by Dean Murray
It was the smart thing to do, the thing most likely to get me out of here alive, but all I could think about was the fact that none of these other people had to be here. They had agreed to try and stop Anton to save me, and they were all about to die. I knew I should feel bad, and I did feel bad, but I felt the worst about Ash. He'd agreed to a life of little more than slavery to try and save me when he hadn't even been sure that the agreement would buy my life in the end.
Instead of running away, I found myself taking one slow, laborious step after another towards the fight. There wasn't much time left, even I could see that. Ash had his pistol out, and any time Anton got too close Ash opened up on him, but he never quite managed to connect and he had to be close to running out of ammo. As soon as he had to change magazines, Anton would pounce and we all knew it.
Ash fired two shots so close together it was almost like a single report and then I saw the slide on his pistol lock back. Anton moved almost faster than I could follow. One instant he was twenty feet away from everyone, the next he was right in the middle of the pack.
It looked like Isaac got a claw in. I thought that Jasmin managed to grab ahold of Anton's neck for a split second before being shaken off. Things were moving too fast, it almost seemed like one or two of the others got a piece of him, but somehow everyone was on the ground bleeding. Anton was on top of Alec again ripping into him with all four feet as his fangs were seeking Alec's throat.
My arm brought my pistol up and I squeezed off a shot almost without meaning to. It took Anton in the chest and as the sights dropped back over Anton I fired again, taking him higher up closer to where I expected his heart was probably located.
Alec managed to get a hand up, raking Anton deeply enough that I could see flashes of white through the wounds. Anton jumped away, but now Ash was on his feet, bleeding profusely but with his pistol at the ready. Once again, the shots came much closer together than I could have managed. Ash emptied half of his pistol into Anton before being knocked away as Anton sailed past.
Jasmin was there when Anton landed, and this time I was positive that she got her jaws around the back of his neck, but he changed direction so quickly that she lost her hold on him and went sprawling across the ground.
Anton followed her, but James and Isaac managed to close to within attack range and instead of engaging them, Anton bounded away again. It seemed like there was blood everywhere, and a lot of it was Anton's, but he was still moving faster than anyone else, and his scuffle with Jasmin and the two hybrids had pulled all three of them out of position.
As Anton streaked towards Alec, Ash, Dom and Jess, I got my pistol back up and opened up again. I almost thought that I hit with another shot, but his course was so erratic that it was still hard to tell. Once again, all I could hope to do would be to slow him down, to buy a split second for the rest of the pack to brace for the impact that we all knew was coming.
Ash had been saving his ammo, but now he resumed firing with a staccato machinegun-like tempo. Every time his sights dropped onto Anton he squeezed the trigger, and I was positive that at least some of his shots were hitting. Alec was up on his feet again, but it was obvious that just standing was almost more than he could handle. Ash came up dry again, and Anton suddenly changed direction again, streaking straight towards Alec. Rather than sidestepping the attack and reloading, Ash produced another knife and stuck it into Anton's chest as the jaguar hit him hard enough to send both of them rolling towards Alec.
Dom was suddenly there, her cat form much smaller than Anton's, but still tearing away at him in an effort to buy Ash a chance to escape. Jess jumped into the writhing ball of fangs, steel and claws, but her timing must have been off because she crumpled to the ground with a whine only a split second after impacting into Anton.
Isaac jumped, between Anton and Jess. I knew that the balance of the fight would shift if James and Isaac were able to clinch with Anton while he was tied up with Dom and Ash, but if it was obvious to me it had to be obvious to Anton too, and it was like he existed in a time flow that was completely separate from the one that the rest of us were forced to function in.
Anton broke away from Ash and Dom just before James arrived on the scene and sprang at me. I had a split second to remember Dom's prediction that Ash wouldn't deal with my death very well, and then Anton was practically on top of me.
Somehow I'd managed to get my gun up and pointed in his direction, but there was too much chance that I'd miss and hit one or more of the pack. Instead I let my knees collapse. It almost wasn't enough to save me. Anton got a set of claws into my left shoulder as he went over top of me, but I didn't have to worry about hitting anyone else now, so I fired almost straight up at him.
I turned over and emptied my gun into Anton, but missed with all five shots. I started to try and get myself back to my feet as he turned and came back towards me, but my left arm wasn't working the way that it should have been. I couldn't even reload. He was toying with me and there wasn't anything that I could do about it.
I took a quick breath, sure that I would die within the next few seconds, and then Ash was there next to me. His legs and chest were covered with blood, and I honestly didn't know how he was still alive let alone able to walk, but he slammed a fresh magazine into my gun and then released the slide as he took it out of my hands.
My pistol roared once, twice, and then again in Ash's hands. We were still going to die, but somehow that didn't bother me as much as it should have. If I had to die then dying while making a stand at Ash's side was a better way to go than most I could think of.
Anton seemed to be moving slower now. I saw all three rounds blow large holes out the other side of him, but then he was airborne and headed directly at us. Ash shoved me at the last possible second, sending both of us flying in opposite directions.
