Sable
I wake up slowly, as if my body and mind are resisting consciousness. My dreams were surprisingly calm and comforting, and my eyes don’t seem to want to open. I don’t want to leave this calm, peaceful space between sleep and waking.And why would I? So much of my life has been pain and trauma that it’s only fair I linger in the good moments as long as I can.I’m beneath soft, warm blankets in a quiet room, and for a moment, I think I’m back in my bed in Uncle Clint’s house. But then a comforting scent wafts over me. Not the usual smell of Tide and my lavender body lotion.Something more masculine.Woodsy and spicy.Unfamiliar yet achingly intoxicating.I nestle farther into the pillow, breathing the soothing scent in deeply. I slide beneath the covers, ignoring the pained protests of my body as I roll into the sheets and take another deep breath. I spread out on my belly, blankets covering me from head to toe, and smile as I’m completely surrounded by this woodsy smell. Even still, I want more of it.I’m rubbing against the sheets like a cat, like I can imprint myself with the smell, when the events of last night suddenly rush back into my memories with a vengeance.My heart seizes in my chest as I freeze, my breath catching.The hospital visit.The drive home.I… I ran.I remember shoving open the truck door and racing off into the woods to the sound of Uncle Clint spitting mad and making chase. There was a deer leading me, and I was almost hit by a car. Were there… bear claw marks on trees? I fell down a ravine…And then there was a wolf.Everything after that is a dark, unformed blur. But what I do remember is enough to send panic spiking through my veins.Shoving back the covers, I sit up in bed and glance frantically around the room. Four unfamiliar walls surround me, constructed of wooden logs like some kind of rustic cabin. There’s nothing in the room but a bed and a dresser, and two doors, both closed. A small window is set into an exterior wall, covered by gauzy white curtains that let in golden sunlight—afternoon sunlight, maybe.Shit. How long was I asleep?Then my gaze lands on a pile of dirty laundry resting in a basket in one corner. Men’s blue jeans, white t-shirts…I slide from the bed, staring at the pile as I move across the room toward it.Right on top of the laundry is a blue flannel shirt.No.I stumble backward, arms wheeling as I put too much weight on my sore ankle and lose my balance. My hip crash-lands on the bed, and the frame scrapes across the floor. I cringe at how loud the sound is, gripping the mattress in total silence as I brace myself for someone to come running.Somewhere out in the house, a floorboard creaks, and my heart leaps into a gallop.Shit. Shitshitshit.My uncle must have found me before the wolf could eat me. And now Clint has dragged me to some cabin in the woods, somewhere nobody will hear me scream. He’s been waiting for me to wake up so he can punish me.So he can teach me a lesson for trying to run away.He’ll kill me this time. I just know it.I leap to my feet and race toward the window, shoving aside the curtains. For a terrifying minute, I think the damn thing is nailed shut, until I realize there’s a safety catch on the rail that I have to unlatch in order to raise it. Footsteps are moving through the house beyond the closed door, coming closer. Uncle Clint isn’t hurried, obviously. He probably thinks I’m too injured to get away, especially after finding me at the bottom of a ravine.Jesus, I’m lucky to be alive.The fleeting thought flits through my mind a second before something falls to the floor in the other room with a jarring clang.My luck is about to run out.Every single thud of those unhurried steps makes my hands shake harder. It’s difficult enough trying to maneuver my fingers above the wrist brace with pain lancing up my arm, but the adrenaline pumping through me makes my hands shake so badly that it’s almost impossible. I finally manage to slide my thumb up with enough force to unlock the catch, then lean my shoulder in and jam the window open.Cool mountain air gusts into the room, tickling my skin, and I take a deep breath of the familiar scent of distant snow and evergreens, hoping it will calm me.It doesn’t fucking work, but it hardly matters. The footsteps outside the room are almost here, and I’m running on pure self-preservation instinct now, an almost animalistic drive to just fucking survive.The window isn’t set high on the wall, thank God, so I don’t have to haul myself up to get through it. As soon as it’s open wide enough, I’ve got my torso out the window, sliding to freedom on my belly with all the elegance of a hippo on a dry water slide.I land awkwardly on the ground outside, landing on my arms and shoulders. My legs flop out after me, the momentum sending me into a graceless barrel roll.With a soft grunt, I come to rest on my side. The strange, oversized pajama pants I’m wearing have unfolded at the bottoms. They’re too long—a man’s pair of thin flannels that trail a foot past my feet. I consider rolling them back up and hoping they’ll stay in place, but the reality is, they’re loose and thin and I’m out of time. So I shove the damn things down my legs and kick them off.My body protests as I use the thick logs on the outside of the cabin to pull myself to my feet. I can put weight on my twisted ankle, thankfully, but it hurts like hell. I know my race through the woods last night didn’t help the situation, but it’s not like I had a choice then, any more than I have a choice now.I have to get the hell out of here.Fight, Sable. Run. Stay alive.I shove away from the cabin, taking a few tentative steps to make sure my legs aren’t going to collapse beneath me. Then I break into a run, trying not to think about the fact that my ass is on display for God and everyone to see. At least the