The flies buzzed angrily, the sound so much more than they should have been capable of for their size, but when they darted away to another one, I sighed with relief.
Tucking the stem, which was still connected to the fruit, between my teeth, I made the long journey down the tree in record time—i.e. quicker than I’d made it up there—and rushed over to Sabina.
She was still alive, thank the Mother, but she was sluggish.
Limp.
I sighed with relief though, and tugged off the stem, before I dug into the fruit with my thumbs, tearing it apart.
The blood that spilled from it almost had me jerking in astonishment.
It wasn’t juice. Wasn’t even the flesh of fruit.
It was human flesh.
The sight was repulsive, the smell was too, and even though I wanted to back away, I couldn’t.
I was compelled to offer it to Sabina.
As it hovered in front of her nose, her eyes opened. She was confused, sleepy and exhausted from blood loss, but at the scent of the most repulsive fruit I’d ever seen—and I’d tasted fresh durian—she snapped her jaws at it, almost biting me in the process.
She gnawed on that damn thing like it was a fresh kill, and even released a soft burp as she settled back on her side.
I sat on my haunches, hoping for a fucking miracle, but when it didn’t come, I had no idea what to do next.
She was sleeping, wasn’t restless, and just as I started to despair that nothing would work, I heard them.
The buzz. I recognized it.
A swarm was coming toward us. I wanted to grab her and run away from them, but I’d taken the fruit, and that was what they wanted.
Damn!
No matter where I took her, now that she’d eaten it, they’d come after us.
I woke up with a bang, only just realizing that I’d been in a daze.
I felt the control of someone else, and though it could have been a malevolent power, I felt certain it wasn’t.
That didn’t fill me with faith, however.
My supposedly sound reasoning had seen me climb a tree, pick a fruit, and feed said fruit to my mate.
My injured mate.
A piece of fruit that could be poisonous for all I goddamn knew.
I shook my head at myself and started to wave my arms, uncaring now if they gnawed on me, wanting them only to avoid Sabina.
But no matter what I did, the swarm, which felt like every single bug from the tree had come to visit, surrounded her in a cluster.
She was one big ball of light, and whenever I tried to wave them away, free them from her, she yipped at me.
In truth, that gave me hope, so with nothing else to do other than wait, I decided to watch and worry at the same time, because that yip?
Told me not only was she not asleep anymore, not dazed, she was okay with what was happening.
And I had to have faith.
Even though it was really goddamn hard to have that right about now.
The light was blinding, enough to brand my eyes with the glare, and I wanted to look away, but fear told me that if I did, she might not be there in the next second.
I had already seen how strangely time passed. There’d been less than three or four minutes between her and Austin disappearing before they returned, and with Eli, she’d been gone over ten or so minutes.
Only the Mother knew how long we might be parted. To be away from her, forced apart…that was the last thing I wanted. Or needed.
I was so ready to claim her, I was about to fucking howl.
I needed to be tied to her. Needed it like I needed my next breath, because if I was tied to her, I’d know how she was doing, what she was thinking and feeling, enduring.
I stared at the flies as the humming rose to a crescendo that I was sure I could feel in my bones, the vibration throbbing through my skull like the power of a pneumatic drill, and suddenly, just like I’d clicked my fingers, it was gone.
The lights winked out, and I stared, aghast, as they all fell to the ground, surrounding her in a pile of dead things that were so small, I barely saw them in the dim light.
What I did see?
My mate’s naked, sleeping form.
I sighed at her beauty, loving that she was back in her skin, because that meant I could hold her as I moved her around.
She was still sleeping, and that was fine, since I saw her belly wasn’t torn to shreds. If anything, she was back to normal.
Perfect.
In all ways.
Relieved to the point of fucking tears, I shrugged my feelings aside and instead, gathered her in my arms.
She was a deadweight, but that was nothing I couldn’t handle.
Maybe I should have kept her there, close to the tree, but I wasn’t sure if this place was safe. The cougar had attacked here, what was to stop her from coming back if we were trapped in the clearing for days? That’d be enough time for both the beast and my mate to heal some.
No, I needed to put some distance between us.
With her in my arms, her skin against mine, my heart settled some, making me realize just how fast it had been beating. How hard the panic had filled me.
We seemed to walk for ages, but I carried on tracing Eli’s original path to wherever they’d come from.
I knew that Austin had felt sure he’d been with her for five nights, so I knew there was definitely somewhere safe for us to find shelter. Even if wolves had entered his territory…
Nowhere, technically, was safe in a place where I couldn’t reconnoiter without leaving my woman unguarded.
Not going to happen.
Just the thought had me tipping her up so I could press a kiss to her forehead.
She sighed, and almost scared the shit out of me when her arms moved up to curve around my neck.
The kiss… Was she Sleeping Beauty or something?
Before I could overthink shit, she didn’t improve my mood by waking up.
No, she just sighed, cuddled into me, and squeezed my neck like she was awake.
But she definitely wasn’t.
