“What are you going to do with me?” Adrienne said when the huge menacing werewolf released her from his grip and she tumbled on to the hard earth. Her fall soften by the new formed snow. She landed on her back with a thud. Her breathing sluggish. “Don’t you know who I am?” She said as the wolf transformed into a human. Adrienne closed her eyes.
Reaching into the pack across his shoulders, he pulled a pair of jeans and hurriedly step into them. “I don’t care who you are. I know that Wilder will come for you, because Lycell is too preoccupied with those human females to even care what happens to you,” he said smelling Adrienne’s hair. “You have Lycell’s scent all over you,” he added turning his head away from her with a frown, his mouth making a half moon curve downward. Then he pushed her away.
Adrienne opened her eyes and frowned from the pain surging through her back. She wrapped her arms around her waist rocking forward and backward.
She knew Wilder was away and that only Lycell or Drayton would come after her. She wanted it to be Lycell because he was the only one that could match the ferocity of this dangerous frightful werewolf. Drayton with his trusting nature and much younger than this seasoned wolf couldn’t match his treachery and trickery. Lycell wanted me gone, but why would he even care. He was just pretending to like me. He meant nothing he said, she said.
Looking up at the werewolf, Adrienne said, “Why do you think Wilder will come after me?”
“You humans talk too much.” She had heard that once before.
“I need to know,” she said holding her stomach rocking back and forward, all along fighting off the pain from the kicking of her pup or pups. She then knew it was more than one she was carrying.
“You have his pack inside of you. Without them, soon he will be nothing. I will be the Alpha over all his territory. That’s why you are the bait.”
“What do you mean bait?” She said to him. Her eyes closing and opening showing pain and loathing.
“The only way to draw him out is to take something from him that is precious. And when he does come and he will, he will fight not for you, but for the pups you are carrying. That will put him at a disadvantage,” the wolf said, his eyes wandering into the forest at the sound of a broken twig.
Adrienne worried. Could this be true? Lycell has no dog in this fight, if he comes. Maybe she should try to reason with this dangerous blood-thirsty animal. She had to think of something. Maybe he has a softer side, she thought.
“I’m cold. I can’t stay out in the opening like this. I will die.”
“I brought you a fur and let you get your boots what more do you want. Besides you won’t live long enough for it to matter,” he said with the most frightening smile, and chilling glow in his eyes, she had ever seen on any face, man or beast.
“They will not let my death go unpunished,” Adrienne said shivering and trying to recover from the pain she now felt all over her body.
“That’s why I plan to kill them one by one,” he said with a satisfied grin. “And when the last of them is done with, then I will be in control of the lands and their wealth. There will be no heirs or Alphas from the Samsa clan.”
“You have this all planed out. What if something goes wrong?”
“It won’t because I will kill you before their eyes,” he said his eyes changing to a deep brown and then to a red ominous burn.
“What will you accomplish by killing a female and children?” Adrienne said trying to get some type of emotion out of him. Hoping deep down inside there was some sort of humanity lurking behind that tough, hard, animalistic exterior. “Don’t you have hunting codes about the killing of females and the young?”
“Ask your kind how they felt about slaughtering my female, and she was pregnant? Ask them about codes,” he said to Adrienne.
“But Wilder and his brothers never did you anything,” Adrienne countered.
“They prevented my pack from killing humans and kidnapping human females and selected them for extinction. If I can’t mate with a human then there will be no off-springs and we will cease to exist.” Adrienne listened with a terrified gaze focused on the werewolf and taking in his harsh expression. Then his ears peaked and his eyes wandered out into the brush and trees as if she had given him an idea.
The wolf’s head tilted to the side and he looked to her and said, “After I destroy those Samsa brothers and Lycell’s pups, I might keep you around for myself. I could use a female that’s fertile to give birth to my pack. And if you produce enough pups, then you’ll be a present to some of the younger werewolves to practice on.” He didn’t smile, he was serious, and Adrienne knew it.
The hair on her body raised and she trembled at the thought of what this animal was preparing for her. What could she do? She asked herself. There was no way she would attempt to anger him. He just as soon kill her now. He had a look in his eyes, and he as much as said what he was planning. “I need to go into the woods to pee,” Adrienne said. He looked down on her as he gathered wood to make a fire.
“What’s wrong with here?” he said frowning, and pulling out a large match from his pouch.
“I can’t. I’m not like you,” she said to him.
