Sold To The Alphas: A BBW Paranormal Romance (15 page)

CHAPTER TEN

Not a few seconds after I'd sent Chase and Grayson a text asking if they could come back to my cabin, my phone rang, but it wasn't one of them responding. It was Skye, using a spare cellphone at Flora’s cabin, and she sounded scared.

She spoke quietly, with a little tremor in her voice. "Lily's still sleeping, and maybe she'll stay sleeping through the whole thing. But no matter what, I'll keep her calm and safe. Tell Flora that, Ro. I'll keep Lily calm and safe. I promise."

Alarmed and miles beyond confused, I responded with a little tremor in my own voice. "I'll tell her, but what are you talking about? What's going on?"         

“Oh! Make sure your front door is locked tight. Windows, too, if they're not already. I should have said that first."

Being that it was an unusually warm May morning, two of the windows in my cabin were halfway open, as they'd been all night. The front door wasn't locked, tightly or otherwise, because I'd seen no reason to do so immediately after Flora had arrived to share her happy news. Now, while Flora looked at me quizzically, I went over and locked it.

"Okay, Skye. The door is locked, and I'm going to do the windows now. But, please...while I'm shutting them...tell me what's going on."

Before she could respond to me, Flora, who was standing on her tiptoes, looking out of a pane of decorative glass near the top of the front door, gasped. "Wolves in the lane. Not ours. Windows! Shut 'em!"

I was already there, at one of them, anyway, and I slammed it shut and bolted the lock before dashing over to the other half-open window and doing the same, my trembling fingers flying. "We're all locked up now, Skye. Are you, too? Did you make sure to get every single last window in the cabin?"

Flora and Hunter's cabin was large, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and I knew that unlike my one-room cabin, there were at least a dozen windows throughout the whole thing.

Skye answered in the affirmative, saying that she'd double-checked to make sure all windows were locked, as well as the front door and a side door. "I just finished checking for the second time, actually, and Lily is still fast asleep in her little bed. Can't believe none of this is waking her up. They're already fighting in front of the cabin, and it's loud. Snarling, howling...it sounds like they're already in the thick of it."

"You mean our wolves are already fighting them?"

"Well,
some
wolves are already fighting
some
wolves...but as far as which ones are 'ours,' I can't really tell, just because I've never seen 'ours' before. But one of the fighting groups is definitely a more silvery, lighter gray...kind of a very pale smoke gray, even.  The other group is still a silvery gray, but a much darker gray. A charcoal gray, really."

Leave it to Skye to be so descriptive about nuances in color even while a shifter fight is raging nearby
, I thought. I wasn't really surprised. She'd always been into art and had been obsessed with colors and gradations in colors ever since we'd been kids. It wouldn't have been like her to simply say: "Some of the wolves are light gray, and some of them are dark gray."

I clutched the phone to my ear, praying that the answer to the question I was about to ask would be what I hoped it would be. "Does one side or the other seem to be winning the fight? And which side? The lighter wolves or the darker ones?"

There was a long pause before Skye responded, and I clutched the phone hard enough to break it.

"Um...I'd say the darker wolves seem to be winning the fight, if anyone. Still looks kind of close, though."

I heaved a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. Good. The darker silvery-gray wolves are ours. I think the much lighter ones are a pack that's been giving Chase and Grayson problems for the past few months. Bet they heard about the Bloodfur attack last night, figured Chase and Grayson's pack would be weakened and tired, and decided to take their chance."

"Well, it's definitely looking like this lighter-colored pack is beginning to lose now. There's...there's starting to be a lot of blood, and...and wolf parts all over the lane. I think I'm going to turn away from this window now and go check on Lily again. Just stay on the line with me. I'm still just a bit freaked out, and that's putting it mildly."

Without a doubt. I was feeling the same.

Across the cabin, Flora was still on her tiptoes, peering out the glass panel in the door. With her big blue eyes wide, she now turned and looked at me. "Lily. I have to get home to her."

Striding across the living room, I shook my head. "No. You've gotta stay safe right here. Lily is just fine. Skye says she's still sleeping, and she says she'll keep her perfectly safe and calm if she wakes up."

Flora glanced out the glass panel again. "But I'm her mom. I should be there with her right now. All but a couple of the wolves that were outside have headed up the lane now, and if I were to just sneak across the lane and up behind the row of cabins on the other side, I could-"

"No." Shaking my head again, I came to a stop beside her. "No way, Flora. And I'd be saying this even if you weren't pregnant. It's just too dangerous, for anyone. We've just gotta sit tight. Skye says our men are already beating the attacking wolves. It'll probably just be a matter of minutes now before they take them all out."

Flora nodded. "All right." With a deep worry line creasing her normally smooth forehead, she glanced out the window again before turning her gaze to me. "Looks like all
but one are
headed up the lane now to the fight. I swear...with Lily, and now me being pregnant again, which I'd only
just
had a chance to tell Hunter before he was called away to deal with the carcasses this morning, my nerves just can't-"

Flora's words had been cut off by some sort of calamitous crash coming from the bathroom, the only enclosed little room in the cabin. The crash sounded like a combination of glass shattering and wood breaking, followed by a heavy thud. I'd been so startled, I'd dropped my phone.

I turned to Flora, hardly even daring to breathe, and spoke in a whisper. "There's a window in the bathroom. Do you think-"

"Yes. We can't head out the front door, because one of them is still in the lane. We need to grab weapons. Whatever we can find."

