Chapter 11

Star vaulted the split rail fence and ducked into the tree line. She stopped to listen for any sound, but dripping in the canopy overhead blotted out everything else. A steady drumming of rain on the upper treetops covered every noise she made.

She stole a peek into the yard. Where was Shaw? She had to skirt around him to the northern side of the yard to get to the path over the mountain. She dared not shift into her bear form just yet. She could see and hear much better as a bear, but Shaw could hear and smell her better, too. She had to stay human until she got well clear of him. Then she would shake the rain off her fur and away she would go.

She picked her way through the trees. She stayed just inside the tree line, out of sight, but where she could command a view of the yard. Shaw and Walker kept their patrols to the Homestead itself. Sometimes when Walker left Shaw on duty, he ranged wider to cover more territory, but he wasn’t doing that tonight. He was resting in his own bed, surrounded by quilts and pillows.

She made her way around the western corner of the Homestead when she spotted Shaw. He followed the same worn path back and forth, around the barn and the woodshed, and back to the front gate. He never deviated. He lacked Walker’s Alpha instinct for danger. He did his duty and nothing more unless Walker gave him a direct order.

All that worked in Star’s favor. She kept her middle brother in sight while she threaded her crooked path through the trees to the north side of the yard. Shaw started his circuit again. He traversed the length of the fence to the barn and walked around it. He would make a circle around the woodshed next.

When he passed out of sight behind the barn, Star put on a burst of speed and sprinted across the last stretch of ground to the path heading north. A moment later, Shaw reappeared. He swept the yard and the forest beyond with his eyes. Then he headed for the woodshed.

Star spun on her heel and booked up the hill toward Bruins’ Peak. The mountain welcomed her into its black arms, and the woods swallowed her up for good. No one could catch her now.

She pumped her legs under her on the long climb to the look-out. In a minute, the rain steamed off her warm skin. She enjoyed the sensation of the rain on her bare skin too much to shift now. She was fully alive in the night. She was free at last and on her way to Brody.

She scaled the slope. Her raked breath into her lungs, but she ignored the pain. She didn’t stop running until she approached the tree line. From a distance, she heard the steady pelting of the rain in the canopy turn to one unbroken drone.

She didn’t notice the weather change until she passed the last trees. The moment the trees disappeared and she broke the tree line, she ran straight into a solid wall of water crashing into the ground. It saturated her hair and her clothes. She blinked to clear her vision.

Just beyond the crest of the hill, the bench sat dark and alone on the Peak. At that moment, a vicious fork of lightning split the sky. It slithered down to the ground and quivered for one eternal instant. In a fraction of a second, the bone-shattering thunder knocked Star back against a tree trunk.

The bear in her shrank from the fury of the storm. Bolt after bolt of lightning rent the night sky. She stumbled back at every strike to seek shelter in the trees. She couldn’t cross that bald, jagged peak in the middle of a lightning storm. She was wet to the skin. She would be struck in no time.

She retreated down the path the way she came. The rain got stronger and ripped through the canopy. Even with the dense foliage overhead to protect her, it stung her skin and chilled her to the bone. She couldn’t cross the mountain like this. She had to find shelter somewhere.

Shelter. Brody. The thoughts crossed her mind, and her limbs responded without another thought. She took off down the hill as fast as she could run, but the running didn’t warm her or make her happy anymore. She had to get away from that lightning.

Whatever happened, Brody would come back to his cave. He would find her there, and she would be comfortable until he came. She skidded in the mud on the steep trail, but when she came to Craven Creek, she turned off along the twisting stream bed with a light heart. She was on her way to get dry – and to Brody.

She followed the stream by instinct. Her feet picked out the boulders and exposed tree roots in the dark without her really looking for them. Fate drew her on to meet her heart’s true mate. All her dreams for a love match came true. She was right to spurn her parents’ efforts to match her up with Hyatt.

She heard the waterfall in the distance – or was that the rain getting stronger? How could it get stronger when it already pelted down in torrents? She couldn’t get any wetter if she went swimming.

Something about the sound didn’t sit right with her. She slowed to a walk. The closer she got to the cave, the more certain she became that the noise wasn’t the waterfall. If it wasn’t the waterfall, what was it?

