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Chapter 16
Hand in hand, Lacey ran alongside Mason, tearing through the forest as if their lives depended on it.
Well, it did.
The plan was simple – grab any essentials and drive like the devil was on their tails for three days straight. They couldn’t cross the border into Canada since Lacey didn’t own a passport, but they could drive all the way to the East Coast and then make their way down south.
All they needed was to keep Karis out of Sam’s reach long enough until the end of the full moon.
Then Sam couldn’t touch her after that. He’d lose his ability to shift, making him human. He would never rule the pack and Karis could return home and take her rightful place as alpha. If she wanted. Over the years, the two siblings had discussed what she wanted to do. She still didn’t have an answer other than she wanted to stop running, to lay down some roots. Go to school, make some friends.
But Lacey couldn’t help but fear that losing his ability to transform into a wolf wouldn’t stop Sam from coming after them. He’d want revenge. Karis, Mason, even her.
And then she still had to make sure her mom was safe. If Sam couldn’t get to her, he’d start with her first.
So they continued to run. Lacey’s breath ran shallow in her chest, and her head began to spin because of it. Mason started to pull her along three quarters of the way, her muscles aching, her limbs trembling with exhaustion.
The trees started to thin, and Lacey recognised the area even with night rapidly descending. A faint light beamed through the shadows from the cabin not far ahead.
Then Mason’s feet skidded to a stop and he pulled her behind the trunk of a particularly large oak.
“What’s going on?” she asked, not understanding. “Why have we stopped?” Not that her legs were complaining.
Lifting a finger, Lacey fell silent. “We’re not alone,” he whispered.
Heart racing in her chest, Lacey started to gaze through the trees, but failed to see anything other than the cabin and the forest.
“Can you see someone?” Shifters, no matter what kind, typically possessed supernatural sight. Which made it easy to trek through a forest at night, she thought. Considering most of her professional activity took place at night, supernatural sight was the one ability Lacey most envied.
“I can smell them.” Nostrils flaring, Mason’s grip tightened around her fingers. For several long seconds, he inhaled, his eyes searching through the shadows, but what he found, Lacey couldn’t see.
Turning towards her, the limited light from the cabin highlighted the sudden panic on his face. “Fuck. They’re here.” Before she could open her mouth, he placed a finger over her lips. “Don’t say a word. Stay here and I’ll grab Karis. Be ready to run.”
Lacey grabbed his hand. Shivers of panic waved like a storm. “No, we do this together.”
Mason shook his head and stared at her, a fierce heat burning within his dark eyes. “I can’t let anything happen to you. Please, Lacey. Don’t ask me to choose between you getting hurt and Karis getting taken away.”
Indecision raged through her soul at the rawness of his tone. He was stuck between his mate and the sister he vowed to protect. She couldn’t imagine the pain tearing through him right then. She’d hurt him once tonight, she wouldn’t do it again.
Drawing in several breaths, she finally nodded and release a soft, resigned sigh. “You’d better come back, you hear? I don’t want anything happening to you.” She was surprised to hear the ring of truth in her words.
Damn the mating mark for making her feel like this. This was all its fault. But she couldn’t deny the strength of the ties that bound them together. She couldn’t bare to see him get hurt because of her own stupidity.
Cupping her face in his warm hands, Mason swept his lips gently over hers. Holding onto those hands around her cheeks, Lacey kissed him back, slow, tender. With the utmost care, he placed the hunter’s knife in the back of her jeans and smoothed the t-shirt over it, hiding it from view.
Without saying another word, he scuttled off to the west, keeping to the trees as he slowly made his way around the cabin, downwind, before the shadows completely enveloped him within their shadowy folds.
Lacey peeked around the trunk of the tree, the bark rough and ancient beneath her sweaty palms. A soft breeze caressed her face as she drew much-needed oxygen into her lungs. She couldn’t see much with her human eyes compared to Mason’s shifter sight, since the light stemming from within the cabin didn’t provide much illumination from where she stood.
She needed to get closer if she wanted to see anything.
Heart pounding against her ribs, Lacey inhaled a deep breath and carefully placed a foot in front of her. Only the barest sound fluttered on the breeze, and she waited a long second before she moved again. When nothing came rushing back to her, she slowly made her way forward, using the trees as cover, desperately hoping against hope that Mason would suddenly appear with Karis, shouting for her to run.
Several trees ahead from where Mason had left her, Lacey poked her head around another only to watch two figures break away from the shadows, their muffled voices floating on the wind.
Her chest tightened with rage and despair. They had to be Sam’s men. Who else would be skulking around the forest at night if not for them? No hunter in his right mind would try to hunt wolves in the dark, not even ones as stupid as the rapists now laying dead amongst the trees, their bodies hoping feasted upon by maggots.
No, these guys had to be Sam’s backup.
