by Angela Foxxe
“You’ve been fed a lot of lies,” Paul said gently. “We still have cell towers and houses there, though getting food and other resources in is difficult. Most of what we have comes from north of the border.”
“How is that?”
“The media in other countries wasn’t so easily duped by my father,” Annie said. “We have been fed what the people in power want us to believe for a long time; even before The Zone was created.
“You were fooled like everyone else,” Paul said, his voice soft and completely without judgment. “I figured it would be better to show you, instead of just telling you.”
“So, what else have we been told that isn’t true?” Sabrina wondered aloud, every hit and every mark going through her head and crushing her.
She sat down, the weight of it all too much. Paul was beside her then, arm around her and pulling her close.
“You didn’t know,” he said, trying to reassure her. “You couldn’t have known that you were working for the wrong side.”
Annie moved closer, Richard right behind her with his hands on her shoulders. Annie knelt so she was eye level with Sabrina.
“I didn’t know, either. I campaigned for my father, convincing people that exiling shifters was what was best for the country. People died being forced from their homes to The Zone. I hold that guilt, too. But you can’t dwell on it. Now that you know the truth, what you do now is all that matters. You either go back and hope that they don’t kill you, or you stand with us.”
Sabrina shook her head.
“I can’t go back. Not knowing what I know. And even if I could, I can guarantee you that Decker has no intention of letting me live. He’s concocted a story in his head. If I don’t fall into that story on my own, then he’ll shove me in. I don’t really have a choice.”
“You always have a choice,” Paul said. “And if you won’t be happy with us, I can take you to the border. You can seek immunity in Canada. Decker can’t touch you there, and you can live your life the way you want.”
Sabrina shook her head again.
“There is no way. I have to set right everything I did wrong. The only way to do that is to fight for the truth and help you expose Decker.”
“I understand,” Annie said. “When I realized how much I had done to help my father do this, I felt ill. I couldn’t believe I had been so easily tricked.”
“How did you find out? I don’t understand how you and Richard ended up together if you were in Denver with your father.”
Annie looked at Paul and Paul shrugged.
“You didn’t tell her,” Annie said, a look of dismay on her face.
“I didn’t want to sway her opinion. I wanted to make sure that, if she chose to come with us, it was completely her choice.”
“It’s what she was meant to do,” Annie argued. “You know this better than most.”
“Haven’t told me what?” Sabrina asked, looking at Paul. “Is this about the dreams, or why you were watching me?”
“We should go,” Richard said suddenly.
He looked to Annie, who nodded and grabbed his hand. They disappeared into the woods as quickly as they had come, leaving Paul and Sabrina on the large boulder that Sabrina had sat down on.
“We need to leave,” Paul said. “You saw that video. Ten million dollars is a lot of money.”
“I want answers, Paul.”
“You will get them when we’re safe.”
“I’m not leaving until I know what’s going on. What was Annie talking about? Why do you all speak in riddles and never explain what you’re saying? I already spent part of my life blindly following Tom Decker, thinking he was a good guy. I don’t want to spend another minute with the wool over my eyes.”
“I will tell you. But there is something in the woods that doesn’t belong, I can feel it.”
“Paul, I won’t-”
There was a crack in the distance, and the tree behind Paul rained tree bark over them. Paul grabbed her hand, pulling her so fast that she almost didn’t have a chance to reach out and grab her backpack. She threw it over her shoulder, running behind him and into the dense foliage.
They were going in a different direction than Annie and Richard had gone, but Sabrina didn’t have time to mention it to Paul. They were running for their lives again; the sound of the rifle being fired again filling the wilderness and making it almost impossible to tell where the shot had been fired from.
Paul pulled her down a narrow path, running headlong into the shaded woods. Sabrina struggled to keep up, her body exhausted from the trek they had already taken today, but she pushed through it. When the ground slanted and she began sliding, she relaxed and let her body slide down the steep hill in the slippery pine needles that covered the hillside. She didn’t try to slow her fall, too tired to fight gravity. When she fell, she yanked at Paul, he lost his footing and slid beside her.
When the terrain grew rough and the hillside leveled out some, she slowed, then slammed into a rock jutting out from the ground. The force jarred her, but she was uninjured. Paul was on his feet again, yanking her up and running for a small, delipidated cabin in the middle of the small meadow.
When Paul ran into the cabin and pulled her behind, she almost protested. They would be sitting ducks in this cabin, and it was only a matter of time before the hunter caught up with them and killed them. But her dream flashed in her mind’s eye, and she knew that this moment was the one the dream had been referencing. They were being shot at, and the bullets had missed. Paul was leading her to safety, even if it didn’t seem that way.
He ran into the cabin’s only room, shutting the bedroom door and going straight for an upright log supporting the inner wall. He felt around, his movements calm, though his face showed that he was hurried.
When Sabrina heard an audible click, she saw relief wash over his face as he pulled open the wall and ushered her inside. He closed the wall behind them, taking her down a flight of stairs in the darkness and then pulling her along as their feet slapped the packed, damp dirt below them.
