Page 31 of Entangled in the Woods
I lunged forward, trying to jab my stick into Kips torso, but he was too quick. He yanked it out of my hands with little effort. Taking the stick with both hands, he snapped it over his knee like a twig. Throwing the broken pieces behind him, he nodded to Elijah.
I turned my head just in time to see him charge at me, grabbing my right forearm. He swung my body around, holding my back to his chest. Grabbing my other wrist, he pinned my arms behind me, holding both wrists with one of his massive hands. I could feel the dull zaps and pulses of the ward as he held my body against it. The front of my body was being repelled off the ward, pushing me into Elijah’s back. My backpack kept my back from contacting his chest, but I could still feel the hard bulge of his erection against my backside. I gagged as he bent over and started trailing his tongue along my ear. I tried to squirm away, but any movement either zapped the front of my body or pushed me against Elijah’s naked body.
“You taste sweet. Kip, come have a taste.”
My eyes squeezed shut as I felt Kip approaching. I waited for his tongue to run over my skin, but it never happened. A loud growl vibrated my body, and my eyes shot open in surprise. A huge black wolf leaped toward us, landing on the ground with four giant paws. The ground trembled with the impact.
No sooner had the wolf landed than Kip’s leg was in its jaws. A loud crunch of cracking bones made me grimace. He cried out in agony as the wolf kept his broken leg in his mouth and began shaking him violently back and forth. In his human form, Kip was no match for this massive wolf.
“Oh, shit,” I heard Elijah say under his breath as he continued to hold me against him.
As Kip’s cries became louder, Elijah began looking around for an escape route. He backed away from the ward, still holding me against him. I wanted nothing to do with this crazed wolf man and his intentions for me. As he continued to retreat, I took a risk and slammed my foot down on top of his bare one. He yelped in surprise, loosening his hold on my wrists.
Spinning my body around, I broke his hold and quickly lifted my right leg to meet his naked cock. I easily made contact with my shin, and he doubled over in pain. Rolling to the ground, he cursed me out as I backed away slowly. Looking behind me, I saw the giant black wolf in a wrestling match with a smaller red wolf, which had a broken leg hanging from its torso.
The red wolf, Kip, seemed to be growing tired, probably from the blood loss and injury to his leg. He snapped at the black wolf a couple more times before he backed away and retreated into the woods, dragging his leg.
Behind me, bones were cracking, and I turned to watch Elijah transition to a silver wolf. He snarled at the black wolf who was pacing behind me. I turned slowly to face the black wolf, whose white teeth were still showing as he snarled.
I backed away, raising my arms in surrender. This wolf might have saved me from Kip and Elijah, but I didn’t know what its intentions were for me now.
Then a gray wolf leaped from behind me, placing himself between us. My hands stayed up as the gray wolf quickly shifted back into his human form. With elongating of bones and retracting claws, I watched the gray wolf turn into Wilder. Or at least a scruffy, bearded version of him.
“They’re gone, man. She’s fine,” Wilder said. He approached the black wolf, who was still pacing near me. He fell down to his knees and tilted his head to the side, exposing his neck.
Before I could question what Wilder was doing, I spotted a large cut along one of the wolf’s front legs that oozed blood.
“You gotta shift, man. You’re hurt,” Wilder tried to reason.
The wolf’s gold eyes stared me down, and I all but fell into the swirls of gold. Everett.
“Tell him you’re fine. He needs to hear it from you.” Wilder’s voice was growing more frantic as he looked at me and backed up, trying to stay between me and the black wolf. I didn’t know who this Wilder was, so concerned about not only Everett but apparently me as well.
“I’m fine,” I said. I lowered my hands as I walked closer.
Everett tried to lie down on the ground slowly but collapsed as he got close to the dirt. A small whimper left his mouth as he shifted. Claws and paws retracted as his spine lengthened. His snout sunk into his skull as his face took shape. He had a brown, scruffy beard covering his face, and his brown hair stood disheveled on his head.
I ran to his side as he lay on his back with his eyes closed. Wilder was there, leaning over Everett, trying to take stock of his injuries. I knelt on the other side and took his arm into my lap. It was a deep enough cut that I could see white bone underneathall the blood. Blood soon soaked my leggings as it poured out of his arm.
“What do we do?” Wilder asked, looking up at me. “This is deep. I don’t have any first aid supplies with me.”
I searched around the forest, taking stock of what was around, and grabbed some large-leaved aster from the plants growing low on the ground. They were a plentiful forest “carpet” this time of year, and I layered them over the wound.
“Hold them tight against his arm,” I said. I moved my hands as Wilder took their place, putting pressure on the gash. “Let me go see what else I can find.”
My eyes to the ground, I walked several yards away in search of yarrow. The forest around here seemed to have plenty, and it had done wonders healing my head wound last weekend. The white flowers of the yarrow caught my eye, and I rushed over and began gathering the leaves.
I brought the plant over to where Wilder was kneeling next to Everett, keeping pressure on his arm. I found two medium-sized stones and put the leaves on one stone. Using the bottle from my backpack, I poured some water over the leaves and got to work grinding it into a paste. My arm was sore, and my palm had a fresh blister on it when I finished, but the paste was decent. I scooped the medicine into a fresh green leaf and carried it over to where Everett was lying.
Wilder looked at me with distrust. “Are you sure that’s going to work?”
“I don’t think you can carry him yourself, can you?” I asked. “I know I won’t be of any help.” Everett was huge. It would probably take a couple of men to lift him if he was dead weight.
“What is that, even? How do you know it isn’t poisonous?” Wilder asked.
“I’ve made this for myself many times. It’s safe. This is our best chance to stop the bleeding before he loses too much blood,” I said.
Wilder tried to argue again, but Everett’s deep voice cut him off. “Let her use it.”
