Run. There was nowhere to go. Certainly not anywhere behind me. The floorboards creaked again then again, faster.
Without thinking, I drew back my leg and kicked the door with more determination than strength. My boot must've struck it just right because the chain snapped and the door swung open. I rushed inside then skirted left, with what felt like fingers skimming through the ends of my hair from behind. A him. A stranger him. His boots hit the wet tile at top speed, and he slid and splashed toward the middle of the room.
With a choked cry, Grady surged up out of the bath. Two bodies toppled to the floor with heavy grunts. Fists smashed into flesh over and over, but whose?
The stranger who’d been behind me moved to block the door, his steps loud through the water on the floor but slow and calculating.
I needed a weapon, something to get us both out of here alive, but without my bow and arrow, I had nothing. Nothing but my hearing. Keeping the wall at my back, I circled the room, knocking onto a low wooden table topped with fluffy towels. I took one and twisted it as tightly as I could between my hands.
"Who do you work for?" I asked.
"I think you know," a different voice than the one I’d heard downstairs answered.
The punches slowed, and then someone staggered to their feet.
"Faust," Grady said, his voice wet and hoarse. No movement from the man on the floor next to him. "He sent you after us in winter?"
"You burned down his town."
"Will he send more after I kill you?" Grady bit out.
"Confident words for a half-drowned naked man with a severe limp. You and your pet blind girl are hardly a match for us."
Burning rage seethed a hole right through my stomach. Pet blind girl?
"Yeah?" Grady rasped. He kicked the man beside him. "Tell that to this guy."
"That worthless sack of shit?" The man tsk-tsked. "Faust wants the three of you dead or alive for what you did to Old Man's Den. Either way, I intend to deliver."
He took a single step toward me, and then in a splash of movement, Grady was on him. With a lethal growl, he shoved him up against the wall, the air around him tight with livid tension.
"Deliver this message instead." Grady's voice bit viciously, raw with the water he'd been forced to swallow and the intensity with which he hated this man. "We will destroy Faust and everyone associated with him. The Crimson Forest is my pack's, and we will take it back. Tell him to be afraid, because when it's my pack's again, we will see him suffer." Violent emotion cracked his voice and vibrated off of him like a war drum.
I trembled because I felt it, too, this vicious beat inside me that constantly reminded me of all I'd lost. It wasn't much, but it was all I'd had. Baba, Jade, Lee, Hellbreath, my home, a chance at surviving. All gone. I knew Grady's desperation well.
"You'll tell him this?" he demanded.
Silence from the man, but when he shifted his gaze to me and crawled it all down my body, the vileness of his thoughts spoke volumes. For those seconds, I was glad I couldn’t see. Feeling it, hearing it, was terrible enough.
"Only if your pet blind girl rides my cock," the man finally said.
There was a moment of dead calm, the quiet before the storm while I digested those words. Then, hell shattered the small space in the flash of a second. A window along the wall exploded, and a blast of wintery air swirled through the room.
"Wh-What?" I whispered, unable to say more.
"If he can get up, he'll deliver the damn message." Grady roughly took my hand and charged us out of there.
"You threw him out the window?"
He said nothing, dragging me behind him as he limped heavily along down the hallway. It was worse now after we’d narrowly escaped Old Man’s Den, the drags and thumps of his stride much more pronounced.
Once he shoved open the door to our room, he turned as I followed him inside, anger rolling off of him. He pressed closer, the water clinging to his naked skin soaking through my threadbare clothes. In one fluid motion, he backed me into the door as he shut it. "Have you ever done what you're told in your entire life?"
Behind him from the bed, Sasha's head had swiveled toward him, and her vision clicked into my eyes. He towered over me, completely nude, his powerful muscles tensed. He was terrifyingly beautiful, even more so since he stood so close. My breaths grew ragged as my heart charged its way out of my chest. Even though he'd attacked two men, possibly killed them, I wasn't afraid of him. But I was afraid of what he was doing to me. Around him, I felt as untamed as a wolf.
“What happened?” Archer demanded from the bed. “I heard breaking glass.”