He led her in the dark for what seemed like miles before the tunnel finally started climbing steadily. Sabrina slowed, the day catching up with her as their way became more difficult.
“We’re almost there,” he urged her, his quiet voice echoing around in the chamber despite its low volume.
They heard a noise behind them, the sound of boots on the stairs in the distance loud. Sabrina found her second wind, pushing herself to her breaking point and beyond, running blind in the darkness.
“Stairs,” Paul said, his words registering a split second before her boot connected with the bottom step.
She half tripped, half stumbled up the stairs, finally catching her footing the fourth step up and following Paul into the light.
They burst out of the tunnel and into another cabin, five muzzles pointed at them before they were suddenly lowered.
“We have a pursuer,” Paul said, grabbing Sabrina by both arms and lifting her out of the tunnel.
He moved her behind him, pushing her back so that they were behind the circle of guards watching the tunnel, and out of the range of fire. Sabrina bent over at the waist, watching the tunnel’s opening through her peripheral vision while she struggled to catch her breath.
When a man’s grizzled face appeared in the opening, his eyes were locked on her. He smiled, and then he saw the men standing around the entrance and his smile faded.
“Go back the way you came,” one of the men said, sliding the action on his rifle and putting a bullet in the chamber. “Leave the forest and don’t return again. You are hunting on private lands and you will be prosecuted.”
The man glared at them, but made no move to reach his gun.
“Senator Decker declared a free hunt for the next seventy-two hours,” the man said, his tone gruff. “I can hunt in your forest if I want.”
“Senator Decker has no jurisdiction in Wyoming, and his laws don’t reach The Zone,” the guard said, his
voice never wavering. “Leave on your own two feet or in a pine box. Your choice.”
The men glared at each other, and then finally, the hunter backed away, going back the way he had come with nothing to show for his efforts. Sabrina let out a sigh of relief, collapsing against Paul.
“Are we here now?” she asked, so tired that she could barely stand.
“We are close,” Paul said softly. “But from here, we’ll take my truck.”
“Thank goodness,” Sabrina said, and she meant it. “What about Annie and Richard?”
“They’re fine,” one of the guards said. “They drove through the checkpoint a little bit ago.”
“Why didn’t we follow them and let them drive?” Sabrina wondered, letting Paul lead her out of the larger cabin and out onto a gravel walkway that led to a large parking lot that had once served as parking for a national park visitor’s center.
“Because you were so busy arguing that I knew there was no way to catch up with them before they made it to the car.” He grabbed a magnetic hide-a-key box from under the wheel well and pulled out a key fob with an ignition key, disarming his truck. “Besides, this was much more exciting, wasn’t it?”
He helped her into the truck, setting her down on the soft leather seat, his hands lingering on her hips a little longer than they should have.
“It was,” Sabrina said, leaning against the back of the chair and melting into it. She closed her eyes. “But I’m done with excitement right now. I’ve had all the excitement I can stand right now.”
The engine started up, and the chair beneath her grew warm, working the tightness out of her back and neck slowly as Paul guided the large pickup down the street unhurried.
“I guess you won’t mind if I take you home, then,” he said, chuckling.
“Home, a hotel, a nice ditch with a pillow; I don’t care. I just want a warm bed and a few hours to sleep without someone shooting at me.”
Paul laughed, squeezing her leg gently and then patting her knee.
“I can take care of that,” he said. “I’ll wake you up when we get there.”
He turned to look at her, waiting for her answer, but she was already asleep.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Parking at the top of his long, winding driveway, Paul turned and looked at Sabrina. A tender smile touched his lips when he saw her there, face slack, arms folded on the armrest and head resting on her hands. She had been through hell that day; more than he had ever imagined a human body could take. Yet she hadn’t complained one bit, only speaking up when she had a serious issue, and even then, not often.
The clock on the dash read eight, more than seven hours since they had first dumped the car and evaded the HLF agents disguised as police officers. They had been easy to spot, with their expensive equipment and their hard gazes. They were more militia than peace officers. Sabrina had genuinely seemed to be unaware that her own people were at the roadblock and after her, her very life in danger as it had never been in her presence.
She had given her heart and soul to HLF, and she had respected that same amount of loyalty in return. He didn’t know how she was going to take the news that she had been betrayed by people that she had worked in the field with, but he was sure that the betrayal would sting.
He closed his door quietly, doing his best not to wake her up. Going around the front of the truck, he opened her door slowly and scooped her up, shushing her when she stirred and kicking the door closed with his foot. She blinked, but fell right back to sleep without so much as a word to him.
He smiled again. She was tough, independent and intelligent, but there was a softness to her that was unmistakable. She had joined HLF because she had believed that there was a need to protect the human species. Her heart had been in the right place, but she had fallen prey to the lies that everyone had been fed about WereLions and their families. She had taken the truth well, and she had followed her heart and joined him without question when the truth had been revealed to her.
