Her dark chocolate brown eyes and strong bone structure, was replaced with light green eyes and softer more delicate features. Her face became fuller and a little more rounded, more youthful. Walking into the campsite, she would easily pass for a young teenager, exactly what Gerald seemed to be attracted to.
“Hello?” Softening her voice, making herself sound somewhat timid, she called out while stomping noisily into the clearing.
“What?” Gerald grumbled, shoving the bound girl away from him, he stumbled towards the entrance of the tent. “What do you want?” He growled. Grasping the zipper and yanking it down, he wrenched the flap open and stared at her with a scowl on his face. The light from the tent spilled out, reaching where she stood a couple feet away. His attitude changed when he saw that another young naïve looking girl stood within his grasp. His frown turned into a leering evil grin.
Amber could almost read his mind. He assumed he had another victim to play with.
“I’m looking for my dog.” Amber thought quickly, moving closer into the camp. She knew with her werewolf genetics she was a lot stronger than him, so she wasn’t worried about getting hurt if he attacked her. With him being so drunk, she could easily knock him away from her. The dilemma was she had no idea how she was going help the girl he held captive inside. She just had to keep him from harming her any more than she had a feeling he already had, to get her away from him. Keeping her face calm despite the fact that she was seething inside at what he had more than likely done to this poor girl. She could feel her wolf pushing at her.
“Where’d you come from?” Gerald’s words were slurred, openly ogling her full breasts.
She had the ability to alter her face, unfortunately not her body. While her face looked young, her body was that of a grown young woman. Amber sucked in an agitated deep breath and regretted doing so when his stench and high level of testosterone hit her again. He thought he was being inconspicuous, but she could see him inching forward, moving slowly closer towards her. It was obvious he was trying to get within reach so he could reach out and grab her. Her wolf pushed, wishing he would lay a hand on her so she could tear him apart. Mentally telling herself she had to calm down. The goal was to get the girl out safely not to rip the man to shreds, she wasn’t there to kill anyone. So, she moved away, subtly looking around the camp, but remaining aware of Gerald at the same time.
Feigning innocence of the dangers around her, she rambled on, trying to act and speak like a typical teenager would. She pointed towards the side of the mountain where the other campsites were located and began rambling. “This is our first time camping up here. My parents are over there a little ways.” She found it hard to appear as if she had no clue and was an innocent teenage girl, especially since she had never been a typical teen.
His campsite was deeper in the woods, away from all the other sites. Jogging and hiking was her way of scoping out an area whenever she came to a new place. Doing so usually made her completely aware of her surroundings. She wanted to kick herself for not exploring further into the woods, for not finding this site sooner.
A noise from the tent made Gerald whip his head around. Amber reacted immediately and took advantage of the diversion. Stepping forward with her left foot, swiveling her hip, she brought her right leg around. Leaning her body forward slightly, her round house kick was swift and the top of her foot made a solid connecting thump with the side of his face. She knew he never saw it coming. Gerald’s head snapped sideways and he landed on the ground in a heap, out cold.
Rushing towards the tent and pulling the flap open, she peered inside. A young girl around sixteen years old was cowering in the corner, trying her best to cover her nakedness by rolling into the fetal position. She was blindfolded and gagged. The girl’s hands were bound above her head with duct tape and an extremely short chain was wrapped crudely around her wrist, cutting into her skin. She couldn’t get away because he had pounded a cast iron stake through the chain, the tent floor and into the ground. There was no way the girl could escape without help.
Amber’s stomach heaved at the thought of the things this man had done and she wanted to throw up again. Cuts and bruises on the girl’s back, buttocks and thighs were proof of what abuse Gerald had subjected her to. Amber’s body began trembling with rage. Stepping forward without thinking, she touched the girls shoulder. When the girl screamed into her gag and began thrashing her body around. It hadn’t occurred to Amber that the girl had not heard her talking to Gerald. She moved away and spoke softly, “I’m not going to hurt you. Do you understand?” She knew the girl was probably in shock and would fight if she didn’t calm her down and make her understand she was there to help.
At the sound of a woman’s voice addressing her, the girl stopped her panicked thrashing and she urgently turned her unseeing face when she heard the voice speaking again, but she continued whimpering.
“I’m going to get you outta here.” Amber moved closer with her hand outstretched, but didn’t try to touch her again. “I’m going to have to touch you, okay?”
When the girl gave a hesitant nod Amber moved in, pulling the blindfold from around her head and the gag away from her mouth. The girl began sobbing. Her entire body trembled in fear, wracked with pain. With a terrified look on her face she stared over Amber’s shoulder at the tent entrance and back to her face several times, whispering in a hoarse voice. “Hurry, he’ll come back!”
“It’s okay, I knocked him out, but we do have to hurry.” When the girl kept squirming Amber grabbed her hands in a firm hold to still her frantic movements. “I can’t free your hands if you keep moving around.” Amber was growing frustrated the more she rushed to get her lose. Her stomach was rolling and her eyes were blurring again. Knowing it was too early for the change, but if for some odd reason it happened, she didn’t want the girl to fall victim to her uncontrollable blood lust.
