Winter's Bite (The Crimson Winter Reverse Harem Series Book 2)

by Lindsey R. Loucks

  Choking noises clicked up the back of my throat. What if I died here too? What if this was the end for all of us, just barely out of Margin?

  "Aika!"

  Vision snapped into place. A splotch of red on the snow like so much blood, or a red fur coat. The figure’s back bowed up off the hill as they bucked and clawed and fought for breath. Me. That was me.

  Hands grabbed my shoulders and roughly turned me to my side. A hard hit to my back triggered sweet, sweet air into my lungs again. I sucked it all down between wheezing and coughing.

  “Breathe into your scarf,” Archer shouted, pulling my scarf over my mouth. “Slow and steady.”

  When I could speak again, I choked out, "Sasha?"

  A small wolf tongue licked my chin as Archer nestled her closer.

  "She's scraped up, but okay."

  I flipped to my back, relief coursing down my cheeks and then clinging there, completely frozen.

  Grady threw something down to the snow. "The sleigh was rigged to fall apart. Faust's men did this. It's nothing but goddamn sticks and could've killed—"

  He broke off, his stormy emotions giving the air an extra bite.

  A gentle hand smoothed the hair from my face. "Are you all right?"

  Before I could answer, a howl ran a warning chill down my back. It came from down the hill, across the stream, and within the depths of Slipjoint Forest. Others joined it, an eerie song splintering through the wind. A whole pack of wolves.

  "Fuck." Archer started up the hill toward Margin with Sasha bouncing in his arms. “Come on!”

  "Get up." Grady grabbed the front of my coat roughly and hauled me to my feet. "Run. As fast as you can.”

  I tried, but with the wintery air once again blistering my lungs as I fought my way uphill, my effort wouldn't last long. Behind me, feet thundered through snow. Too many of them. The wolves were chasing us. Were gaining on us. I refused to slow down even though I couldn't breathe. They'd attacked me before. They'd do it again, especially now that we'd declared war against Faust.

  Grady held tightly to my elbow as he practically dragged me behind him. With his long, powerful legs, he limped faster than I could run. The wolves sprinted faster than both of us, though.

  We were headed back into Margin, but where would we go? They'd find us, just as they had before.

  Archer shouted something from up ahead, and Grady banked us to the right, away from him and Sasha. We were separating, likely to separate the chasing wolves, but I hated that idea. Too many things could happen to them, and I might never see them again.

  The ground levelled out beneath my feet. The buildings in Margin blocked some of the wind, but running only became harder. A stitch of pain formed in my side as we burst onto the main street. The wind and snow hurled into us from all sides, now unobstructed. Surely we weren’t heading back to the inn. That would be suicide.

  Grady tore us across the street between more buildings. Feet trampled the snow behind us, moving even faster now. We'd never outrun them.

  Something snagged at the hem of my coat with a snarl. My balance teetered, and my feet slid backwards. I started to go down, but Grady jerked me back up. A loud crack ripped through the air, followed by a pained wolf whine that stopped short when it struck a wall and fell to the snow.

  Grady swung me around what felt like a heavy wooden door and shoved me inside. The smell of shit assaulted my nose, but I breathed it in deep lungfuls, thankful to be out of the blowing snow. Something pounced hard against the door just as Grady slammed it shut and secured it with what sounded like a wooden beam sliding into place. He turned me toward the back of the barn, crossed us swiftly toward the side, and then gripped both my hands and settled them on two vertical pieces of wood.

  "Climb," he ordered.

  I did, placing one foot above the other until there were no more steps. A loft, I imagined, with a lot of hay bales prickling my palms as I climbed up and over them. The smell and feel of the hay pinched my heart with memories of Hellbreath, but I locked that away for now.

  More and more wolves hurled themselves at the door of the barn, the booms an echo of my thrashing heart. Facing that direction, I shrugged off my bow and nocked an arrow.

  "Grady," I said between pants, loud so he'd hear me over the wolves' assault on the door. "Where's Archer and Sasha?"

  "Safe," he said from below.