I hit the ground and rolled. It was an awkward roll, but it brought me around to where I could see the rest of the pack as Anton landed and tried to change directions again. He very nearly succeeded, but James got a couple of claws into him as he sprang away, and this time James was able to maintain his grip.
The force of Anton's jump spun James' massive form around and took him to the ground, but it was all of the opening that Isaac and the others needed. Dom, Isaac and Jasmin all piled onto Anton and began tearing him to pieces.
As the dust finally settled I took stock and felt my heart jump into my throat. Jess was a nearly motionless heap a few steps away from Alec, and Isaac's hybrid body was bleeding from more places than I could count. Everyone melted back to their normal shapes and then Alec pulled himself back onto his feet and started giving orders. We barely had enough conscious people to get all of the vehicles back to the estate.
Donovan and the rest met us at the door and then everything was a flurry of bandaging and stitching. Ash, despite being wobbly on his feet, got co-opted to help James get Isaac somewhere 'safe' and Donovan took one look at Alec and then ordered me to apply pressure to some of the worst of the gashes while he and Dominic saw to Jess and Isaac.
Everyone else filtered out of the room and I found myself alone with Alec for the first time. He'd insisted that Donovan see to the others first, but I could tell the fight had taken a lot out of him. I was half worried he was going to slip into unconsciousness himself so I found myself making small talk to try and keep him awake.
"So your ability is sucking power out of people?"
"It appears that way. At this point I don't know much more about it than you do. With Brandon and the others it leveled everyone in the area and it was just sheer dumb luck that we recovered before they did. When the Coun'hij came for their visit, I reached for it and got nothing."
"So you didn't even know if it would work?"
"Nope, not a clue. Turns out it didn't help even when it did kick in today. If you and Ash hadn't put some bullets into him we'd have been torn apart. Nice work, by the way."
I shrugged, uncertain how I felt about the day's events. I knew Anton n
eeded stopped, but it was a different ball of wax knowing that I'd helped kill him.
"So what do you think went wrong this time?"
"You've got a lot of questions for someone who just joined the pack."
"No offense intended, Alec, but if you're holding Ash and me to the agreement where we join your pack then we've got a hell of a lot riding on your power. I know next to nothing about this world, but even I can see that."
Alec shifted slightly and bit off a groan as the motion pulled at the deepest of the wounds across his chest.
"That's a fair point. I'm not sure exactly what happened today. I tried to focus the effect on Anton and leave all of you out of it. It seemed like maybe I was partially successful. Nobody dropped to the ground like before, but maybe it was just that the power is growing weaker."
"You don't believe that though?"
"I'm not sure. I really hope not. Like you say, there is a lot riding on my ability to serve as a deterrent over the next few months. I think maybe my attempts to focus it robbed it of some of its absorptive ability. Also, I think that Anton was much scarier than any of us anticipated, even in our worst-case scenarios. I was pulling a lot out of him, enough that it practically knocked me out, and all it did was slow him down a step or two."
"So your ability isn't the magic bullet everyone is hoping for then."
"No, I'm afraid it's not. It should still serve as a pretty good deterrent though."
"Well, I guess we owe you twice over. You didn't just take us in and kill Anton for us, you did it when you weren't even sure if you guys had a chance at succeeding or not."
It was nice talking to Alec like this. If you found him after he'd spent some time being run over by a buzz saw, he actually came across as a half-decent individual. It made me think of the conversation with Ash and Dom about the fact that he'd changed recently.
"Alec, what happened with Adri?"
Alec had me by the throat, back against the wall before I'd even realized that he'd moved. He shook for a couple of seconds while I flailed around and then with what looked like a supreme force of will, lowered me to the ground.
"You're not supposed to talk about her. Only the fact that you haven't been told directly that she's off-limits, let me put enough restraint on my beast to stop from killing you."
I rubbed my throat, still leaning against the wall.
"So if I ask again, are you going to kill me?"
"I'm sorry about that, I really am, but I just don't want to talk about her."
I waited, looking at him expectantly as the wounds on his chest started bleeding again. Nearly a minute passed before he sighed and slid back down into the chair that he'd been sitting in previously.
"OK, you deserve to know something. The rest of the pack all lived through it after all, so sooner or later you'll piece most everything together. Adri was my biggest mistake. I love…loved her and the last time the Coun'hij was here I did things I regret, things that Adri didn't approve of. She left, before I really even had a chance to explain anything, and she's never coming back."
Somehow I'd never expected it to all come down to a broken heart. Alec had led his pack through what must have been the next best thing to hell, apparently never flinching from doing what needed done, from being the kind of pack leader that could command unwavering loyalty. After all of that it was the loss of a girl that had driven him over the edge. I opened my mouth, searching for something to say, but I couldn't seem to find the right words.
Alec chuckled. "You're on the point of saying that I just need to give it time, that there are other fish in the sea."
"Maybe not in so many words, but it's a valid sentiment…"
"Would you say that if Ash left you?"
