“If I can get to the tree line I can shift and they won’t see me.”
“They’re in the tree line too.” Penny nodded in the direction Tor had glanced. Saul dropped to the ground beside Tor. He wasn’t fairing much better. Every so often another dart would find its mark. All their fangs were exposed past their lips. Three sets of glowing gold eyes. They were so close to losing it. She couldn’t imagine how hard it was for them to all hang on, not if Tor just being in tiger form had upset Kann before.
Now there were people shooting at them. She was terrified yet again. And there was a small army in the trees that wanted to take her away from Kann. Think, Penny, think. “We can’t fire into the trees. We can’t see them. We could hit Col or Naomi if they head this way.”
“We fire that way first.” Kann gestured across the clearing to her right. “The cabin is that way. If we fire, the noise will carry. Col will hear it.”
“But we’re supposed to be practicing. They won’t know we’re in trouble. They’ll walk right into it.”
Saul snarled angrily. “She’s right.”
“How are you guys not passed out? They’ve shot you with enough tranq to take down a T-Rex.”
“I’m starting to feel it,” Tor admitted. My legs feel sluggish, but I could still run if I needed to. We should make a run for it.”
“No!” They’ll fill you with darts the second you stand up.”
“Penny, love, we don’t have a choice. We can’t stay here. Eventually we’ll all pass out and then you’ll be left vulnerable.” Kann nuzzled her hood, pushing it off her head so he could rub his cheek against her hair. Cat thing. For sure.
She took a deep breath and tried to clear her mind.
“What we need is one of those damn fox shifters. They’d be able to run beneath this snow and the bastards wouldn’t even see them.” Saul took a quick look above the fallen log sheltering them from fire on one side. A wave of darts whirred through the air, several hit the log and one hit Saul in the neck. He yanked it out and cursed again in a language she didn’t understand.
A loud cry came from within the forest, followed by the most frightening noise Penny’d ever heard in her life. It reminded her of something from a Jurassic Park movie. Massive black wings spread over the tree line and the huge body of a black dragon leapt into the air.
“Holy fuckin shit,” she breathed out.
“Pick her up and run!” Saul shouted. “Tor you flank, I’ll take the front. We have to take the darts so Kann can get Penny away while they’re distracted.”
Kann’s arm tightened around her body quickly and the quick jerking motion made her fumble with the rifle. But it was too late, they were running. Saul was breaking the snow and Tor covered Kann’s back.
Darts whirred. She could hear them slicing through the air. None hit Kann.
The dragon bugled again and then she heard an echoing cry from further away. A little different from the first one…possibly with a more pissed off tone to it if that was even possible. Col and Naomi had found them somehow. It had to be the explanation for the ferocious black dragon in the sky.
“Tor!” she cried out. The big redheaded man dropped into the snow. She didn’t see blood. The darts had finally taken him down.
“Keep going!” Saul shouted, but his words were slurred too. He wasn’t going to be conscious much longer. She had no idea how he was still running.
Trees crashed on the other side of the clearing, snapping like they were twigs. A man screamed, and Penny didn’t let herself look. Kann kept pounding forward through the snow and trees. They were out of the clearing now.
“Col will keep them busy on that side,” Saul shouted and then stumbled. Kann stopped and reached for him, yanking him up by the arm, but Saul wrench away. “Get her out of here! Leave me.”
“Put me down,” Penny yelled. “We can go faster if you’re not carrying me.”
“The snow is too high,” he growled at her and didn’t let go. He dodged between trees and branches and snow drifts up to his waist. The roar of a snow machine snarled in the distance. A few moments later it was nearly on top of them.
He tried to move faster, but the snow was so high. He just couldn’t compete with a sled that skated right across the top of the powder. The impact sent both of them flying. Kann still didn’t let go. His arms tightened around her and he took the brunt of the impact as they smashed into several trees before falling into the powder.
Penny blinked through blackness.
Hands grasped and clawed and pulled at her body. Pulling her away from Kann.
