her hair wasn’t going to help her beat her best time.

  When she was able to stand, she ran to the vertical wall and grabbed the knotted rope that hung from the top. She shimmied up the rope, smiling to herself as she reached the top and flipped over and onto the ground. She dashed through the knee deep water hazard and back onto the dry ground to a table.

  On the table lay a dismantled assault rifle. This is where Cambria had choked before, and she wasn’t about to screw it up this time. She put it together, reminding herself to go slow and keep her hands steady. It would do her no good to move too fast and drop pieces as she went.

  The last piece clicked in and she ran to the next station, laying down on her belly and putting the rifle on the short tripod before lining up the sights. She squeezed the trigger and knew in that instant that she had pulled it too soon.

  She forgot to check the wind before firing. Her shot went wide and missed the center of the target, lodging itself in the outer edge of the wooden board.

  And just like that she’d failed again.

  A whistle blew and she laid her rifle down and stood to address her instructor. Gary, an older, portly man with thinning gray hair and horrible oral hygiene, waddled up to Cambria. His lips pulled into a snarl and he looked her over. She squirmed under his gaze. Not because she was ashamed of her run today, but because Gary was obviously undressing her with his eyes. Again.

  At nineteen, she’d lived with the men from the brotherhood for the last six years of their lives. Most treated her like an annoying kid sister, but only Gary, who was old enough to be her grandfather, looked at her like a man who was starved.

  It made her ill. After her uncle Laskin had rescued her from the woods, Gary was one of the first people she’d met. At thirteen and so scared, she’d latched onto anyone that showed her any love. She’d been so starved for any kind of affection from her parents that every hug, every smile had felt like a million bucks.

  As soon as Cambria turned eighteen, Gary’s attitude towards her changed. It had gotten worse and worse over the last year and a half, but Cambria wasn’t sure how to broach the subject with Laskin. Gary was his right-hand man, and the two were super close. Cambria was special to Laskin, but she wasn’t so sure that would extend beyond his friendship with Gary. This place was her home, and as much as she hated Gary, she wasn’t going to jeopardize that by complaining about his attentions.

  Gary pointed to the rifle, asking her to get into firing position again. Cambria wanted to protest, but her instructions had been clear; if she wanted to fight with the resistance against the shifters, she had to pass the course. Failing the rifle challenge wasn’t going to cut it.

  She laid flat on her belly, wrinkling her nose against Gary’s stench when he crawled onto his massive belly beside her and flopped around until they were hip to hip.

  She looked through the sights just as Gary put his arm around her, guiding her hand and looking over her shoulder into the scope. He was practically on top of her, and Cambria wanted so badly to let herself gag at the smell of him, but she fought it. Opening her mouth, she breathed softly, trying not to stir the air around him.

  His hand covered hers, curling over her trigger finger and guiding her ever so slowly. He adjusted the rifle and pulled the trigger. A large hole appeared exactly where the heart was on the target, and Gary rolled away to examine his handiwork.

  “Your turn.”

  Cambria focused on the scope, trying to ignore the way Gary’s stench hung in the air around her, even though he was now five feet away. She took her time, breathing slowly and focusing on the steps she’d been taught, over and over again.

  Smoothly, she pulled the trigger. To the right of the heart, but still in the lethal range, a giant hole appeared. Gary jumped up in the air, whooping with delight.

  “Great job!” He hollered and Cambria couldn’t help but grin. She had earned her place making rounds with the other foot-soldiers.

  She jumped up after securing the weapon, and smiled.

  “Finally.” She said, her voice heavy with relief. It wasn’t just about foot-patrol, though that was her main motivation for training. She was tired of being left alone with Gary to guard the house. At least in plain sight, his behavior was somewhat tolerable. In the house, out of the sight of anyone who might be patrolling the perimeter, he was even more pushy and inappropriate.

  “Finally?” He asked, and Cambria’s heart sank.

  “I finished. I passed.”

  “No. You failed. You have to hit the target on the first try. The enemy isn’t going to stand there and wait for you to get your shit together. You have to do it right on the first try.”

  “I can do it. Let me run the course again and-”

  “You know the rules. You have to train for another week before you can test again. We can’t have a bunch of newbies screwing everything up for us. We have the bigger pict
ure to look at.”

