Chapter Twenty
Olivia
The man that had grabbed her had been rough with her on the porch, clearly not caring how hard he squeezed or how much she was going to bruise from his intense grasp. That was the point after all, wasn’t it? To hurt her? To cause her harm?
While every muscle in her body wished that she could fight him off, but she was no match for a poacher who was used to dealing with fighting wolves, the strength of a non-shifting girl was hardly any match.
Where was Dominic? She knew he’d be able to fight this man off with almost no effort, but Dominic wasn’t there. Maybe if she could have screamed or run then he’d been able to know she was in danger, but that wasn’t possible.
He dragged her off the porch while her legs kicked and flailed with all the effort she could put in. The poacher didn’t even seem to notice. There were few times that she felt being a shifter would make her life better, but being dragged off a porch in the middle of the night without the strength to fight back would have been one of those times. How easy would it have been to shift and fight this man off if she had any wolf inside of her?
“I’ve got her,” the man hissed into the night.
Olivia was frantically trying to adjust her eyes to be able to see into the dark, but panic was causing her mind to whirl too fast. Had anyone else been captured? Was Atticus ok?
Her feet made long tracks in the mud as she tried to dig her heels in but he was relentless. Dragging her towards her father’s house, she was terrified of what she might see when she got there. These poachers were horrible humans that excited themselves over the killing of shifter packs and there was a real fear that snaked through her that these men weren’t going to stop until they got what they wanted.
What was it that Atticus had said when she’d been eavesdropping?
They wanted the Alpha, which was part of the game. So did that mean he was already killed, or that he was going to be?
From outside the cabin, the men called to Atticus, trying to bait him to come outside. Olivia wanted to call to him, to tell him to stay where he was and not come out, but the men held her so tightly, squeezing everything from her and preventing her ability to scream. The knife at her throat pressed hard and one wrong move and the monster would be able to slice right through her.
When they called to him, drawing him out of the safety of the cabin, she realized quickly why she had been grabbed first.
They were using her as the bait.
Had they done that to Dominic too? Had they baited him outside only to capture and kill him?
She didn’t want to think of that possibility, although at the moment it felt like it was all too much of an option.
Stoically, her father stepped out from his cabin, a steady calm over taking his whole demeanor. For a moment she watched him, almost forgetting what was happening. It was so rare that she was ever able to watch her father act as an Alpha anymore. He was always just her father that babied her and drove her somewhat insane sometimes. But he stood outside on that porch, not letting the shake of his hands or the weakness of his body his older age was causing show.
Instead, all of that stayed hidden and she saw the strong Alpha that ran her pack.
Atticus stayed calm, though they had his only daughter, but even with him there she knew he was no match for the men surrounding her. He wasn’t the fighter that she needed, not in that moment.
Suddenly her body felt the heat that she was accustomed to feeling, the heat that told her that Dominic was nearby. Her eyes searched through the crowd of men that had gathered, those that were surrounding her with knives.
Then she saw him, his wolf hunched down low, ready to pounce. But he had to wait, he couldn’t take the whole group on his own. Not without at least one of them all being a casualty. At least not without a distraction.
Her eyes met his in the night and she pleaded with him to wait, she had to think.
He did catch her eyes and pulled himself deeper into the shadows.
What would she do, what could she do?
She needed to get out of this man’s grasp and throw him and everyone else off balance. Balance… maybe that was it. It would be risky, with the knife to her throat, but if she were able to stumble the right way maybe she could back him out toward the edge of the circle. But if she got him there then Dominic would have to attack and attack fast.
Olivia started to shift her feet, the poacher being distracted by the conversation taking place. She let her knees go a little weak to cause a stumble and the poacher had to back up in order to catch the dead-weight of her body. She glanced toward Dominic, it was working, and she was getting this man closer to him.
In another attempt to get him closer to the edge, she slid her foot behind him causing the poacher to stumble and she’d made it to the edge of the circle. Her heart began to race as she knew she’d done all she could.
Their leader turned toward the two of them tripping over each other and it was just enough of a distraction that she watched as Atticus shifted right in front of her eyes and she felt a hard jerk from behind as Dominic attacked.