by Juniper Hart
As the couple turned back toward the campsite, Annabelle lingered slightly behind and peered back into the woods. Then very slowly, almost as if she was afraid Jax would hear, she exhaled the breath she had been holding since he had appeared, startling her. She had not imagined anything; the creature was still crouched in the bushes, jade eyes unblinking and fixated on her as they had been since Jax had bent her down in front of the tree. It was definitely not a mountain lion.
Chapter Three
It was really not a shock that sleep would not come to her again that night. Annabelle’s mind was chaos as she willed her fiancé to fall back into slumber. When they returned to their tent, the sky was still black, but the slightest hint of navy was hitting the horizon, signaling that dawn was struggling to wake. Annabelle hoped that Jax would simply fall back asleep, but he popped open a beer can and chugged it down. To her relief, however, he was too spent to make any conversation, and as soon as he emptied the can, his head hit the pillow and he was snoring.
Annabelle wasted no time. She had a feeling that she would not find the animal in the light of day, that it was some wild, nocturnal creature. She did not bother treading lightly this time. She was back at the spot where she had last seen it minutes earlier, unconcerned about being caught by Jax or anyone else. All she knew was that this beast had some sort of control over her, and she needed to know what it was and why it was consuming her so fully. Any repercussions seemed trivial in comparison to figuring out what was watching her from the woods.
Annabelle stood exactly where she had been less than an hour earlier, flashing the weak light around. Disappointment filled her stomach as the beam produced nothing but glistening leaves. Where did you go? Come back! She was crying inside, but outwardly, she gritted her teeth and turned to leave. The flashlight was dying.
She groaned silently and walked away from the coniferous tree, heavy-hearted. What was happening was inexplicable. She had intense, undefinable feelings toward a being, which may or may not be a figment of her imagination. It defied all logic, but Annabelle had never experienced anything like that before. Regardless of the outcome, she needed to understand it.
Maybe you’re just going crazy, she reasoned. It would be a long time coming. Jax has probably pushed you over the edge, and now, and you’re hallucinating green-eyed beasts. With her feet swishing over soggy leaves, Annabelle could see the gray of dawn poking its way through the starry night. And then she heard it. The low, almost inaudible growl behind her. Whirling around, the fading flashlight slipped from her grasp as she turned to face the sound.
The creature stood directly at her back, a towering eight feet tall. He was a mass of wiry black fur on hind legs with two massive human arms, both covered with the same coarse hair. His barrel chest rose and fell like an accordion with every breath, as if he were about to emit fire from his diaphragm. Annabelle gasped, stepping back in shock. The combination of his sudden appearance and proximity had caused her heart to stop momentarily. As her eyes traveled up the strange dog-like paws and muscular, canine legs, her violet eyes reached his gleaming snarl. Long, vicious teeth gnashed in a fine line, the growl still reverberating from the depth of his chest. His long, crinkled snout flared with the exhaustive, labored breaths, but his eyes, his eyes were like unparalleled magnets, drawing her in and reading her soul.
Annabelle could not look away. An incredible sense of calm overwhelmed her, and she physically felt her shoulders drop as they stared at one another. She was completely lost in the depth of his surreal irises. Abruptly, the creature let out another enraged-sounding howl and leaped past her. By the time Annabelle had spun to watch, the were-creature had vanished, and this time she knew he was gone.
***
“Annabelle! Brock has asked you the same question three times!” Jax swatted his fiancée’s arm in a seemingly playful manner, but it was hard enough to jar her from her reverie. Blinking, Annabelle looked up at the boys. Everyone was staring at her expectantly, but she had no idea what they wanted.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you,” she replied, gently rubbing the spot where Jax had hit her.
“I just asked you if you wanted some coffee. You look like you’re about to fall asleep. I thought you went to bed early. Don’t tell me Jax woke you up to do the nasty!”
Annabelle forced a friendly smile and shook her head. She cleared her throat. “No…ah, I thought I heard an animal last night,” she started slowly, gauging the group for a reaction. “Did you guys hear anything?”
