Chapter 14
Cersi tossed and turned for hours. She’d heard everyone come in and after the house finally quieted, she lay there for a few more hours before she gave up on any hope of sleep.
Redressing in her jeans, boots, and sweater, she made her way through the house and quietly out the front door.
As soon as she stepped from the house, the arctic wind blasted her cheeks and stole her breath. Honestly, it felt good. Pacing down the steps, she watched as her feet were swallowed up by a good foot of snow. It was beautiful. Looking up, she scanned the campgrounds and smiled as the moonlight poured light onto the crystalline flakes that twinkled and winked like a blanket of glitter.
Off to the side of the house, there was a roadway that led between rows of cabins. Vesa had told her that Tyson’s cabin was at the end. She’d said that he was more solitary and didn’t like to stay in the house with the rest of the pack.
Pack. Just thinking about the word and all that she’d learned about Haddix and his BloodMoon shifters had Cersi’s head reeling. It was a lot to take in, but she’d grown up believing in a lot of things that other people thought were foolish. Shifters? Nah, that wasn’t that big of a stretch for her. She’d been fascinated with rare species of animals growing up, and the more odd and rare, the more she’d researched. One of her favorites was a species of wood frog called the Rana Sylvatica. It could freeze nearly solid, its heart would stop, and it’d stop breathing completely and could stay that way for days or weeks at a time before thawing and coming back to life. Nature was fascinating to Cersi, and even though she’d asked Tyson and Vesa a dozen questions about shifters, her curiosity was nowhere near sated.
Taking a step toward the road that led to Tyson’s cabin, Cersi stopped herself. For long minutes she stood with nothing but the sound of her own breathing and the cold wind to accompany her before she turned and headed the other direction. The snow crunched under her booted feet as she circled the main house and headed for the tree line. She thought a little night hike might help clear her head and exhaust her some, but she’d only made it just inside the tree line when a voice behind her had her jumping nearly out of her skin.
“You can’t go that way, there are wolves out there.”
Whirling around, Cersi had a hand flattened on her chest as she glared at Tyson. “Don’t sneak up on me!”
“Didn’t sneak.”
“You didn’t announce yourself either!”
“I made plenty of noise.”
“Yeah,” she countered. “Well, I’m not a shifter. I’m one of those pathetic humans you so despise, and we don’t have very good natural instincts.”
Tyson jammed his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels, his eyes going to the star-filled sky overhead as he mumbled, “Ain’t that the truth.”
Annoyed, Cersi gave him her back and headed for the woods.
“I wasn’t joking, Badass. There are wolves out there!”
“There are wolves right here,” she bit out angrily. “I’ll take my chances.”
A snarled, “Shit!” filled the clearing before the sound of heavy steps on the crunchy snow caught up to her. She didn’t have to turn around to know he was following her.
“Don’t need a bodyguard.”
“You need something!”
Whirling around, she nearly ran into his chest. Annoyed, she jerked her head up. “I need to know what your problem is! Ever since we got here, you’ve been acting like a dick!”
He was angry now too. “I was just supposed to get you here, not play Mr. Nice Guy once I made that happen.”
His words stung, but her fury snapped her right out of being wounded. “Well fine!” She shooed him off. “Go away! I don’t need you following me, and I never thought you were a nice guy! Don’t give yourself so much credit.”
She stormed off deep into the trees. Behind her, she heard Tyson snarling, but he didn’t follow her. Good! She hadn’t been joking when she said she didn’t need a bodyguard.
Good and pissed, she walked for a long time. When she finally found a road, she followed it, not caring where it took her. About a half hour in, she reconsidered her poorly made decision when a howl filled the night sky and lifted the fine hairs on the back of her neck. Her feet skidded to a halt, and she looked side-to-side only just now considering that the shifters who’d attacked them could still be lingering in the area. She turned and looked back over her shoulder, but the snow was falling in earnest now, and she could only see her tracks for a few feet before the rest were buried by snow.
Shit!
Opting to just follow the road back up, she figured it had to lead back to BlackLodge…right?
In the distance, she heard a rumbling and her heart kicked into overdrive. Tyson growled all the time, and she knew it was because of Monster, but this…this was different, and it was getting closer.
Getting off the road, she ducked behind a tree and pressed her shoulders into the cold bark. It took her all of a minute to realize the sound was a truck rumbling down the road right to her.
Peeking out from behind the tree, she wasn’t surprised to find Tyson frowning at her from the driver’s seat of a gold Ford F-150.
Eyes locked on her, Tyson growled, “Get in the truck.”
Squinting at the door, Cersi nearly laughed. Someone had keyed in ugly scrawl the word ‘whore’ right under where Tyson’s arm rested.
“Nice truck,” she clipped out.
But he wasn’t amused because he growled more firmly, “Get in the fucking truck, Cersi.”
Fuck that! Fuck him!
She crossed the road in front of the truck and ignored when Tyson threw the passenger side door open for her. She started walking on the road heading back the way the truck had come. The truck’s engine roared, and she heard Tyson curse before the truck backed up, keeping pace with her all the while Tyson glared at her from the driver’s seat.
“Get! In!”
She stopped walking and turned to face him just as Tyson slammed on the brakes. The truck rocked to a halt.
“Get in!”
“No!” She slammed the truck door and glared at him through the window, daring him to make her.
Tyson hesitated only a moment. Bright green eyes blazing, his jaw ticked once before he blasted out of the truck.
Damn, he was fast! Too fast! She’d only backed up two steps before he was on her. One arm around her waist, the other collaring her throat, he forced her backward until she was pressed up hard against the trunk of a towering pine. Once there, she was trapped as he pressed his body into hers.
“Do not test me, Badass. Do as I say or…”
“No!” she cut him off. “I’m not gonna do as you say! I follow no man’s orders! Now get your damn hands off me, Tyson BloodMoon!”