I couldn’t stand another minute of this torture. We’d been stuck on this hill for two hours watching Marcus and his pack being beaten, stretched, and cut while we hid.
“I have to go down there,” I pleaded with Mariah and Colby again.
“No,” she said.
“But I can talk him down. Elijah only wants me. I can’t let him hurt your entire pack because I made the mistake of falling in love with a psychopath.”
“It’s a little too late for regrets,” Mariah snapped.
“Mariah,” Colby warned. “That isn’t helping.” He’d been bouncing his legs up and down the entire time we been here. It was no secret Colby hated being confined to this hill too.
“Colby, maybe you and I could—”
“No!” Mariah shouted a little louder. “My father knows how to handle himself. We will do as he says.”
“God dammit,” I muttered to myself. I hated that she might be right. I also hated how—“What the fuck?” I spun on my butt to turn around and see what had just made the noise behind us.
Colby and Mariah crouched on the ground, both of them jumping in front of me in protection. Two large men slithered up the hill, silent and menacing. But when they got to the top, the largest one raised his hands up and tilted his head toward the ground.
“We aren’t here to hurt you.”
“Donovan?” Colby asked, still ready to pounce.
The giant man nodded and then jerked his chin toward his partner. “This is Max. He’s a panther.”
“Well, get the fuck out of here. Both of you!” Mariah spat.
Donovan studied her the same way a cat waits for a half-dead mouse to twitch one more time. I didn’t like it. At all. “We are here to help,” Donovan finally said in his very deep voice.
“We don’t need your help.” Mariah’s words still had a bite to them, but she’d softened her tone in a way that almost sounded…flirtatious?
“How did you know we had trouble?” Colby asked.
Donovan watched me, and then Colby. It made me scared and I was pretty damn sure he would be able to smell it. I didn’t know what kind of shifter Donovan was, but I knew enough to be afraid.
“I was in the area. Patrolling. When I saw the panthers move in, I ran back to get Max. He’s a panther.”
“Yeah, you already said that,” Mariah huffed. Colby and I gave her an exasperated look.
Donovan narrowed his eyes before speaking again. “They have Marcus.”
“No shit.” Mariah really needed to tone it down.
“But the others are almost here.”
“Who?” I asked.
Mariah turned to me with what looked like a partial glare and a partial eye roll. “The Callaghan Clan, Major, Fiona, and maybe Danika.”
“The dragon’s coming?” Colby asked with anticipation.
“No. Not her. But most of the others.”
“How long?” Mariah asked.
“Within the hour,” Max finally spoke. Then he focused his strangely glowing eyes on me. “You are his mate?”
I shook my head. “I was never Elijah’s mate.”
“But you had a cub with him?”
Mariah and Colby snapped their heads around and stared at me in surprise. I swallowed the lump in my throat. “He left both of us.”
“You can’t leave the pride.” Max looked at me with sadness written across his face.
“You did,” I said without thinking.
That got a reaction and Max immediately clamped his lips together. Donovan watched him closely until deciding something that made him dip his chin once. “We must plan.”
Mariah and Colby followed the two over the crest of the hill where the new shifters had arrived from. Donovan climbed down to a small, flat area and waited for the rest of us to arrive as though we would follow him blindly. But that’s exactly what Max, Colby, and Mariah did. I stayed slightly behind them all, trying to decide what to do next.
“Do you need help?” Mariah asked in a way that implied she had no desire to help me. Man, did she hate all humans or just me?
“Go ahead. I’ll catch up.”
She hesitated only a moment before turning around and slinking down the hill like a professional climber. The four shifters started whispering about the layout of the town and how they could best use this knowledge for an ambush. I listened to their plan until I’d backed away enough that their voices were only a slight rumbling in the night.
And then I made my move.