For obvious reasons, she did not mention a word of what she had seen, but she was curious if the beast aroused the suspicion of anyone else.
“Yeah, those damn owls are annoying as hell,” Julian piped up. “But if you had done some shots with us, you wouldn’t have heard a thing.”
He followed his words with a wink to show he was joking and handed her a steaming cup of coffee in a tin mug.
“No, I meant…like…a wolf maybe?” Annabelle started to feel foolish as the words left her lips. Jax was beginning to take on his characteristic scowl.
“Coyotes,” Alex snapped. “They’re just coyotes. They won’t bother you. Stop being such a babe in the woods, Annabelle.”
Annabelle clamped her mouth shut as the men chuckled.
“But she is!” Julian laughed. “She is a babe, and she’s in the woods!”
There was more laughter, and Annabelle fought the urge to run back into the trees as a blush stained her cheeks bright red.
“Leave her alone,” Jax piped in, quickly silencing the group.
Everyone looked down in embarrassment, and for a brief second, Annabelle actually liked him for the first time since she could remember. She could not recall a time he had ever come to her defense.
However, her rush of affection was short-lived as Jax continued to speak. “She doesn’t know the difference between a dog and a wolf!”
Again, the group exploded in laughter.
“Well maybe next time, Jax, you can leave your babe at home since she’s obviously uncomfortable out here,” Alex grumbled, a customary glare in his eyes.
Julian shook his head at Alex and then turned to Annabelle, his smile fading slightly as he caught her distraught expression. “Ah, we’re just kidding, Anna,” he said quickly, his beam completely vanishing. “Come on. It’s a beautiful day. I’ll load up the cooler. Let’s go to the beach.”
It was still early enough in the year that tourists had not started flocking the campgrounds, ruining the natural surroundings with noise and garbage. The downside was, the water had yet to be warmed by the summer sun, something Brock had not accounted for when he stripped down to his underwear and did a swan dive into the lake. When he resurfaced, his face was aghast; the wind knocked out of him by the almost freezing water.
“How is it?” Alex mocked, understanding the shocked expression on his buddy’s face. Brock swallowed hard and put a smile on his face.
“Awesome! Come on in!”
“Do I look like a stupid asshole named Brock? I thought you grew up in the great outdoors, army boy. Don’t you know better than to go headfirst into barely thawed lakes?”
Brock scowled back at him, his teeth chattering wildly. Sullenly, he paddled his way toward the sandy shore and into the early May sunlight. Brock had childlike facial features, wide brown eyes, crooked teeth, and a disarming, goofy smile, but his frame was that of an underwear model.
As she watched him emerge from the frigid blue water, his six-pack gleamed like a Roman god’s, muscles rippling from thigh to bicep. Elyse used to joke to Annabelle that if she could put a paper bag over his head, she would have dated him long ago. Annabelle found his entire package entirely endearing in a moderately disturbing way. Still, Brock was always kind to Annabelle, trying to make her comfortable and cracking silly jokes.
She idly wondered if Brock would make a good boyfriend. Probably better than Alex, Annabelle thought, as her gaze fell upon the brooding Slav, his glowering eyes in a perpetual
state of discontent. Alex had become friends with Jax’s circle right after college, and Annabelle wasn’t entirely sure from where he had materialized. Maybe he had been in the army with Brock? She couldn’t remember.
Alex never had a nice word for anything or anyone, and she found his sarcastic sense of humor off-putting. Elyse and her other childhood girlfriends had considered him intense and sexy, but Annabelle thought of him as a rebel without a cause. She was grateful she didn’t often have to spend time in his presence, and the feeling was apparently mutual.
Alex’s head of thick black waves jerked up suddenly, as if he sensed her staring at her. Their gazes locked for a moment, and Annabelle felt a fusion jolt through her body for a reason she could not fathom. She couldn’t remember a time when they had ever exchanged a glance. Alex’s full, sulky mouth thinned into a fine white line, and his eyelids narrowed.
