Page 54 of Ensnared by the Pack: The Complete Series (Destined Realms #3)
AUDREY
I woke the next day still wrapped in Bishop’s arms, his bright, fresh-cut grass scent enveloping me. Knox was already gone, my blanket folded neatly beside my pack, and Cyrus was dousing the fire.
For once I was just regularly turned on and not frustrated from a night of dream sex, and my aches were more than enough to overwhelm the sensation.
It had to be because Knox hadn’t shown up in my dreams. I’d opened my eyes to the grove and waited for him to pounce, but nothing had happened, and my real-life exhaustion had swept in. Too tired to stand and explore my dream world, I’d lain on the soft mossy ground, closed my eyes, and opened them again in the morning to the cave.
I had no idea why my dreams had changed, but I was grateful. Maybe it was because I’d been in physical contact with Bishop all night. Maybe that had been enough to steady my soul and control some of the symptoms of my heat.
“You should spend time with Nova when we get back. Build on your first aid knowledge,” Cyrus said as he handed me and Bishop the equivalent of a granola bar. “There wasn’t a lot of blood last night, but you didn’t hesitate to pull out the first aid kit and you didn’t care about getting it on your hands.”
“Ah… sure.” I didn’t know how to respond. I hadn’t imagined working in health care. Although I hadn’t imagined any occupation. I’d just been dreaming of the day when my wolf would wake and it was safe to leave my pack.
“See,” Bishop whispered in my ear. “There are things you can do.”
“Not sure how well I’ll handle something more serious,” I replied.
“Hey.” He hooked his thumb under my chin and urged me to look at him. “Don’t diminish this. Not everyone would have thought to grab the first aid kit or been able to patch Knox up. Even if your place in the pack isn’t with Nova’s medical team that’s still a skill not everyone has.”
“You’re right,” I murmured, not wanting to argue with him. But just agreeing with him made my insides squirm.
I didn’t know why it made me so uncomfortable to agree with him. But pulling out the first aid kit and patching Knox up didn’t seem that extraordinary. It certainly wasn’t that important, not in the big scheme of things like surviving in the wild and defending myself and others from monsters.
We ate a quick breakfast and left. According to the map, we only had four days left to go, but I feared those four days were going to be excruciating. My body hurt even before I’d started walking and two days later, on the morning of the eighth day, I had to keep reminding myself that I’d asked for this.
I’d asked Cyrus to keep going no matter what. I just hadn’t realized he’d take me past the point of pain into a nightmare numbness where I knew I was hurting myself, but my mind had retreated into a narrow focus of putting one foot in front of the other so I could keep going.
Except there wasn’t any other choice. I couldn’t seal my bond with Knox and make it permanent and I’d only last for so long.
Only two more days, I chanted to myself. Today and tomorrow. Two more days.
I tried to focus on the morning sunlight streaming through the branches overhead and the sound of rushing water from the river out of sight but nearby. If I could find the semi trance-like state I’d been ending up in by the end of the day, I’d be able to ignore this morning’s pain and push through until at least lunch. Except I’d never been able to reach that state first thing in the morning before and couldn’t seem to find it now.
After almost two and a half days straight of rocky landscape, we entered another forest, and the forest’s stillness surrounded us. Thankfully, the sense that we were being watched hadn’t reappeared since the jackal attack two nights ago and the stillness wasn’t the dark ominous stillness from Darkweald but the deep calm that made me feel as if my soul might actually be half wolf.
Ahead of me, Cyrus hiked up yet another a rise then half hopped half skidded down the incline on the other side, disappearing out of sight.
I bit back a groan and trudged after him. Yesterday morning, we’d gone over a rise and I’d lost my balance, nearly falling face first down the other side. After that, the guys wouldn’t let me go down even the gentlest slope by myself without one of them standing at the bottom to catch me, and I ended up with their hands on me or their arms around me and my desire flaring hot and needy despite being sore and exhausted.
Bishop and I reached the top of the rise and I stared down at Cyrus and Knox standing in the middle of… was that a road?
I blinked, but the road didn’t disappear. It wasn’t a mirage from my exhausted mind. Below was an actual road running northwest, possibly following the river like we were, and east. It wasn’t paved, but the ground had clearly been cut away and smoothed. Without a doubt, it was a road.
Bishop skidded down the incline then reached out to catch me and I followed, pushing out of his arms the second my feet were firmly on the road before my desire could burn out of control and I ended up groping him like I had the last time he’d caught me.
“Are we sticking to our original route?” Bishop asked. “This isn’t on the map so I don’t know if it’ll lead to the death god’s temple.”
“Do we know when that map was made?” Cyrus asked, then he turned to Knox, paused as if he were listening to something, and nodded. “Agreed. If it turns fully north up ahead, it’ll make traveling easier.”
