Page 13 of Goldie and Her Bears (Dirty Paranormal Fairytale Haremlan 3)

It was weird that I didn’t care anymore.

All I cared about was the quiet that surrounded me. I was at peace and succumbing to the sweet serenity of surrender.

And I gave into it, allowing death to take over me.

6

CHASE

When I woke up the morning after Cassie arrived, I had the urge to impress her with breakfast. She had appreciated my food so much the night before, I wanted to really impress her with the first and most important meal of the day. Sure, the guys appreciate the food I made, but there was a certain something about impressing her through food that had me itching to keep doing so.

So, I headed to the kitchen and got started. An hour later, I had finished wrapping up breakfast when a loud commotion came from outside the cabin. I barely had enough time to wipe my hands off and step out of the kitchen when the door swung inside with so much force, it hit the wall and a long, deep crack appeared in the bottom half of it. No more than a second later, Kai stepped in, carrying Cassie in his arms. She was asleep. With more care than I had ever seen Kai have, he laid her on the couch. I stepped farther into the room as Jasper followed stepped inside. His face was contorted in an expression of worry.

“What’s going on?” I asked as my heart skipped a beat. “What happened?”

Kai faced me and snapped, “Grab hot water and clean rags. Now!”

I nodded and immediately went to work. Less than five minutes later, I carried into the living room a large bowl filled with hot water from the tap and a collection of dishrags draped over my arm. I sat the bowl on the floor next to where Cassie lay. Her face was pale. Beads of sweat covered her forehead, soaking her golden blond hair that laid flat against her skin.

Jasper and Kai went to work on ripping her jeans from her leg. I took one glance at the wounds and shuddered. She had been caught in a bear trap. Though I worried for her, I was also incredibly angry.

Hunters had been coming out in full force for months now. And it was only getting worse. There used to be a time where I would go out on a hunt, or even a run, without running into a single trap. Then I would find a couple every so often. The sightings had increased to the point that there hadn’t been a time I had gone out and not seen at least three of them.

It wouldn’t be long before the whole forest was laden with them.

Whoever is laying the traps, their numbers had to have grown, and it was dangerous enough for me and my roommates that we wouldn’t often go out at night anymore. At least, not very far out. It was only a matter of time before one of us got snared by one of those damned atrocities. It was a shame the first of us had to be Cassie.

Me, Jasper, or even Kai might manage to recover rather quickly and easily from one of those damned things. But her? With the way she appeared, lying on the couch, eyes closed… if she made it through, she would never walk right again.

As my two roommates worked to help Cassie, I sat back absolutely useless. I could only stare at her as she clung to life. She had lost so much blood. My heart hammered in my chest with each staggering breath I took in. She was so beautiful, even covered in sweat and blood. I checked for her breathing by staring at her chest. But her breaths were so shallow that her form barely moved at all.

Things were dire. And she needed help far more than what we were capable to offer.

“Fucking hunters,” I growled out.

“You got that right,” Jasper said as he wrung out a rag before carefully wiping Cassie’s leg around one of the holes caused by the trap.

“They took it too far this time,” Kai agreed as he wrung out a bloody rag in the hot water. “They have to be stopped.”

“I’ll call Marcus,” I said. “He can do far more to help her than we can.”

“There’s no time,” Jasper said. “We have to make do with what we can do and hope for the best.”

“She’s innocent in all of this. She deserves much more than this,” I said. “Especially more than simply hoping for the best. She’s not an animal.”

“Don’t you think we are already aware of this?” Kai asked with an edge to his words. I noticed he was trying his best to keep his temper in control, which was impressive. Kai had never been known to hold back. Especially in situations like this.

“Of everything you can think of to talk about, that’s what you start with?” Jasper asked.

I shrugged. “Am I missing something?”

“You should probably start with what the hell she was doing out in the woods in the first place,” Kai said.

“I didn’t even know she left. But if she wasn’t here, I would think she was with Jasper,” I said and settled my attention on him. A pinch of confusion settled in the center of my forehead. “I take it that wasn’t the case?”

Jasper glanced over his shoulder, meeting my gaze for a split second before returning his attention to sewing the wounds the teeth of the trap had caused. The expression within them spoke more than his words ever could. Not only was she not with Jasper, but she was out there on her own. I knew better than to think she would go anywhere with Kai. Not after the way he treated her.

“I’ll take that as my answer,” I said and huffed out a sigh. Now I was growing more concerned. “So, what was she doing out there then?”

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