Page 50 of Chased

Yeah. The problem was, Madison had taken the opportunity to burrow deep into the underbrush, which was full of brambles and thorns. It would have been a smart move—if it didn’t mean one of them was going to have to wade in there and get her out.

One of them, meaning him.

Sanchez couldn’t stop growling. He could still feel Madison’s rage and terror, and he could hear the shrubbery rustling. She was either trembling in fear, or building weapons to take them all down. He wouldn’t take bets on which it was.

“I’ll get her,” he said to his cousins. “You two go away. Far away. In fact, go down to her cabin and build up the fire in the woodstove. And make sure there’s medical supplies in there. Then leave.”

“But we have to—” Cisco took a step towards the bushes. Sanchez could tell they both felt like shit about chasing Madison, but the last thing she needed was to be confronted with her hunters right now, in any form.

“Just go,” he said, trying not to snarl. “You can apologize later.” If there was any apology that could possibly make up for this. She’d probably pack her bags and go first thing in the morning.

He wasn’t prepared for the wave of devastation that washed over him at the thought of her leaving.

The guys dipped their heads in submission and shuffled off, looking utterly miserable.

Sanchez called after them, “And go find my fucking pants in her garden and bring them inside her cabin. She’s scared enough with me wagging my dick at her.”

He waited until they were out of sight before he tackled the underbrush. Wading inside, he used one hand to push the thorny branches out of his way and the other to cover his crotch.

He had no desire to top off this disaster by getting his balls turned into pincushions.

Madison was burrowed in, right at the center of the fucking thornbushes. Naturally. She hissed at him when he got near her, but at least she’d stopped screaming.

She was probably just waiting for him to get near enough that she could go Murder Bunny on him.

Sanchez tried to make his voice soothing. “You’re okay now,” he said. “They’re gone. You can come out.”

Slowly he reached down, untangling the branches around her. He could see blood, but whether it was thorn scratches or wolf bites, he couldn’t tell. He also couldn’t tell if Madison’s trembling was from fear, or murderous rage. Or both.

He pushed in further and managed to crouch down next to her without any thorns stabbing his dick. Gods, she was all tangled up in the brambles, with some of the thorns piercing her skin.

But the minute his hands closed around her, she bit him again. “Fuck!” he yelled, pulling his hand back and sucking the place on his thumb where her teeth had broken the skin. “I’m trying to help you, here!”

Apparently her lapin was not impressed. Wishing he had his damn knife, he ripped the thorny branches away from her, scratching his own hands all to fuck in the process.

They were both bleeding from a dozen wounds by the time he got her free, kicking and wriggling and hissing.

He held her up in front of his face, his hands wrapped around her ribcage and her feet kicking in the air. “Stop that,” he said to her. “I’m not going to hurt you. The boys aren’t going to hurt you. No one is ever going to hurt you. Do you understand that?”

He stared into her eyes.

Slowly, she stopped struggling and went limp. Sanchez took a deep breath. “Don’t Change back,” he said, hoping she even could. “You can’t walk all the way to the cabin with no shoes. Or clothes. I’ll take you. Just relax.”

He slowly pulled her in against his chest, and wrapped his arms around her. There was one set of scratches on her side that had to be from Matéo’s teeth. Sanchez shoved down the unexpected urge to go after his cousin and tear his heart out.

Hunched over to protect Madison from any more thorns, he shoved back out of the underbrush, managing to get out with his dick intact. Then he started down the mountain, still with Madison clutched in his arms, muttering the whole way.

“Fucking cousins. Fuck cousins, and fuck walking in the woods at night fucking barefoot. Fuck mountains. Fuck being nice. Fuck—argh! Fuck that slimy thing I just stepped on.”

Madison wasn’t fighting, but she was trembling again, as if reaction had set in.

“It’s okay,” he murmured to her. “We can kill those assholes as soon as you’re you again. Think about what you want to do to them, okay? We can eviscerate them. That’s tearing their guts out, in case you didn’t know. Or we can beat them up. Mostly me, I mean, but I’d hold them if you wanted to punch them. Or we could shoot them out of Boomer’s pig catapult and watch them go splat.”

He liked the images, but they didn’t seem to make Madison feel any better. She didn’t open her eyes, and she was still trembling.

Damn. How the hell did a wolf make a fucking bunny feel better? Just being what he was made him terrifying to her. And now his cousins had hunted her. She might never get over it.

This was a total cluster fuck. Everyone was going to find out she was a rabbit now, and what if Gunn and Mikey refused to keep her here? Would she be safe out there? Hell, was she even safe here? He couldn’t follow her around all the time.