Winter's Edge (The Crimson Winter Reverse Harem Series Book 1)

by Lindsey R. Loucks

  I started to do just that when footsteps thudded behind the corner I'd turned five seconds ago, heavy and fast. My heart pitched into my throat. Too late.

  But they couldn't see me yet. Not until they took one more right turn.

  I sped my steps, silenced my panicked breaths, and willed the blood on my body to stay on my body for a little longer.

  "Where is she? Where the fuck is she?" the bald man shouted from somewhere, his voice farther away than the footfalls closing in.

  The violence in his voice chased up and over my shoulders as if to grab me and drag me back. It cut down my spine, shrill and sharp as the memory of my mother, and just as terrifying.

  I sidestepped into the window room and shut the door with as little sound as possible. The vague sense of fur in here briefly registered, but I didn't have time to rescue the wolf pup. I didn’t even know where it was.

  I scrambled for the window, remembering that I'd already unlocked it. Without the use of my left arm, it took for fucking ever to get it open. I shoved and pushed, every single movement drilling more pain into my shoulder even though I wasn't even using it.

  Finally, a cold blast of air hit my face, a small dash of hope. It brought tears to my eyes. Using one of the chairs at the table to stand on, I poked my head out, listening. Eerily quiet other than the rush of wind. Good enough. I pulled my walking stick through and hit the end into the hard-packed snow outside.

  So, landing should be fun. I winced at the thought.

  I wriggled through, first one shoulder and then my injured one. It scraped against the edge, pulling the tear in my flesh even wider. I opened my mouth to scream but swallowed it back. Tears streamed down my face as I forced myself to go farther.

  Don’t pass out. Please don’t pass out.

  A sob choked its way out of my mouth when I finally cleared the edge. I allowed myself a second more of crying because I fucking deserved it. Then I dragged myself the rest of the way through. Gravity helped a little, and then I dropped to the snow in a crumpled ball.

  I'd gotten out. Now came the hard part. If I walked toward the right, parallel to the road I'd come in on, I would eventually get to the forest again. After that? Well, I wouldn't know until I got there. So I hauled myself up with help from my walking stick and kept going. Tree branches tugged at my hair as I passed, so the Crimson Forest must’ve butted up against the back of the tavern. I stayed close to the walls of the buildings, though I often had to stray around what sounded like tin barrels and wooden crates after I nudged them with my walking stick. Technically, I wasn’t in the Crimson Forest if I stuck close to the buildings. At least I thought so.

  The sound of smoky women's laughter filtered from my right, so I guessed I was close to the brothel. To Jade. Everything inside me magnetized toward that sound, toward her, but I couldn't go to her now. The idea of leaving her there shredded through flesh and bone worse than any bullet ever could.

  While I crossed the road that had led into town, I would be all alone in the wide-open nothing before I disappeared into the Slipjoint Forest. I had to be quick. If anyone saw me from the edge of town and knew what I'd done, they might give chase. News traveled fast in small towns, so I'd heard.

  As soon as my walking stick hit open air instead of the side of a building and my feet hit the steep incline leading to the road, I knew I'd just about made it out of Old Man’s Den.

  With nothing to block the wind, it reached down my throat and stole my breath in its frozen fist. It hurt, everything hurt as I pushed on. I was coming at the forest at a different angle, but once I was across the road and hidden by the cover of trees—

  "There!" a voice shouted from the direction I'd just come.

  "No," I said, the word like a squeaky sob.

  I hurried across the road and then down the small hill on the other side, my boots slipping on the uneven terrain. Footfalls crashed far behind me. I needed to get as far from the town as possible where Archer would be waiting for me.

  Might be waiting for me.

  I stumbled but quickly righted myself. I was practically running now, swinging my walking stick in wide arcs so it would find the trees before my face did. But the naked branches still whipped at my cheeks, snagged at my hair.

  "I will split your cunt open and make you bleed, you hear me?" The bald man. Still far behind me but drawing closer.

  He was going to kill me. No question. And he wouldn't stop coming after me until I was very dead.