His eyes narrowed and his eyebrows lifted, “You had better get used to going out in the opening with every one watching,” the large werewolf said with a smile thinking of more ways to shame her.
“Then you have to turn your head,” Adrienne said.
“Don’t you ever attempt to tell me what to do,” he said striking the match starting a large fire. Another mistake Adrienne made. She couldn’t talk to this one as she had talked to Wilder and Lycell.
This werewolf just as soon cut her jugular as look at her. She held her self for as long as she could but with the pressure of the babies on her kidneys she had to squat and relieve herself near the fire. However, she waited until he had turned his back picking up sticks to feed the fire, before she did go. The thought of him made her skin feel cold and clammy, or was this the reaction from being dropped in the snow.
Rushing and covering herself, the werewolf spun around. “You waited until I turned my back. I’m not attracted to any humans. I loathe them. You are just necessary for us,” he said dropping the dry sticks next to her.
“I’m hungry. I need to eat. And why are you building such a large fire?”
“Do you really want to know?” he said with a large grin and a snarl. Adrienne shook her head no. She hoped he would say, to keep her warm.
“This fire will invite whoever is tracking me. Hopefully it’s Wilder. He’s the smartest one,” he said sitting with crossed legs. He reached for his pouch and handed Adrienne a choice. Dry meat or raw deer meat. There was no way she would eat any game raw. She would die either from the germs or the smell. And the smell of the fresh meat was the least of her worries. The first worry was whether she could make it out of the forest alive.
How long would it take Drayton to find her, she questioned? She prayed that it wouldn’t be him. But if he did come after her, then she would have to do something to help. Does this thing sleep, she asked herself. She was feeling sleepy and cold. Thank god it wasn’t snowing.
Reaching for the dried meat he threw in front of her, she grabbed a handful and sucked on it just to get something into her stomach. Some kind of nourishment not for her but for Wilder’s pups. She wanted to guard them with her life. That’s what a mother does. She wasn’t going to let him destroy them if she had to die trying to save them.
She needed a plan.
By the expression and the look of the wolf’s body, the cold callus werewolf had seen many battles. He had deep scars across his face and hands. When did he become this animal, was it when he lost his mate? She had to find out.
“How did you get those scars over your eye? Was it hunting a bear?”
“What do you know about bears? You looked like you would faint at the sight of one,” he said staring down at her. How did he guess that when last she was confronted by a bear she did faint and was carried in the jaws of Wilder, not waking until he kissed her cheek?
“I don’t have to be hunted by one to have knowledge of these woods. I live near where you grabbed me.” Adrienne eyes shuttled upward searching for something that might soften his stance on her, but instead she appeared to make him angry, and she provided too much information. His eyes narrow slits every time she talked. “What is it? Why do I make you so angry?”
“You...” and he stopped. His ears peeked up and moved. And then he continued. “You remind me of ...”
“Your mate,” Adrienne said anticipating his answer.
“No. You remind me of a human I fell in love with once when I was young.” And his eyes wandered into the trees as if he was remembering a painful time. That wasn’t her intentions. She was trying for him to recall his humanity. After all he was part human and it appeared he forgot that.
“I didn’t know for a time that I was a werewolf. My parents hid that from me. I went to a regular high school. Because I was strong and could run fast, I became an athlete. Every human girl in high school wanted me and gave themselves to me. I had my choice. But there was one girl who didn’t want to have any part of me. I craved her but she shunned me. I did everything I could to make her like me and when I asked her to the prom, she turned me down. But I was determine to have her. So I bought her gifts, my family was wealthy, all werewolves around here are affluent and the riches ones of all, are the Samsa Werewolves.”
The wolf starred into the opening of the trees and stood. Adrienne heard the noise too and she reached for his hand. “Continue with the story,” she said to him. He peered down at Adrienne’s hand touching his and maybe he felt like a man.
His glance strange, he dropped down near the fire, crossing his legs, relaxed. “I promised her a car if she went to the prom with me and she agreed.” He placed his hand on his brow as if recalling that night, the most painful of all nights. Adrienne was afraid for him to continue but she could see the movement in the tall grass and she stood to conceal the scent she thought would be Wilder or Drayton. She held her bulging stomach.
“Sit. Your smell drives me crazy.” She took her time looking around.
“I have to stand. I’m uncomfortable sitting. I’m pregnant. Go on finish the story.”
