Page 86 of Ensnared by the Pack: The Complete Series (Destined Realms #3)

AUDREY

“Hey,” Knox said, giving me a soft shake as the storm raged around us. “You’re not supposed to fall asleep.”

“Pretty sure that’s a myth,” I replied even as I forced my eyes open — eyes I hadn’t realized I’d closed. “At least in my realm I think it’s a myth. For all I know brains work differently in this realm, like hormones.”

“I wouldn’t know about that. I just know you’re not falling asleep until sunset.”

I looked out at the gloom unable to see more than a couple feet beyond our dry little crack. “Will we even know when it sets?”

“It’ll get even darker,” he replied dryly. “But I’m hoping the storm will pass soon.”

“It did come on us suddenly.” The sky had been bright with only a few clouds moments before the rain had started… or maybe I’d just missed the signs. We’d been in the ravine and hadn’t been able to see the horizon. The storm still had to have been fast-moving since there hadn’t been any cloud on the horizon when we’d entered the ravine just after lunch, but it might not have been as magically sudden as it felt.

Knox, however, didn’t elaborate and I didn’t want to pry answers out of him. I’d ask Bishop about it when he and Cyrus found us.

The rain continued to pour in a steady rush, picking up in pitch and volume every time the wind gusted. I watched a bush that was barely visible through the torrent thrash against a boulder. It jerked this way and that, unable to escape and forced to endure.

That was me now.

I couldn’t escape Knox. I had to endure and make the best of my situation, but I also couldn’t roll over and submit — like my screaming instincts insisted.

That would only lead to a lifetime of subservience and I was never going to go back to that. Ever.

It wouldn’t matter if I also had Bishop as a mate. I couldn’t let Knox think he could push me around again, even if he thought it was best for me.

But God! Just the thought of standing my ground again made my pulse race and my insides squirm.

“Bishop is still fine,” Knox said, his tone still gruff, but his words surprisingly comforting.

Even if I hadn’t been panicking about Bishop being in danger, Knox had sensed my worry and was trying to calm me.

“When do you think he and Cyrus will find us?” I couldn’t imagine them finding anything in this downpour, but Knox had found this crack and they were real shifters who could see in low, to almost no, light.

“Tonight at the earliest,” Knox replied. “The flash flood was moving quickly and we could have easily gone a few miles in a few moments. We were also swept past the slope where we would have exited the ravine and headed away from the river, which means we’re past the split and they’re going to have to find a way to cross it or wait for the water to go down.”

The split was another ravine that joined the one we’d been following that had crossed our path. It had been easier to slide down the only available slope and follow the ravine leading north until we found another easy-to-climb slope farther along instead of trying to scale the almost sheer rock face on the other side.

“Do you think that other ravine flooded?” I asked.

“Probably.”

Again, I waited for him to say more, creating an awkward silence between us, but he still didn’t elaborate.

Swell.

“I guess that means we’re even closer to Darkweald.”

“We’re in Darkweald.”

“We’re what?” I tried to jerk upright, but he tightened his grip, clutching me to his chest.

I couldn’t believe the water had raced so quickly that we’d travel a whole day’s worth of walking. But then I hadn’t known how long I’d been in the water or where either ravine had gone to. I’d have thought they’d have both gone to the river, but the one had clearly branched away from it. Regardless?—

“We have to get out of the forest,” I said. There were dangerous spirits in Darkweald and from everything the guys had told me, they were most active at night. We had to leave before the sun set.

“Calm down,” he snarled, a wave of his power rolling through me and making me go limp.

“Don’t you dare!” I snapped at him, fighting his command.

“Then act reasonable.”

“I am. The last time we were in Darkweald, flying snake monsters tried to kill us. If everything you guys have been telling me is true we need to get out of Tzanagoth’s sphere of influence before sunset.”

“I’m not dragging you back into the storm to hide for who-knows-how-long just to get out of Darkweald. It’s bad enough you’re bleeding and I can’t make a fire to warm you up. Darkweald is a big forest and isn’t all within Tzanagoth’s influence. And even if we are within his influence, we’ll be fine if we don’t do anything to draw attention to ourselves.”

“And you know this for a fact?” I demanded.

“I do.”

Silence. Again.

Jeez. And I’d thought Cyrus was stingy with sharing information.

But as much as I wanted to know more, I sure as hell wasn’t going to beg him for it. I couldn’t escape — his grip around me was too tight — and even if I could, I didn’t know where I was going and I could barely see. For all I knew, I’d stumble deeper into the forest.

We sat in a long, awkward silence until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer and I let them slide shut. I wasn’t completely recovered from my heat and I was exhausted, not to mention sore and my head was really starting to pound. The heat from Knox’s body along with his smoky scent and the warmth around my heart from our shifter connection was too much and I soon fell asleep.

I woke with Knox’s arms still wrapped around me and his warm breath gently caressing the side of my face. Sunlight streamed through a thin canopy of trees and that eerie stillness I’d felt the first time I’d stepped into Darkweald wrapped around me.

Knox hadn’t lied. We’d been swept all the way into the forest… well, from the wide open area that lay beyond a few tree trunks in front of me, it was clear we were just inside the forest.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it didn’t look like it was close to sunset, and my gut told me the shadows were going in the wrong direction. Which meant it was the next day. Knox had let me sleep through the night despite what he’d told me about needing to stay awake, and there, about sixty feet away, were Bishop and Cyrus walking across the rocky ground toward us.

Relief flooded me. They were all right. Thank God they were all right.

“Thought you’d try to get ahead of us,” Bishop said as he knelt in front of me and flashed me his panty-melting smile.

I tore myself out of Knox’s grip and threw myself against Bishop’s chest despite my body complaining from having slept cramped against my mate and what I was sure was a stunning collection of bruises from my watery trip down the ravine. I wrapped my arms around him, and he chuckled as he hugged me back, the sound melting the last of the frozen fear sitting heavy in my stomach.

“You’re okay?” I asked, pressing my nose into the crook of his neck and inhaling his fresh-cut grass scent. Our shifter connection swelled around my heart and tears stung my eyes at how comforting it was. He was, and would always be, my soul’s home.

“We’re fine,” he murmured, holding me tight before placing his hands on my shoulders and leaning back to look at me. “Better than you.”

He brushed his fingers against my temple, sending pain spiking through my skull.

“It’s just a few bruises and scratches.” I shrugged, feeling every single bruise in that slight movement.

Cyrus huffed, drawing my attention to him. He was shirtless and his pants were ripped and bloody. Three red welts sliced across his chest, indicating just how deep the jackals’ claws had cut into him that they couldn’t be healed right away with a quick shift.

Bishop, on the other hand, looked fine. But then he’d destroyed his clothes when he’d shifted and had to put on new, clean ones that hid any remaining evidence of the fight.

“She has a nasty bump on her head, a deep cut on her shoulder, and a skinned knee,” Knox told him. “Little more than a few bruises and scratches.”

“Not enough for an elixir,” Cyrus replied. “Come on. We’re on the eastern-most side of Darkweald, about as far as we can get from the patrol shed and not the three-quarter day hike we would have had if we’d camped where we were supposed to.”

Aaaand somehow our change of camping location had become my fault.

Jeez. I couldn’t win with Cyrus. Not that it mattered. He wasn’t my mate and wasn’t interested in becoming my mate like Bishop was. He was just my brother-in-law and my pack alpha. Someone I was going to be connected to for the rest of my life.