Even now, I couldn’t hear her, so she was either unconscious, which felt impossible with how she was able to cling to me, or she was unable to communicate with me at all here.
Loneliness speared me yet again, and it was with relief that the sudden tumbling of water made itself known to me.
When I peered over into the distance, squinting slightly because the light was so strange here, and amid the trees it was even fainter, comfortable, but still a little difficult to see into the far distance, I could discern the pool Austin had described.
If it wasn’t for the fact that Sabina and he had been knocked out, I’d have thought them both insane.
Seeing, however, was believing.
I tugged her tighter to me, needing her close, now that I was utterly alone in my head.
Having never been that way in my life before, having always had Austin, always having that numbskull’s presence inside my head, I had to admit…I’d appreciate him a lot more from now on.
Mother, my brain felt like a vacuum, and the only thing that was tying me to an odd sort of sanity was the strong hold she had on my neck in this even odder half state, where she was neither awake nor asleep.
I led us to the pool, and since we were both naked, it didn’t seem too much of a stretch to figure that she wouldn’t mind getting wet. Especially not when I waded into the water and felt just how perfect the temperature was.
I sighed, appreciating the heat against my muscles as, eventually, I settled with her on my lap and in my arms, my lower body up to mid-waist in the water.
For a moment, I did nothing other than just behold her.
She was precious to me in so many ways she’d never know, but at that moment, she was a fucking lifeline.
Austin and I had a love-hate relationship.
We worked together, lived together, and truthfully, if things hadn’t worked out the way they had with Sabina, I
’m not entirely sure what would have happened.
Neither of us had ever talked about it, but damn.
Without Austin in my life, there’d be a gaping hole.
How had I only just realized this?
There’d been no doubt about how the challenge would work out with Brandon. He was a weakling. I’d seen dogs who fit the role of beta better than he did. And that was saying something.
I actually knew some very smart pit bulls.
But what he’d gone through?
He might not have lived.
And what Sabina might have gone through?
If she’d died…
Mother.
I’d have been alone.
Without the claiming to tie me to her, like her bond with Eli and Austin did, I’d have been alone.
I would have no one in the universe with me as they, too, perished after her passing.
Christ.
My throat felt thick, and my heart pounded in my chest as the sheer weight of those thoughts hit me.
Slowly, I raised her so she was higher up on my chest, and I hugged her to me.
Needing the connection.
The confirmation.
I could hear her heart beating. Not too softly, not too quickly. Just the right rate.
She no longer stank of blood and gore, the odd flies had cleansed her of that—just the thought made me want to cringe—and everything about her appeared to be as it had been before.
So, why did I feel so different if she was the same as ever?
The press of my cheek to her temple grounded me in ways I couldn’t explain, but it sent relief bellowing through my system.
I just sat there, for hours on end, wishing for a cigarette, staring at nothing with her in my arms, grateful Austin was alive, grateful for my mate, and grateful that we had Eli to unite us together.
They said the Mother worked in mysterious ways, well, this was living proof of that.
Eleven
Sabina
I awoke thinking I’d peed myself.
Never a nice sensation.
I tried to think if I’d had that dream where you were using the bathroom, but actually, you weren’t. I could still remember that happening when I was fourteen and my brother not letting me hear the end of it.
Even as my lips twisted into a grimace at the memory, I forced my eyes open because, the memory hit me.
I no longer slept alone. For nearly a dozen nights, I’d slept tangled up in another’s arms… Had I peed on one of them too?
Before mortification could hit me, I opened my eyes, and when I saw the pool, my brow furrowed.
That I was back here again didn’t come as a surprise, considering I still had to claim Ethan, but that I hadn’t peed the bed made me so damn happy, I almost chuckled.
Even as memories of what had happened—of the cougar, of Eli’s wolf’s power over me and how I’d shed it off like it was a second skin—flooded me, none of it held the force of my relief.
“What’s so funny?”
I sighed at the gruff voice.
Eli was somber. Ethan was just plain serious.
Both of them either needed a chill pill or some happy gas, and lucky for them, I came free and with no co-pay.
I nuzzled my forehead into his chin and muttered, “Nothing. Just good to wake up in your arms.”
He sighed, and the scent around him surprised me. Especially since I was, essentially, smelling his feelings.
He smelled of Ethan.
Like musk and the spice of sandalwood.
But beneath it, I felt something else…
“Are you okay?” I peered up at him, frowning as I did so. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” He shrugged. “You’ve been out of it for a little while.”
“How long’s a little while?”
“Long enough for me to get pins and needles in my arms,” he replied, and with Austin, I’d have laughed because it was a joke, with Ethan, it was a statement of fact.
I wiggled out of his embrace, concerned for his poor arms, but he hauled me back to him.
Okaaaaaay.
Something was definitely not right in the state of Denmark.
I cleared my throat as I pulled back slightly so my nose wasn’t plunked into his pecs, but fuck, it was a nice place to be.
Especially with that musk and sandalwood scent?
