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Have the guards all gone to the other side? Which is a good thing, right? So I press down on the handle of the door, which of course doesn’t open. I frantically glance around for a solution, for anything, when I find an oversized fallen branch as thick as my leg.
Looking back up, I see there are still no guards on the stone posts along the metal fence.
Desperately, I lunge toward the branch and haul it closer. There’s a wooden platform over the gate entrance where I saw the soldiers stand guard earlier, so I need to get up there.
With quivering arms, I lift one end of my new ladder and carry it closer, then drop it up against the wall. It comes to about chest height. It needs to be higher, so I leave it there and rush to the other end.
I might end up pulling a muscle, but I don’t care right now. I crouch down and lift the thick branch and shove it forward, inching forward with my steps. The tip slides up against the wall until it hits the lip of the fence across the top. Rain pelts down, stray leaves thrown into me, and this timber is unsteady as hell. But I have to make it work.
Searching around me, I find several rocks about the size of a huddled fox, and I collect one. Tucking it at the base of the branch to keep it wedged in, I’m partly terrified of my contraption.
But the wood is thick enough and damn heavy, so I put my foot on it, bouncing it. Suddenly, the tip slips sideways from the pressure, making a scratching sound against the metal. Hell, this is going to fail miserably. Stepping back, I take in a deep breath, shake my arms, and just run. No overthinking this.
My first step is solid, my balance strong, and I press forward, my arms jutted out on either side of me in my crazed climb.
The branch suddenly dips out from under me, throwing me sideways and to the ground. I swallow my scream as my stomach lurches and I hit the ground hard with my hip and shoulder. Muddy water splashes me, and I groan from the dull ache pulsing down my back.
Sonofabitch.
Getting back up, I study the branch, which is wedged in where the door and frame marry. At least it’s held in place. Up on my feet, I try again and again, and by the fourth time, bruised and battered from falling, I’m burning up with fury that this damn thing won’t work.
I rush at it once more, reaching halfway up, farther than I’d achieved previously when the flex in the branch starts to bend from my weight. Adrenaline driven, on my next step, I throw myself forward and madly snatch the top of the fence. Gasping for air, I dangle from there for a few moments.
My entire body shakes, muscles screaming with pain.
I need to get over the damn thing, I have to. I lever one leg up against the branch and push myself up. Then I throw a leg over the top of the lofty fence, straining to pull my body to follow, my heart pounding from exhaustion. I roll onto the wooden platform and lie there for two seconds to just breathe because I can’t believe I made it. I want to laugh at the craziness I’ve just gone through, but that will have to wait.
Getting back up, I find I’m definitely alone. Finally, something is going right for me.
Several howls come from much farther away, and from my vantage point over the tops of the trees, the whole territory comes into view. The land sloping downward to the castle-like structure, the pack members running down to the front gate, the houses where pack members live.
Hurrying, I rush toward the wooden ladder leaning against the platform and scurry down. At the base, I search for anyone, but it’s quiet.
So I slip right into the cluster of trees and sprint to the castle, my feet slapping the wet ground with each hurried step.
There’s movement to my right, and before I even look around, I dive behind a tree, then look out. A man is marching to the rear gate I just climbed over. Adrenaline rises faster and my brain is firing off panic like a shotgun. That I’ll be caught, that I’ll cause my Alpha’s death, that this was the wrong move.
I wait.Just calm the shit down. I’ve got this.
My skin feels like it’s on fire even when I’m being rained on. I shake like a leaf as I glance out from my hiding location to where the figure disappears somewhere near the back fence.
Then reality punches me in the gut. The branch I used to climb over the fence!Shit!I left it propped up against the door.Idiot!
Terror seems to swell in every cell in my body as dread grips me. So I do the only thing I can… I lunge toward the Alphas’ home.
The woods blur past me, and I follow the path Lucien showed me last time he and I were up here. We had sex, mind you, out in public, and it was ridiculously alluring. A moment forever imprinted on my mind. One of the many times that Lucien made me fall for him and so hard. Just thinking about him has my heart clenching. And this is why I’m running and need to save him and the others before it’s too late.
Reaching the side entrance to the castle, I press my back to the stone wall, frantically looking in every direction. Just then, someone bursts out of the doorway and looks in the opposite direction from me, missing me completely just standing feet from him. He bursts into a sprint toward the front gates.
I’m plastered to the wall, petrified he’ll turn around, but he never does as he vanishes around the building.
Gunshots ring in the air, popping, one after another. Someone’s shouting; others are yelling. Must be from the guards.
A dinging bell rings from the direction of the back fence. I cringe. The guard must have discovered my branch. Well, that didn’t take long.
Quickly, I slide into the building and pray with everything I have that I don’t bump into anyone. I recall someone mentioning prisons in this building, and from what I’ve read, cells are always in the basement of castles.
No time to waste, I hurry down a quiet corridor with dark stone walls and the torches on the walls flickering. The wind howls savagely in here, my skin suddenly icy cold. I’m heading to the large set of stairs I remember in this fortress going underground. My head swims with so many doubts that every move I make might be wrong and my undoing.
