Jayden looked at Jonah, his pupils so wide that they nearly swallowed the blue ring around them. “They’re going to eat him.”
Jonah ground his teeth as he tried not to scare Jayden, but it was hard. He let Jayden’s hand go and stood up, looking at Dominic. “What are they?”
“We don’t know that yet, but I can show you who they are,” Isaiah said as he got up from the couch and brought his computer over to Dominic’s desk. Everyone gathered around the desk as he clicked to enlarge the film and started it.
Jonah watched as people danced around, not even caring to know how Isaiah had managed to get the video. His heart skipped a beat when he saw Keenan, first dancing with Jayden then moving away as a big man touched his ass.
Jonah growled when only a few minutes later the same guy grabbed Keenan and pulled him toward the door, another three guys following them.
“We already sniffed around the parking lot, but they had a car,” Nate said.
Jonah looked at all the men gathered around the room. They had no clue where to start searching, since the scent trails weren’t useful.
“I found records of several people disappearing in the past few years. No one thought the cases were related, but they’re occurring more often lately, and people are starting to wonder,” Isaiah said, his computer back in his lap.
“Any clue of who kidnapped them?” Jonah asked.
“The police have no clues of anything, but I found out that there is talk about weird stuff happening in the woods north from where the club is. It might be a start.”
They all looked at Dominic, and the Alpha nodded. Nate grabbed his phone and started planning. They were going hunting.
Chapter Six
The activity in the camp was slowly dwindling, but Keenan was sure the creatures that were guarding him were not going to sleep like the other ones.
He was cold and scared, and every time he got closer to the door of his makeshift cage, a growl came from somewhere in the forest and stopped him in his tracks. He wasn’t sure he wanted to stop, though. He wasn’t stupid, and he knew that these creatures were planning to eat him, probably soon. He couldn’t afford to stop trying to escape, to hope that he was somehow going to be rescued.
Maybe he should just run away. He knew they would catch him, but being killed while on the run would definitely be better than being eaten. The idea of dying either way made his stomach plummet down, though. He didn’t want to die. He had just found his mate, for god’s sake! He deserved to be happy with Jonah, to love him and to be loved by him, and to fuck like rabbits!
Leaning against the wooden bars, Keenan concentrated on the soothing bond that connected him to Jonah. He didn’t think Jonah was aware he was doing it, but it made him feel better, especially as he managed to identify the emotions running through Jonah. Keenan’s mate was scared, worried, but also determined and bloodthirsty. Just that much told Keenan that Jonah was coming for him, although Keenan wasn’t sure Jonah knew exactly where he was. He didn’t even know!
As the hours passed, the noises coming from the camp disappeared. He didn’t move, not even when he heard a roar coming from the camp and answering growls coming from the forest. Three creatures came out from between the trees, all of them looking at him as they passed and making Keenan shudder. He didn’t like feeling like the next meal, but once the things disappeared between the tents, he thought that maybe this was his chance to make a run for it.
He got closer to the door of his cage, holding his breath as he reached for the cords that kept the cage closed. When nothing happened, he started to unwind them, but a noise coming from straight in front of him made him freeze.
He looked up, fully expecting to be eaten, or at least beaten into submission. What he hadn’t expected was to see the guy he had seen before, the one who had looked at him with pity, quickly walking up to his cage.
The man looked around, and after making sure no one would see them, he shifted one of his fingers and cut through the ropes. Keenan looked at him, unsure if he could trust the man. Sure, he didn’t look like he wanted to eat Keenan, but that didn’t mean he was trustworthy. Still, he might be the only possibility Keenan had to break free and maybe, just maybe, find a way to safety.
The cords on the door fell to the ground and the guy opened the cage, gesturing for Keenan to come out, then put a finger on his own mouth, clearly telling Keenan to keep quiet.
He grabbed Keenan’s hand and pulled him along as he quickly walked to the trees, too quickly for Keenan to be able to follow him without problems. He tried to, though, and the guy seemed to understand that being a human, Keenan was going to have problems following him. He slowed a bit, the pace still fast, but at least Keenan could keep up.
They walked between the tress for a while, always listening to the forest’s noises, always careful not to make noises themselves, until Keenan felt like he was going to fall down if he took another step. Still he went on, putting one foot before the other, until he just had to stop if he didn’t want to topple down.
He jerked on his hand, trying to pry it away from the man’s, and making him stop. He looked back at Keenan, noticed how tired Keenan was, and after listening to the forest and looking around, he finally let Keenan’s hand go.
Keenan sagged on the cool ground, not caring about anything but putting his weight off his feet. He wasn’t dressed for hiking, and even if he was, it wasn’t as if he was used to walking that much. Hopefully, they had managed to put some distance between them and the camp, and resting a bit wouldn’t endanger them.
The man crouched down next to Keenan and handed him a flask made of some kind of skin. Keenan looked at it, not sure he wanted to take the thing. What if it was made of human skin? He didn’t even know what was in it!
“It’s water. You look like you need it,” the man said, trying to push the flask in Keenan’s hand once again.
“Is it human skin?” Keenan blurted out.