She couldn’t tell who was where or what was happening. Her head had hit something solid. She opened her eyes, but her vision was spotty, like black balloons swimming in a bright pool of light.
“You are a tough little bitch to find, you know that?” A familiar male voice bit out right above her head, a voice that wrapped cold talons around her heart and squeezed.
Jake.
“Kann.” His name was a hopeful prayer on her lips. She wouldn’t survive this without him. And even if this was her end, she wanted to be with Kann. Needed to feel his presence.
“He’s never going to see you again, Penelope. You cost me a lot of worry and money and I can’t even begin to tell you how many favors I had to cash in to get satellites tasked to look for you. And then all the men I brought.” Jake’s voice was a knife, ready and willing to slice her open and watch her slowly bleed to death. “Most of them are dead.”
The dragon bugled again in the distance. Another lung-freezing, hair-raising, stomach-clenching human-esque scream of pain cut through the air. Even the heartless murderer winced at the tortured cry of the dying mercenary.
“What the fuck is that thing, Penny?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s a hallucination,” Penny answered, hoping Jake might still write off the existence of actual dragons. This was bad. So bad. Her friends would be exposed. Be captured. Taken.
It would all be her fault.
“Hallucinations don’t eat people. Why is it helping you?” His eyes bulged like a freakish Halloween toy. Desperation clung to his voice like a climber whose anchor rope had just snapped.
She shook her head and cringed at the pain in her neck.
He grabbed her arm and yanked her to her feet. “Why is it helping you?”
“I don’t know!” She screamed, blinking through the black spots. Penny looked over her shoulder, finally spying Kann. He wasn’t moving. She brushed her hip with her hand, muscle memory making her reach for her weapon, but her bag was gone. Shit. Where was her bag?
Jake pulled out a gun and used the end of the barrel to tip her chin up. Her gaze met his angry cold one and she shivered like she’d just taken a dunk in the icy coastal waters. Her heart froze in her chest, forming two heavy icebergs in her chest. Cold and horror and pain.
This was it.
The cold metal of the gun barrel left her chin.
This was the end.
She closed her eyes for a second and wished she’d had time to tell Kann all the things she’d held back. That she loved him with her whole heart. That she wished he had bonded to her. That she’d been too scared to admit how much she wanted to belong to him, to his tribe of crazy fun kind people. That they had offered her something she’d never had a chance to know her entire life—family.
If only there had been more time…
The crack of a gunshot filled her ears.
There was no pain. Just a ringing in her ears.
Had he missed?
Was she in shock and couldn’t feel herself dying?
A thump in front of her made her open her eyes. Her vision was clear this time. Jake was on the ground. Blood trickled from a wound in the center of his forehead. His eyes were open and vacant.
He was gone. Ended.
It was over.
She turned. Kann was standing a few feet away with her SIG still raised in the air. He’d found her bag. Not only had he found her bag, he’d fired her
weapon and hit his target right between the eyes.
“Mine!” Kann roared, his voice more lion than human. His eyes blazed gold and his fangs were bared.
Air rushed into her lungs and she heard a sob tear from her throat just before her knees gave way. He was alive.
Kann dove to her side and she threw her arms around his neck. Relief poured down her cheeks, warming her ice-cold skin. She choked, trying to draw a breath between the sobs.
“You’re safe,” he said into her ear, his voice tight as he stroked his hand up and down her back. “I’ve got you.”
“I love you,” she wailed. “I should’ve said it sooner. I shouldn’t have pushed you away. I love you so much, and I want whatever you want. Bonding. Mating. Marrying. Everything. Please forgive me for waiting until you almost died. Until I almost died. I—”
“Shhhh,” he soothed. “I love you too, my sweet Penny. I never doubted for a second that you loved me. And I would’ve waited ten lifetimes to have you decide to be mine. To be my mate. This one moment makes everything and anything worth it. Do you understand. You are everything to me. For my whole life, you will be the center.”
20
“Kann! Penny!” Col’s voice called out through the now quiet forest. No more roaring. No more dragons trumpeting or trees snapping and cracking like kindling in a fire.