  Desperation clawed at my throat. Tears froze to my face, and I lifted my scarf higher to brush them away.

  "Archer," I whispered, and then a little louder, "Archer!"

  There wasn’t another way out of this. Not bargaining, since my stupid mouth had gotten me into this mess in the first place. I had a full quiver of arrows, but from the loud crashes of feet behind me, I wouldn't have enough. I had fake poison, which was completely useless, even if some of my pursuers changed into wolves.

  But I didn't have Archer. Not yet. I just had me. That had to be enough.

  My feet hit a sharp incline, and I thought it was the hill I'd come in on because of the angle I had been going. But I soon realized that this part of the hill had giant boulders carved into it, too big for me to even think about climbing.

  Shit.

  I wasted precious seconds and retreated a few steps to find a new path.

  The sound of my pursuers grew louder, with more legs, heavier pants. Wolves. Some of them had shifted. They were maybe three hundred yards behind me and closing in fast.

  I would never be able to outrun them. Just like in the Crimson Forest, I would be ripped apart in the Slipjoint Forest. The icy hands of defeat wrapped around my neck from behind and squeezed. Still, I kept going, shrugging those hands away.

  A soulful howl ripped through the night. I gasped. It sounded like it was everywhere.

  Snarling growls sounded from behind me, and then the wolves veered off in another direction.

  Archer. Had that been him?

  I sped my pace even more. I had to be almost to him by now even though I hadn't yet found a good place to climb the hill.

  My stick thumped a tree to my left just as I stepped forward with my right foot. When I shifted my weight, the ground gave out underneath me. My forward momentum couldn't stop in time, and I was falling. Falling into a void. I opened my mouth to scream, but I couldn't get anything out of my frozen lungs.

  Then my feet hit a sharp decline and skidded, tumbling me backward on my ass. I clawed at the snow, at the rocks, at the roots, anything to slow my progress, but I was falling too fast. The ground bumped hard all through my body, but especially my shoulder.

  Then, finally, I stopped. I lay there, stunned. My breaths had been knocked out so many times on the way down that it took a long moment to get my air going again.

  A murmured voice sounded to my left about a hundred feet away. And then again, even closer. "Fucking bitch…"

  The bald man. Oh god, it was him. Falling away from him had just brought me closer.

  An icy chill swallowed up my body, but I had to move. Had to hide so I could get the jump on him before he did on me.

  I wriggled my legs, my one working arm. Everything hurt, but nothing broken as far as I could tell. A miracle.

  "You make me bleed, I make you bleed. Drop for drop." Snow and roots snapped under his feet. With killing on his mind, he didn't seem to care how much noise he made.

  Quiet as I could, I pushed to my feet. I no longer had my walking stick, and I didn't have time to search for it. But I did still have my bow and arrows. So now, it was just me against him against the forest.

  My stomach rolled faster than I had down the hill. I would not panic. I wouldn’t pass out. I wouldn't. I wasn't dead yet.

  With my arms out, my numb ears perked, I stepped toward the incline I'd fallen down since I knew for sure that was there. Once I found it, I skirted to the left, away from the bald man. When my fingers brushed against an ice-covered boulder, I
rushed around it and pressed my back tightly against it.

  "You hearing me, little girl? Because I want you to know that I'm coming." His loud footsteps carried him closer, and closer still, just on the other side of the boulder.

  Everything inside me grew in volume, and I felt certain he could hear the rush of my blood storming through my veins, the sounds of my labored breathing. I crushed my lips together and tried to quiet myself, but even that little movement seemed to crack like thunder.

  If I ran, he'd see me. If I didn't, he'd see me. I plucked an arrow from my quiver. With my injured shoulder, I wouldn’t be shooting for a while, so close-quarters jabbing would have to do. Would it be enough against his fury?

  He drew closer, circling around the boulder.

  I readied the arrow in my fist, my muscles coiling for the attack. I'd stab and run. Aim for the eye. Blind him and level the playing field between us a little.

  A rustling sounded in the trees, a little deeper in the forest.

  "Is that you, little bird? Are you hiding?" He stepped in that direction, but I didn't dare let myself feel an ounce of relief. Not yet. If ever again.