Amber stood and grabbed the stake. With a grunt, she used her legs and ripped the two foot long pole out of the ground with ease. Slipping the chain from around her wrist, Amber looked around and saw the bowie knife on the small table by the entrance of the tent. Turning back to the girl she cut through the duct tape, freeing her wrist. The stake, chain and duct tape was tossed aside.
The girl had stopped moving and was staring at her with wide eyes. “How did you do that?”
Amber gave her a weak smile, shrugging. The girl had probably tried to remove the stake herself without any luck and wondered how she had been able to pull it out. She could blame it on adrenaline, or suggest that maybe she had loosened it for her. It didn’t matter. What mattered was getting the girl to safety and away from this hell hole. She motioned towards the flap.
Grabbing one of the grungy shirts from the floor of the tent, Amber offered it to her so she could cover up.
“I would rather be naked than have anything of his touching me again.” The girl shuddered, shaking her head with tearful disgust.
Amber nodded. With her hand touching her shoulder she urged her forward and rushed them out of the tent.
Looking around the camp, the girl spotted where Gerald lay in a lifeless heap on the ground. Even though her body hurt and she ran a bit stiffly, she rushed over and kicked him in the face and belly a couple times before being pulled away.
Amber completely understood her rage and wished she could allow her to kick the shit out of the bastard, but she had to get her out of the campsite in case her kicks jarred him from unconsciousness. She didn’t think it would be a good idea for her to have to kill Gerald with the girl as a witness.
“We might be in trouble if he wakes up. Come on, we have to go.” Amber urged while she stared down at Gerald for a moment before turning away, noticing that the girl was glaring at his prone form with hatred. “You have to remember what he looks like. Do you understand?” The girl looked back at her with a frown. “You may have to identify him as your attacker.” Amber wasn’t sure if she understood.
She frowned, but nodded her head
in agreement.
“I have some clothes in my car, let’s go.” Running through the trees, Amber navigated them through the brush with ease and kept the girl from tripping and falling. When they reached the jeep, she quickly grabbed the backpack from the small toolbox mounted on the back. She closed her eyes a moment when the familiar scent wafted through her senses and she felt the nudging on her mind. A flashback of Blake at the shelter flitted through her mind. The memories assaulted her of how she had left him behind, how she missed talking to him and the heart stopping kiss they had shared the last day she had seen him. Shaking her head slightly to clear her thoughts, she didn’t have time to dwell on the distant past, she began digging through the pack and pulled out a pair of old faded blue jeans and a t-shirt that had seen better days. With a doubtful look on her face, she held up the clothes, and then pushed them towards the girl. “I know these will probably swallow you, but they will have to work for now.”
She accepted the clothes, reaching out with a timid hand to take them. With quick jerking movements, she slipped them on, covering her naked body. She kept looking over her shoulder nervously, worried that the sick son of a bitch was going to come after her any second. .
Amber kept watch towards the direction of the campsite and urged the girl to hurry. She was a good five or six inches shorter than she was, like Amber feared they would, the clothing swallowed her. Glancing back at the girl she felt sorry for her. She could hear her heart pounding and the quick intakes of breaths from the pain of her movements. To get her mind off of Gerald she started asking her questions.
“What’s your name?” Amber’s brows drew together in a frown. She had no idea what she was going to do.
“Hanna Barton.” The girl mumbled without meeting her eyes.
The whisper of clothing rustling caught her attention and Amber whipped her head in the direction of the campsite. She not so gently pushed Hanna towards the door of the jeep, encouraging her to hurry and get in. She was surprised she’d heard the sounds of Gerald stirring at the campsite since it was so far away from the road. The distant sounds filtered through her senses and her entire body became alert. Running around the front of the jeep to the driver’s side door, she yanked it open and jumped in. Then she heard his loud cursing and thrashing sounds echoing through the trees.
Hanna glanced over her shoulder, a horrified look on her face at the thought of him fighting his way through the woods and getting her again.
Gerald crashed noisily through the brush and they could hear him yelling.
The look on Hanna’s face told Amber that she was terrified. The open jeep offered no protection at all. Amber wished she had thought to put the top up, but the material and plastic would offer little shelter if he were to reach them. She should have grabbed the knife she had used to cut the duct tape and brought it with her instead of tossing it back onto the table. The thought crossed her mind of telling Hanna to stay put so she could go kill him and just get it over with.
It tore at her heart. It was the innocent children who always seemed to pay for adult’s stupidity. Refraining from reacting like she really wanted to, she frowned and glared at the mirror. Pushing in the clutch, the jeep began rolling, turning the key, the engine fired right up. Pulling off the shoulder, the tires crunched in the loose gravel and dirt, and then hit packed dirt. His battered form came into view of her rearview mirror once he stumbled free of the woods.
“I will hunt you down and kill you both!” The jeep fled down the highway, Gerald screamed in frustration when it left him in a cloud of dust.