Grady slapped his hand against the door next to my head, his seething breaths rushing past my cheek. "When I tell you to run, you run. Don't come breaking down the door and inviting more of Faust's men in."
"He was drowning you," I hissed.
"What?" Archer said. "Someone was drowning you?"
"I solved that problem, didn't I? Me." Grady gritted out. "I don't need you."
He pushed off the door, leaving me bared and vulnerable to Sasha's eyes while his words penetrated deep. I don't need you. Did anyone? Through Sasha, the falling expression on my face answered that plainly enough. Even Archer, who glowered after Grady with a murderous look, would be fine without me. He could have anyone, someone a lot more useful than a pet blind girl.
So useless and broken…
I’d wanted to stop believing what Ama had told me again and again, but that was proving really fucking difficult with even more words sharp as corners flung my way. Heat swallowed up my neck and scorched the backs of my eyes.
"What the fuck is wrong with you, Grady?" Archer shouted. "You don't have to be such a fucking bastard all the time. Now tell me what happened in the bathroom."
"I was cornered and attacked by one of Faust's men." Grady slammed around the room while searching for his clothes. Sasha bounded off the bed and followed him. "Aika here brought in another."
"I didn't bring in anyone,” I said, my throat thick with emotion. “He was watching me go down the hall, probably a lookout for the other man. I didn't want to go back and face him again, and I didn't know what was happening to you. I was just coming to ask you a question."
"What?" he demanded.
"If you'd seen anyone enter the inn. There were two strangers downstairs."
"No, I didn’t see them coming until it was too late."
"No, the two up here and the two down there aren't the same,” I insisted. “One of them had a loose buckle on his shoe, and the other had an eerily soothing voice as he talked about slaves."
Grady grunted. "This inn's getting way too crowded." He snatched the towel from my hand, unraveling it, and ran it over his head. "And small."
I glared at him through Sasha's and my eyes. "So you're saying we leave?"
"That's what I'm saying."
Wind battered the side of the inn and rattled the frosted window. When I'd lived in Margin's Row, I hated having to go to the outhouse in winter and would hold it as long as possible. Even with a rope to guide me from our cabin, I became disoriented as blowing snow knocked me this way and that. Without a rope, I would've surely died. Without the wolf shifters, I didn't stand a chance. If we became separated, if they decided they both didn't need me…
"Wherever we go, it will have to be close,” Archer said. “I'm healed, but not completely."
I crossed toward the little nightstand and picked up the map we’d stolen from Faust’s tavern. "We go where Lager's map leads us. The circled places, even the one in Slipjoint Forest since who’s to say there aren’t ruby caves there too?"
"We don’t know what's there," Grady snapped.
"He's right,” Archer said. “If we go there, we could be walking into anything, and we'll likely be tailed by Faust's men if we do. I don't know about you, but I don't like being surrounded."
“Where, then?” I asked.
"The nearest town we haven't burned down is about sixty miles awa
y.” He sighed. “And the shortest way there is straight through the Crimson Forest."
"We could stay in Margin, but not here." Grady took his place by the window and rubbed the glass while Sasha yipped about his heels.
"This is the only inn in Margin." I tapped the nearest circled spot on the map. "This is close. The trees in the Slipjoint Forest will help give us cover from winter and anyone who follows us."
"There's nothing there, Aika," Grady rumbled. “That’s just a stupid map.”
"There could be,” I fired back. “It was at Faust’s tavern, so it's probably important."
"Not the ruby caves…" Archer said. “Faust wouldn’t be that stupid to circle them on a map, would he?”
I sawed my teeth across my bottom lip, considering. Only female wolf shifters knew where the ruby caves were, the only place where breeding among shifters was successful. The caves were the reason Faust's pack had taken over the Crimson Forest in the first place by force with the help of my mother's poison.
"No,” I decided. “Faust's woman, the redhead, hadn't yet found the caves."
Grady chuckled, a dark, bruised sound. "And you believed her?"
"I did. Unless the map was brand new, why keep it for the two years they've been in control of the forest and not go see why those places were circled?"
The headboard creaked as Archer shifted. "Unless the map was brand new and winter was coming the very next day."
