I’ve got to get out of here. No way in hell am I allowing myself to be trapped inside another cage.
Cara went over to the closet. True to the traits of his gender she found most of the clothing piled up on the floor. There were a few shirts hanging in the closet. She ran her hand over the thick material in awe of the quality.
The green shirt would probably serve as the best camouflage. She removed the shirt from the hanger and slipped it on over her head. It hung low on her, almost to her knees. Cara opened up drawers and found torn shorts with elastic waistbands.
Sifting through the pile of them she found a pair that would be long enough to offer her a bit of warmth. Once she had them on she went to the closed door and listened.
Nothing. Maybe they are all sleeping?
She turned the knob and pulled the door inward, peeking out into the hallway she met the eyes of a man similar to Darian in coloring and in the look of distain Darian gave her in his wolf form.
Uneasiness knotted in her stomach. This shifter did not look as tolerant of her as Darian had and even he told her he didn’t want her around. He was just stuck with her since he bit her.
Cara stood a bit straighter meeting his distant gaze. “Darian said that I’m part of the pack.”
“I know.” The man with dark curly black hair answered.
The tone of his voice left no mystery as to how he felt about her presence. Good, so he won’t stop me from leaving.
Cara exited the room and turned left. It was the way she’d seen Darian go when he’d left the room.
“Where are you going?” The shifter asked.
A quick glance over her shoulder and Cara saw that he was following her. “Are you my prison guard or what?”
“This isn’t a prison. It’s our home.”
“So, leave me alone and let me explore it,” Cara snarled right back. She continued walking. The shifter waited until she was several yards away before he began following her again.
You are my prison guard, aren’t you?
Cara jogged down the wide stair case and pushed open the double doors at the bottom. She thought she was outside and free to make a break for it but she was wrong. The double doors opened up into a large courtyard.
People were talking but as soon as she stepped out silence filled the courtyard. A woman reached down and snatched up a small child holding the toddler close as if saving him from Cara.
The man at her side began shifting. It was like a train reaction. Once he started shifting so did the rest of the pack. Everyone except for Cara and the young children.
Cara was terrified but what could she do? Run? They’d just catch her and besides she already knew that predators liked to chase, catch and kill.
She remained still for several moments listening to the low growl emitting from the pack collectively.
“Remain still,” the man with the dark curly black hair told her from behind her.
Cara spotted another door across the way.
I need to try that door and see if I can find an exit in this place.
Putting one foot in front of the other Cara started across the courtyard. The steady growl grew louder the closer she came to the pair in the center of the courtyard.
“You don’t like me, and I don’t like you,” Cara said. “Let me pass and I’ll get out of here and leave you alone.”
The black wolf with green eyes snarled. Its ears flattened as its black lips curled back, revealing sharp teeth. Cara looked past the black wolf at the doors.
Live in this cage or escape Cara. Pick one.
Cara continued forward as though the wolf wasn’t blocking her path.
“Cara, stop,” the guy at the double doors told her. “Jules is warning you to stop.”
“She’s not the alpha though, is she?” Cara said looking directly at the green eyes of the wolf.
A pair of yellow and white wolves walked in front of Cara blocking her path by Jules. These wolves were not behaving in the same aggressive manner.
Cara walked around them and continued to the door. There was only five more feet to cross and she’d make it to the doors.
Just as she neared the door a black and gray wolf circled into her path. The dark eyes of the wolf peered at her around the snarl and flash of teeth he was showing her.
“If you were going to hurt me you would have done it by now,” Cara told him, but really, she was trying to reassure herself. The clap of his jaws made her jump inside. She managed to keep a calm exterior. Cara refused to back away.
The werewolves behind Cara began to shift back into their human forms.
“Rafi, stand down. She is not threatening you,” A woman with long blond hair said.
The black and gray wolf didn’t budge.
Cara thought she saw anger in the eyes of the wolf.
Darian will be back soon and I won’t be able to escape.
She stepped forward. Rafi snapped at her ankles and despite her best efforts she stepped back.
The snarl that cracked through the air was like whip. Everyone behind her seemed to shrink back and away. Cara had an overwhelming need to bow low to the ground. She fought the urge but it was like fighting against gravity in a freefall. Cara fell onto her hands and knees as the white wolf of Darian attacked Rafi.
Powerful hands took hold of her and pulled her back and away from the battle. Cara couldn’t take her eyes off of the two wolves rolling, and crashing into columns. She saw flashes of white teeth, around clash of black and white fur standing up on end.
Blood.
Red marked the ground where they continued to war.
“Stop it,” Cara yelled at them but they didn’t even slow.
“Stay back,” the blond woman told Cara.
Cara took a small step back not sure what good it would do. “Why are they fighting?”
“Rafi threatened you. He snapped at you.”
But, he didn’t even touch me. I’m not even part of this pack.
The concrete cracked as Darian slammed Rafi onto the ground. It was a brutal sound, filled with pain, and unyielding power. The black wolf rolled onto his back with an anguished whimper.