  The rustling came once more, drawing him toward it like a light.

  I would only move when I couldn't hear that noise or him, and then I'd go as fast as I could in the opposite direction.

  As fast as my next heartbeat, vision slid behind my eyes. I gasped at the suddenness of it, at what it meant. Darkness crowded in around my huddled form, but there I was, as petrified as the boulder behind my back.

  Behind the sour smell of my own fear, I smelled a faint whiff of caramel and wood smoke.

  "Archer?" A wave of tears stole my whisper and turned his name into a croak.

  I couldn’t see him, just me out of his eyes. Feet padded closer and then wetness grazed my knuckles. His tongue, I realized. Then he stepped closer and licked my face.

  I threw my arms around his neck and buried my face in his fur. He was here. He seemed okay. He'd waited however long I'd been gone for me to come back to him. My chest swelled until I thought it might burst because I hadn't known if I would ever see him again.

  He leaned his head into mine before he pulled away and took the side of my hand into his mouth. His teeth clamped down slightly, and he pulled. Time to go, he was saying. I stood, leaving my hand in his mouth so he could lead me. He went quickly back the way I'd come around the large boulder, his paws much softer on the snow than my clunky boots. I closed my eyes so I could feel where we were going; seeing through Archer wasn’t telling me what I needed to know.

  Voices sounded far behind us. Not close enough to hear words, but plenty close enough.

  Archer pulled harder with a bit more teeth. My heartbeat spiking, I moved as fast as I could go. Finally, my foot knocked against wood, a familiar, hollow sound, and I stepped up onto the wooden sleigh. Relief flushed through me, but froze at my knees and locked them up tight.

  Threaded through the voices came several wolf howls.

  Archer released me then and sprang to the front of the sleigh. A sense of urgency tightened the air around us and squeezed. I gripped the crossbar, and then we were off, faster than we'd come here. The sleigh bounced so high that I looped my one working arm around the bar and ducked down to avoid decapitation by tree branch.

  If only that had been my only worry.

  Feet pounded the snow behind us, even faster than Archer could pull me. Wolves. Closing in on our heels.

  I leaned over the crossbar to put my arrow between my teeth and yank my scarf from around my head without letting go of the sleigh. With only one working arm, I wouldn't be able to hang on and shoot at the same time. But with my scarf, I could tie myself to the sleigh. Not the greatest solution, but it was all I had. Turning to face the back of the sleigh, I worked as fast as I could, looping the scarf around both the bar and the waist of my coat and tying a tight knot using both hands.

  My shoulder screamed with the effort, but I had to ignore it.

  Growls vibrated the air. Claws scraped the back of the sleigh. Heavy panting breaths sounded from all around us between thunderous footfalls. They were circling us, just as they had me in the Crimson Forest.

  I transferred the arrow from my mouth to my hand and jabbed toward the back of the sleigh, again and again. A warning not to get too close. They would, of course, but from a different angle. So I stabbed every which way and mixed up the pattern to try to deter them from lunging.

  Archer took a sharp turn, and one side of the sleigh tilted dangerously. My boots slid across the surface, and I knew for sure I'd fall off. But the sleigh righted itself before I did, crashing back to the snow with bone-jarring force.

  Before I righted my balance, teeth snapped toward my arrow hand. I jerked it away and then thrust the arrow again. It sank home, and a loud yip echoed through the night.

  But that seemed to piss the wolves off even more. More scrapes at the back of the sleigh, which I realized slowed us down with the extra weight of their paws, no matter how brief. I kicked my feet out and used the arrow. I couldn't do this for much longer though. The scarf at my waist was loosening, and if I paused to tie it, those couple seconds would cost me.

  Archer yipped, which sprang my eyes open. Through him, I saw another wolf bound off to his side with a bloody grin as though he'd just taken a bite out of Archer.

  Dread swallowed up my neck with prickling heat. How were we going to get out of these woods alive?

  Archer sped his pace even more as if he'd just had the same thought. The sleigh bounced even harder, so hard that my scarf slipped loose at the exact moment my feet jerked out from underneath me. I started to fall sideways.

