“You gonna eye-fuck me lass, or help my brother?” he asked and watched me as I did just as he’d said.
“I wasn’t eye-fucking you,” I retorted haughtily.
“Ye were and I dinnae mind ye ken,” he argued.
“I was sizing you up, and weighing my options.” I pulled the mangled ankle out of the trap, noting a few things.
One: The man with the mangled ankle was regaining color, and hadn’t made a sound of discomfort since regaining consciousness.
Two: His brother either had experience with traps, or deep inner strength…or both.
Three: Someone had either replaced my eyeballs with permanent beer goggles, and it was making all of the men around here look like Greek Gods.
Four: Or, my ovaries were on overdrive, making me hallucinate.
“I think he passed oot again, lass,” he said with an annoyed look on his face.
“It’s probably for the better,” I mumbled as I took in the damage. I placed the material around the injured flesh, which had somehow managed to already stop bleeding. My fingers trailed up the bone to see if there was a break in it, but if there was, it wasn’t palpable. “Are you seeing this?” I asked as the wound started to scab at the edges. Impossible! It took hours for wounds to dry enough to scab.
“Lass,” he said and I lifted my eyes to his from where I’d been fascinated by the rapid healing. I met his eyes, and then rough hands grabbed my arms, and I was pulled up.
“She’s only a baby! If you do anything to her, I will kill you!” I growled.
“Hold her still Declan, Ian, careful nae to harm the bairn,” he said softly. “Let’s have a look beneath the mask.”
“No!” I shouted, but the men behind me laughed. It wasn’t until a familiar voice rose over the laughter that I felt my anxiety escalate.
“And what do we have here?”
“Jaeden,” Lachlan said, as he looked from the mystery man and back at me. “Thought we’d find ye close tae here, smelled the stench of death all the way from my mountains in Montana.”
“Lachlan, good to see you again, sort of hard not to smell death these days; seems to be about everywhere. And Montana, was it...really? Seems a little far from your homeland,” Jaeden snorted disbelievingly. For some reason, I wanted to test his name on my tongue as he had mine. “Now let poor Emma go. She doesn’t like to take off her mask,” he said as he winked one of his turquoise eyes at me.
“Nae further than yours, Jaeden,” Lachlan growled. “She was in this house of death,” he said as his eyes landed on me and then my exposed arm where I’d ripped off the sleeve instead of undoing the makeshift baby sling to get the materials in my bag. “We followed the stench, which led us here. This was done by a rogue pack which seems tae be sticking around this area.”
“We met a few of them yesterday in the hospital in Newport, didn’t we, sweet Emma?” he waited for me to nod, instead I just watched him. “Anyway, we dispatched them. More seem to be converging on this area. You have any info on why they would come here?”
These two knew each other, yet their posture said it wasn’t by choice.
“It’s why we came, but if ye think I’m going tae discuss pack business in front of a mortal, ye are dead wrong, leech.”
Okay, there was a few things wrong with this conversation. One being mortal; we’re all mortals, right? Pack business? Was he in some kind of cult? Rogue pack, like a big bad pack of rabid wolves, or could it explain the drop dead beef cakes that seemed to be crowding in on my tiny little city? Leech? Did Jaeden suck…? And if he did, what exactly did he suck? I was so lost.
“Hey, if you two are going to compare dick sizes, can I go? I’m unequipped to participate,” I said with a smile hidden beneath the protection of the mask. Both men looked down to the location in question, and I felt a blush rise from my stomach all the way to my cheeks.
“So, Jaeden, what does the lass look like behind the mask? Hideously scarred?” Lachlan asked.
Jaeden grinned as his eyes did that quick search of my eyes that felt as if he could see through the mask I wore and was looking into my very being. “No idea, but I couldn’t care less what she looks like.” He said as he sidled up next to me. “What is that smell?”
“Probably the dead bodies?” I offered.
“What the hell is on your back?”
“A baby,” I said. “Can I go? She needs to be taken care of. She’s been alone for at least one day from the smell of those bodies. I still have to find some things for her.”