Right away the white wolf began to shift. His golden eyes were on Cara, they were intense.
Cara knew he was angry. It was obvious she’d been trying to leave even after he’d told her, commanded her, not to do so. The white fur fell away from his skin evaporating as it fell to the earth. His bones moved under his skin in ripples and sharp points until he was standing in front of her.
His golden eyes ran over her from head to toe. The scowl on his face softening. “Are you hurt, Cara?”
Am I hurt?
“You’re bleeding,” Cara told him.
“Was she hurt, Killian?” Darian demanded of the shifter with the black curly hair.
Killian didn’t say anything. He must have indicated to Darian that she wasn’t hurt. Cara didn’t know because she was too afraid to take her eyes off of Darian. Any moment he would strike her to the ground. It would hurt but she’d live through it now that she had shifter blood. Right?
“No one, threatens Cara,” Darian’s powerful voice echoed through the courtyard. He looked over his shoulder at Rafi who was still in the submissive position on his back.
Darian approached Killian, his golden eyes were blazing. “I told you to protect her.”
“She is unharmed, Alpha,” Killian answered, his eyes lowered. “She is the warrior you said she is, I did not interfere because Cara was earning the respect of the pack on her own.”
I was?
Darian’s frown remained in place. “When were you going to step in? After Rafi drew blood?”
Killian’s dark blue eyes rose up to meet Darian’s. “I believe Rafi was responding out of injured pride when Cara did not cower from him. If you had not interfered, I believe Cara would have won the standoff.”
“Cara, hasn’t shifted. She doesn’t have a prayer of fighting off Rafi.”
“I foug
ht you, off,” Cara said before she could think better of it.
Darian looked at her, his annoyance with her clearly growing. “I held back.”
That much was obvious from the fight she’d just witnessed. Cara lifted her chin anyway. “So was I.”
“I’m sure you were,” Darian said. His tone dismissive.
Cara’s cheeks burned, her teeth clenched together.
The woman with the short black hair and green eyes, Jules, they called her when she was a wolf, was smiling at Cara’s discomfort. Cara lowered her gaze turning over the fact in her mind that Jules was exhibiting the same bully mentality that Cara identified with men.
Suddenly, the realization that there was so much she didn’t know about the world, about anyone or anything outside of Aldrich Town. The feeling was like a burning cold ooze swimming through her system.
Cara walked away from the pack meeting in the courtyard. She could feel Darian watching her. Cara didn’t turn back to get permission or offer an explanation of where she was going.
The door she’d tried to take earlier led into an oversized room, Cara didn’t stop to notice more than the high ceilings and large space she needed to cross. She found herself standing in a hallway and then another oversized room.
How do I get out of here?
“Darian asked me to escort you. Where do you want to go?” The blond shifter woman asked.
“Outside. I just want to get outside.”
The woman nodded her head and led the way back down the hallway taking the opposite direction than the one Cara tried. She opened the double doors at the end of the hallway. Cool air rushed inside.
Cara followed the woman outside and continued walking even when the other woman stopped. Cara passed her and just kept on moving. She started to run up the incline. The mountain that she’d dreamt of climbing, she was on it.
I want to see the other side.
Tears rolled down her face. She swiped at them and kept climbing. The blond woman was following at a distance. Cara knew she wasn’t getting away but if she accomplished one of her dreams, that would be something. Wouldn’t it?
CHAPTER NINE
Darian stood on the roof of the Rizer fortress.
He could see Cara climbing the mountain with the wind in her hair the cold stone under her feet and that same determined stiff spine he’d seen when she’d pushed herself in the forest.
“Will you follow her?” Killian asked.
“I haven’t decided yet. Kate is following her.”
Killian climbed out onto the roof. “I am sorry that you believe I wouldn’t have interfered in time to keep Cara safe.”
Darian exhaled. “I haven’t ever felt this way about anyone Killian.”
“Is it wonderful? To be in love?”
“No,” Darian growled. “I don’t know that I am in love. I’m protective of her, overly so, as you pointed out. I’m attracted to her even when I find myself displeased with her, I have an urge to kiss her. She hates me, and I don’t know how to act around her.”
Killian bowed his head. “I can’t say that sounds like something I would want to be bothered with.”
“She’s so defensive.”
“Like an injured wolf. She trusts no one,” Killian mused.
Cara was coming to the top of the slope where the mountain shot up in a vertical climb.
At least she’ll realize she has to stop and come back.
Darian and Killian were both quiet as they watched Cara reach the stop at the mountain wall. He waited for her to turn back. Maybe she would sit down and refuse to return.
Cara began to run her hands over the wall.
There’s no way up Cara. You have to turn around.
The pack was watching her from below, Darian realized as they congregated outside. Now Cara would have to return to after a public failure.
She paced the flat wall back and forth like a caged animal giving him an undeniable visual of what Cara must have felt like inside that too-small, walled in town.
No wonder she reacted the way she did when I commanded her to stay inside the Rizer pack land. How can I make her understand that I’m trying to protect her?
