Ties to the Blood Moon 2nd Edition (12 page)

Some of the wolves made it to the car, but the larger wolves kept circling, keeping them from getting in. That didn’t deter them, though. They kept lunging at the car, the sound of their bodies slamming against the metal was terrifying. And they were biting at the glass, each time cracking it more.

The larger wolves were stronger, but the smaller ones were faster, and finally broke through the back window. I had to run. That was my only chance to live, and … the only way I knew to save William.

Adrenaline surged through my body, as I crawled across to the driver’s seat since my door was too smashed in to open. After a deep breath I threw open the door at the same time one of the wolves lunged through the back seat. I slammed the door, but I knew it would only deter him for a few seconds.

As I ran toward the path we’d drove in on, I heard William scream my name, but I didn’t slow down. My heart pounded erratically in my chest, forcing the blood to rush through my veins. I ran as fast as I could, but when I glanced back I saw one of the wolves gaining on me. I tried to be smart thinking maybe if I kept changing directions I could keep the wolf from catching me. I ran faster than I ever had before. Maybe it was because in the past I hadn’t been running for my life. I was starting to tire quickly, which slowed me down.

When I glanced behind me again, I didn’t see the wolf. Relief set in, and I slowed even more thinking I’d outrun the beast. That was a stupid assumption on my part. Wolves are silent hunters, and just because I didn’t see him that particular time didn’t necessarily mean I’d out run him.

When I turned started to leap over a rock, I felt something grab at the back of my leg, and then a sharp pain burning pain filled me. I fell to the ground, my face hitting the muck.

At first, I thought I’d pulled a muscle in my leg. When I reached bag to rub the tightness out, I heard a series of low growls, and I scrambled to turn over. Four huge wolves were inching their way toward me. I promptly pulled my hand back and looked down at it. Blood dripped through my fingers and onto the ground. The light blue jeans I wore were muddy and my left pants leg was shredded and bloody. I swallowed hard, trying to fight back the tears. The pain in my leg was intense, but I managed to slowly inch my way backwards away from the wolves. I only made it a few feet back when I bumped into the base of a large tree.

I was injured and trapped. The wolves had won. It would only be a matter of time until they tired of staring at their prey, and pounced. I closed my eyes tightly, not wanting to see their fangs tear into me, ripping me apart.

I screamed when I felt something touch me.

“Everything’s going to be all right, Genevieve,” William said softly.

My eyes shot open, and William was scooping me up into his arms. I wrapped my arms tightly around his neck and squeezed. “But … but, how? I thought for sure you were dead,” I said sobbing into his chest.

He stooped down, and tried to set me on the ground, but I was still terrified and shaking violently. He pulled my hands from his neck, pushing me back enough where he could see my face. “Gen, you’ve got to let me sit you down for a minute, so I can wrap your leg.” He spoke sternly, but not unkindly.

“But, where are those wolves that had me surrounded?” I frantically look all around us, but saw no sign of them.

“They were protecting you. Not trying to hurt you.”

I didn’t have time to think about what he’d just said. He pulled off his tee-shirt, and I swear every muscle in his chest bulged when he flexed to tear a long strip of material from his shirt. I couldn’t help but stare at his honey colored skin, so firm and buff. William captivated me and I completely forgot about the pain in my leg, until after he wrapped my leg and pulled the material extra tight, causing me to scream out in pain.

I brushed my fingers gently across his cheek. “You know I do,” I whispered fiercely staring into his eyes. I had such a euphoric feeling whenever I was with him, and I couldn’t explain how I knew, but I knew he would always protect me, even if it meant him giving up his life to save mine.

Chapter 18

William ran so fast I had to press my face against his chest to keep my neck from snapping. I thought he would be growing tired, but the truth was he had an extremely slow heartbeat and it hadn’t wavered. I was freezing and growing weaker by the minute.

“William, I’m so cold and tired. Can’t we stop and rest?” I asked, my voice low and faint.

“Tired?” I heard him laugh. “I’m the one doing all the work.”

“My arms are so tired,” I moaned. When I opened my eyes William was moving so fast, everything we passed by was a blur. The best I could tell we were still in the woods somewhere.

“We’re almost there. You’ve got to hang on, just another minute.” His tone was calm and even. He didn’t even sound winded, and I don’t know how that was even possible.

I was so weak I could barely manage to open my eyes. The trees were thinning out and we were coming up a small hill just behind a large cinder block building. I peered into his eyes. “Wh … where are we?”

“The hospital,” William said, smiling proudly.

“That’s … impossible. We were …” I floundered and trailed off as everything around me faded to black.

***

When I woke up, I couldn’t yet open my eyes, but heard William’s voice whisper from somewhere in the darkened abyss.

“Genevieve, You have to wake up.” William’s whispers were stern. My guess was I didn’t open my eyes quickly enough, because he resorted to shaking my arm, and I cracked my eyes open a tiny bit, but they closed again quickly.

When I was finally able to my eyes, the whiteness of the room made it hard for me to focus. The bright lights directly overhead didn’t help either. William was standing beside me wearing a blue scrub shirt, which confused me even more than I already was.

“Where am I?” I tried to sit up but my arms were like limp spaghetti.

“Whoa, now,” William smiled crookedly. “You lost an awful lot of blood.” He pointed to a pole on the other side of the bed. It had two bags of clear fluid, and a half empty bag of blood. My eyes followed the tubes, which lead to both of my arms.

William leaned down close to my face. “As soon as this bag of blood is empty, we have to go,” he said gravely. “It’s not safe here.”