He had been right about her all along, and even though he’d had to go after her earlier than he planned, it was working out for the best and he was happy to have her in his arms and his home.
He went into the house, cradling her in one arm when he needed to use his other hand. The house was quiet, the rooms lit only by the occasional nightlight. He went down the hall, bypassing the guest room and taking her straight to his room. He pulled back the sheets, laying her down on the soft pillows. She moaned in her sleep, her overworked muscles stiff and protesting.
He removed her shoes, setting them on the floor beside her and then tucking her into the bed. She let out a soft sigh that tugged at his heartstrings. She was more beautiful than he had realized, and every time he looked at her, he wanted to touch her.
He wrestled with his feelings, walking away from her was so hard even though he had every intention of being right back. She was safe here, and there was no way for Decker and his men to get within ten miles of Paul’s house without an all-out war breaking out. The heavy gate at the end of his driveway and the high walls were just a precaution, ensuring that his home remained a safe place for anyone inside. The mass removal of WereLions from the homes they once knew had caught him off-guard and unprepared. Paul would never find himself in that position again if he could help it.
He turned on the water in the shower, leaving the door open so he could hear Sabrina if she called out to him. He stripped out of his clothes, tossing them in the hamper and stepping into the welcoming heat of the spray.
He soaped up quickly, rinsing off and repeating again until he felt the day begin to wash away. Sabrina wasn’t the only one who had been pushed to their limit that day, but Paul was just grateful that they had both survived. Sabrina had no idea how close she had come to taking the bullet that had lodged itself in the tree behind them, and Paul felt sick every time he thought of it.
He would have killed that hunter with his bare hands if he hadn’t been so busy trying to get her out of there. The announcement by Tom Decker had surely begun a free-for-all , and getting Annie and Sabrina out of the woods and back across the border had been much more important than settling the score with a hunter who was only doing what Tom Decker had announced needed done. The man had fooled a nation, and Paul didn’t blame the masses for that. He blamed Tom Decker for being a snake in the grass.
The stiffness was slowly but surely working its way out of his muscles , his body starting to heal itself already. The drop off the cliff and into the river had been brutal, but Paul couldn’t believe how brave Sabrina had been. She had heeded the promise of the dream, trusting him when it seemed like he was leading her right into trouble. Her faith in him had made the going easier for both of them, and that faith had probably saved her life.
He stepped out of the shower, drying off and opening the mirrored door to the large, walk-in closet in his master bath. He selected a plaid pair of pajama pants and a white cotton shirt. As much as he wanted to slip into bed naked beside her, he had to remember that this was all new to her. Paul had been getting to know her very soul for months, but the dreams hadn’t come to Sabrina until recently.
Fate hadn’t planned on Paul needing to save her this early, and he had to remember to give her a chance to catch up. Even a Fated Mate could be driven away by a WereLion who refused to give her time to come to grips with something that most humans couldn’t understand.
He stepped onto the lush carpet, sighing when his bare feet sunk into the heavy fibers. It had been a stroke of luck that he had already bought this house as a second home when The Zone was established. Not that he had wanted to leave his home in south Florida, but he had seen the writing on the wall and purchased this house in southern Montana as a backup plan, unaware that it would soon become his only plan.
He looked up and stopped, surprised to see her looking at him, her head still pressed into the down pillow.
“You’re awake,” he said, sitting down on the edge of the bed beside her.
&
nbsp; “I hurt,” she said matter-of-factly. “I need to soak in some hot water or do something, or I’m going to feel like hell in the morning.”
“Would you like to take a bath? I have some bath salts that help with tense muscles, and the tub has jets.”
“That sounds heavenly. Yes, I would like that very much.”
She sat up, wincing as she moved, but stood up on her own and made her way to the bathroom. Paul followed her, indicating the walk-in closet while he went to work filling the tub and spreading the fragrant bath salts in the hot water.
“I don’t have any clothes that will really fit you, but if you want to sleep in one of my shirts, they’re in that closet.”
She looked at him, laughing softly.
“I think this is the first time that you have ever offered to dress me instead of undress me. It’s a surprising change.”
“We’re both exhausted, and I thought you might like to be comfortable.”
“I’m just teasing you,” she said, grabbing one of his well-worn shirts and tossing it on the counter. “It’s been a long day and I’m ready to call it.”
“Well, the good news is that you can sleep until you wake up. I’m holding a meeting here tomorrow night, and we’re going to figure out what our next move is, now that Decker has declared open season on our species. I have no doubt in my mind that he will announce that you have been killed and extend the license free hunting indefinitely. We need a plan.”
He stopped, noting that Sabrina was trying without success to remove her shirt.
“Here,” he said, going to her. “Let me help you.”
“Thank you,” she said, holding her arms up slightly and letting him work the fabric over her arms and then her head.
“Whoa,” he said when he had the shirt out of the way. “No wonder you’re hurting. You need to have that looked at.”
He stepped out of the way so she could see her reflection in the mirror. Sabrina gasped, gently touching the edges of the large bruise that covered the side of her ribs and wincing.