  "How do you know that? Did you see where they went?"

  A beat of hesitation and then, "No."

  "But—"

  "You don't know Archer like I do. He will do anything to protect Sasha. Anything."

  "I do know that, but he was injured," I hissed.

  "Injured or not, he's the strongest shifter I know."

  I knew that too. He'd have to be to withstand all he had and to find the will to keep from crumbling into tiny pieces. He even found it in him to laugh and joke and make fun of Grady while maintaining the most beautiful spirit I'd ever known. It would crush me if anything happened to him or Sasha.

  "I'm worried is all. I just want them to be—"

  "I'm shifting now." Sure enough, four padded feet hit the ground below the ladder.

  Why, did he think that would save him from the chore of speaking to me? Or to stop me from talking? I'd talk his ear off just to spite him, the bastard.

  But as we stood off with the door, now quiet, and the howling winter beyond, the only things I wanted to say were questions. Why did he have to be so hurtful? Why take the time to slip his fingers inside of me and make me come apart in his hand while setting fire to my soul with his kiss if he didn't need me? What if he really didn't need me? All questions I wanted answers to, but I wasn't so sure I had the courage to hear the truth.

  So I boiled with frustration while Grady paced underneath me, his limp noticeably better in his wolf state. He must've been too far away to share his vision with me, too far away in more ways than one.

  We waited like this for what felt like hours, and eventually I set down my bow and arrow as exhaustion settled in. Night had probably fallen, peak time for wolves hunting their prey. I imagined them circling or holing up nearby with watchful eyes, biding their time. We couldn't stay in here forever. As I made a bed of hay and covered myself with more to keep warm, I realized we couldn't stay here at all. I was still freezing, even with my thick coat. My teeth chattered, and the rest of my bones seemed to rattle just as loudly. But I couldn't very well traipse outside and find someplace warmer.

  Wherever Archer and Sasha were, I hoped they were more comfortable. And I hoped all of us survived the night.

  Chapter 3

  I awoke to fire.

  It spread the length of my back and legs. As my consciousness sharpened, I realized it was made from hard muscle bundled underneath a coat and pressed up as closely as possible against me. And yet another fire sparked heat between my legs, inches away from where Grady's arm draped over me. His soft snores synced with the rise of his chest, a calming rhythm if not for my wild heartbeat.

  Part of me wanted to analyze the why—why my body reacted the way it did around him, why I wanted him so badly to need me. But the bigger, stronger part of me burned those thoughts from my mind. He molded to my back, some parts harder than others, but all of him teasing me to fully alert. I ground my thighs together, my breaths quickening. I wanted his lips crushed against mine. I wanted him to stroke me with his fingers. It didn't matter that he didn't need me. I needed him.

  Carefully, I rolled toward him, unable to think about anything other than the steady, demanding pulse in my center. It was triggering something inside of me, waking an inner beast I'd had no idea existed before I'd met my wolves, and made me do things I might not have otherwise done. His breaths sighed over my mouth, still steady and unaware. I brushed my lips to his, a single touch that swallowed me up with the thought of more. I kissed him again, just his bottom lip this time, so full and soft that I lingered on it. Would he hate this, what I was doing? Would he say something cruel and then shif
t into a wolf so I'd shut up?

  Right now, I didn't care. He felt too good, his arm slung around my back and his warmth curling up inside me and drawing me closer. With a barely contained moan, I tasted his lip with my tongue and then drew it into my mouth. My hips rolled forward into him as I slid my hand up his broad shoulder and then down to his neck and strong jaw.

  His breath caught in his throat, and a low rumble vibrated from him. Then, before I had time to gasp, he flipped me over onto my back and wrenched my arms above my head. One hand clasped my wrists together and the other slapped the wood next to my head.

  With the length of his body covering mine, I reacted with no conscious thought. Trapped in the fabric of my coat, I couldn't spread my legs for him, but they strained to anyway. He grew impossibly hard where he pressed against my lower stomach, and the heat of him there, the heat of him everywhere, slicked my inner thighs.

  "You do need me," I murmured, breathless.

