Chapter Twenty-five
His little mate was a freakin’ genius. He loved her so much already. If anything happened to her, he’d never forgive himself. If voices weren’t on the other side of this wall, he might’ve taken a second to rethink this.
He moved his finger to the right and at the end of the line, his finger slipped into a hole he hadn’t noticed. Above their heads, rocks shifted. He lifted the torch higher and saw the trap in the ceiling.
One end of a piece of rope stretching back several feet was wrapped around an oblong boulder. If the boulder were loosed, it would swing down like a pendulum and smash anyone standing in its path. That would currently be Kari. And the pendulum was in motion.
He dropped the torch and grabbed his mate around the waist and plastered them both to the sidewall. The breeze of the falling rock ruffled his hair. Kari’s eyes were as big as the boulder as it swung down.
The rock hit the diagrammed wall, ricocheted back a few feet and knocked against the stone again. He held the woman of his dreams to the side until the plumb came to a complete stop. After peeling themselves from the wall, he saw the purpose of the battering. A narrow hole was punched through the wall and the voices flowed louder, but were still at a distance. It sounded like a large crowd. What the hell?
“Let me go through first,” he said. “I’ll see what’s going on and come back. I want to make sure it’s safe. Okay?” He kissed her head then wiggled through the hole.
“Okay,” he heard her say as his feet slipped to this side of the wall. He wasn’t giving her a chance to say no or argue. With the trap sprung and nobody behind them, she was safe there. He wasn’t so sure about the people ahead of them.
The trail was well worn and no longer a tunnel, but a path along the top of a cliff that overlooked a massive stone chasm. He squatted behind large rocks and peeked around the side at the goings-on below. There had to be hundreds of people milling about. With further scrutiny, he realized the people were gathered around platforms with females standing together.
Narrowing his supersonic hearing to the closest group, he tried to find out what was happening. One man spoke German, calling out numbers. Others in the crowd, all men, raised a finger occasionally.
Then one of the men reached up toward a girl onstage. He grabbed a . . . leash around the girl’s throat? Oh my fucking god. This was the trafficking event he had been searching for when he was captured by the prince’s forces. That bastard son of a bitch. He wanted to rip off the prince’s testicles. He had to force his wolf back. They wanted to run down and save all the helpless ones. But that would be suicide.
He pulled back from the cliff’s edge and slinked his way back to his mate. He wasn’t sure how they were going to get past all that. Maybe they could wait it out.
* * *
Kari paced side to side in front of the hole in the wall. Was the man ever coming back? What if he got hurt by another trap? Something he didn’t see? Her stomach churned. He could be dying and she wasn’t doing a thing about it.
She stopped and looked through the hole. It was at the height of her chest so she didn’t have to bend too much. Listening intently, she did hear the voices Bryon was talking about. She put her arms through the wall, followed by her head, then rose onto her toes. From there, she couldn’t get any further. Wait.
If she put her foot against the hanging rock that smashed into the wall, she could maybe push the rest of the way through. She was still too short to get her chest in. She needed to jump, but with her arms on the other side of the wall, that would be impossible.
Kari pulled out and stood, straightening her shirt. Okay. With her hands on the hole’s edge, she could lift herself to get her upper body into the gap. Then she could push off the oblong rock to get the rest of the way.
Hands on the edge, she jumped up and leaned forward. Halfway through, she realized her hands faced the wrong way. Her wrists were folding backward. She didn’t know how, but amidst her panicked wiggling and twisting, she had gotten her hands turned. But now they were pinned under her, mashed between her stomach and the rock. When she tried to pull her arm out, skin tore from the back of her hand pressed against the jagged stone edge. Shit.
If she rocked to the side, she could maybe pull out her hand with minimum damage done. Contorting her body to one side, she yanked and gritted when her flesh gave way to rock, but her hand was no longer under her.
With her head on the other side of the wall, she could barely see anything. Not that there was much to look at. The same damn rock she’d seen the past million freaking hours. Light bounced off the ceiling from somewhere ahead. Trying to pull her free arm to the other side, she quickly found the hole wasn’t big enough to bend her arm to get through. She groaned.
On the side of the wall opposite her head, she kicked her legs, pointing her toes, but the floor wasn’t within reach. Shit. She lifted her leg, searching for the rock to push off. Her shoe brushed the pendulum, setting it into a slight motion. Shit.
Her mind spun through the options. If she kept her leg straight, locking it at the knee, the rock would swing back and hit her foot, either pushing her forward or shoving her thigh bone into her ribs. Almost good, not quite. If her leg remained flexible, bending at the knee just a bit, then that would push her while not breaking her. Her knee quickly bent a bit and the force of the swing pushed her forward.
She bit her tongue holding back the holler from the pain of her hand scratching along the rock under her stomach. She twisted to free the arm before the rock bumped into her foot a second time. If she could get a few more inches, she might be able to get her elbow out far enough to free her arm. The rock’s return pushed her farther, but not enough. Shit.
She wiggled her arm free and let it dangle. Thank god. She pushed against the wall to get her other arm out. She rested a second. Her body was not meant for going through holes in walls.
With a deep breath and heave with her arms, she pushed until she came to a sudden stop. Shit. She hadn’t stopped to think if the gap was wide enough for her hefty hips. Well, it wasn’t. Shit.
“What the hell are you doing?” She looked to see Bryon coming up the path.
“What does it look like?” she whispered loudly.
He stared at her. “I’m not sure, sweetheart.” She heard the laugh in his voice. She’d kick his ass when she got out of this.
“Shut up and help me.” She lifted her arms. He leaned over to hook his hands under her arms. When he pulled, nothing moved.
“Darling,” he started, “can you suck it in a bit?”
She huffed. “No. You can’t suck in hips. If I could, I would’ve a long time ago.” He released his hold, letting her upper body hang. Then he put his hands around her waist. “What are you doing?” she asked as he pulled. “Ow,” she whined.
“Be quiet. I’m doing what I have to here,” he said. With his hands on the small of her back, he twisted, shook, and yanked her body. After a few aching moments, her legs slid through. Apparently, he wasn’t ready for her to pop loose. He quickly wrapped his arms around her waist, flinging her legs into the air.
“What the hell?” Upside down, her hair hung in her face and shirt slid toward her breasts. She snagged her top from falling farther. “Put me down right this second.” Blood rushed to her head. He flipped her over, putting her on her feet. “That was a damn nightmare,” she said.
“Okay, now we have to go back through it,” he said.