"I could see the caves through Sasha's eyes to help guide us there," I said pointedly to Grady's back. "You might need me after all."
He stayed quiet for a long time because he had to know I was right. And I hoped me being right was killing him, slowly.
"We could hole up there if we make it, but come spring, I'm through hiding. I want my home back.” Grady turned to face us and picked up Sasha. “I want what's ours."
"And if it's not the ruby caves circled on the map?” Archer asked. “If it's nothing but the Crimson Forest in winter with Faust's pack hunting us?"
Neither Grady nor I had an answer, it seemed. Here in the inn, we'd be hunted until we were dead. Out there, facing a wintery unknown… If we didn’t find shelter fast, we'd just be dead.
Chapter 2
"We're heading south," I told the innkeeper and his wife. “We're heading out at daybreak tomorrow."
"In winter?" she screeched. "But Archer—"
"Is fine." But was he fine enough for hard, grueling travel? Was Grady? If they weren’t, I doubted they'd admit it.
"You'll settle your bill before then," the innkeeper said. "Including the cost of the window and the door's lock in the bath. Your man's story about slipping and falling, twice, doesn't hold much water."
"We'll pay for it all," I promised.
We wouldn't. Between the three of us, we had nothing but ourselves.
The innkeeper’s wife clicked her tongue. "If you find yourselves short on money, I would gladly accept that coat of yours. The red one with the white fur collar? I would trade you for mine. It's warm."
"We won't find ourselves short." I turned and headed in the direction of the stairs while I gritted my teeth at the gall of her. I'd seen her coat. It was hardly thicker than a flimsy curtain, but since she'd helped heal Archer, I forced out, "Thanks for your hospitality."
"I'll come say a proper goodbye to Archer later," she called.
Sure. “Proper.” I gripped the stair banister tightly. No, she wouldn't, because we weren't leaving at daybreak. We were leaving right now, and we weren't heading south. We'd go east toward the first circle and see how far we made it. If more of Faust's men showed up at the inn asking questions, my lie might throw them off for a little while. The wind always blew northeast, so even with their wolf senses, they'd have a more difficult time picking up our trail, especially if we covered ourselves with leftover star anise. Since it seemed to be mostly males hunting us, if they couldn't even find the ruby caves, we could hide out there. If we made it. There was too much riding on that word—if.
Like Sasha. If anything happened to the three of us… My hand trembled as I opened the door to our room.
"We're ready when you are, Aika,” Archer said from the bed. “Grady tells me you did a fantastic job keeping the innkeeper and his wife distracted so he could raid the kitchen. Isn't that right, Grady?"
He grunted from the window. "Also got me a walking stick from outside. It's mine. If you want one, go find your own."
Ignoring him, I strode toward the bed where my coat lay and closed my eyes so I couldn’t see through Sasha. She was spinning in circles at the foot of the bed and giving her tail a good chase. I wanted to watch her and laugh, but not from up so close.
Archer snorted. "So thoughtful, this one. Did you only take enough food for yourself, too?"
"And Sasha," Grady muttered.
"He jokes. That's his version of joking. It needs work." Archer leaned over as I sat on the bed and pressed his lips to mine, making my heart jump toward him. "Are you ready?"
No, I thought as I shrugged into my coat. "Are you?"
He hadn't yet gotten up, though I had heard him dress earlier. But even through my thick coat, I felt the tremble in his hands as he buttoned it for me. It wasn't from fear, I suspected, but an onslaught of memories. How close we'd been to getting Ronin back. And how we'd failed. He blamed himself for losing her twice—once in Faust's torturous game of Catch, Kill, Release and the second time in Old Man's Den. We'd just missed the little wolf pup, the only one left of their pack other than Sasha. She'd been whisked away by one of Faust's men in the hopes that she'd lead them to the ruby caves in time for spring’s mating season.
I folded my hands over his to give him comfort, to give him hope. "We'll find her, Archer." Maybe Thomas, too, if he wanted to be found, but I didn’t say that.
"You're right." He slipped his hands over mine and gripped them tightly, almost painfully so. "We'll find your family, too, but not if we stay holed up here for the entire winter. We have to go."