“You may have to retrieve her,” Killian said. “I don’t think she’s going to give up.”
Darian waited watching Cara as she continued to try and find a way up the incline.
“Let her try until she’s satisfied it can’t be done.”
Killian nodded.
Two hours passed during which Darian watched her cling to the flat wall and fall over and over again.
“I can’t keep watching this,” Darian said at last. “Enough is enough.”
Killian shook his head. “You were right to wait. She has to be close to giving up.”
“Are you blind? She’s never going to give up.”
“What will you do with a woman who will never give up trying to leave you?”
Darian leapt, beginning his descent from the roof to the ground, using the balconies and over hangs as his ladder. He continued watching the woman as he ran toward her. Her next fall would probably knock her out.
She’d already hit her head at least twice.
When he started up the final incline, Kate held her hand up to him. Darian followed her gaze to Cara. She was back in that same damn spot on the flat face of the wall. “She’s going to fall again,” Darian said.
“She worked hard to get where she is, allow her to finish her attempt.”
Darian said nothing but continued up the incline. He would not interfere with Cara’s attempt to climb but he’d be damned if he was going to watch her fall one more time.
Cara was staring at a spot well outside her reach. Her legs were pulled in close like a frog preparing to leap.
Shit, Cara.
He stood beneath Cara looking up at her limbs shaking with the strain.
“You’re here to stop me?” Cara asked without looking at him.
“No, Cara. I’m here to catch you if you fall.”
When she looked down at him his heart ached at the sight of her red eyes and wet face. “Why? I thought I wasn’t allowed to leave.”
“I was…” Darian looked back down the incline where Kate was still standing and would no doubt hear him. “I was wrong to command you to stay on Rizer land. You are free to come and go as you please.”
“You’re not going to trick me into staying,” She said turning her face away from him again.
Darian laughed. He didn’t know what else to do. “I don’t have to trick you. I could just command you until you submit, but I’m not.”
“I’m leaving.”
“So, leave already,” Darian growled.
Cara leapt.
Darian held his breath hoping for her despite himself that she’d make it, that her hands would stretch out far enough and catch hold.
Come on, Cara.
Her left hand slid over the smooth rock missing the grip.
Darian moved under her to catch her but her right hand found a hold. Cara’s body smacked into the wall as she held on. The pack started howling in applause for her, though he wasn’t sure if she understood that’s what they were doing.
“Don’t stop now,” Darian called up. “You’ve got this, Cara.”
She reached up with her left hand grabbing onto the same grip. Her legs clung to the wall and little by little she continued to climb. Darian leapt up and began climbing behind her.
With that mighty jump, Cara defeated the most difficult part of the climb. The rest went by relatively fast. When she reached the summit, she stopped to gaze down at the other side.
“Now what?” Darian asked as he came to stand beside her.
“I don’t know,” Cara admitted. “I thought when I got up here I’d see a new mountain to climb to, or a big city.”
Darian nodded. His hands itching to take her in his arms and make her accept the comfort he wanted to give her.
Cara’s blue eyes swept over the desolate landscape on the
other side of the mountain. “I thought shifters were evil,” Cara swallowed. “Today I watched you fight your own family to stand up for me. I don’t know why you’d do that. I’m no one.”
“He was wrong to threaten you,” Darian said. He wasn’t admitting to anything more when she was so close to leaving anyway.
“My own family has stood by when I’ve been handed worse than just threats.” She cleared her throat. Darian could see she was fighting off tears. “I stood by too. I’m not any better than my father. When Aldrich took that young woman and we all knew she was being mistreated, we didn’t help her.” Cara didn’t try anymore to hold back her tears. “I didn’t help her.”
Darian reached out and wiped away the tears running over her bruised cheek. “It looks like you stood up against Aldrich wherever you could.”
Cara nodded. “I can’t leave knowing there will be another girl taken, like the one he took last. I want to help you and your family stop him.”
A common goal. Yes. I can work with that.
“Thank you.”
CHAPTER TEN
I’ll catch you if you fall.
Cara remembered Darian’s promise when he stood under her on the mountain. His words warmed her and embarrassed her at the same time as she thought on them.
The way I’ve been behaving was all based on what I thought I knew. I don’t know anything.
They were on their way back down the mountain, the shifter Kate walking with them. Cara followed Darian glad to let him take the lead. It gave her the chance to think. For one thing, Cara realized she had to stop thinking of Darian and his pack as blood thirsty creatures.
It wasn’t just that Darian showed her patience far beyond what was offered by her father. The fact was, Cara was bitten and infected with the mutation. She was a shifter and not only did she still feel emotion and have complex thoughts, she had her eyes opened as though even her mind was trapped in shadow before she’d left Aldrich town.
“I have a question,” she said after accepting that she had a lot to learn.
“A question for me?” Darian asked not looking back in her direction.
Cara licked her lips realizing too late that she was going to come off sounding stupid with her basic questions. She glanced back at Kate and hoped the woman wouldn’t think less of her.
The Alien Surrogate (The Klaskians Series Book 1) Page 20
