Rhani (Dragons of Kratak Book 3)

by Ruth Anne Scott

  And as luck would have it, she was heading straight for him. He hadn't known it at the time, but the car in the lot in front of him was hers. His smile stretched across his face. It was fortuitous. It was divine. How else could he explain the run of signs pointing to the inescapable conclusion that the gods approved of this?

  His mission, came directly from the gods themselves. He never touched an innocent. Never. All of the women he'd claimed had been bad people. Had done bad things. Drug addicts. Child abusers. Whores. They all had some secret they were hiding – something the gods didn't approve of. Something dark, something terrible. And he was their salvation.

  Obviously, this girl, as wholesome and sweet as she appeared to be, had some dark skeletons in her closet. Otherwise, the gods wouldn't have led him to her.

  Step by step, she drew closer to him and his excitement grew. When she stopped at her car and started to unlock it, her back was to him and the man stepped out of the bushes. He was on her before she realized what was happening. His hand clamped over her mouth tightly, his other arm around her waist, he dragged her back into the bushes with him where he had his kit set up and waiting.

  With a well practiced skill, the man got a plastic zip-tie around her wrists and cinched it up good and tight. He pushed her to the ground and straddled her. She struggled and fought, but he was too heavy for the petite girl to move – and he had the duct tape over her mouth in a heartbeat.

  The girl’s eyes were comically wide, tears streaming down her face. The man just smiled down at her.

  “I told you that you should have had a little more respect,” he said.

  The man hauled the girl to her feet by her hair. Slipping a long knife out of the sheath on his belt, he showed it to her and then pressed the flat of the blade against her throat. The girl stopped struggling immediately and stood there sniffling, too terrified to move a muscle.

  “You shouldn't fight this,” he said. “The gods brought me to you for salvation. I don't know what you did in your past, but you can call me your karmic retribution. Now, we're going to walk back to my truck. If you try to scream or try to run off – well – you won't like what happens to you. Or what happens to your pretty little face.”

  The girl stared at him in absolute terror and he smiled. He ran a hand long her smooth thigh, slipping it up underneath her skirt and patted her butt, giving it a rough squeeze.

  “Firm. Nice,” he said. “I like it.”

  The girl's body shook with sobs and the man delivered a vicious backhand that knocked her off her feet. She landed on her backside with a grunt.

  “Stop crying,” he hissed. “I don't like it when girls cry. Makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong. But I'm not. I'm saving you.”

  She looked at him, her eyes still flooded with tears. He held the knife up again, pointing the blade straight at her.

  “I said, stop crying,” his voice was smooth, low. “Or as that old saying goes, I'm going to give you something to cry about.”

  The girl's body shook, but she was choking back her sobs. Or at least, she was trying to. When he felt that she'd gotten herself sufficiently under control, he got her back to her feet again.

  “Now, you and me are gonna take a little walk through the woods,” he said. “I'm taking you back to my truck and we're gonna go for a little ride. If you're good and accept my salvation, I'll let you go home. But, if you're bad – well, let's just not think about that. You look like a good girl. You're gonna be good, right?”

  The girl nodded her head eagerly and the man smiled at her.

  “Promise?” he asked. “Cross your heart, hope to die, and all that?”

  The girl nodded again and muttered something beneath the tape over her mouth.

  “Excellent,” he said and pointed the way he wanted her to walk with her knife. “Now, go. Walk.”

  The girl hesitated and looked back toward the diner as if hoping that somebody would come rushing in to save her. The man gave her a disapproving frown.

  “Nobody's coming for you,” he said. “And you promised that you were gonna be good. Don't forget your promise, now.”

  She turned and walked into the darkness of the forest with the man right behind her. The clouds had cleared slightly, casting the world in a silvery light. But deep in the forest, with a thick canopy overhead, only spears of that ghostly light filtered through.

  Still, it was enough for the man to get a decent view of the girl's backside and he really liked what he saw. He admired the way it swished back and forth beneath her skirt. Liked the way those shapely legs of hers moved. The girl was gorgeous and the man felt himself growing aroused as he watched her walking.

  That fire of need burned brightly in him as he watched the girl and he knew that he had to have her – and he didn't think it would wait until he got back to his truck.

  “Stop,” he said.

  The girl stopped but didn't turn around. She stared straight ahead into the darkness, obviously not even wanting to meet his eyes. The man grabbed her and roughly spun her around to face him. He planted a soft line of kisses up her neck and he felt her body tensing beneath his touch.

  “Do you want the salvation I'm offering?” he asked softly. “Do you want to be saved?”

  The girl didn't move, didn't give him an answer, one way or the other, to his questions. She simply stood there, rooted to her spot, her body tense, frozen in fear. And to him, that was very arousing.

  He pushed her back toward a fallen tree. Kept her walking back until she bumped into it. Fresh tears sprung from her eyes, so the man turned her around, not wanting to see it. He bent her over the fallen log and ran his hands down her back, sliding them up her skirt, fondling and squeezing her from behind. With a savage growl, the man tore her panties right off of her and rubbed them all over his face, moaning low as he did.