Amber couldn’t help but think, join the club. After all, being on the run was her way of life, being chased and hunted was nothing new to her. She knew he couldn’t see much in the darkness and the cloud of dust her tires had kicked up when she’d spun them tearing away from the side of the road. There was no way for him to see her license plate and hoped he was still intoxicated enough that he wouldn’t recognize her vehicle from the bar’s parking lot. There were plenty of people who drove jeeps around in the mountains, so it was not a major concern. But what did concern her was Hanna, who was staring, terrified, out the back window at the dark road behind them. Tears were sliding down her bruised and dirty cheeks.
She knew she was becoming way too involved. Taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly, Amber knew it was time for her to get out of town. But she couldn’t leave Gerald to go after other young girls or possibly find Hanna again. From the conversation in the bar, Gerald had lived in the area all his life. She couldn’t help but wonder how many other girls he had abused this way. A thought struck her and she quickly glanced at Hanna again. More than likely, she had saved the girl’s life. A man with a sick mind like Gerald’s would not just abuse and release his victims. If there were others, there would be bodies. A chill ran down Amber’s spine. She felt a strange nudging at her mind, and couldn’t push the brutal thoughts away.
“Buckle up, Hanna. I’m taking you to the hospital. You can call your parents from there.” Amber tried to sound calm, but felt far from it.
Hanna shook her head. “I, I, I can’t call my parents.” Her voice was strained with tears and she stared at her filthy, bloody hands clenched together in her lap.
Realizing she was still driving with her lights off, Amber switched them on. She didn’t want the girl questioning how she could see to drive and they were far enough away so Gerald would not be able to catch up to them. Out of the corner of her eye she could see that Hanna was scrunched down in the seat and got the impression she was trying to make herself disappear and frowned. “Why can’t you call them?”
Hanna didn’t appear to notice the lights come on. On top of everything else, she was obviously stressed about calling her parents. Her hand lifted and swiped her hair out of her face, and kept it there, her voice was muffled. “I ran away from home a month or so ago because they don’t want me anymore.”
That one small statement made Amber’s heart leap into her throat and her hands gripped the steering wheel tightly. The vivid memory of hearing she was not wanted either came flooding back. The horrible night flashed through her mind, hearing her mother’s screams while her pack attacked and forced her mother to return to their territory. The words Tommy, the Councils hit man, had spoken were burned into her memory. “By Council’s orders, I am here to return you, Winona Gray Hamilton, runaway pack member, back to the den. Council leader Isaac Whiting has ordered that your daughter be brought before the Council. You are a disgrace to your bloodline and your mutt will be dealt with by the Council.” Amber knew if she were to ever be caught or return to the territory she would be dealt with severely. Her entire body tensed. If the pack found her, they would kill her. So yeah, she knew exactly how it felt to not be wanted.
With Hanna it had to be different. Her parents weren’t going to kill her. And since she was human, she needed help for the physical and mental abuse she had suffered.
Unlike a werewolf, the human body would not heal properly if left untreated. Mentally, even as a werewolf, there would always be scars. Amber knew about mental scars. Pushing those thoughts away she stared out the windshield, watching the glowing white line flash by while she headed down the highway.
“You need to at least get to the hospital.” She didn’t want to bring it up, but knew she had to. “Hanna you were raped and need to be checked.” Wincing inwardly at having to say the words, she glanced at Hanna and hoped like hell the prick hadn’t gotten her pregnant. At Amber’s words, Hanna’s head hung lower, her mangled hair dropping down to cover the tears running freely down the girls face. Amber gripped the steering wheel. The one sob that escaped was heartbreaking and Amber wanted to cry right along with her.
While she drove on in silence, Hanna cried quietly beside her. Overwhelming sadness brought back vivid memories of the story her mother had told her of how she had been conceived. Her mother had shifted unexpectedly, a month before her sixteenth birthday. Without the proper precautions in place, her shift had
thrown the males into a mating frenzy and her mother’s siblings had been killed in the process. Her mother had ran when she found out she was pregnant. After giving birth, her mother had remained on the run with her until the pack had tracked them down fifteen years later and took her mother back. She had escaped capture because her grandfather had intervened and his driver had dropped her off at Moonlight Shelter. The words a place for unwanted werewolves echoed through her mind. As far as she knew, her mother had never tried to find her and in a way was glad she hadn’t. With how badly women were treated, Amber never wanted to be a part of any pack. But it did lead to a lonely life on the run. She thought of her attraction to Ryan earlier that afternoon. The thoughts of what had happened to her mother made her wonder. If she had been in a pack, would she have already made the change like all the other females? When she made her change would her hormones have triggered the pack to attack as her mother’s had if she had not taken her away? It all seemed so barbaric to her. And so was what Gerald was doing. Snapping out of her own thoughts, she knew what she had to do. She had to stop him from doing this again.
Out of the corner of her eye she could see Hanna. She was trembling in the passenger seat, but she had stopped crying. The night air felt good to Amber though she had a feeling the wind was probably too cool against Hanna’s tender abused skin and wished she had something warm to cover her up with. It was a good thing they were not far from the hospital or she would have had to stop and get her something warmer to wear. The heater was on full blast, but did little against the cool night air whipping through the open jeep. She would be able to get warm when she got to the hospital. However, before they reached the entrance, Amber knew she had to get some answers from Hanna.
A Justified Kill (Heart of a Wolf - Amber's Tale) Page 3