  His smirk was too much, and Cambria was angry. He was happy that she’d failed, and he didn’t bother hiding it. The more they were in the house together, the more often he would “accidentally” rub her as they passed in the hallways. Or he would slap her ass “affectionately” and claim she was just one of the guys like she always wanted to be. She might be young, but she wasn’t an idiot.

  Shoulders slumped, she turned and stormed away. Gary called after her, reminding her that she was to clean the gun for the next runner. But there wouldn’t be a next runner. Of all the younger recruits, she was the only one who hadn’t passed. Even Tom, who had been recruited just one short year ago, had passed her up in rank and skill.

  Defeated, she practically stomped back to the house, wanting nothing more than to go to her room and hide from the world. She was an absolute failure, and Uncle Laskin wouldn’t be happy when he returned later in the week to find she’d let him down again.

  He had such high hopes for her.

  She removed her boots by the door and banged the mud off of them before walking into the house and going straight for her room. It wasn’t so much a house as a glorified cabin in the woods, but it had been her home for the past six years.

  Since she was the only girl, she was the only one with her own bathroom and shower in her bedroom. Everyone else had to use the shower cabin, which was behind the main cabin and afforded little privacy. Cambria had taken a lot of crap from the younger recruits, but Laskin had shut them up right away. They could be jealous and act like fools all they wanted, but Cambria had been there longer than most, and she was Laskin’s sweet little angel.

  Cambria shoved her door open and slammed it behind her. She wasn’t a delicate little angel, and she’d wanted to prove to Laskin that she was more than just a girl. But she’d failed, as she always had. She was starting to wonder if she would ever be good enough. Maybe this time would be the time when Laskin decided that she wasn’t his sweet niece anymore and he would send her packing.

  There was no way she could live in the city among the shifters like some sort of ignorant barbarian. They were too dangerous, and the humans who thought otherwise were just deluding themselves. No, Cambria would work until she succeeded, proving that she deserved to be here just as much as any man in the compound. She would earn her spot fair and square, or die trying.

  Cambria locked the door behind her and stripped off her clothes. She’d finished her chores for the day and she had some free time before dinner. She was going to clean up and take a nap while she could. Once she felt clean and refreshed, things wouldn’t seem as bad as they did now. It was all a matter of perspective.

  The spray from the shower was pitiful at best, but she didn’t really have room to complain. She’d lived on the compound since Laskin had rescued her at thirteen without paying for anything, including food and clothing. She’d take the mist-like spray coming out of the tiny showerhead over living with her parents and being beaten any day.

  She stepped into the water, sucking in her breath when the ice cold water hit her. Grabbing a bar of homemade soap, she started lathering her olive skin, letting the fragrant peppermint foam slide leisurely down her skin while she worked. Her skin tingled wherever the soap touched, one of her favorite sensations.

  When she felt squeaky-clean, she reached for the bottle of shampoo and poured some in her hand before working it into her chocolate curls. Her shampoo and conditioner were the only things she owned that weren’t made on the compound. The one and only time she’d washed her bouncy curls in the homemade shampoo she’d been given it had been a disaster. Uncle Laskin had taken one look at the rat’s nest atop her head and wiped the tears from her eyes before leaving to buy her proper shampoo and conditioner for her hair type.

  It was the one luxury she was afforded, and Laskin always seemed to know when to replenish her supply without asking. That one small gesture had meant so much, and was more kindness than her parents had ever showed her.

  Cambria couldn’t place the scent, but the shampoo was wonderfully fragrant as the high-end ones tended to be.

  She rinsed her hair and worked in the conditioner, and the goosebumps on her arms and legs faded. She was accustomed to the cold temperature now, and the spray felt almost warm by contrast, even though nothing had actually changed.

  Cambria waited a minute before rinsing her hair and stepping out of the shower. She dried herself with a threadbare towel after carefully squeezing most of the water from her hair. Brushing her teeth, she regarded herself in the small mirror over the sink. Her startling hazel eyes stared back at her as she lost herself in thought.

  Memories of her childhood flashed before her, the night she ran away, the tiger in the woods. When she woke up to find that Laskin had saved her, she would have done anything to repay him. Instead, he’d welcomed her with open arms, even turning away her offer of the money she’d stolen from her parents when she tried to pay him for her keep after living on the compound for over a year.

