| |
BERKLEY
I ran the entire way to Maris’s cabin, relieved to know that Mandy and Bryson would be along shortly to help me with Sherri. I hadn’t taken the time to switch to my boots before I left. Plowing through patches of snow had been unavoidable, leaving my shoes soaked and my feet cold. Luckily, I preferred to be comfortable when standing on my feet for prolonged periods of time and had switched from my dress heels to a pair of old tennis shoes; otherwise, I’d have had to make the trip barefoot.
When I finally arrived, I found Maris pacing the gravel drive near the front porch, an injured Sherri nowhere in sight. Unwanted dread crept along my skin, along with an instinctual warning that something wasn’t right. If one of my family members or friends had been injured, no one would be able to pry me from their side. I eyed Maris suspiciously. “Where’s Sherri?”
“She’s through there.” Maris pointed, taking a few steps toward a gap in the trees near the side of the cabin. She must have sensed my apprehension when I didn’t make a move to follow her. “I didn’t want to leave her, but I was afraid to move her.” She nervously wrung her hands. “And, and my cell wouldn’t work, so I had to use the phone in the cabin. Then I was worried you wouldn’t find us, so I decided to wait for you here.”
I couldn’t shake my unease but didn’t want to waste any more time listening to Maris. Heading off into the woods with her wasn’t the smartest move, but I needed confirmation that Sherri was okay. Mandy and Bryson would be arriving shortly, a fact I wasn’t going to share with Maris. He was a good tracker, so I wasn’t worried that he wouldn’t be able to find us.
It didn’t mean I was going to trust Maris or that I had any intention of turning my back on her. “Show me where she is.” I brusquely motioned for her to lead the way.
If Sherri was nearby, I couldn’t smell her. Walking close to Maris, breathing in the excess dosing of perfume on her body, was impairing my ability to scent and giving me a headache. Even breathing through my mouth didn’t help mask the offensive odor.
After we’d walked a lot farther from the cabin than I’d expected without seeing any sign of Sherri, I was more than a little wary. I pulled Maris to a stop. “Sherri’s not out here, is she?” Maris wasn’t an outdoor person, and if she were a human unfamiliar with navigating a forest, I’d understand if she got lost. But she was part cat and able to find her way through any environment on smell alone.
She slowly drew her lips into a wicked sneer. “No, she’s not,” she proudly admitted in a devious tone.
Maris was capable of a lot of things, but I was unsure if hurting her cousin was one of them. “Then where is she?”
“Don’t worry. You’ll get to see her shortly.”
I was about to ask her what she meant by that when I heard twigs snapping behind me. If I’d been paying more attention to my wolf instead of assuming the animal’s warning growl was because Maris made her antsy, I might have noticed the subtle yet distinct sounds letting me know that we had been followed.
By the time I realized Maris had purposely worn the disgusting fragrance to mask the odor of the male I’d smelled the day I’d been shot, it was too late. Too late to bare my fangs and claws, too late to relinquish control to my wolf, too late to react to the metallic blur in my periphery.
A sharp pain exploded between my shoulder blades, and instinctively, I reached for my back, coming away with a dart. Turning to see who’d shot me had been a mistake. I staggered a few steps backward on legs that were losing their strength to support me and tripped over an exposed tree root. Flailing through the air and hitting the ground hard had been inevitable.
I gasped to gain the air I’d lost during impact, and struggled with focusing my hazy vision at the man hovering over me. The man who was leveling a pistol, the one he’d use to shoot the dart, at my chest.
“Pick her up and carry her,” Maris said, her image gradually fading. “I don’t want to kill her here.”
Hearing the word “kill” was like getting a jolt to the chest. My heart raced and I struggled with my unresponsive body to get up, to move, to fight back. Instead, I was forced to listen to Maris’s incessant cackle as my world dimmed into darkness.
PRESTON
My cat had been agitated from the moment Reese started the truck’s engine. I had no visible reason to explain my cat’s mounting irritation but instinctively knew it had something to do with Berkley. We were less than an eighth of mile away from the access road that bordered the resort and Al’s property when the company radio I’d set in the holder between Reese and me crackled with static. “Preston, you there? Come in, damn it.” Bryson’s bellowed growl filled the cab.
The pressure squeezing my chest made it hard to breathe. Even before I grabbed the radio and answered, I knew something had happened to my mate. Reese and Nick seemed be having similar reactions, either that or their animals were responding to mine.
Reese gripped the steering wheel tighter and stomped on the accelerator. Nick leaned forward, digging his fingers into the sides of our seats. Any second now, I expected to see claws and hear leather ripping.
“Berkley’s...” Bryson’s bear was growling and garbling his words so badly, I couldn’t understand the remainder of what he’d said.
“Let me talk to him.” I heard Mandy say, and imagined her wrestling the radio away from Bryson.
“Preston, it’s Mandy. Where are you?”
“Near Al Thompson’s place. Tell me what’s going on. Did something happen to Berkley?”
“I don’t know. She was supposed to be at Maris’s cabin, but there’s nobody here.” The concern in her voice wasn’t much better than Bryson’s, and learning Maris was somehow involved wasn’t helping my anxiety.
“What was she doing with Maris?” Reese, who I’d never seen lose his temper, was practically shouting.
The snarling and sounds of fabric ripping in the backseat told me Nick was barely restraining his wolf. I wasn’t doing much better. It was taking every bit of self-control I possessed to keep my cat from taking over.
“Maris called and told her that Sherri was hurt and she needed help.”
I could hear Bryson growling in the background but couldn’t make out what he was saying to Mandy.
“Hold on a second,” she said to us, then mumbled something to Bryson.
“Bryson said he’s having a hard time getting her scent because of some disgusting floral odor. We need Nick.” I heard Mandy gulp in a deep breath, her voice crackling to cover a sob. “Can you hurry, please?”
“We’ll be there in ten minutes.” I returned the radio to the holder and stared out the window.
With Reese driving, the ten minutes were shortened to five, but they were still the longest five minutes of my life.