The man looked at him, tilting his head to the side before smiling. “No, it’s animal skin. Goat. I don’t eat humans.”
Keenan tried to read the man’s face, but he couldn’t tell anything from his expression. He didn’t have much of a choice anyway, so he grabbed the flask and opened it, sniffing the liquid before drinking it. He was relieved when he found out it really was water.
“Why are you helping me?” he asked.
“I told you, I don’t eat humans. I don’t want them to hurt you.”
Keenan handed back the flask. “I’m Keenan.”
The man looked at him and took a drink before answering. “I’m Chogan.”
“I... thank you. For helping me, and for giving me water.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get you far enough away to avoid them catching you. Askook doesn’t take it nicely when he loses his prey. He’ll come after you.”
Keenan looked around, seeing eyes looking back at him from every dark nook. He shivered. “Do you have a phone?”
“No. You’ve seen the camp. We don’t have modern stuff like that. It’s not like we could charge them or anything.”
“Are you... are you like those creatures? I saw your claw, and, well, you live with them.” Chogan seemed nice enough, and he was helping Keenan, but it didn’t mean he just didn’t want to eat him on his own.
Chogan looked at Keenan, probably expecting him to balk. “Yeah, I’m like them. We’re wendigos.”
Keenan’s eyes widened. “Wait, wendigos exist?”
“You’ve seen proof of that tonight.”
“They really eat humans? Do you eat them too?”
Chogan shook his head and straightened, holding his hand out to Keenan. Keenan grabbed it, deciding that he didn’t have much of a choice anyway. He had to trust Chogan if he wanted to get out of this. “I don’t. I guess you could say I’m a vegetarian. I eat moss and stuff like that.”
Keenan looked at him in surprise. “Vegetar
ian? A vegetarian wendigo?”
They started walking again, Chogan’s eyes darting around. “Yeah. I don’t... share their beliefs that since we are wendigos, we have to eat human flesh. I haven’t eaten it for years and I’m just fine. I’m not... ” He seemed at a loss for words.
“You’re not evil?”
“I guess you could say that. I don’t believe people are defined by what they are.”
“Why are you still with them?”
“They’re the only thing I have. They’re my family.”
Keenan wanted to offer him help, but he couldn’t, not right now. Right now, he was just trying to make it out of there, alive and with all his limbs attached, but maybe he could try to convince Chogan once he was safe.
They started walking again, exchanging only a few words now and then. Minutes ticked by and Keenan could see the darkness changing, becoming lighter. Not by much, but it told him that it would soon be dawn.
Keenan was hoping they were nearly to the edge of the woods when a loud roar resounded through the forest, scaring birds and other small animals. They scurried away around Keenan while he froze, his eyes wide as he looked at Chogan. Chogan swore and grabbed Keenan’s hand, pulling him along as he started running between the trees.
It didn’t take long for Keenan to hear someone behind them. He tried to go faster, but he kept on stumbling on roots and leaves, nearly falling down more than once. He knew deep inside that they weren’t going to make it. He could already feel the creatures’ teeth sinking into him, not aiming at pleasure like when it had happened with Jonah, but at pain.
Keenan knew these were probably his last moments alive, so he lost a few needed seconds to focus on Jonah, pouring all the love he felt for his mate into it. He hoped Jonah would feel it and understand that Keenan had loved him, that he hadn’t regretted anything that had happened between them.
The hurried steps behind Keenan were even closer then, branches snapped under the weight of the wendigos following them. Chogan was still pulling Keenan along as fast as he could, but Keenan was only human, and the wendigos were taller and faster.
Still, when Chogan suddenly stopped, Keenan was surprised. He stumbled into him, Chogan’s hands shooting out to grab Keenan and pushing him behind his back as the wendigo took a protective stance in front of him. Wondering if the wendigos had somehow managed to get around them and surprise them from the front, Keenan tried to peek around his new friend to see what was happening.
* * * *
Jonah growled at the sight in front of him.
They had been searching the forest for hours when Nate had suddenly shifted back to his human form. It hadn’t been hard to understand why, even before he explained it. The smell was atrocious and powerful enough for Jonah to know something was coming toward them, even if Jonah wasn’t as good a tracker as Nate was.
It smelled like dead things decomposing, and it got stronger as they ran through the forest. Jonah didn’t even want to know how strong the smell would be once they got to the source, because he wasn’t sure his delicate shifter nose could take it.
Then Nate had stopped again, freezing as he watched two figures stumble through the trees. When the first one had seen them, he had stopped, catching the second figure before it could fall down. Only then had he recognized the second, smaller figure. It was Keenan.
Jonah growled, needing to get his mate far from the man who was standing in front of him. He snarled, but before he could do more, Dominic and Kameron shifted to their human forms. He heard Keenan cry out and struggle to get around the man standing in front of him. “Dominic! Jonah!”
Jonah shifted quickly, just in time to open his arms and engulf Keenan into a tight hug. He held on as hard as he could without hurting his mate, taking in his sweet scent, even if it was tainted by the foul scent of decomposition.
