Page 15 of Mated By the Pack
“Stop,” Vance cuts in, shifting into human form as he reaches me. He crouches beside Jace, inspecting the makeshift bandage, his hand moving with practiced ease. “Caleb, try to get as much cloth as you can from that armor. I need to find some redwort. We passed a patch on the way here.”
Vance shifts again and vanishes into the underbrush with nothing but a flash of mossy brown fur and a purpose. Another rush of blood trails down my chest. I grit my teeth to keep from passing out.
“If you weren’t already hurt, I’d kick your fucking ass,” Knox says angrily, leaning down to check on Jace. “I still will if he doesn’t recover.”
Caleb remains silent. He examines Jace, then me, not even breathing as he peers at my wound. Is he angry? Does he understand? It’s hard to read him. All we’ve known is pain, heartbreak, and hunger since The Tangle swallowed us up. Is this the price of hope? Another one of my brothers hurt. Moreblood spilled. Going after the Minotaurs was reckless, but it felt right at the time. Because it kept them away from her. Except now it would be impossible for us to fight a Gen-Lion.
“As soon as Jace is able to travel, we’re returning to the den,” Knox states firmly. “I’m done with this. I’m not chasing whatever it is that is dragging you through The Tangle and causing you to make decisions that put us in danger.”
“Now who is trying to be a leader?” I chuckle dryly, leaning my head against a rock.
“Maybe somebody has to be,” Knox growls. “Otherwise, everyone just blindly follows you, and that’s going to get us killed.”
“You’ll understand. You will…” I mutter, my eyelids fluttering.
More blood runs down my chest.
My vision blurs as it saps what is left of my consciousness.
CHAPTER 5
Calla
We’ve been traveling most of the day. Further away from Haven North. Closer to our mysterious destination—The Outpost. Frank recently convinced the others it was time to stop for the night. It’s been relatively peaceful, outside of ominous sounds emanating from The Tangle. Until we stopped, at least. Things are a little tense right now.
“What the hell just happened out there?” Carl yells, aiming his rifle at The Tangle. “Sounded like a fucking war.”
“It was too far away for us to worry about it,” Frank replies calmly, continuing to set up the campsite for the evening. “There’s no scent in the wind. You probably heard a hunter catching its prey. That’s life in The Tangle, you know?”
“I really, really wish we had taken the other way to The Outpost,” Jeb mutters. I’ve learned to tell them apart now. Jeb has an edge to his tone, likely because of the small scar near his trachea.
Carl doesn’t lower his rifle right away. His eyes dart through the underbrush, hunting for movement. “That wasn’t just a kill. That was a fight. Something big—somethingsbig.”
Frank doesn’t look up. He moves some supplies next to their sleeping area and shrugs. “Plenty of big things in The Tangle. If it was coming for us, it would already be here by now.”
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?” Carl barks.
“You want comfort or survival?” Frank asks, raising a brow. “You hired me to get you to The Outpost without losing any of your cargo—or your lives. Everyone is still accounted for, and we’ll get there tomorrow around midday.”
Carl curses under his breath and finally lowers his rifle. He barks an order at Jed, and they continue setting up the campsite.
“I think it’s over,” I whisper to my companions. “For now.”
I lean against the cage, watching our captors, ears tuned more to the forest than their bickering. The growls and crashes we heard earlier weren’t like anything I’ve ever heard before. It sounded a lot more violent than what we heard last night. And the howls—they carried emotion. I could almost feel their fury. Then I felt pain.
Tansy shifts closer to me, her lip trembling as she dries her tears. “Do you think they’ll come back?”
“I don’t know,” I admit, my fingers wrapping around the fabric concealing the key that was in my hand when I woke up. “But if it does, we’ll be ready.”
“I think we’re safer in this cage than outside of it,” Brenna says. “Not that we have any way to get out, if we had to.”
“We wait for them to open the door,” Nara states, reminding everyone of the plan. “And we only make our move if Frank isn’t around.”
Earlier, after Jeb grabbed Brenna through the bars and put his hand up her shirt while threatening to do more, we agreed that we’d rather fight the three slavers than spend our lives as slaves. Brenna seems to finally grasp that we’renotgoing to be Brides.
But I haven’t told them about the key. Not yet. I don’t even know how I would explain it. I woke up with vines in my hand. Vines still pulsing with life, and I’ve never seen any plant do that. Not even the ones we grow for medicine in Haven North. I put it in my pocket, and I can feel every pulse. Like I’m somehow connected to it, and it beats with the same rhythm of my heart.
I’m not sure if that should scare me or give me some strange glimmer of hope. The key didn’t appear there out of thin air. Something put it there. And I’m starting to think the vine I saw last night wasn’t exactly a dream.