  The girl's body was spasming and the man knew she was crying. But he didn't care. He started to unbuckle his belt when he heard a twig snapping some where out in the darkness of the woods. He stopped and held his breath, waiting and watching. But he saw nothing out there.

  “Probably an animal,” he muttered.

  The sound of a choked sob escaped the girl he had bent over the fallen tree. He stepped forward and continued with his pants when the sound of another twig snapping caught his attention. But his blood really ran cold when the sound of whistling drifted out of the darkness.

  “Who's there?” he called. “Show yourself.”

  He waited. Nothing.

  The man drew the knife from his sheath again and turned in a slow circle, looking for the source of the sound. It could have been an animal, he reasoned with himself. But deep down, he knew that what he had heard – and was hearing – was the work of man.

  The man turned and turned, growing frustrated as the whistling continued. “Come out and face me, coward,” he called.

  The girl started to stand, but he quickly and roughly forced her back down over the log again. Looking at her for a moment, he stepped closer to her and put the tip of his blade down on the back of her neck. He had no idea if whoever was out there was trying to save her or not, but he didn't have many options, so he rolled the dice.

  “Come out or she dies.”

  The whistling stopped abruptly and the silence that followed lent a far more sinister and ominous feeling to the atmosphere in the forest. The man opened his mouth to call out the person walking around in the darkness, but the only thing that came out of his mouth was an agonized scream.

  A hand had clamped down around his wrist from behind and turned it roughly. The man screamed as his attacker bent his wrist back at an unnatural angle – and kept bending it until the man felt and heard the bones in his wrist snapping at it shattered.

  He dropped the knife and clutched his wounded hand to his chest. Spinning around, the man found himself face-to-face with one of the two guys from earlier in the diner. There was a vicious, predatory grin on his face.

  “Hi,” the guy said. “R
emember us?”

  Emerging from a dark pool of shadow was the second guy from the diner and the man had to look twice. Somehow, the guy's eyes seemed to be glowing in the darkness. The man shook his head and the other guy's eyes were normal again. He attributed the fact that he was seeing things to the agony he was currently in.

  “Y – you broke my damn wrist,” the man howled.

  “You're lucky that's all I did,” he said. “Considering what you were about to do there.”

  The second guy helped the waitress to her feet and put a comforting arm around her shoulder. He walked her a small way off, speaking in quiet tones. The man watched as the girl scampered away into the darkness, the sound of her sobs seeming to fill the woods all around him.

  “I wasn't doin' anything,” he said.

  The second man scoffed and the first man just shook his head before he spoke. “You know,” he said. “We love this town. We love it very much, in fact. This is our home. Where good, decent people raise families –”

  “Look,” the man said. “I was just passing through town. That waitress and I – what we were doing was just having a little fun, y'know? Totally consensual fun.”

  “Not what it looked like to me,” the second guy said.

  “Me either,” said the first guy.

  “Yeah, well, that's what it was.”

  The first man sighed and shook his head again. Then, both guys began circling the man. His heart raced, his wrist throbbed, and sweat dotted his brow. He wasn't used to feeling nervous – he was always the one in control. But he realized that in this situation, he was very much, not in control. And he knew, by the look in their eyes, that things were about to get really bad for him.

  “Look guys,” he said, licking his lips nervously, “we can work this out. This is all a misunderstanding.”

  “Like I was saying,” the guy said, “this is our home. And we don't appreciate trash like you coming in and making a mess of things. We work hard to make sure our peaceful little town stays that way.”

  “I'll leave,” the man said quickly. “I'll leave and never come back. You'll never see –”

  “Oh, I think we've passed that point,” the second guy said.

  “A long time ago.”

  “It doesn't have to go this way,” the man stammered. “Let's just part ways –”

  The two men stopped circling suddenly – one in front and one behind him. They were silent for a long, tense moment and the knot in the man's stomach constricted painfully. His body was tense and his eyes surveyed the forest around him, looking for an escape route.

  The first guy clapped his hands, the crack echoing around the woods. “Tell you what,” he said, a broad smile on his face. “Just to prove to you that we're not bad guys and can actually be pretty reasonable, we're going to give you a chance.”

  “A – a chance?”

  The guy nodded. “Yup. A chance,” he said. “In life, a chance is all we can really expect, right? It's what we do with that chance that matters.”

  The man shook his head. “What are you talking about?”

  They two guys shared a look. The man watched as slow smiles spread across their faces and thought it was like they were communicating telepathically or something.

  “Here's what we're going to do,” the first guy said. “We're going to give you a head start. If you can make it back to your truck, it's all good, bro. If we catch you though – that's when things are going to get fun.”

  “At least, for us,” said the second guy.

  “Wha – I don't know what –”

  The guy looked pointedly at his watch. “If I were you, I'd start running, bro.”

  “But, wait –”

  “Tick tock,” the second guy said and laughed. “You're burning up that head start we're giving you.”

  “Seriously,” the first guy said, his tone turning icy cold. “Run. Run now.”

  The man stared at him for a long moment and watched as the guys eyes seemed to light up – from the inside. It wasn't the moonlight reflecting off of them. It wasn't some other trick of light and shadow – the guy's eyes glowed.