The others all shifted to their human forms and started to close in on the man who had been with Keenan. Jonah saw the man back down, his eyes reflecting the fear he was feeling, but then his arms were empty once again as Keenan jumped in front of the man. He growled. He couldn’t help it, not when he saw his mate protecting another man.
“Hush, Jonah. Chogan helped me escape. They’re following us, though.”
“Who, Keenan?”
Chogan looked down at Keenan. “You know them?”
“They’re my friends, and Jonah is my mate. They’re here to rescue me.”
Chogan’s stance relaxed as he looked at the men gathered around him, but he stiffened again when Jonah heard someone barreling toward them, the noise coming from where Keenan had come from. Keenan’s eyes were huge as he grabbed Chogan’s hand in his and tried to pull him with them as they started to move away. “We can’t take them on, not even you. They’re too big, and you guys are too few to fight them.”
Jonah saw Chogan resist and Keenan stopped to look at him. “Come on! You can come with us.”
“I can’t.”
Keenan looked at Chogan. “Why? You’re not like them. You can have a different life.”
Chogan’s dark eyes were sad, and while Jonah felt sparks of jealousy toward the way Keenan was holding on his new friend, he knew he wouldn’t have seen his mate again without Chogan’s help.
“My mother lives there, too. I can’t leave her.”
Keenan bit his lower lip and Jonah knew he wanted to insist, but Keenan knew he wouldn’t have it his way, not if someone as important as Chogan’s mother had been left behind. “We can help the two of you.” Keenan turned to Dominic, his eyes full of hope. “We can, right?”
Dominic looked from one man to another. “We’ll help. You helped Keenan. We’ll help you.”
Chogan looked from one to another, but it was too late. Keenan’s pursuers were too close. “I have to shift. I’ll tell them I was following you but that your shifter friends found us.” He looked at all of them. “You have to run. Keenan is right, there’s nothing you can do against them, not with only six of you here.” He hesitated. “I won’t hurt you, even after I shift. We’re like you, we understand as much in our shifted form as in our human one.”
After one last nod to Keenan, Chogan moved away and started to shift. Jonah felt his jaw hit his chest as Chogan’s figure changed. His body grew until it reached at least nine feet, his lean muscles disappeared until his skin was taut over his bones, going from a light brown to a sickly ash-gray color. Fangs popped from his mouth, his eyes glowed red as his fingers elongated and claws sprouted from each of them. White fur grew on his legs, arms and back. He looked very much like a corpse covered in fur, but Jonah thought he could still see the man in those red eyes.
He watched as Keenan first recoiled from Chogan only to get closer to him once the man’s shift was over. Jonah had to stop himself from reaching out to his mate when Keenan put his hand on Chogan’s too-long arm and squeezed, whispering something to him. Chogan nodded before looking at the other men around him one last time. Then he let out a loud roar, and Jonah took that as the signal for them to start running.
Keenan cried out when Jonah grabbed him, but he didn’t have the time to reassure his mate. He didn’t know what the hell Chogan was, but if they all were like this, he was right. There was no way they could beat those things with only six of them.
The other guys shifted back to their animal form, but Jonah couldn’t. He flung Keenan around until his mate was on his back, his arms around Jonah’s neck. Jonah grabbed Keenan’s legs and held them tightly against his sides as he ran between the trees as fast as he could—their friends surrounding them protectively.
It took a while, and Jonah seriously thought the creatures would catch up with them a time or two, but they finally broke free from the forest. They moved quickly to the cars, everyone shifting back and getting in naked, but Jonah couldn’t hear anything anymore. It seemed that their pursuers had given up, and he hoped Chogan wouldn’t get hurt. He might not know the man, but he had kept Keenan safe. Jonah woul
d do everything in his power to help him now.
Jonah pushed Keenan into Dominic’s car and got in just as Nate started it. He barely had time to close the door and the car was already moving, everyone inside panting, even Keenan, although in his case it was probably because of the fear.
Jonah slid close to his mate and grabbed him, manhandling him until Keenan was on his lap, his back against the car’s door. Sebastian sat against the other door and Oliver was flush against him.
It was a weird sight, all of them naked, but it meant they were safe, or at least Jonah hoped so.
After a minute or so in which they all tried to catch their breath, Oliver asked, “What the fuck was that?”
Keenan squirmed on Jonah’s lap, and even after all the drama and the fear, Jonah felt his cock responding. He frowned, not wanting everyone to see him aroused, or even smell him, so he concentrated on what his mate was saying, not what he was doing.
“They’re wendigos. I didn’t even know they existed, but they do, and they wanted to eat me!”
Jonah squeezed his mate a little harder at the thought of what those things could have done to him.
“Explain, please,” Dominic asked from his seat at the front of the car.
“The guys who kidnapped me, they took me because wendigos eat human flesh. I was going to be their meal. They put me in a cage, but Chogan came and let me out, then he helped me escape.”
“Why did he do that?” Oliver asked.
“He’s not like the others. He doesn’t even eat meat! I think he wants to get out of there, but you heard him. His mother lives at the camp, and he can’t leave her there.”
Jonah saw Dominic and Nate exchange a glance before Nate asked, “Do you think you could find their camp?”
Keenan Page 10