That really stopped me in my tracks.
"No, I guess I wouldn't. At least not at first."
"You'd be right not to say that. The kind of profound connection that you and he have, that she and I had, doesn't just wander into your life all of the time. She's gone and now I need to deal with that fact."
Alec looked up at me with pain-filled eyes and sighed yet again.
"I'm having a really hard time caring what happens next though. I'm making bad decisions, decisions that I know are wrong at the time that I make them, but it doesn't seem to matter to me. Ordering everyone not to talk about Adri, agreeing to go up against Anton, those are just the two that everyone knows about. It's the wrong thing to be doing, but I just don't care."
I shook my head at him. "Look, Alec. I don't know what to tell you other than that you need to pull it together. I'm glad you decided to help Ash and me, but there is too much at stake here for you, me, Ash and your friends for you to be making stupid decisions."
"You have no idea what I'm going through. It was a mistake to talk to you about this. This conversation never happened and if you talk about it again I won't be able to restrain my beast. Consider yourself warned."
**
An hour and a half later Ash and I finally found ourselves alone together. Alec's estate included a number of smaller houses that looked like they were meant for domestic help, but which I suspected had been built with the intention of giving the members of the pack sufficient room to avoid some of the worst of the dominance friction.
We'd been assigned one of them, one with two bedrooms at Ash's insistence. Call me old fashioned, but I was just fine with the arrangements. I was actually a bit surprised as we walked into what was to become our new home. It wasn't furnished quite as richly as what I'd seen of the main house, but it was still a very nice place to live. I followed Ash into the living room and then we separated for a second, each to our respective rooms to drop off our suitcases. Ash came out of his room a few seconds later and crossed his arms.
"We need to talk. You promised to run when things got rough."
"My staying helped turn the tide. If I'd left like we'd talked about, you probably would have died along with the rest of the pack."
Ash sighed and ran one hand through his hair.
"The outcome doesn't invalidate the fact that you lied to me."
"You're right. I did promise, but that promise was made without all of the facts. If I'd known what I know now, I never would have agreed."
I had him on the back foot for once in our relationship. He had no idea where I was headed.
"You failed to tell me that Anton wasn't tracking us, he was tracking me. You could have cut me loose at any point and saved yourself. You didn't need to stick with me, you definitely didn't need to agree to join Alec and tie yourself to what I'm realizing is a loose warhead just waiting for a place to explode."
Ash swallowed a couple of times before he found his voice. "Who told you?"
"I'm not going to tell you that and you know it. The last thing you need to do is go off and play alpha over something stupid like this. The important thing isn't that I know, the important thing is that you didn't tell me. So give, why didn't you at least give me a heads-up to the fact that Anton was linked to me?"
"Because you would have reacted just like this. You would have demanded that I leave you behind, sacrifice you to keep myself safe."
"Maybe that would have been the right answer. We managed to survive, but as you just finished saying, the result doesn't always justify the method."
Ash shook his head. "I did what I did because I couldn't see a future without you that I wanted to be a part of. It's impulsive, illogical and I've spent the last decade trying to avoid any kind of emotional entanglements but from the first moment I saw you I couldn't get you out of my mind. It only got stronger as I spent more time with you, and the funny thing is that I don't even regret the decisions that led us down this path. I want to be with you. I…I guess when you get right down to it, I love you. I didn't think it was possible for me to love anyone, not after everything I've been through, but I couldn't help myself, not when it came to you."
He was right; everything about the last few weeks was crazy and impossible. We barely knew each ot
her and the pressure cooker that we'd just landed ourselves in was hardly the environment to try and build a solid foundation for future bliss.
Still, I couldn't argue with the sentiment. I'd been ready to die on the off chance that my staying in that canyon would provide Ash with a way out, a way to survive. My feelings had only gotten stronger. I loved Ash at least as much as he loved me.
I didn't try to respond, not with words at least. I stepped into Ash and let him wrap his arms around me. We'd get through whatever hot water Alec landed us in somehow. We were together and that was all that really mattered to me at this point.
—The Story Continues in Forsaken—
Publisher's Note:
If you've enjoyed this book, please consider signing up for the author's mailing list. By signing up you'll receive $10.00 worth of free books. We'll be offering a special discount to existing fans for the first week each new book is live, so signing up for his mailing list will mean that you'll always know about new releases with plenty of time to take advantage of the new release discount.
Author's Note:
I very much hope that you've enjoyed Trapped. It was a lot of fun to write, but to be honest it was another book that I didn't really anticipate writing back when I started Broken. I've been consistently amazed at just how quickly the Reflections universe has expanded (inside my mind at least; getting it all written is going to take some time still).
I think that Kristin and Ash's story is a worthy read all on its own, but it's also important because of how Ash and Kristin are going to play into the next Alec and Adri book. I know some people were disappointed that Trapped came out before I picked up the next part of Alec and Adri's story, but I hope that you'll all help convince anyone that is tempted to skip past it, to change their minds and read it.