Even more powerful from that pulse point.
I almost purred at the taste of him against my lips too, but I didn’t.
Something was wrong, which was quite clear with the way he was holding me, but I wasn’t really in a position to move.
One of my arms was around his neck though, and yup, I had pins and needles too.
Ouch. But I ignored the discomfort of the limb coming back online, and instead, squeezed him, trying to comfort him, even though I wasn’t sure why he needed comforting.
Unless…
Had he thought I was going to die?
I supposed it had been a possibility, and while I had no faith in the Mother or her will, I felt certain that we might leave this mating circle we were in with a missing limb but our lives intact.
Just, at any rate.
She was putting us through our paces, giving us things she didn’t think we could handle on our own, making us evolve to her pace, not ours.
I’d be pissed about that, if I didn’t feel so fucking empowered.
And hell, that was an understatement.
I didn’t feel just fucking empowered.
I felt phenomenal.
Like I could do anything, take on the goddamn world, and show them my ass, wiggle it, then give a sweet ‘fuck you’ to anyone who disapproved.
For someone like me, someone who’d been on the run all her life, someone who’d been a victim, these emotions were almost an aphrodisiac.
Maybe later, I’d want to cry about how great I felt. Now?
I just wanted to understand what was going on with my man.
It figured that he was the strong and silent type.
Not exactly helpful when I was trying to figure out what was wrong with him.
Sighing, I rubbed my nose against his chest, hoping that would soothe him.
His head tipped down, and his forehead bumped my temple softly.
His breath whispered over my cheek, along the lobe of my ear. Sensation shot through me, but I dampened it down.
Tempered it, because he was still seeking comfort.
I strained to hear his thoughts, but wasn’t altogether surprised when they weren’t there.
Was that the issue?
I thought about how to resolve that, because with Eli and Austin, each time had been different. Just claiming Austin had connected him to me, but with Eli, only when I’d shifted had I been able to hear his thoughts. So for Ethan, I had no solution.
Which sucked.
So, because I didn’t know what to do or what to say, I sighed and just hugged him as much as I could in the twisted embrace I was sitting in.
The scent of desperation escaped his pores, and it was so powerful, I had no alternative but to whisper, “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“The truth is hard to hear,” he rasped, making me tense in his arms.
The truth was always the hardest option, in my honest opinion. No one ever said that the truth didn’t hurt.
“I can take whatever it is you’re feeling.”
He sighed, his breath making my hair gust a little, and as the ends tickled my skin, prompting me to shiver, he tucked me tighter into him and murmured, “It’s better now.”
When he squeezed me, I figured out why.
Because I was awake.
Plus, Austin?
While he was the more ebullient of the two twins, he also hadn’t had to deal with Ethan’s almost death as well as my almost death too.
Shit.
If anything could have prompted me to move, to shift out of the odd position I was in, it was that. I scrambled, shoving away from his
hold until I could straddle him, until my arms could slip around him and I could embrace him with my entire body.
The second he understood what I was doing, sensed that I wasn’t trying to get away from him, he squeezed me back.
“I’m sorry.”
My words had him tensing. “Why on Earth would you be sorry? You haven’t done anything wrong.”
“I’ve brought chaos—”
“Fuck chaos. Fuck it in the ass.”
His statement had me snorting, but it was his vehemence that made me pull back to peer at him so I could giggle up at him.
“Fuck it in the ass, huh?”
His grin was slow in coming, and when it did, it was sheepish as hell, but that didn’t stop it from making an appearance. Kali Sara, it was better than the sun coming out in this place’s endless twilight.
I wanted to bathe in the rays of that smile.
Wanted to dance in it, for God’s sake.
Something about my most serious mate smiling at me, almost playfully, his words almost a joke in themselves, hit me right in the ovaries.
Not the most ideal moment, perhaps, but hell, he was mine.
I was his.
And this place?
Even though it was apparently an ‘almost’ death trap, it was for us.
Constructed for us, to bring us closer together.
Unable to stop myself, I pressed a kiss to his lips, then moaned when he kissed me back.
I almost hadn’t expected him to do that, had thought whatever he was going through was too much, but evidently not.
I sighed as he took it further, his hands moving up to my hair to hold me in place, even as one coiled the ends into a rope and used it to arch my head back.
His tongue thrust between my lips, dancing with mine a few times, but within seconds, he was on the move, and I wasn’t about to complain.
He nipped down my throat, sucking and suckling along the way, his tongue dancing as it moved across the hypersensitive skin.
I moaned, shuddering against him, and I started to arch my pelvis. His cock, of course, was there, growing harder against me. I could feel the heat of him, the thickness, and the fact that he was responding to me so quickly filled me with hope that I could push past the shadows that overwhelmed the start of our journey as mates together.
I hated that he was last, but somehow, everything was happening for a reason, and I knew he was meant to be with me, here and now, to deal with whatever challenge was heading our way.
WOLF CHILD: A PNR RH Romance (The Year of the Wolf Book 1) Page 26