I scanned the living room area, immediately spotting some fireplace-tending tools in a tall brass pot by the fireplace. "The fireplace pokers. They're iron, and heavy. One for each of us."

We wasted no time in dashing over and snatching up the pokers, and not a moment too soon. The wolf in the bathroom began presumably hurling his body against the door in an effort to break it, making crash after thunderous crash. With each impact, vibrations rippled through the rough-hewn floorboards beneath Flora's and my feet. I knew the bathroom door, despite being heavy, wasn't going to last long.

Brandishing my iron poker, I stepped in front of Flora. "You not only have yourself to defend, but the baby inside of you, too."

I also didn't want to point out yet another reason why I thought it best for me to be the first line of defense.  Flora was so petite, maybe only a hundred pounds or so, and such a delicately-built hundred pounds at that, that I feared her swinging her poker at the wolf first wouldn't have much of an effect on him. It would maybe just anger him, rather than slowing him down, or knocking him unconscious. Then, I'd have to deal with an even-more-worked-up wolf. I figured it was just best if I had the first crack at him. The first crack that would, hopefully, be the last, if I could get him right on the top of his skull, how I intended to.

While the wolf in the bathroom continued slamming his body against the door, snarling loud enough for it to be heard on the other side, I glanced back at Flora. "I'll try to bash him over the head with my poker before he even gets near you. Just watch your own poker around my head."

"Okay. I will."

I had no more time to plan our strategy any further. One more slam of the wolf's body, and the door swung open, splintering the wood near its hinges. The cabin then became almost deathly quiet while a large, light gray wolf padded out of the bathroom, fangs bared and greenish eyes glinting in a shaft of sunlight slanting in from a living room window.

Staring him down, I tightened my grip on the fireplace poker. This was definitely no coyote, like the little animal I'd taken on days earlier had turned out to be. This animal, whose shaggy gray shoulders had spanned nearly the entire width of the bathroom door, was unequivocally a wolf. Not just simply a "large" one, either, I could see that now.  From the tip of his dark nose to the base of his tail, he was probably about six feet long. He was exceptionally tall, too. It appeared that his back was the height of my waist, at least.

I knew my task wasn't going to be easy. I also knew I didn't have any alternative but to stick to my plan. It was either that, or lie down and die, and allow Flora to be hurt and maybe even killed herself. Obviously, I couldn't let that happen.

However, at the same time, I couldn't hold my heavy iron poker aloft much longer. My hands were beginning to tremble badly, and the muscles in my arms were beginning to shake as well. Though I wasn't exactly a weakling, I didn't have biceps like Chase and Grayson, either.

While the light gray wolf slowly stalked over to Flora and me with saliva dripping from his bared fangs, I knew it was now or never. I had to rush him. I had to bring my poker down on the top of his head, cracking his skull.

I didn't even allow myself another moment for a deep breath. I just suddenly charged, holding my poker high. But, to my horror, I didn't get far. Almost immediately, I tripped on the edge of a multicolored rag rug and went down on my hands and knees, dropping my poker. From somewhere behind me, I heard Flora swear, panic evident in her voice. I didn't have time to stand, glance back at her, or even blink before the wolf came at her, leaping right over me, snarling.

I heard myself make some low, half-strangled noise that sounded like the word
no
, instantly followed by a sound behind me that I didn't recognize. It reminded me of the sound of a baseball bat connecting with a ball, something between a thud and a pop. After this strange sound, there was a tremendous crash, and I whipped my face around to look.

Flora was clutching her iron poker up by her shoulder, just how a person might hold a baseball bat. Her face was white as a sheet. The wolf was sprawled at her feet, motionless, with blood trickling from a wound on the side of his head.

Lifting her gaze from the wolf to me, Flora spoke in a near-whisper. "I didn't know I had it in me like that."

I shook my head, astonished. "I didn't, either, to be honest."

Our fight wasn't over just yet, though. The wolf began to stir, flicking an eye open with a low snarl. He took a swipe at Flora's ankles with one enormous, sharp-clawed paw. She jumped out of the way just in time, and by then, I'd grabbed my poker and leaped to my feet.

"Now it's my turn."

I charged at the wolf, managing not to trip this time, and brought the spiked tip of my poker down on the top of his skull. He howled in pain, convulsing, then dropped his head.

Breathless, I looked from him to Flora. "If he's smart, he won't get up again."

A bit breathless herself, she laughed weakly. "Nope. Not unless he wants another round of teamwork like that."

Laughing again, she dropped her poker, and it hit the floorboards with a bang. However, the sound wasn't quite loud enough to drown out a low snarl from the wolf. He suddenly sprang to his feet, lunging at a now unarmed Flora. I was faster than him, though. With a wild cry, I brought my poker down on his back, then cracked it over his skull yet again.

To my surprise, my near disbelief, really, he whirled around snarling. My blows did not seem to have any effect other than to accelerate the flow of blood dripping from his head. Though terrified, I didn't pause in my assault and brought the poker down over his head one final time, putting every last ounce of my strength into the blow. The large, pale gray wolf staggered, making a low, keening noise of pain.

At the same time, the cabin door flew open, its deadbolt lock smashing through the wood of the frame. In charged Chase, Grayson, and Hunter, one right after the other, all of them in wolf form, and all of them snarling and snapping their mighty jaws.