Turning toward the town, I put my feet out in front of me and slid down the hill. The original plan in my head had me doing this in silence, but in reality the damn rocks and leftover snow had me tumbling head over heel down the embankment. Rocks went flying, curses filled the night, and just as I heard Mariah shout my name, I caught the glimpse of Elijah running toward me.
When I finally came to a stop, I took a moment to assess my injuries and assess whether or not I’d just made the right decision. Reinforcements were on the way and I had no doubt this was going to end badly for many of my friends and the other shifters. No one else should have to die because of me.
And this whole mess was because of me.
Elijah would leave Nenana if I would go with him.
So, I had no choice.
There wasn’t much time to think about that decision any more before Elijah grabbed me by the arm and lifted me off the ground. His fingers dug into my bicep and I wondered if he’d partially changed into his panther because it surely felt like he was stabbing me with his claws.
“There you are, honey. I missed you so much.” Spit flew from his gritted teeth as he yanked me back toward the town, the bonfire, and toward Marcus. My feet slid against the ground since Elijah was pulling me so fast. He stomped against the gravel and huffed several breaths as though he were trying to stay human. A part of me thanked him for that, but I still knew he was on the verge of total loss of control.
When we got close enough to the bonfire, Elijah threw me on the ground. I rolled several times, the small gravel bits digging into my hands and my fingers throbbing with the way they bent backward. I looked up to see Marcus—hanging from a post, hands tied above his head and feet crossed and zip-tied at the bottom. They’d stripped him of his shirt, leaving his scarred and bloodied chest out for everyone to see. One of his eyes was swollen shut and I was pretty sure his eye socket must have been broken by the bad bruising already forming on his face.
He looked down at me and tried to shake his head. I knew what he was thinking—why didn’t I let him handle it? I climbed back up to my feet, stood so he could see me, and in front of everyone said, “I’m sorry. I can’t let anyone else get hurt.”
“Why aren’t you such a fucking martyr,” Elijah growled. “Here’s this for a thought…why didn’t you stop our child from getting hurt, Holland?”
Pain instantly pierced my gut. Guilt made my legs go numb. But that deep, dark anger inside of me that I’d been harboring for years rushed to the surface in a vengeance and carried me forward. I ran at Elijah, pushing him hard in the chest and enjoying the way he stumbled backward.
“You have no right to talk about Brady! Not now, not ever!” Tears blurred my vision and I barely registered the heat from the fire. Somewhere behind me, Elijah’s panthers were beating Marcus again, but I knew I couldn’t look or I’d lose my nerve. “You left us, remember? You left me and Brady and forced us to watch you lay with all the other females. You held us hostage in your pride and fucked anything with legs.”
Elijah actually had the nerve to look smug. “That’s what panthers do, Holland.”
“Well, that’s not what a man would do,” I snapped back. And the instant his fist slammed into my face, I knew I may have pushed him too far.
Before I even fell to the ground, Elijah grabbed me by my jacket and held me out in front of him. “Now, see, Holland? Why did you make me do that? I don’t want to hurt you. I love you.” He brushed his fingers down the side of my cheek. “I love you so much but you make me so angry. It’s like I can’t…I can’t control anything I do when I’m around you.”
Hoping this was the right time, I asked, “Let’s just go home, okay? We can forget about this place and I’ll go back to Wyoming with you. I’ll finish school there and we can try again, okay?” I hated hearing those words come out of my mouth, but if I could just get him to call off the panthers, I would figure out how to save myself later.
Elijah pulled me into a hug, squeezing me so tight I could barely breathe. Six and a half feet tall and built like a linebacker, he towered over me. His scruffy blonde beard scraped against the top of my head as he rubbed his chin back and forth, emitting that purring sound he did when we used to have a good relationship. Elijah shuddered against me, holding me longer than I wanted. I didn’t know what to say, so I stayed quiet, hoping that I’d helped calm him down.
Finally, he released his grip and stepped back a little. His eyes focused on mine and then lifted in concern when he saw something on my face. Reaching forward, he brushed his index finger under my nose and above my lip. It hurt, and I knew that was because he’d punched me hard enough to make my nose bleed.