Kann pushed through the snow, following the trail he’d broken racing through the trees before. “Here,” he bellowed out. He tucked Penny closer to his chest and shoved through several low hanging branches. His next step put them back out in the clearing.
Col’s bare shoulders dropped in relief when he saw them. Col pointed behind him and Kann let his gaze travel to where Saul and Tor were standing with Naomi—well, half standing, both men were bent at the waist, holding themselves up with their hands on their thighs. Naomi was standing between them, dressed in Col’s shirt.
“Are you hurt?”
“No,” Kann called back.
His chief nodded and they both made their way toward the others.
“Are you okay?” Naomi called out, rushing toward Kann and Penny.
“We are uninjured. She’s a bit shaken,” Kann said.
“It was a closer call than either of us would like to admit.” Penny pushed against his chest. She wanted to get down out of his arms, but he needed to hold her. Needed to feel her heart beating against his. He shook his head and tightened his grip. She stopped pushing and relaxed, allowing him his wish.
“Once Tor and Saul are feeling back to normal, they’ll gather the rifles these guys had on them. No need to ditch good hardware. The bodies we’ll have to bury. Col will help out with that. And seeing as how Col was super pissed, he ate a couple of people. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be making him use an entire tube of toothpaste when we get back to the house.” Naomi shuddered and made a gagging sound. “No kissing,” she pointed a finger up at Col as he joined the group.
The large man gave her a wry smile. “I didn’t eat them.”
“I saw them in your mouth.” Naomi’s eyes narrowed on her mate.
“I spit them back out.”
Naomi humphed out a snort, and turned back to face Kann and his mate, “I need to ask you,” Naomi started. “Do you think these guys will be missed? Are we going to have Feds crawling up our ass?”
Penny shook her head. “It’s likely that the men with Jake are all mercenaries. No one will look for them and most of them probably have shadow IDs anyway. It would be better that they disappeared. But…Jake…we can’t just hide Jake’s body. People will look for him. They’ll want to know what happened.”
“Fuck,” Naomi kicked at the snow with her foot. “I was afraid of that. We’re going to have to get Sheriff Miller out here. You’re going to have to tell him that Jake tried to kill you because of what you saw. Explain all of it.”
“I shot him.” Kann clutched Penny tighter. He wasn’t going to let her get in trouble for something he did.
“She needs to say it was her, Kann. This is a stand your ground state. A self-defense shooting is an open-and-shut case and then the Sheriff is done, but if we tell them you shot him to save her; that opens up our vulnerability a lot more. Penny against Jake is a done deal.”
“She’s right. It has to be me, Kann.” Penny reached up and stroked his scruffy face with her hand. “Please. I have to do this. I want to have a life with you. With all of you. We have to protect the tribe.”
Naomi beamed. “I knew she was good people.”
Col pulled his mate against his chest and buried his face in her crazy curly mop of hair. “Fate sent her to us. Of course, she is a good person.”
Saul and Tor stood straight and took a deep breath. “Guns?” Tor asked.
“Yep. Guns, knives. Only take weapons. Leave everything else.” Naomi used the same tone of voice that made all of them jump to attention and do any chore she asked of them. None of them minded in the least. They would do anything for her, especially now that they were all highly suspicious of her condition.
“Col, will—”
“Yes, I will take care of the bodies. Do not worry.” He tipped his head to Kann. “Take Penny and Naomi back to the cabin. Call the sheriff and show them where Jake’s body is. It will take at least an hour for him to get out here. We’ll be done with the others by then.”
“What about the snow machines?” Penny asked, from her secure place in his arms. “There have to be at least four or five parked out here, maybe more.”
“Good point,” Naomi agreed. “We can park them over at cabin 2 for now, out of sight, out of mind. I’ll take a look at them tonight after everything has settled. I need to make sure they don’t have a GPS in them.”
“We’ll do that last, my love,” Col said. “Call the sheriff. We can’t let it look like too much time has passed.”
Naomi grinned like a crazy person. “Awwww, I love that all the Criminal Minds we’ve been watching is sinking in.”