“I’ll come with you,” he said, and I had to push the urge to scream ‘hell no’ down from my throat where it sat, waiting to come out. “Lachlan, I trust you and your pack will be staying in the area?” Jaeden questioned casually.
“Someone has tae guard the race, and since ye feast upon it, I guess that leaves me,” Lachlan said just as easily, while his men grunted in agreement.
Feast upon it? Like a zombie? I narrowed my eyes on Jaeden, and of course they slid down his body. Today he wore camo pants and dark leather boots. He had on a long sleeved black shirt, thankfully. It made it easier to breath around him. He didn’t look like any zombie that I’d ever seen in the movies and then my mind drifted away wondering how much it would hurt if he took a nibble at me. I gave myself a sharp mental shake at that. Gross, Emma, just gross.
“You don’t need to follow me,” I said to Jaeden who had inched closer towards me. He ignored me, but Lachlan smiled as I said it, as if he found it funny.
“The lass says nae, leech,” he smiled as he said it.
“The lass doesn’t have a choice in the matter, dog.”
I looked from one male to the other. “Again with the name calling? Maybe you guys should go to couples therapy?” They raised their eyebrows, and I narrowed my eyes at their twin looks of surprise. “Just saying,” I smiled, but it was still hidden beneath the mask. “I’m leaving; this baby needs care.”
No one stopped me, but Jaeden followed me until I reached the ATV. “It only seats one,” I said as I turned to look at him.
“Liar, two can easily fit on it. Besides, you need help protecting the baby.”
“Fine,” I replied as I adjusted the baby to my front and straddled the ATV and waited for him to climb on it. The moment he placed his arms around my waist, I shivered. “Problem?” he whispered against my ear. “I personally like it when women drive…”
“Is that a sexual innuendo?” I asked, smiling even though I shouldn’t have been.
“Tell me, Emma, do you like to drive?” he continued on.
“I like the purr of the engine, the way it feels between my thighs…” I smiled as he growled. “And the way I can run shit over,” I whispered, and listened as his lungs expelled a disappointed sigh. I took off, not waiting for a signal that he was ready, but then I really didn’t care if he fell off. It would solve the issue of the butterflies currently attacking my insides.
We drove for several minutes in silence before he started talking, which I pretended to ignore. It wasn’t until he turned on the bike and his grip tightened that I slowed and made a point to listen.
“Don’t slow down! Fucking hell, they must smell that thing’s diaper,” he growled and one hand released me as he pulled a gun from the back of his pants. “There’s a hunter’s perch about a mile up from here, can you make it there?”
Make it there? I turned and caught sight of what had him on edge. There were wolves running right at us. I floored it. “Protect the baby!” I shouted as we hit a bump, but fortunately the ATV corrected and we continued towards the perch. “Hold on,” I warned as we hit a hill, which I normally would have gone around because it was steep. The wolves would be more winded though, and it would give us time to climb the perch. I knew where it was, but the woods could be tricky at dusk.
“There,” he pointed to it as he narrowly missed a low hanging branch. I stalled the bike, clicked off the gas, and shut it down before jumping off the ATV and running to the back to grab the food. I tossed the duffle bag of army rations to Jaeden and climbed up the wooden ladder at a swift pace. Sarah was crying, and I couldn’t blame her; the poor thing had been through hell. The sounds the wolves were making would have scared anybody.
I finished climbing and reached for the bag as Jaeden handed it off to me. I tossed it into the corner and started to undo the sling. Then I was turned around, and Jaeden was there helping me to undo the knot so I could secure Sarah safely in the small pile of hay hunters would sit in while waiting for prey. I kissed her little forehead before wrapping one of the thin shirts I kept in my pack around her.
I pulled up the AR-15 and moved to the lookout window. The perch was bigger than most, but hunters around here took their hunting seriously. Hundreds normally converged to these mountains for hunting since it was teeming with wild life. These perches were built to last, as well as for comfort.
I snapped the red dot on, and clicked the scope open before looking through it. “Eight wolves,” I said, and waited for Jaeden to say what he saw. When he didn’t, I turned to look at him. “See anymore?”