“Drink this.” Brock thrust a beer into Annabelle’s hand, breaking the staring contest.
Glancing up at Brock, she wondered if that had been his way of saving her from Alex’s penetrating look. Annabelle started to shake her head, but Brock forced the beer can into her palm and closed her fingers around it. He gingerly sat down beside her, still shivering from the lake’s frigid temperatures. He looked around, and she followed his gaze.
Alex was skipping rocks into the lake now, his back to the two of them. Julian and Jax had begun throwing around a Frisbee, while Bryden had rediscovered his guitar. Someone had started a small fire in the pit when Annabelle wasn’t looking, and the smoke was billowing up in thin spirals toward the cloudless azure sky. Content that no one was in earshot, Brock leaned in close to Annabelle so she wouldn’t have to strain to hear his voice.
“We’re really glad you’re here, Anna,” he told her confidentially in a voice barely above a whisper. She looked up in surprise, both by Brock’s nearness to her and by the confession. While they had always been friendly, she had never really spent much one-on-one time with him.
“I’m glad you guys aren’t upset I’m here. Jax didn’t tell me that this trip was only for the boys. I wouldn’t have come if I would have known,” Annabelle replied, nervously, looking down at her hands.
Brock nodded and took a swig of his own beverage before saying, “Yes you would have, and we are upset.”
He sat back slightly and focused his eyes on Alex’s activity. Annabelle felt her back stiffen. She didn’t know if she was going to last the entire weekend knowing that all of the men were angry at her. She was already merely hanging on by a thread of sanity.
“Sorry,” she whispered instinctively, blinking back tears, but Brock was vehemently shaking his head.
“No, don’t say sorry. We’re not upset with you being here. We’re upset with Jax.”
Startled, Annabelle looked back up into Brock’s chocolate eyes, uncomprehendingly. Was there some sort of fight going on amongst the boys of which she was unaware? That wouldn’t be the first time the group had gotten into a testosterone-infused feud, and she really didn’t spend enough time in their company to know the details of what made them tick. Still, it was unlikely that Jax would bother going away on a weekend with them if they were in the midst of some petty argument.
“Why?” she finally asked. “What are you guys fighting about now?”
Brock shook his head sadly and picked up a twig. He started drawing circles in the damp sand.
“You.”
Annabelle felt her mouth drop open. Why would she ever be a topic of conversation among the boys?
“Me?” she gasped. “What about me?”
“Julian and I have been talking about the way Jax treats you.”
Every single word in Annabelle’s vocabulary flew out of her memory. All she was capable of was staring at Brock, mouth still agape.
“Why do you look so surprised, Anna? He treats you like shit.”
“No—” she started to deny his words, but suddenly stopped herself. “How do you know?”
Brock laughed mirthlessly. “Our boy, Jax, likes to think he is some great master of deception, but he’s a terrible actor. He couldn’t hide his true colors forever, Annabelle. He cheats on you. A lot. It’s not my place to say anything. You know, guy code. But, you don’t deserve it.”
She was silent for a moment, glancing angrily at her fiancé, who was still lost in his game, bantering loudly between Julian and Bryden. Jax was always accusing her of cheating, when in reality, he was the one being unfaithful. Deep down, she had known, but the confirmation of his two-timing stung.
“How long have you known?” Annabelle finally asked.
“About him cheating? It happened about the same time your personality changed, so I assume that’s when he started treating you so shitty. But we didn’t notice how badly he treated you until about two years ago. I heard him berating you at a house party in Crossbridge.”
Annabelle remembered the night well. She had stayed in her room for three days after that, contemplating running away from her life and starting new somewhere else. It had been the closest she had ever come to leaving Jax. She had no idea that anyone else had witnessed the harassment Jax committed against her that night.
“I started paying attention after that,” Brock continued. “I never really heard him directly scream at you again, but I started hearing the snarky tones he takes with you. I really noticed how much your personality changed. When I mentioned my suspicions to Julian, he pointed out how you never looked Jax in the eye. Eventually, you just stopped looking everyone in the eye.”