Looking down at the blood on the tip of his finger, he pouted. “I’m sorry you make me so angry, Holls.”
I did my best not to say what I really wanted to.
He studied his finger a little more, a thousand different emotions passing over his face. And then he licked the blood.
I almost gagged at the gesture and wondered just how crazy he’d gotten the last few years. While his eyes were closed as he savored the taste of my blood in his mouth, I took a few steps backward and turned to face Marcus. His head was hanging at a bad angle and I could see that his chest was moving rather slowly. But as though he felt me looking at him, he moved just enough to see me. I mouthed the words “I love you” and did my best to give him a reassuring smile. This might be the last time we see each other, so I needed him to know that I did love him. I loved him and wanted to spend the rest of my life here with him.
But those dreams were gone so I could only leave him with those parting words.
“Holland!” Elijah’s voice rumbled in the cool evening air, sending the hairs on my arms into overdrive. The tone had changed. No longer did he sound apologetic. Elijah sounded angry and rough and on the verge of losing himself to his animal.
He stomped over to me as Marcus jerked back and forth against the pole, trying to break free. He’d sensed the same thing I had and now we were both about to find out what had made Elijah so angry. Scrambling backward, I raised my hands out in front of me and said, “Elijah, stop! Wait! What’s wrong?”
He slapped my hands away, surely rebreaking the almost healed fingers. Grabbing the back of my head, he yanked me forward until my injured nose smashed into his chest. He pressed his face into the crook of my neck and sucked in a deep breath. Every muscle in his body tensed when he scented something he didn’t like. His fingers ripped into my hair, and I screamed out in pain. With my head held back at a dangerous angle, he snarled over the top of me.
“You’re pregnant?” He shouted loud enough to tell the whole town, but the ringing in my ears overshadowed his words.
Pregnant?
“You mated with him?” His voice trembled with anger and pain. “With a coyote?”
I couldn’t say a thing…especially with the way my neck was exposed and the pain I was starting to feel in my spine.
Elijah held me still for several moments until finally pushing me away hard enough that I fell again. He paced back and forth, hands running through his hair and mummering things underneath his breath. I tried to find Marcus’ eyes, but Elijah’s panthers were blocking my view.
I was pregnant?
My ex screamed into the air and pulled the knife from the sheath on the side of his belt. It was the knife that had killed the beautiful Brazilian woman and when Elijah turned to face me, I just knew he intended to do the same to me.
I jumped to my feet and held out my arms again. “Elijah, don’t! Stop and think about what you’re going to do!”
He pushed out a breath through his nose and rubbed his forehead again. Then he faced Marcus.
“No!” I shouted. Scrambling to put my body in between the two men, I grabbed Elijah’s left shoulder and tried to spin him around. “Enough, Elijah! Please, stop this now!”
He glared at me as his body swung sideways. And that was when the hand holding the knife came out of the dark.
With a sickening ease, he plunged the knife into my lower abdomen. I cried out in pain. Marcus screamed. And Elijah smiled for a brief second.
Grabbing onto his arm to stop my fall, I slid to my knees while sobbing. Had he just killed my baby? No, I couldn’t lose another. No, no, no. Elijah pulled the knife back out of my stomach and let me drop to the ground. He stared back and forth between the knife and my hands now holding the blood inside of my body. It was like he couldn’t believe he’d stabbed me and had no idea what to do about it. Was that regret etched on his face?
The pain shot through my body, piercing around the wound and aching everywhere else. Somehow, I landed on my side, able to see Marcus. He was screaming and shouting and on the verge of ripping his hands off from pulling so hard against the zip ties. I lifted an arm to reach out to him, trying to say something but unable to get the words out. My body wasn’t working.
I was tired. My vision was spinning. And just before I thought I might pass out, all hell broke loose.