  Terror seized everything inside of me. Images of a violent death by a pack of wolves flashed through my mind, exactly how it had played out the time before. Only worse.

  I flashed my arms out to catch my fall. My arm, my injured one, smashed against the crossbar. I sucked in a breath at the horrible pain. Shadows edged in around my consciousness, but a powerful jaw clamping down on my other arm triggered a new kind of pain that chased those shadows away. I screamed and yanked my arm away on instinct. Flesh ripped but I freed myself and hauled myself to my feet again, hanging on to the crossbar as tightly as I could. I'd lost my arrow. Good thing I had a dozen more.

  But when I went to reach for one, the pain in both my arms nearly sagged me to my knees.

  "Archer," I tried to say, but the bouncing sleigh hurtling into the wind swallowed it whole. Without a weapon, I wouldn't last for much longer on this sleigh. I had feet to kick, but they didn't carry the threat to kill like a sharp arrow had.

  He barked as if he sensed I was in trouble. Or maybe he looked around to me. I didn't know because I still had my eyes squeezed shut, too afraid to see through him what else was coming.

  Nothing good, it turned out.

  The sleigh felt like it was sailing right off a cliff. My stomach jumped into my throat and choked off my scream. I was freefalling, my body spiraling through the air. I grasped at nothingness, scooping up giant fistfuls of it. Then I landed on a drift of powdery snow. Not hard, which shocked the breath from my lungs because I expected it to be bone-crunching.

  A snarling growl emitted from several feet back but not directed at me. A whole symphony of growls met it and peppered my skin with goose bumps. Archer against the entire wolf pack, I guessed.

  And I was right in the middle of it.

  Chapter 12

  An icy chill dragged down my back. I scrambled to get my legs underneath me and get away fast.

  But behind me, another growl sounded, low and lethal as paws stalked forward. I was now surrounded by wolves and still unable to get myself freed from the snowdrift with my arms, which had all but given up.

  Raw panic scraped at my nerves. I snapped my eyes open to see through Archer to find an easy escape. My vision swayed between two wolves, the one behind me and the one with bristled fur along its spine as it faced off with the other pack. T
hat one was Archer. And behind me?

  Grady. I hauled myself out of the snowdrift and crawled toward him, a relieved whimper managing to escape me.

  Archer moved closer to the wolf pack, and the ferocious sounds he was making triggered a full-body shiver. He was the distraction while I crawled my way to safety.

  Once I got there, to safety in the form of Grady, he and Archer both stood between me and the wolf pack. I pressed my face into Grady's side and breathed in his almond smell behind his coat of fur.

  The sounds of the other wolves gradually retreated, though not without frustrated rumblings. I guessed we were back at the cabin, right on the edge of the Crimson Forest but still in the neutral Slipjoint Forest. I'd never been so glad for an imaginary line drawn in a forest in my life.

  I allowed myself a relieved exhale into Grady's fur. It was twice now these two had saved my life from wolves or wolf-related injuries. A fact I would never forget.

  "Aika." Strong hands settled on my back, Archer’s familiar touch melting through me. "Are you all right?"

  I opened my eyes again, finding myself staring out of Grady's. When I didn't answer, he looked back toward me and curled his gray bushy tail around my shoulders.

  "I don't know," I admitted. "I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life."

  Archer crouched down next to me and brushed my windblown hair off my face, his breath steaming my numb skin. "Did I hurt you driving the sleigh that fast? I honestly didn't know if we were going to make it into Slipjoint before they got us. Hence the wild ride and crashing."

  "Well…everything hurts at the moment,” I said. “I got shot. I got bit."

  The pillow of fur I'd been resting against suddenly shifted, but before I could fall over, Archer scooped me off my feet and carried me in the direction of the cabin.

  "Shot by who?" Archer demanded. Tension roiled across his chest so much I could feel it through my coat pressed up against him. His heat, too, and his rock-hard planes, all of him pressed up against me.

  I hadn’t realized just how frozen to the bone I was before he touched me.