Page 48 of Sweethearts and Savages
Enit
Iran as fast as my injured paw would allow me to run, the wolf taking over, pushing the girl with all the confused feelings to the back. The girl felt the rejection of the man who’d just worshiped her body. Felt his rejection like she was somehow defective. The girl was close to panicking about how she was going to explain fucking her captor to her other mates. Why she smelled like another man, when they were probably frantic at her disappearance.
It was safer to be a wolf. The wolf watched for the physical predators, normally blind to the emotional carnivores. But even the wolf felt wounded this time, the effects of the betrayal at Kell’s hands hurting even her.
I roamed through the fresh snow, my coat perfectly adapted to blend in with this surrounding. I stayed off the road, but followed it into town, toward the smell of humanity. Destruction, refuse and death. That’s what humanity had to offer the surrounding woods.
I kept my senses alert, and my connections open. I wanted to be rescued now, but on the flip side, I hoped my family didn’t catch up to me for a day or two, giving Kell a head start. Because he wasn’t wrong—he was a dead man if they caught him. I might be heartsick, but I didn’t want him in the ground. I wanted him to live and find the happiness that was so obviously lacking in his life. The ache in my chest got worse, and I just wanted to crawl into a hole and lie there.
Instead, I pushed on, although I didn’t know what I’d do when I got to the edge of town. I had to stay a wolf because I had no clothes, no shoes. No money. Being a wolf so close to civilization had its own perils, mostly men with guns trying to protect their stock. I was no threat to their livelihoods, but they didn’t know that.
It wouldn’t be my first time starving for a few days. Christopher, Carmen and I were often starved as pups, our parents too neglectful to remember to feed us. The last litter in a long line of litters, we were an afterthought, fed scraps under the table at best. Christopher would always give up his to me and Carmen, even when we were little more than toddlers. The Alpha instincts emerged young in wolves.
I missed my littermates. They’d be frantic as well. We’d never been this far away from each other; the loss of their connection was like a chasm in my chest.
I felt like I’d been trudging through the snow for hours when I passed a rocky outcrop, boulders moved millenia ago by some unseen force, creating a little nook of space.
Chances of it being uninhabited were slim, but as long as the occupant was something smaller, I could barge my way in there for a while. If I went easy, maybe I wouldn’t have to kick the natives out into the snow.
I stepped in, raising my snout into the air, twitching for a scent. Bear.
I froze, and sniffed again. The scent markings were old, like it had found this shallow crevice not quite comfy enough and moved on, but even the hint of predator was enough to warn other animals away. No one—not man, beast or shifter—fucked with a bear. The Moon Goddess must have been shining down on me because I settled on the old leaves, the slight swirling breeze cold but not as cold as it was outside. I couldn’t live here for long, but long enough to be rescued.
I scented the den entrance, just enough to warn off anything else that wanted to seek shelter in this little den. Plus it would make it easier for the shifters to find me. The wolf happy with that, she curled in a ball, retreating back, letting the human out more. We were the same person, obviously, but my instincts as a wolf were skewed.
I was exhausted. Mentally, physically, emotionally. I was wrung out. It had been one thing after another and I couldn’t take it anymore. Misery bubbled up in my chest, and a whine emitted from my throat. I just wanted to sleep and sleep and sleep, and if I never woke up? I guess the Fates would have the last laugh after all.
Enit.
My nose twitched at the sound of Christopher’s voice in my dream, calling to me.
Enit.
I blinked sleepily, my body feeling frozen. I couldn’t move, though I wasn’t sure if it was stiffness or the beginnings of hypothermia.
Enit.
I perked up, raising my head, my ears flicking. It wasn’t a dream.Christopher?
The rush of relief coming down the connection with my littermates threatened to overwhelm me completely. I didn’t realize how flimsy my hold on my courage had been until that moment. I let out a shuddering wail that reverberated down our bond and I could feel Christopher's Alpha essence wrapping around me, like a warm blanket made of thorns. To comfort and protect. Soothe and savage.
We’re coming, Enit.Carmen’s voice sounded weaker, more shaky than Christopher’s but it was no less soothing. I missed them so much. As much as I missed Bohdie and Stacey.We’re almost at the border.
They were getting more strained, as if the connection we hadn’t had since we were kids was satisfied. We were all okay, and it could cut those strings again. Magic was fickle like that. But they were coming and I knew I’d be on my way back to Dark River in the next twenty-four hours, away from this town, that cabin and him.
I pushed the feelings that crept up my chest back down. I had no right to have feelings for the guy whostoleme. I stood, shaking off the snow that had blown through the gap in the crevice, and paced back and forth between the back wall and the entrance.
Like I was compelled to do so, I turned my head in the direction I’d come from, seeing if I could pick up the scent of Kell. I didn’t know how long I’d been curled up in an exhausted ball. I couldn’t even detect a trace of him on the wind, maybe because he was too far away, but hopefully it was because he was long gone. Hopefully I’d never see him again, but I didn’t know why that made me want to tip my head back and howl.
So I did. I pushed all my loss, sadness, frustration and anger into that howl. I howled mournfully at the moon, and somewhere far away, a natural born wolf howled back in solidarity. Never alone, no matter how lonely I felt right now.
Unlike Kell.
Twelve hours later, there was a lion in the doorway of my little cave. He let out a ear-shattering roar and then he transformed into a very naked Bohdie. The sight of him there, in front of me, close enough to touch, made me spring toward him, transforming from wolf to girl as I went.
“Enit, baby, god,” he mumbled, pressing kisses all over my head and face, his arms banding so tightly around me that I was worried he’d crack a rib. I cried into his chest, no longer needing to hold myself together at all. I relaxed back into my Omega designation, happy to let my Alpha—the man I loved—take care of everything right now, just like he promised over and over against my hair.
He inhaled deeply and stilled.