I closed my eyes and thought about what he’d said, and it all started coming back. We were at a picnic when a pack of werewolves attacked. I couldn’t believe that I, Genevieve Labreck, said werewolves. No matter what I wanted to believe, that’s what they were. What I couldn’t wrap my head around was why some of them had attacked us, and the others had protected us. It just didn’t make sense. I could see them fighting over us, but not for us.

My eyes shot open when all the lights went out. It was pitch black for a moment and all the normal electronic sounds of the hospital had stopped. As the emergency lights flickered to life, I saw William unhooking the still half full bag of blood from the IV pole.

William stopped moving and stood very still. He appeared to be listening to something and didn’t answer me. “They’re coming.” He kneeled down and slipped my sock and boot back onto my injured leg.

“I’m so tired, William.” I winced when I pressed my foot onto the floor.

“We have to go now.” He pulled me close, so I could lean on him. “When I open this door we have to move quickly. If something happens, keep moving. Take the stairs down to the side entrance. Help is waiting there.”

I looked at William through my tears, trying to understand what was happening. He smiled at me, but it wasn’t his usual cheerful grin.

“Ready?” he asked, pushing a few loose strands of hair behind my ear, and tucking the bag of blood into the neckline of my hoodie. I nodded, and he threw open the door. I guess I expected to see mayhem in the hallways, but it was actually quiet. Only a few nurses moving patients up and down the hall.

“The stairs are at the end of this hall,” William said, walking quickly, bracing me so that I barely had to put any weight on my injured leg.

Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the stairs. The door to the stairwell flew open and William pushed me into a room, and eased the door closed behind us. He leaned me against the wall while he rushed across the room to the window.

“What are we going to do, jump out the window?” I whispered nervously.

William pulled the pillow from the empty bed and placed it against the window. “Turn your head.”

As soon as I did, I heard the sound of breaking glass. I promptly opened my eyes and William was already next to me, and gently picked me up.

“Close your eyes.” I watched his eyes turn completely black. Before I had time grasp what was happening he ran to the window and leaped with me in his arms.

I closed my eyes somewhere in mid air. I felt us hit, but it wasn’t anything like I had expected. We were three stories up, and even with the added weight of William holding me, he still managed to land on his feet. Adrenaline raced through me and my whole body shook.

I must have passed out again, because one minute we were on the ground running and the next minute we were racing away from the hospital in the back seat of a truck with two of Luna’s brothers, Joseph and Joshua.

“Where are we going?” I raised up and asked William.

“Somewhere with people who can keep you safe,” Joseph blurted from the front seat, and then looked over his shoulder glaring at William.

I saw William’s eyes start to turn dark, and knew he was getting angry. I reached into his lap and slipped my hand into his. He gave me a sidelong glance, but held his jaw tight. I brushed it off and smiled at him.

Joshua, who was driving, readjusted his rearview mirror so he would have me in his sights, then he turned to Joseph. “Lay off, Bro, he’s only trying to help.”

The level of testosterone in the truck was so high I thought they would pull over any minute and have a pissing match. I tried to ignore it by going to my “happy place” but even that didn’t help.

Finally I’d had enough. I sat tall, folding my arms tightly across my chest, and yelled. “Will someone please tell me what is going on? I swear this place makes even L.A. seem mild, and ‘normal.’”

Joseph turned toward William and scowled. “You haven’t told her?”

“When should I have done that, Joseph?” William shot back sarcastically. “When I was running with her in my arms, hoping she wouldn’t bleed to death? Or, when I was saving her from the clutches of Zane and his clan at the hospital just now?” William glared furiously at Joseph. Joseph’s eyes narrowed and he held William’s stare.

“Uh … fellas. I’m right here.” I waved my hand in between them. “How about one of you fill me in on just what exactly in the hell is going on?”

Chapter 19

I had no idea where they were taking me, but I couldn’t wait to get there. It appeared everyone but me knew what was going on but wasn’t willing to tell me. Even when I asked William, he simply told me I needed to wait until we arrived, then I would be filled in on everything.

We drove far out of Haven. Asphalt turned to gravel and civilization was left far behind us. Grass was exchanged for snow as we drove further into the mountains. When I looked at William, he was looking straight ahead at nothing, but kept taking sidelong glances at me.

“How much farther?” I asked dryly. I was trying hard to mask my fear, but William could read me like a book. He slipped his hand around mine, gently rubbing his thumb inside my palm, but still didn’t look at me.

“We’re here,” Joshua answered and turned the truck into a group of trees.

I sat forward in the seat, watching as we pulled through the trees to an opening that revealed several run down looking shacks dotting a hill side. They were shaped similar to Luna’s house, not very wide, but they were long. Eskimo children were running around playing kick ball, or soccer, I really couldn’t tell which. A few Eskimo women were exiting what appeared to be a large greenhouse.

We pulled through heading toward the furthest house in the back, and Aunt Bev’s bright-red truck came into view. “Did you know she would be here?” I snapped at William and he just silently threw his hands up in surrender.

“I called her,” Joseph answered quickly, but didn’t look at me either.

“What… is this some kind of conspiracy? Everyone knows what’s going on but me?” I had said that more for my benefit, so I wasn’t at all surprised when I didn’t get an answer.

The truck came to a stop, and I scooted away from William to the other side and threw open my door. When I stepped down, I made the mistake of putting too much weight on my ankle, I fell to the ground wincing from the pain.

By the time Joseph managed to open his door William was already around the truck. At first, neither one reached to give me a hand. Instead they were having another stare down. Finally, William reached for my hand and I slapped it away and managed to get myself up.

“I’m fine.” I scoffed. “Why don’t you two go somewhere and have a pissing match.” I glared at them both and pushed past them, hobbling to the house Aunt Bev’s truck was parked in front of. I hated it, but I had to wait for someone to help me up the steps. There was no hand railing and my leg was killing me.