  He crushed his hand over my mouth. “Quiet.”

  And then I heard it over the hum of my blood. Footsteps outside. Then something smashed into one of the windows and shattered glass across the floor below.

  My heartbeat jumped. I wanted to leap out from underneath Grady for my bow, but he wedged me tighter beneath him so I couldn't move. My gut simmered at the nerve of him. I was the one who could defend us from up here with my bow, not him.

  A hint of a footstep touched down to the floor, a sprinkle of more glass following it. We should've unlocked the door to make it look like we'd gone. Then again, these were wolves. They could sense us, track us, and we were obviously still here.

  Grady touched his forehead to mine, ducking low behind the hay bales, no doubt. His ragged, unsteady breaths steamed my face, his body losing none of his hardness.

  I jabbed him in the ribs so he'd get off of me, but he shook his head. Damn it, I could shoot the intruder within seconds.

  More feet stepped quietly into the barn, two of them. They were in their human forms, but that didn't matter, did it? They'd swarm the place within seconds. I would never have time to shoot them all, and Grady couldn't attack all of them while we were being cornered. We had to get out of here.

  "You have to listen to me," Grady said, barely a whisper, directly into my ear. "They have guns, so your bow is useless. There's a high window on the loft wall. If we hurry, that's the only way out."

  And then what? Jump from the roof? I opened my mouth to quietly protest into his palm, but he shook his head.

  "Do what I say when I say it, Aika. This will only work if you listen to me," he said through gritted teeth. "When I tell you to, knock over the ladder and then run toward the sound of my voice."

  I nodded while questions flooded my mind. How would they not see us? Except for their footsteps, they stayed silent below, likely thinking they'd cornered us. Which they had. The only place we could be hiding was up here.

  Grady rolled off of me and then crept toward the wall.

  My ears burned while the ten or so men drew closer. One of them must've reached the ladder because the first step creaked. They were coming.

  Grady worked open the window, and a jolt of frigid air slid between the seams of my coat. He made hardly a sound. Snow and wind swirled around the loft as he opened it farther, stirring up hay from the bales.

  "Must be a window up there," someone shouted from below. "Hurry."

  The footsteps thundered closer, more and more creaks sounding from that first step. And still, Grady hadn't told me to knock over the ladder. What was he waiting for? Unless… Had he slipped out and left me here?

  Blood stormed between my ears as I felt along the loft floor for my bow and quiver. My fingers bumped a thin wooden pole and scratched its metal end across the ground. A rake from the sound of it. Beyond it, I found what I needed.

  Still lying flat, I nocked an arrow, keeping it parallel to the ground. He really didn't need me, did he? Would sacrifice me to save himself.

  I'd kill him. But first, I had to get myself out as fast as I could.

  I hauled myself to a sitting position and pulled back the arrow, my hands steady. Inside, I cursed Grady’s name again and again and again.

  More glass shattered below, and then a second later, even more.

  "Now, Aika," Grady hissed from the window he’d opened.

  It was that moment I smelled smoke. He must’ve been a lot busier than opening a single window. I scrambled into action and shoved all cursed thoughts to the back of my mind. I dropped my bow and arrow and traded them for the rake. My ears followed the next creak on the ladder, and I headed toward the very top of it.

  "She's there!" a man below yelled.

  A gunshot splintered the air. My whole body flinched, my steps hesitating, but I knew what had to be done. I shoved out with the rake, the metal scraping against the ladder's wood, and pushed as hard as I could.

  Flames crackled down below from the direction of the locked barn door, the broken window, and two more places farther down the wall. Heat blasted my face, but my nerves iced over with my next thought—the animals. Were there animals in here? Horses? I hadn’t heard anything, still didn’t hear anything other than wolf shifters shouting.

  There was nothing I could do but go.

  With one last final shove, the ladder began to tip and dragged the rake from my hands. As I turned to run, bits of wood and hay exploded around my face. I dodged and ducked with my heart in my throat while trying not to breathe in smoke.

  "Here, Aika, over here."

