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Chase picks up his speed, navigating the dark forest until we reach the beach. I spot Evander holding Tristan’s weight. My heart sinks into my stomach because I don’t see Davian with them. That means he wasn’t found. He’s somewhere out there still.
“Davian?” I ask, whispering the words.
Chase shakes his head. “We couldn’t find him. Kellan lost his scent at the creek. We had to make you a priority, Eliana. Davian can take care of himself. He’s experiencing the effects of the bite.”
I want to argue with him, but there’s no point. I know why they chose me. It doesn’t make me feel less guilty about it though. I’m glad for it. Does that make me a bad person? Maybe. But it seems it takes a bad person to survive this island. I just hope that Davian is okay. I’m so terrified that he might die alone. Nobody deserves that. I wanted to be there for him with his transformation. Sadly, I don’t know how much I can do now. Not like this.
“Don’t worry, Elle. We’re going to find him next.” Evander helps Tristan walk closer to me.
I wiggle until Chase sets me on my feet. I don’t make it far because my legs decide to give out on me. Adam catches me and helps me upright, stopping me from hitting the ground. Evander and Tristan close the distance completely, rushing together toward me. Flinging my arms out, I hug them both. I’m so glad Evander doesn’t reject me after the cave incident and instead embraces my affection. I know it bothered him that I don’t want to be with anyone exclusively, especially now after everything that has happened.
“Thank God you’re safe. Both of you. Are you feeling any better, Tristan?” I ask, tilting my face to look at him.
He offers me a weak smile. I can tell that something dark lingers on his mind. “I’m more worried about you, Eliana. I was so scared. It should’ve never been you. It should’ve been me that they bit. If I could go back in time—”
I shut him up with a kiss. He shouldn’t feel guilty over any of this. It wasn’t his fault. It’s not even his job to protect me. It was my job to protect both him and Davian and I failed. This is on me.
I ease away, grazing my fingers over his scruffy cheek. “I wouldn’t change it. I’d rather it be me than you. Everyone seems to think that I’m going to survive. But you guys...fuck. We need to get off this island.”
Evander massages his fingers into my shoulder, remaining close despite the fact that I just kissed Tristan in front of him. Clearing his throat, he says, “You’re right. We do. So we need to make some quick fucking decisions about what we do next. We can try to find Kellan, and then we can wait for the next boat to land on shore with more people. Or we can try to build our own raft. Maybe we can swim together. Risk the ocean. I know there’s a couple of things that float pretty well. We can use what we have for freshwater and just hope that we reach the next island or another boat will find us. It might be better to risk that than risk anything else.”
We all look at each other, weighing our options. If we do decide to just swim, it’s nearly guaranteed that we would die. I can’t imagine us surviving otherwise. If we wait it out, someone is bound to find us. We’re being hunted by wolves, and they’re masters at tracking, especially if what Kellan said about the bloodlines is true. It means that Ravi could track me because of the bite, and a member of the pack that turned my grandma could also track me. Fuck, probably anybody who came into contact with me and now knows my scent can find me. There are only so many places on this island that we can hide. And it’s not guaranteed that the yacht will come back with more people. It might finish the round this time because of the coming full moon.
A collection of howls ricochet through the vegetation in front of us, and I squeeze Evander tighter. We need to move. We’re too exposed on the beach. It’s too dangerous in the forest.
“I think we need to hide. We need to be able to think everything through.” Adam bounces on his bare feet, kicking sand with his nerves.
“Where? They’re everywhere. Seems like there are more wolves than ever.” Chase rubs his lips together and peers around the beach.
“We can try to find another cave,” Evander responds, adjusting me into his arms, preparing to keep me within his embrace instead of setting me on my feet. I’m grateful for it. I’m so tired. I’m in pain. All I want to do is relax and go to sleep. I don’t want to have to fight for my life tonight. I don’t want to have to fight for my freedom either.
“This might sound crazy, but I have an idea. We should head into the water. We don’t have to go far but just make it far enough from the beach that we can keep out of the way until we figure out a plan. I saw some big rocks just offshore. It’s swimmable.” Tristan motions down the beach.
“I don’t think Eliana’s going to be able to swim that far. We’re going to need something to help us float.” Chase turns and looks at Evander. “What do you suppose we use?”
“We can use our clothes,” Adam says, tugging at his shorts. “They’re not as good as pants, but we should be able to tie up the legs and inflate them. It was something my dad taught me. We just need to get them wet. And since we’re already going into the water...who wants to volunteer? We don’t need everyone naked.”
The four of them look at each other, silently arguing with their eyes.
“Should we play Rock-Paper-Scissors?” Tristan asks, raising one of his eyebrows, clearly not amused about the possibility.
“Since it was Adam’s idea...” Evander tries to keep a straight face.
“I’m not going to fucking expose my dick as fish bait.” Adam throws out his hands.
“You’re right. Some damn guppy will mistake your junk for a tiny worm or some shit.” Chase punches him in the arm.
I can’t help laughing. “Don’t be ridiculous. They’ll definitely mistake it for an eel. But if you guys are too concerned, somebody can squeeze into my shorts, and I’ll go naked. I just don’t think these are big enough to use.”
Evander groans and shakes his head. “That’s not necessary, Eliana. I’m not going to be a little bitch about swimming naked. It’s not the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done. I’ll volunteer.”
I smile at him and surprise him with a kiss. He relaxes and molds his lips to mine, acting as if he’s starving for my affection. It makes me feel a bit better about how he acted earlier. Maybe he’s not as upset as I thought. Maybe it was something else. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter right now. We have more important things to worry about.
“Damn. I volunteer if I can kiss you next,” Adam says, playing with the strands of my messy hair.
Evander spins toward the water, yanking down his shorts in the process. He kicks them at Adam and manages to smack him in the face with them.
“Too late, asshole. I’m also going to swim with her. Make the device. I don’t want to wait much longer.” Evander marches toward the water, his heart beating loudly enough for me to hear.