Annabelle was silent, as was Brock for a moment as he weighed out his next question. “Does he hit you, Annabelle?”
“No!” the answer was too forceful, but she needed Brock to understand that Jax had never touched her in an abusive manner.
“Are you sure?” Brock was cynical. “Never?”
“Never! He would never lay a hand on me, Brock!” In her excitement, Annabelle’s voice had raised two octaves. He put his hand on her bare arm to calm her.
“Okay, I believe you. Still, he shouldn’t talk to you the way he does. Julian and I have both spoken to him about it.”
Once again, Annabelle’s eyes widened. “What did he say?” she demanded.
“Well, he smiles, acts as if he’s embarrassed, and admits that sometimes he’s too hard on you, but honestly, I think it goes in one ear and out the other. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Julian and I want you to know that we are on your side. If you ever need to talk or you decide that you’ve had enough of his bullshit, we support you.”
Annabelle couldn’t stop the tears from slipping down her cheeks now. How long had she yearned for an ally, someone in whom to confide? She would have never believed that Jax’s own friends could be a source of security for her. On an emotional impulse, Annabelle threw her arms around Brock’s neck and drew him in for an embrace.
“Thank you,” she choked in his ear before he pulled away. Their eyes met, and he smiled comfortingly.
“Well isn’t this fucking cozy!” Brock and Annabelle jerked their heads up, Brock using his hand to shield his eyes from the bright sunlight. Jax stood towering over the two, his steel-colored eyes icy.
“Get up, Annabelle,” Jax hissed.
Brock looked shocked by his tone, and the knot which had begun to unravel in Annabelle’s stomach now threatened to rise into her throat. Suddenly, Annabelle realized Brock’s hand was still on her arm, and she wrenched it away as if she was on fire. Quickly and obediently, she started to rise, but before she could stand, Brock reached out, grabbing her by the hand and yanked her back onto the beach blanket, jumping to his own feet to match Jax’s stance.
“What’s your problem, buddy?” Brock asked conversationally, but through clenched teeth. “Anna and I can’t have a conversation anymore?”
“My problem, buddy,” Jax snarled back, “is that you’ve got your hands on my girl.”
“Oh come on, Jax. He was barely touching her,” Julian cried, jogging up to join them fro
m down the beach. He could sense the danger in the air and forced a laugh to lighten the mood.
“Brock and Anna are like brother and sister. Lighten up.” Julian reached out to turn Jax away from Brock, wanting to put distance between the two men before the situation escalated.
Unexpectedly, Jax whipped away from Julian and reached down to grab Annabelle’s onyx curls in his fist. “I said get up, bitch!”
Annabelle howled out, more in anxiety than pain, and Jax dragged her several feet before throwing her ruthlessly onto the sand near the gentle waves of the shore. Bryden rose from the campfire, his beloved guitar falling to the ground in an acoustic groan.
“Woah, what the fuck, Jax?” yelled the gentle giant, striding toward the group. The men had never seen such a vicious, venomous side of him.
“Mind your own fucking business, Bryden!” He turned to glower at Brock. “And you, keep your goddamn hands off Annabelle.”
A furious Brock covered the space between them and tackled his friend to the grains of sand, punching Jax’s fair cheeks with both fists without reservation.
Annabelle screamed as blood spurted fountain-like over both men. Time slowed to a trickle. Annabelle whipped her head to block out the blows, her hands raised to her beautiful face. As she did, a pair of iridescent green irises bored into hers. The creature was beside her, but he was not the same. Reality seemed like an illusion, and Annabelle could not merge the two concepts.
A monotonous, deep cry of, “No!” echoed through her ears. As she turned back to watch the scuffle, she saw the gleaming steel of a knife in Jax’s hand. Brock’s face was paused in an awful grimace of confusion and agony as the hunting tool plunged into his taut stomach.