  I threw myself toward the sound of his voice and where the frozen air scraped its way inside. He caught me by my coat's collar and lifted me off the ground and out the window. Up this high, the wind screamed and thrashed, and the snow bit hard into flesh.

  He took my hand and raced us up a steep slant. I wanted to shout where we were going, but I could barely hear my own crashing thoughts. When the roof peaked on a sharp corner not made for balancing in the best of weather, he stopped and turned me to face him.

  "You have to trust me," he yelled. "I'm going to jump, and then you are, too, as far as you can."

  "To what?" I screamed.

  He cleared my blowing hair from my face and held it back with his big hands. "Me. Hurry."

  He stepped away and turned me to the right, where I suspected a great white void existed and waited to swallow me whole. Then, taking his warmth with him, he was gone. Leaving me all alone on a snowy rooftop. Somewhere below, Faust's men not in the burning barn were likely swarming. If they didn't see us yet, they would.

  I had to jump. The thought terrified me since I couldn't gauge distances if I couldn't see them.

  Hurry, Grady had said.

  The barn was burning under my feet, the hay itself the perfect tinder. I had to do this. Survival hinged on this moment, and I'd crossed the unknown before, hadn't I? Though I'd been terrified then, too, I should be used to the feeling by now. Living in this world, loving—both ignited raw terror.

  I adjusted my stance, a mistake that kicked my heart into my throat. My feet slipped, and I nearly went tumbling down. I didn't dare touch a toe down in front of me to see how far away I was from the edge. So did flying.

  “What’s one thing you always wished you could do?” Jade had asked me once on a spring day. It had been the day before my sixteenth birthday, and I’d followed her up into a tree in the Slipjoint Forest and had tried to pretend that was a good idea.

  “Fly,” I answered.

  “So you could leave Margin’s Row?”

  “No.” I swallowed and clung to the bark of the flimsy limb tighter. “So I could matter.”

  “Then do it. Jump. Show me your wings, and I’ll catch you if you fall.”

  I hadn’t then, and I couldn’t now. After much coaxing, she’d given up and left me there. It had been Lee who’d heard me crying and had run to get Baba to help me down. He’d come but only for Lee’s benefit, not mine. He’d been so angry with me, but not as angry as I had been at mys
elf. Oh yes, I was angry at Jade, too, but mostly myself.

  A voice slipped through the breaks in the wind from straight ahead, so, so far away. Grady? I had to trust him. I had to trust him to catch me if I fell. I had to trust myself. I wanted to matter, but I couldn’t do that if I died in a burning barn.

  Releasing a breath through gritted teeth, I tensed my muscles, readying them, and focused my thoughts on only one thing:

  I was about to fly.

  I bent my knees and sprang off the barn's roof.

  Chapter 4

  Wind crushed me backward. Too soon, I began to fall. Panic clawed up my throat and came out as a breathless scream. I hadn't jumped far enough, hadn't accounted for the wind trying to rip me from the sky.

  Time slowed as I fell, and all I could think about was my wolves. I didn't want to die, not like this. We still had a war to win.

  The back of my coat tightened around my neck. A second later, I jerked to a stop.

  I stalled midair, caught by something above. Then I slammed into a solid wall, the side of my face first. Pain sliced across my cheek. Didn't matter. This was better than falling to my death. Relief trickled through my veins, but I put a stopper on it. I wasn't on solid ground yet.

  "Aika!" a familiar voice shouted. Grady. He'd caught me, but from his tense tone, it might not be for long. "Use the wall to climb."

  With my snow-slicked boots, I planted my feet against the wall and hoped for some traction. They slid off uselessly until I scrabbled my hands over the wood and found a handhold to lift me up slightly. Then I wedged my boot into a groove and pushed myself up farther.

  Grady grunted and groaned, hauling me up the side of the building. Eventually, I touched my fingertips to the flat surface of another roof. He pulled me up the rest of the way until finally, finally, I stood on something solid. My coiled-tight muscles wanted to give way and collapse, but Grady was already pulling me across the rooftop. Not toward another one, I prayed. No way I could do this again.