It pounded against her ears in a steady thudding pulse. It chuckled like water rushing, but it sang a lower tone than the high-pitched shower of spray catapulting over the waterfall. It rumbled low with a thick, heavy growl.

She inched toward the sound, but she couldn’t identify it in the dark. She drew closer until she stopped where she seemed to stand right on top of the noise. It came up from almost directly under her feet.

She put out one leg to take another step, but at that moment, she realized where the sound came from. The path dropped away right in front of her, and a thick, muddy river of flowing water cut through the hillside. It tumbled down the steep ravine at her side to disappear into the dark. She almost stepped in that flooded rivulet severing the path in half.

She peered into the dark to get a better idea where she was. If she was close enough to the waterfall, she might risk jumping over the water and continue the rest of her way to the shelter of the cave.

She decided to chance it. What was the worst that could happen? She might miss her footing and wind up about as wet as she already was. She would strip naked at the cave and shift into her furry bear self. She would sleep snug and safe until Brody came and rousted her out of bed to a clear fine morning tomorrow.

She just made up her mind to take a few steps back and try a running jump when the sound changed again. The chuckling sound subsided. The stream held its breath, and Star held her breath along with it.

All of a sudden, the stream exploded with a dreadful noise. It startled her back, but it was too late. The gathering waters cutting through the hillside gathered their power behind a log jammed in their course. They burst their narrow banks, and a massive gush of water broke the path to pieces.

The water split the already sodden soil under Star’s feet and washed it, with her along with it, down the mountain. A huge section of the hillside broke free and collapsed under Star’s feet. Mud, rock, and debris hurtled down the ravine. The whole mass knocked Star off her feet and cascaded away in an avalanche of earth and water.

Star didn’t have time to register what happened. She got caught up in the torrent. It sucked her under a wave of mud and threatened to drag her down to her destruction. She kicked out with her legs and flailed with her arms to keep her head above the surface. The landslide ran over sharp crags that bashed Star along their treacherous bottoms. Then they cut into deeper channels where she couldn’t feel the bottom anymore.

Down and down she went. How far down she went, she had no idea. She must have fallen much farther than Cunningham Homestead, down to the very depths of the valleys and ravines between the mountains.

Out of nowhere, the landslide let her go. The water and sludge disappeared, and the night air chilled her wet skin. She floated through the ether with nothing to support her: She was suspended, as if Gravity had no meaning for her. Nothing touched her in any direction. She could have been dead and never known the difference – except for the cold.

Then, just as suddenly, she crashed to Earth with tremendous force. She slammed down on hard stone that shattered the stillness of her ethereal flight. She landed on her side with her arms locked over her chest and stomach. Her shoulder and hip lit on fire with pain.

The next minute, tons of mud and water studded with branches and pebbles showered her from above. The debris stung her arms and pounded on her head. She huddled on her rock landing place and waited, but the deluge never stopped. It would go on and on, as long as the storm lasted.

Star pulled herself together. She forced her aching limbs to move. She rolled up on hands and knees and crawled out of the path of that pouring water. It spattered the rock for twenty feet in every direction, and Star couldn’t see well enough to judge the best direction to get away from it.

She crawled, blinded by mud and darkness. She put one hand in front of the other. She could only hope against hope she was going the right way. She put out her hand and found—nothing. She groped in empty space, but she had already moved too far out on the rock ledge. She lost her balance and slipped forward, into that empty vacuum with nothing to support her.

She catapulted into space again, but this time, she fell only a few dozen feet before she landed on soft leaf litter among the trees. She patted the ground around her. Pine needles cushioned her hands and knees. She could rest here if the endless rain didn’t patter on her head. She was a long way from Brody’s cave, and she would never find it in the dark.

She sat still and rested for a long time. She massaged her aching body and assured herself nothing was broken. Then she set out to explore this place in which she found herself and try to find a place to spend the rest of the night. She patted all around herself. The pine needles covered the ground all around three big tree trunks, but outside them, she came up against sheer stone walls.

She found a cleft in the rock and measured it with her fingers. When she extended her thumb and fingers of one hand to their widest limit, they just spanned the cleft. She moved sideways along the wall and patted up as high as she could reach. She patted all the way around in a complete circle until she came back to the same cleft.

She was surrounded by a complete circle of sheer rock. She could never scale out of it. She was trapped.