“The night of the prom, I arrived early to pick her up, and her parents said that she had just left with her boyfriend. She left me standing at her door with flowers. I threw them down, stepped on the flowers and rushed to find her and him before they arrived at school. It was a full moon that night. I still didn’t understand the significance of that moon.
I caught them on the road singing and happy. I signaled for them to pull over and they did. When I walked to the convertible she laughed at me and said that she would never date an unsophisticated animal like me. And that I couldn’t buy her at any cost. I became enraged and before I realized it, I had lifted the car and threw it over into the ravine.”
“But you didn’t know your strength or what you were doing. You didn’t know who you were,” Adrienne said to him.
“But on the contrary, I did. I knew what I was doing and I enjoyed every minute of it. I felt my strength and could control my destiny. I could have any female, human, or werewolf if I so desired,” the werewolf said turning to Adrienne and looking up at her. Then he pulled her arm and she sank to his side. He stood raising his head sniffing around. “You have tried to deceive me,” he said with a serious, calm, tough, deep voice.
Taking a step reaching for Adrienne, he heard sounds and dropped her arm, and his body began transforming. His face changed into a large wolf’s head and slowly the dark black fur appeared on his body, and then the lower portion of his body loosened until he stood on all fours. He moved in the direction of Adrienne with his teeth gnashing with raised lips, growling, snarling showing his canines. He had the largest teeth she had seen. Not even Wilder or Drayton could compare with the size of his body and the strength of his shoulders and front legs, paws, and hind legs.
In a quick second he turned away after hearing something rushing into the clearing from the forest. Before Adrienne stood a large brown wolf. The two wolves glared at each other with raging red eyes and neither would back down. Their fur rising. Neither moved a step. Adrienne remained still. She didn’t breathe. She didn’t blink an eye. And then a pain hit her and she yelled, “Oh!”
The menacing black werewolf who held Adrienne captive made a move in her direction, and the brown wolf who had sauntered in to the clearing looking terrifying with his large broad head and powerful jaws, pounced on the werewolf’s back and a loud howl echoed from the mountains and back again. The injured werewolf who imprisoned Adrienne, turned around and around, until he dislodged the teeth of the brown wolf from the back of his neck, and the brown wolf landed in the fire next to Adrienne.
The fire was nothing to the brown wolf and he shook it off his fur.
Adrienne saw the wolf’s pain and smelled the singed hair but the wolf jumped to his feet and charged at the black wolf standing in front of Adrienne. “Well, Well, Well,” so it’s you, Lycell.” Lycell stopped and waited for his prey to have his say before continuing the attack. He directed a menacing glance at the wolf, a raised eyebrow, a snarl, a raised head, and let out an Alpha howl. It lasted forever, thought Adrienne. The black wolf knew what that meant, “I’m your match,” Lycell said with such boldness.
“My fights not with you, it’s with Wilder,” the wolf said with fear hanging on his words.
“If you attack my brother, then your fight is with me,” Lycell said to him.
“Look here. She’s not even your concern,” he said gesturing to Adrienne, who had moved away and cowered behind dry brush for protection. “Why would you want to protect this human? She’s just a vessel for your pack. We can make a bargain, and no one has to die over this female. Let me have her, and you can take the pup.”
“She’s mine. And she’s carrying my brother’s pups,” Lycell said. The wolf turned to Adrienne and growled. Once again he felt he had been made a fool of by a human female, and he was now determined that if he had to die, he would share the pain. He leapt in Adrienne’s direction and Lycell caught him in mid-air with his large canines, and sunk them into the werewolf’s hind leg. The werewolf twisted his body and the sound of bone cracking heightened Lycell’s rage. He became a wild animal after tasting the blood flowing from the black werewolf’s wound.
Lycell leapt at the dying werewolf hooking his teeth into the wolf’s throat and hitting his jugular, and then breaking its neck. The werewolf fell to the ground landing on Adrienne.
The body of the wolf knocked the breath out of her, and when she woke she was being carried in the arms of a naked Lycell.
He ran at rapid speed through the forest. “Why are you carrying me?” Adrienne asked. “Why am I so wet? Why am I in pain?”
“Don’t you know,” he responded as serious as ever. You’re having your pups.”
“I can’t, I’m not ready,” she said to Lycell.
“I’m not ready, either,” he said.
“Where are we going?”
“To the cave,” he said panting.
“Oh no not the cave again,” Adrienne said with a sigh.
“It’s the safest place and it’s closer than the ranch.”