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“You can’t deny your destiny!” Damian was right behind her. Gaining.
Her head swam. She stumbled. The drugs must still be in her system. She didn’t release the whimper crawling up her throat. She knew what Damian was physically capable of. He could outrun her. He was tenacious in the gym. She would have to fight him or outsmart him.
Eyes peeled for a weapon, Tori zigzagged around a stand of birch. There. A tree limb on the ground. She picked it up, tested its weight. It would do. She spun around to face Damian as he approached.
His usually gelled and slightly spiky hair, now plastered to his head, dripped water into his eyes. Eyes that zeroed in on her with a lethal gleam.
“That wasn’t nice, Tori.”
“Neither is drugging me. Or kidnapping me. You can’t seriously think you’re going to win me over this way.”
“I knew it would take some time for you to come around, but you’ll see. I always get what I want.”
Tori lunged and swung the branch, aiming for his knee. He jumped out of the way and grabbed the end of the branch. She wrested it out of his grip and swung again. If she could keep him off guard, she’d have a chance. Her swing caught him in the middle. He fell, but as he did, he swept his leg, knocking her to the ground. She scrambled away, still holding her weapon. He grabbed her by the foot and yanked her back, his arms taking hold of her torso.
No. Way.
She jerked her head back, smacking his nose. His hold loosened and she broke free.
Tightening her grip, once again she swung. The branch smashed into his head. Damian collapsed.
Tori backed away, not taking her eyes off him. Her free hand brushed against the smooth, papery bark of a birch. She grasped it, needing something solid to hold on to. She leaned back against it and tried to catch her breath. She should run. As far away as she could. But she needed a moment. Just a moment.
She fought to bring her heart rate back down.
Damian still didn’t move.
Good. Now she could?—
A crashing through the underbrush alerted her.
A high-pitched animal sound, almost like a short bark, spiked her pulse once more. Tori turned slowly. There, in a small clearing, stood a baby moose. A very young moose from the looks of it. And it still probably had a hundred pounds on her.
Tori spun. The cow had to be close, and she didn’t want to be in the way of a mother and her child.
The calf called again.
This time, Mom answered with a deeper, longer bellow that had the hair on the back of Tori’s neck prickling. The cow must be moving in fast. There was nowhere else to go but up. Tori dropped her branch and grabbed the lowest limb on the birch tree. She climbed as high as she could go on the middle tree, the thickest trunk.
The moose reunited in the clearing, right under Tori. And neither seemed eager to move from the spot.
From her height, Tori could see the fire in the distance, flames flying high above the canopy, torching everything in its path. Thankfully, it was on the opposite side of the river. Once the moose left, she could follow the water back to the Refuge. Or she could take the canoe. It was turned upside down, half in the river, the front snagged between two boulders on the shore.
A rustling drew Tori’s attention back to Damian. He roused. The moose wandered into the trees again and away from Tori’s birch.
This is not the timing I had in mind, Lord.
Damian sat up and spotted her immediately.
“This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.” He stood and brushed himself off. Blood ran down the side of his face from his temple.
Tori adjusted her grip on the tree trunk as it swayed. “Damian, look. I am not the woman for you. You want a sweet girl who is?—”
“Don’t tell me what I want!” He looked around. Felt his pockets. He pulled a lighter out of his wet trail pants. He flicked it, but nothing happened. He grabbed the branch that Tori had hit him with.
“Damian, what are you doing?”
He ran the wheel of the lighter on the bark. “I gave you a chance. I actually appreciated your strength of mind.” He rolled the lighter again and again. “But I miscalculated. I should’ve groomed you more. But you’ll learn. You’ll die wishing you’d chosen me.”