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Gingerly, she crossed to the door, peeking around the corner and finding the hallway clear. It could be a trap, them checking to see how injured she was. To see how she’d react to the possibility of escape. She didn’t care. This was the first moment since she’d been taken that opportunity existed. She took it, moving as quickly as she could toward the area she knew would lead her outside.
If they caught her, she was dead, but honestly, she didn’t have much left in her anyway. She was exhausted. Tired of fighting to survive. For what? She had no mate, and if any of her family had survived, they’d probably written her off as dead by this point. Maybe, it was time to let death claim her.
Slinking into shadows when she caught the stomp of boots, Helen made her way out. How? She didn’t have a fucking clue. Fate or setup? It didn’t matter. They’d have to kill her now if they planned to drag her out of the sun and back down into the dark and damp of the caves. She wasn’t going back.
She held her breath until she hit the first row of trees, letting it go in as quiet of a pant as she could manage under the circumstances. The air was cool on her naked skin, raising goosebumps along her arms and legs and drawing her nipples into tight, hard points. She kept moving. Nudity was nothing to a shifter, and if it had been, the years of captivity where she’d been stripped at her captors’ whims would have quickly broken her of any modesty.
One foot in front of the other became her mantra. Just a little further. A little more distance. Find a place to hide. Get away. Please, let her get away. She moved a little faster, though it was like going from a snail’s pace to that of a turtle, but it was something. Fresh air and rays of sun cut through the treetops. She needed it.
A snicker behind her had her jerking her gaze over her shoulder, a scream of rage falling from her lips as she took in the two men closing in on her. Survival instinct kicked in like a shot of adrenaline plunged into her chest. She ran, her body screaming in agony with every jarring strike of her feet against the earth. It wasn’t fast enough. She wouldn’t make it. She felt their breath on her neck, the graze of dirty nails as they scraped along her shoulder, clutching at her, dragging her back.
Helen screamed again, but it was cut off when a hard forearm clamped tightly against her throat, cutting off her air supply immediately.
“Fucking animal,” the one who’d managed to grab her snarled. “We should just slit her fucking throat here and leave her to bleed out.”
She bucked, fighting to draw in any dregs of oxygen available. She’d make them kill her. She wasn’t going back into the earth, and she wouldn’t pass out and make herself easy prey. She’d been a teenager when they’d taken her. She’d just celebrated her seventeenth birthday. She’d stopped counting time after the first year of captivity, but it had to be years that she’d been down in those caves. Four? Five? Longer? She had no idea how old she was now, but she felt ancient. As if she’d lived a lifetime inside those damp walls.
“Stop fucking fighting, bitch!” her captor snapped. “Get over here and help me with her. If she has this much energy, she can fight in the pits tonight.”
God, no, but she was weakening. The burst of flight had drained everything from her already depleted tank. Her vision blurring at the edges, Helen tucked her chin, wedging it as low as she could and sank her teeth into the solid muscle of her captor’s arm, biting down until she tasted blood. Let him try to shake her off now.
The first punch hit her near the eye, sending a burst of pain through her face. The second caught her cheek. She could just make out that fist jerking back for another strike when a roar rocked the forested area she’d run into. Another closely followed it. Then another. A sob caught in her throat, and she released a shuddering breath, teeth unclenching on flesh as the arm was tugged free.
She was shoved to the ground, but it didn’t matter. She knew that sound. Bears. More importantly, bear shifters. They came for her. After all these years, they came for her.
“Leave the bitch!” one of her attackers yelled.
“They can’t have her,” the other one snarled. He crouched over her. “Die you fucking animal!”
The knife arced toward her, and there was nowhere for her to go. The earth was solid at her back, offering no give to help her out of the way of what was coming for her. Death. At the hands of a man who’d most likely dealt too much of it to shifters like herself. She blinked, and in that one moment, he was gone. Dragged away by a huge white bear. White? A polar bear? She shook her head. Maybe, she was already dying, and her sanity left her first. Then another flash of white passed before her eyes. Definitely a polar bear. One that charged for the second man, who’d said they should leave her.
A third bear burst through the trees. A grizzly. Please God, let it be one of the Holloways. It had to be. Emotion caught in her throat. She rolled back to her stomach and crawled toward the closest tree.
“Fuck!”
A woman’s cry brought up Helen’s face, gaze locking onto the figure that appeared. The other woman stared just as hard at her. She sprinted across the distance and dropped at Helen’s side.
“What happened?” The woman’s face jerked back up, scanning the area. “Where did you come from?”
“Hell,” Helen whispered, a shudder running through her. She was free. A sob caught in her throat, choking her voice off as she fought to breath.
“Hey.”
Strong arms wrapped around her, pulling her close and holding her tightly.
“We’ve got you,” the woman swore. “You’re safe now. I swear it. We won’t let anything else happen to you.”
“The grizzly?” Helen asked.
“Brock Holloway.”
Helen laughed, and the sound might have come out a bit deranged, but she’d forgive herself for it. The Holloways. She’d heard Carter’s words about the Holloways. Had also heard several of the other female shifters say that if the Holloways ever found them, they’d be safe. Helen wasn’t a part of their den. Her family had never been part of a large den. They’d had each other, and that had always been enough. Until they were attacked, and she and her sister were both taken. She had no idea if her parents and brothers were still alive. All she knew was she was free. For the first time in years, she was free.
“Jemma!”
“Over here,” the woman called.
Three men strode toward them. Naked. Two covered in blood. Only one of them commanded her attention. Tall, broad shoulders, long legs with a fierce erection rising thick between his massive thighs. She wasn’t surprised when he strode directly toward her. Everyone else fell away. She heard nothing they said and had the impression neither did he. Then he was there, looming over her, squatting down and taking her into his arms, rising with her cradled against his chest.