Col chuckled, gave her a quick squeeze and a kiss. “Be sure and change before the sheriff arrives.”
Naomi saluted and smiled. “Yes, Vraka.” She tried to hold in a smile but failed miserably. Kann and the others all worked hard to smother their grins.
Their big bad royal dragon prince and tribal chief melted in a full-on belly shaking laughter.
“Leave it to you, my love, to make us all forget that we just fought a gruesome battle.”
Kann nodded his head. The levity was much needed. Mostly, he was glad Penny had just allowed him to hold her. He knew he’d have to let go soon, but it’d helped. He’d never been more frightened in his life than when he’d seen that bastard’s gun jammed up under his mate’s chin.
By Fate’s will, he had landed on top of Penny’s bag. Knew how to fire the weapon and moved fast enough to startle Jake. The second the other man’s gun had come away from his mate’s face, he’d fired. The gunshot had felt like someone had taken a hammer to his eardrums, but when the asshole’s body had crumpled to the ground in a lifeless heap his heart had started to beat again. Air had flowed into his lungs. His entire world had started to turn once more, because if he had lost her…it would’ve ended him.
The group parted ways. He followed Naomi to one of the abandoned snow machines. Not far away they found another. Kann figured with as many men who’d come with Jake, there might actually be six or seven of them scattered through the woods.
He followed Naomi back home, Penny’s arms wrapped tightly around his waist. One of the first things Naomi had done once she’d moved into the cabin with them all, was to teach all of them how to drive. A vehicle and a snow machine.
Two hours later a knock sounded on the door. “Naomi Li’Vhram?” A gruff male voice called from outside. “It’s Sheriff Miller.”
“Coming,” Naomi called out, crossing the room from where she’d been curled up in Col’s chair. She’d changed into comfy clothes but was still wearing Col’s big plaid shirt over her t-shirt. Her sock-clad feet mad
e no sound on the roughhewn wood floors of the cabin. She swung the door open. “Please come in.” She gestured to the room.
The sheriff was a big man by human standards. Six feet tall, stocky, with a thick beard and intelligent blue eyes. Kann had only met the man once. Douglas had introduced them. He seemed like a reasonable man, but it still made him uncomfortable that Penny had to take responsibility for the death of Jake.
Naomi closed the door and followed the sheriff across the room.
“Sheriff.” Kann stood from his spot next to Penny on the couch. He extended his hand and the sheriff took it and shook.
“Kann, good to see you again, though I wish it were under more pleasant circumstances.” The human male’s eyes traveled past Kann to rest on Penny huddled under several blankets. “I need to speak with Penny.”
Kann stiffened. Leaving his mate alone wasn’t something he was prepared to do. He started to shake his head, but Naomi grabbed his arm and tugged gently. “We’ll just be right over here, Penny. Okay. I’m going to make you a nice hot cup of coffee.”
His mate nodded and took another breath. Since they’d gotten back to the cabin, she’d been so quiet, quieter than she’d been right after everything had happened. Naomi had assured him it was just shock. That she’d be back to normal soon.
Kann moved to the kitchen area with Naomi, but kept his focus locked on the sheriff and his mate. The big officer sat down on the coffee table across from where Penny sat on the couch.
“Hey, there. We haven’t met yet. I’m Sherriff Miller. Naomi told me quite a bit of what happened, but I really need to hear it from you, okay?”
Penny nodded and met Kann’s gaze over the sheriff’s shoulder for a second before she focused her attention back on the officer. “Jake Vicenti, owns and operates Vicenti Inc, one of the largest gun design and manufacturing companies in the world. I was hired to work for him six years ago. I had no idea he was anything other than an ordinary business man until just a few days ago.”
Penny took a slow shuttered breath and Kann gripped the counter hard to keep from walking back to her side. She needed him, but Naomi bumped him with her shoulder and shook her head.
I'm Not Lion To You: Soulmate Shifters World (Soulmate Shifters in Mystery, Alaska Book 2) Page 17