  With a jolt of adrenaline coursing through him, the man turned and ran into the darkness of the forest. Clutching his busted wrist to his chest, the man ran as fast as he could, doing his best to avoid getting tangled in the brush or tripping over anything. It wasn't easy, but he wanted to live, so he gritted his teeth and ran.

  The sound of laughter echoed around the forest. He hated to admit it – even if only to himself – but, hearing the disembodied laughter of the two guys chasing him, trying to kill him, was terrifying. His heart was beating a staccato rhythm in his chest and the current of fear washing through him was so thick that he wet his pants as he ran.

  But he didn't care. He just wanted to get back to his truck and get the hell away from that town. He wanted nothing more than to put it in his rear-view and never darken the doorstep of Black Salmon Falls ever again.

  The man came to a screeching halt on the path. Standing in front of him, about fifty yards off was one of the guys. He could only see his silhouette, but the man knew it was one of them. But how had he gotten so far ahead of him?

  The sound of footsteps in the brush behind him sent a wave of fear through the man. He was cut off from the most direct route to his truck, so he turned and plunged deeper into the forest. He hoped that he'd be able to lose them among the trees and then circle back around to the rest area where he'd parked.

  His breathing was labored and his legs burned. He wasn't in very good shape to begin with and wasn't used to that kind of exertion. But given the fact that it truly was a matter of life or death, the man had no choice but to keep running.

  When he entered the clearing, he tripped over a rock hidden in the tall grass and was sent sprawling. Acting on instinct, the man threw his hands out to break his fall – and instantly regretted the decision. The shockwave of pain that radiated through his entire body from his busted wrist was enormous. Unlike any pain he'd ever experienced before. The man screamed, his voice echoing out into the night.

  The pain was so intense that tears streaked down the man's face as he got to his feet. And when he raised his head, he couldn't immediately process what he was seeing. Six men in dark robes, their hoods pulled low over their faces, stood in the clearing facing him. A couple of them held torches, casting the field in an odd, flickering light.

  The man didn't know who they were, but he didn't think they were there to help him. The sound of footsteps behind him made him turn and when he saw the two guys who'd been chasing him, his heart dropped into his stomach. His legs turned to jelly and he fell to his knees.

  “Looks like we caught you,” one of the guys behind him said.

  “Yeah, what a shame,” said the other.

  A long moment of silence spun out and the man knew he was in trouble. Knew he was going to die. He didn't know how it had all gone so wrong, so quickly. Not that it mattered anymore. It had gone wrong and he knew that he was going to pay the price.

  “Well, it looks like it's time to take out the trash, huh?” said the guy behind him with an enthusiastic clap of his hands. “DJ, would you do the honors?”

  One of the men in front of him stepped forward. He dropped his robe to the ground, revealing his naked body. DJ was enormous. Easily six foot three and a very solid, muscular, two hundred and sixty pounds. It was obvious the man worked out and took good care of himself.

  As DJ advanced on him, the man wondered if he was going to be beaten to death. It sounded painful and he hoped it wouldn't last too long. But as he watched the man coming, he saw something that he could not comprehend – the man started to change.

  His skin bulged and rippled, bursting open in places as DJ dropped to his hands and knees. He let out a noise that sounded like a deep, booming growl as his body continued to transform into – something else. Something not human.

  The man's eyes widened and the knot in his stomach was twisting so hard,
he thought he might be sick. He did not know what he was seeing. Couldn't understand it. And yet, in a matter of moments, the large, muscular, naked man was gone. And in his place was one of the biggest bears the man had ever seen.

  The roar of the bear was so loud that it felt like the ground beneath him was shaking. It stood up on its hind legs, its eyes boring into him. And as it stared him down, for the second time, the man wet himself. He cried and shook his head, trying to deny what he was seeing. Deny what was happening.

  But with the bear standing mere feet from him, its breath blowing in his face, the man knew that denial was impossible at that point.

  The man stared into the eyes of the bear as the creature opened its mouth and roared. All he could see was the creature's gaping maw, filled with teeth he knew would slice through his soft flesh.

  It's mouth still wide open, the bear closed the distance between them and the man knew no more.

  Chapter One

  Rose

  It had been years since I'd been to my aunt's home. Not for any particular reason, and it wasn't that I didn't want to, it was just that as I'd grown and took on adult responsibilities, it became harder to find the time to make the trip. I loved my aunt and missed her – and now regretted not having made the time to see her.

  I had a boatload of fond memories of visiting her as a child. I'd just never gotten around to building on those memories as an adult. Which was a shame. Actually, it was something I was ashamed of, if I were being honest. The drive from Seattle to Black Salmon Falls was a long one, but it gave me plenty of time to reflect on my life as well as everything I was leaving behind.

  As I pulled into her driveway, I couldn't help but smile. It was so different out there in a small town like that – so different than the big city I'd grown accustomed to. Black Salmon Falls was quaint. Charming. It was everything the city wasn't. The trees, the fresh air, the clear sky – all of it would be good for my soul. My wounds were many and they were deep. And my hope was that being in a place that had nothing but positive memories and associations for me, would allow me to heal.