"Can you?" I asked, my voice a whisper. "Can you even walk yet?"
Sighing, he leaned in and nuzzled my cheek. "Yes. I have the will anyway. There for a while, I just wasn't sure if it was worth getting out of bed. The guilt… It feels like it's eating me alive and ripping right through my soul."
His admission, given so freely, stole my breath. Even Grady turned to stare, his weighted gaze a hard pressure against my skin.
"And yet you smile and laugh your way through it." I smoothed my hands through Archer’s silky black hair, my chest cinching at how much inner strength he had after everything he'd been through. "Surely not for Grady's benefit."
Archer chuckled, the sound reverberating into my stomach and sinking lower. "No, not for his. For mine. For yours. For Sasha's. Mostly for Sasha if I'm being honest. She deserves to have her sister back."
What these two wolf shifters wouldn't do for Sasha. I would do anything for her too. My arms felt empty when I wasn't holding her, and I could kiss the top of her velvety soft head right between the ears for the rest of my life and not complain.
I pressed my lips to his head with no complaints about kissing there either. "Then let's go get her."
He nodded, and I could feel his smile light the room.
I stood and stepped away slightly to give him space, and he pushed to his feet, a tall, steady pillar of strength.
He scooped Sasha into his arms. “I hope you’re ready for winter, Sasha girl.”
"Let's go," Grady muttered, limping across the room. "The sleigh's already by the back door."
We followed, me with my bow and quiver, and the four of us smelling of star anise. It was silly to think we could defeat winter easier than Faust's men, a fact that ripped the breath from my lungs as soon as Grady opened the back door. Wind and snow battered my face. Cold seeped into my thick coat within seconds and drilled into my bones. I threw my hood up, retrieved the wool gloves from pockets, and squeezed my eyes shut as Archer led me up onto the sleigh. Normally I t
ied my scarf around my eyes to prevent me from seeing through three wolves at once, but now I held it to my mouth, hoping it would help warm my heaving lungs.
Grady secured Sasha in her little box at the back of the sleigh, his movements jerking the sleigh and threatening to spill me off. Or maybe that was the wind. Archer tied the leather harness around my waist and tied it to the wooden rail while shouting something, but I couldn’t hear what. Then he must've shifted, because seconds later, we hurled forward.
The shock of the blustery cold air narrowed my windpipe to a mere sliver of what it had been. I couldn't breathe. Even with my scarf over my mouth, every one of my inhales were icicles, sharp and painful. Much too shallow as well because of the lingering pain in my ribs. My eyes popped open wide as panic burrowed deeper than the cold. A whited-out nothingness carried me forward as I bounced between my wolves' vision. The sound of their panting loosened my chest some. Vague outlines of the town of Margin sprang up out of the snowy void before whisking past. A steep hill angled down to Slipjoint Forest, and I held on to the crossbar with both gloved hands as we gained speed. The chill bit at my face even harder, narrowed my airway even more.
A loud crack whipped through the air. My feet wrenched out from underneath me, and suddenly I was airborne. The snowy ground charged up to meet my back. Hard. The breath I couldn't spare whooshed out, and I lay there, stunned.
Behind me, all around me, Sasha yipped then squealed, the sounds growing louder, then fainter. My heart stalled. Panic twisted my insides. What had happened?
"Sasha!" Archer shouted.
"The stream!" Grady yelled at the same time.
I formed a mental picture—and immediately wished I hadn't. We were on a hill. Sasha had somehow popped out of her box at the rear of the sleigh and had rolled past me…toward a stream. Likely frozen over. If she hit it just right and fell through.
Footsteps thundered away from me down the hill. I opened my mouth to force in air, but nothing was happening. My lungs were too frozen to function. I wanted to scream for help, but the wind would scatter it into a million pieces before freezing it too. I curled my fingers into the snow, raw, shrill terror surging through my body, and begged my lungs back to life. Tears burned my eyes. At least Sasha was too far away to see through. I couldn't bear witnessing her death if she drowned.
Winter's Bite (The Crimson Winter Reverse Harem Series Book 2) Page 2