the middle, betraying me. I swallow hard and try to put firmness in my voice. "What happened to them?"
His amber eyes meet mine, his lips thin.
"I don't know." His voice is a low, primal rumble. It's thick with an Alpha base that makes my knees threaten to buckle. "They'll be okay."
But he doesn't sound convinced.
"Do you think they're..."
"Dead? I don't know." He shakes his head.
"How could you leave them there to die?" I gasp, incredulous, my heart racing a mile a minute. I push against his chest that's a wall of muscle and he doesn't budge.
I take a step back and he glares down at me. I stop, staring at his too-tough-to-be-real pecs. I've never seen anything like them.
"What would you do if it were you out there instead of them?"
"I wouldn't have gotten surrounded like that." His voice slices through the air. "I would've obeyed the Alpha and gotten the fuck out of there when he fucking told me."
"They were trying to save us."
His expression goes dark. "They had the chance to escape and they chose not to. Twice. I told them to go. If they hadn't chased after us, they wouldn't have gotten caught up in the fight and would be somewhere safe now."
"Instead of bleeding and dying?" I want to scream at him for what he's done. My insides twist at the pain they must have endured for our sakes and all for nothing.
The urge to slap him grips me, so I spin on my heel and turn away. How dare he be upset that they risked their lives for us?
I can't look at him or I will remember that he could have helped them and he didn't. Instead, he chose to save himself and me. All he had to do was stay and fight, instead of running away and we all would have had a chance to be safe.
My hands ball into fists and I duck into the next room. It's a kitchen with broken cabinets, dust, and spiderwebs. The walls are dry and decaying with faded layers of paint peeling away to reveal crumbling plaster.
There is a stench of rot and decay that hangs heavy in the air. A dead
creature, its skin falling off in chunks, lies in a puddle of blood at the back of the room. The decay of the dead animal coats the back of my tongue and makes my stomach roll.
It's a rat and hopefully whatever killed it isn't still here.
I walk through the kitchen to a back door. My heart skips beats as I stare into the knob, my throat tightening.
"What are you doing?"
I freeze at the sound of Raven's voice. In a few strides, he's standing right behind me. So close and his body heat prickles along my spine. His scent is all over me and it's driving me crazy. My body tingles at his proximity.
My body strains toward him, but my head screams at me to run out of the room before he touches me. The smell of leather and cinnamon swirls around me, drawing me back in and trying to make me forget everything else.
I try not to lean into him. His big hand presses against the wall on each side of my head, my muscles lock up and I can't move. His breath is on the back of my neck and I lock my knees to keep from falling backward into his embrace.
"I'm looking for a light," I whisper, unable to keep the tremble out of my voice.
He takes a step closer, his heat washing over me. "Are you sure you don't just want to run out the door?"
A snort escapes my nose, but the sound comes out more of a whimper. "No."
"Come with me." He grabs my hand and hauls me from the door. "We need to make sure this place is secure."
"Why wouldn't it be?" I gesture to the dilapidated kitchen. "There's no food in here, which has to be a sign no one's here."
"What if we're the food?" he asks, pulling me out of the kitchen and down a dark hallway.
The image of the rotting rat jumps in my mind and I shudder.
A cobweb brushes against my arm and I stifle a yelp. How long has it been since this cabin was used? I glance behind me and halfway debate making a run for the kitchen door. But even I know it's stupid to leave the safety of this rundown cabin while the wolves are perched outside.
My foot hits something on the floor and an abrupttap-tap-tap-tap-tap echoes in the hallway and I whirl around.
"What was that?" I ask, my voice a squeak. I take a step back, my foot banging into the wall.
His expression is shadowed in darkness. "It's nothing."
"It didn't sound like nothing." I look down at my feet to see what I hit and freeze, my heart pounding.
A skull.
I snatch my foot away and spin around to face him. "There's a freaking skull under my feet!" I shove at him and he grabs my arms.
"Calm down. It's okay." He holds me in place.
I stomp my foot, trying to knock it away and it rattles across the floor. "Oh my God, what if that was Aspen or Dex?" Vampires not only suck the blood from their victims like in the few stories I've read but can turn a body into a pile of bones in seconds.
"The others can take care of themselves and they know the dangers out there as well as me."
"That doesn't matter. They trusted you." Tears sting my eyes.
"I didn't have a choice," he growls.
"Don't you dare growl at me. I'm not your pack. I'm not your wolf." I punch him in the chest and wince, my hand feeling like I struck stone. "You had a choice and you chose to run away." My voice is shaking and I can't stop the panic from squeezing my throat.
"I had to get you out of danger or we'd all be dead."
I push away from him, running blindly down the hallway.
"Shit, Jessica Stop."
But I don't. It's my fault we're in this mess. If I hadn't asked them to help me find my mother, they might have taken a different route and would be safe right now. Maybe my stepmother was right and I am cursed. My own mother didn't want me so why would I think that she's even out here or willing to help me?
I burst through the door to a small bedroom.
"Jessica" Raven bellows. His heavy footsteps pound down the hallway. He storms into the room. "Fuck. Are you crazy?"
I don't answer him, but turn away,
tears streaming down my face.
After a pause, he huffs out a breath. "Stay here until you've calmed down." He checks under the bed and the closet before walking out and shutting the door behind him.
I'm alone and I feel like shit. But how can he be so callous? So uncaring about Aspen and Dex who I'm sure are laying in the forest somewhere bleeding to death. Tonight they could rise as lost ones. My stomach cramps at the thought. Just what have I gotten myself into?
The wolves howl long into the night and I sit on the bed, rocking back and forth, humming a song my father used to sing to try and block out the noise.
Sometime during the night, I fall asleep because I startle awake at a patch of sunlight shining in through a crack in the wood tacked over the window. A voice shouts nearby and I jump, goosebumps dancing along my arms.
"Raven?" I call out, fear clawing up my throat.
There's no answer. I climb out of the bed and tiptoe to the door, pressing my ear against it. Murmurssound. But I can't make out what they're saying or who is talking. Slowly, I open the door. My heartbeat thumps in my ears as I inch down the hallway.
The skull I had accidentally kicked is gone and fleetingly I wonder if Raven moved it so I wouldn't have to see it again.
I swallow the lump forming in my throat. Really wish I had a weapon or the branch Raven took from me.
Shadows flicker in the kitchen and my footstep finds a creaking floorboard. It's too late to run back to the bedroom and lock myself in or search the rooms for something to protect myself with. My heart pounds in my ears and I can't move, can't run.
"Is that her?" a male voice asks.
"Your loud mouth probably woke her up," another answers in a light Irish accent.
Dex and Aspen. It has to be them. I race around the corner into the kitchen. Raven is in one of the chairs with his leg crossed over his knee. Dex is sitting on the counter with his shirt off, dried blood down his arm and side. While Aspen turns the knob on the kitchen sink and the pipes groan, releasina a trickle of brackish water.