  Laskin was the best thing that had ever happened to her in her short life, and she would never be able to repay him.

  A soft knock at the door pulled her from her musings. She padded, barefoot, to the door and leaned against the doorframe to speak through the gap around the door.

  “Yes?”

  “Cammy, it’s Tom. Are you decent?”

  Her body flushed and she started to stammer before she even spoke. She stopped and collected herself and tried again.

  “I can be in a moment, do you need me?”

  “I do.”

  He didn’t elaborate, and Cambria was left wondering what he could possibly want from her. She hurried to her closet, pulling her nicest camo pants and black shirt from their hangers and slipping them on quickly. She tossed the ragged towel into the bathroom and ran her fingers through her curls, trying to tame the wild mass of hair as best as she could.

  She didn’t bother with panties or a bra, and when she opened the door, she immediately regretted it.

  Tom’s eyes raked over her slender body, taking in the way the fabric clung to her curves and arching his eyebrow slightly when his gaze fell on her chest. With great effort, he pulled his gaze to her eyes so he could speak to her directly.

  “Your help is needed in the kitchen today.”

  “I was on rotation last week.”

  “I know, but Gary took a few of the young recruits out for extra training and we don’t have enough people in the kitchen to feed everyone.”

  Cambria sighed. She didn’t want to believe that Gary had done it on purpose, but Cambria knew better. He was upset that she’d rejected him, again. She’d been rejecting him since the day she’d turned eighteen, yet he persisted. Taking the other recruits and treating them to extra training was his way of punishing her for hurting his feelings.

  Tom smiled at her, and Cambria melted. He was different than most of the men. Handsome with light blond hair and perfectly straight teeth, it was no secret that Tom had grown up with rich parents. Where the majority of the other men had dropped out of school by eighth grade and had grown up in poverty, Tom was college-educated and well-mannered.

  He reached out, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and letting his hand linger against her cheek. She closed her eyes, trying to control the heat that flooded through her entire body at the simplest touch. Tom was sexy, single, and way out of her league. Cambria felt plain in comparison. With her brown hair, tan skin and hazel eyes, she didn’t think she was much to look at, and she doubted that Tom thought more of her than any other man in the compound. He was simply moving her hair out of her face and she was overreacting.

  At least, that’s what she tried to convince herself.

  “I like cooking with you. I know it’s frustrating, but maybe we can make the best of it.”

  He squeezed her shoulder and beamed at her. She couldn’t say no to him, and she wondered briefly if he knew that. She melted under the heat of his charm, her head nodding yes b
efore she was even aware.

  “Good. I’m going to start cooking in a few minutes after I catch a quick shower. Maybe you can start peeling potatoes until I get there?”

  Coming from anyone else, Cambria would have been annoyed. She smiled at him and nodded again, not trusting herself to speak around him. She had a handle on her speech impediment, but when she got nervous, it came back full-force. More than once, someone had suggested it sounded like an accent, but she was born and raised in Florida. There was no accent to be had.

  As her mother was fond of reminding her, she was simply daft. She hadn’t even been smart enough for school, and they had homeschooled her from an early age. As far back as she could remember, about seven years of age, she had either been in her home or in the woods.

  “Penny for your thoughts?” Cambria closed her eyes, trying to hide the flush that creeped up her neck

  She’d been daydreaming again, and Tom had still been standing there.

  “I’m just tired. I’ll get right on those potatoes and I’ll see you soon.”

  She moved passed him, trying to slide between him and the wall without touching him, but she failed. Her breasts slid along his torso and she found herself wishing that she could melt into the wall and disappear forever.

  Practically fleeing down the hall, she headed for the mess cabin and sweet solitude. She would peel one hundred pounds of potatoes if it meant putting distance between herself and Tom before she made a complete and utter fool of herself.

  Too late for that, she thought.

  She’d already made a fool of herself and then some.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Cambria was clearing her dishes when Laskin walked into the hall. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stood, greeting him with a reverence that stopped just short of actually saluting the man.

  Laskin nodded and smiled, and the young men returned to their seats. Cambria set her dishes down and ran to greet her uncle, smiling shyly when he hugged her warmly before pulling away from her.