“If it does go north, we might run into trouble,” Bishop replied as Knox bounded up the road. “The map is eighty years old, but unless this road is well maintained, it looks a lot newer than that. Either way, if it heads north that might mean the death god has new and active followers.”
Cyrus took a long drink from his canteen, his eyes scanning the area although I wasn’t sure what he was looking for. I couldn’t sense trouble. With the birds chirping, the sunlight streaming through the leaves and branches, and the steady rush of the river nearby, the forest felt peaceful.
“Let me see the map,” he said, turning to Bishop. But his attention caught on me and he sighed. “While we figured this out, why don’t you fill our canteens.”
“Sure.” I took his and Bishop’s canteens, left my pack with them — since there was no point in hauling it to the river and back — and headed up the road after Knox. The rise shrunk to half its height about fifty feet away and that would be easier to climb up than what we’d just skidded down.
The river wasn’t that much farther, and I quickly reached its rocky banks and fast-moving water. Ahead I could hear the rush of a waterfall, it had to be close, but couldn’t see it because the river turned slightly, and the trees blocked my view.
Carefully, I picked my way across the boulders and rocks to the water’s edge and was about to dip the first canteen into the water when a young voice, from the direction of the waterfall, whooped and something splashed. More young voices and splashes followed then came a feminine voice calling out to slow down and stop running.
First a road, now a… pool party?
Bishop had said no one lived in this part of the realm, but clearly he’d been wrong. What I didn’t know was if they were an opportunity for a night in an actual bed — and yes I could admit I was exhausted and willing to delay reaching the death god’s temple by half a day for a real bed — or if they were dangerous.
Except they didn’t sound dangerous. They sounded like a woman with kids playing in the river, but I had no idea how they’d react to me.
From what Bishop had told me, his pack had relationships with other packs and communities near theirs. There were also other territories and countries farther away, but not everyone welcomed strangers.
That, and the guys had just talked about the road indicating that the death god might have new worshipers. I didn’t know what a typical death god worship session looked like, but best guess was that it involved death, and unwelcome visitors probably made the best sacrifices.
But I couldn’t contain my curiosity and eased toward the sound, pushing through the underbrush and sticking close to trees and tall rocks for cover until a tingle of energy passed over me.
My pulse lurched and I froze. Had I set off a trap? Did they know I was hiding in the forest?
Someone moved up ahead, but no one came looking for me, and after a moment of waiting for yelling or magic freezing me in place or something, I dropped to my stomach and inched along the ground until I could see what was going on.
It was definitely a pool party and the pools looked man-made like the road.
A small stream from the waterfall had been diverted to pour down into a large pool. The water closest to the waterfall was dark and deep, but the ground sloped up along the pool’s edges to create a shallow end and large patio area.
Half a dozen kids splashed in the deeper water, while two more raced up stone steps to get to a platform about six feet above the water. Three other teenagers, two girls and a boy, played with ten smaller children in a shallow waders’ section close to me. The smaller children were a mix of babies and toddlers, most of whom were completely naked, while close to two dozen women hung out on the patio under umbrellas, sitting on lounge chairs, chatting, and watching the children play.
With the exception that their bathing suits were more like halter tops and shorts and the material didn’t look like spandex, the scene looked like something out of a movie or TV show.
My pack had a community pool, but I’d never been stupid enough to risk going, so I’d never experienced a pool party in real life. But this was what I imagined it would look like. Lounging in the sun, chatting with friends while children laughed and called out to each other and had a great time.
No one looked like they worshiped a death god, although I wasn’t sure what a death god worshiper looked like. I assumed they’d be dower and angry and not sunbathing and playing in the water with their kids. And none of them radiated any kind of supernatural essence. They were all human.
Still, Cyrus would be pissed if I just walked down there and ask if their town was nearby and if they had an inn or spare room I could use for the night.
I was about to sneak away when movement in the bushes near the far side of the wader pool caught my attention.
My heart dropped into my stomach, and I raked my gaze over the area where I’d thought I’d seen something. The last time I’d caught a hint of movement of something mostly hidden, the grimalkins had attacked the market and, people, including children, had died. I’d foolishly assumed it had been a young wolf practicing his stalking skills and I’d be damned if I’d make the same mistake twice.
It didn’t matter that I had no idea who these people were or if they were even good people. If children were in danger, I had to try to protect them.
A gentle wind teased the leaves making up about a third of the canopy above. The sunlight and shadows danced over the underbrush and the rocky ground, making it difficult to tell if the things hidden in the bushes were rocks or monsters.
Please let me be wrong.
But there, at the edge of the brush, blending in with the shadows, was one of the large, bulky grimalkins that had attacked Stonehaven.