large t-shirt hangs down low enough to cover most of it.There are other cabins nearby, but I don’t dare knock on any of their doors begging for help. Clint’s good at making friends, and I can’t count on any strangers taking my side over his.The tree line of a thick forest is only a hundred yards away to my left, and I run in that direction, hoping to get lost in the trees like I did last night. The memory of my dark flight to freedom sends a surge of anger and frustration through me that I channel into my legs.I can’t believe Clint found me. I must’ve run miles into deep wilderness, through woods and up into the foothills. He never allowed me to have a cell phone; hell, I couldn’t even wear a watch under his rules.So did he have some kind of tracker implanted in me like a psychopath?Sadly, I wouldn’t put something like that past him. I wouldn’t put anything past him, and I’m reminded starkly of how foolish my unplanned flight was.I didn’t think through any of this. I just ran.And now I have no choice but to keep running.There’s a rough dirt road beneath my bare feet—dry, dusty ground that hasn’t seen a good rainfall in a few days. I know that probably means I’m leaving a billowing trail of dust in my wake, but either side of the road is lined by small, rustic houses, so there’s no other route I can take.My arms and legs pump harder as I go for a bit more speed.I don’t recognize this place. It’s not Big Creek, the town where I lived with Uncle Clint—at least, I don’t think it is. I wasn’t exactly allowed out of the house to get to know the area, but we drove through it every time we made the trip to the hospital or the few other errands he took me on. I don’t recall a distinct lack of power lines, and we definitely drove on asphalt roads, not dirt and gravel.Out of the corner of my eye, I catch sight of a few people. But I don’t let myself look for more than a second, keeping my head down and praying none of them sound the alarm.If Uncle Clint brought me to this place, it means he has friends here. Friends who don’t care what he gets up to in his own home, or how he abuses his niece. I can’t trust any of these people to help me. I couldn’t before, and I definitely can’t now that I’ve run away.The full force of his anger is about to come down on me like a hammer falling, unless I can get away a second time.The dirt road ends abruptly at thick grass, and I cross the line with a surge of relief. I’m almost there. Grass is springier than the packed dirt road, and I use it to my advantage, running faster, my breaths coming quicker.Dear God, please just let me get away. Please give me a chance to live a better life.The trees, and what little protection they might offer, are only a few feet away.But before I can reach them, two arms wrap tightly around my waist, hauling me off the ground and pinning me against a solid chest.RidgeGoddammit. This isn’t how I wanted to get a half-naked girl in my arms.Normal guys, they go to parties. Go to bars. They talk up the first hot woman who shakes her ass in their direction, then fuck her senseless against a bathroom wall covered in graffiti that probably includes her phone number.Not me. No, my dumb ass has to find an unconscious woman in the wilderness and bring her home, only for her to strip to her panties and race madly through the village in an attempt to escape.I mean, I know I’m not People’s Sexiest Man Alive, but damn.The girl’s head slams back toward my face, and I have to crane my neck sideways to keep from getting a busted nose.“Hey! I’m not going to hurt you!” I snarl as she tries again, whipping my head back the other way.“Then put me down and let me go!” she gasps, struggling against my hold. She has a light, bell-like voice, though the bite to her statement takes some of the melody away. One bare foot catches me in the shin, and I grunt at the
SableFor a moment, I got lost in Ridge’s honey-colored eyes. I woke up expecting to come face-to-face with Uncle Clint, but what I ended up getting instead was pretty much the complete opposite of the man who raised me.When the dark-haired man caught me near the trees, I was so certain I was about to die that I fought with everything I had in me. But inside his house, something shifted in his demeanor.His gruff voice managed to block out the fear, to shove away the rising panic so that I could focus on him and his calming words.I started to calm down.I started to feel… safe.But I don’t feel safe now.Nearly a half-dozen of the biggest people I’ve ever seen crowd into his living room, voices raised as angry, violent energy pours out of them. My terror returns full force, and I cower into the cushions, wishing I could sink right through themand disappear to the other side of the planet.Ridge meets my eyes, a look of resignation passing through his amber irises. Then he pushes to
SableI wake from sleep groggily, my eyelids blinking into clear, early morning light. The curtains on the window are drawn open, and I can see that Ridge closed the window back up sometime while I was asleep. His presence in the room while I slept sends a little shiver down my spine, despite the fact that he’s done nothing but take care of me from the moment he brought me here.Sleeping is such a vulnerable time.And I’m terrified of being vulnerable with anyone.I shove back the covers and gently sit up. My body is stiff and unwieldy, my limbs as heavy as my eyelids, and I scoot back to rest against the headboard and get my bearings. I don’t remember getting out of the shower or falling asleep, but that’s not abnormal for my panic attacks. When my mind goes blank at the tail end of an attack, I operate on autopilot.I’m wearing some of Ridge’s clothes again. A soft, worn pair of cotton shorts and a t-shirt three times too big for me. I realize I’m not wearing a bra or underwear, an
RidgeIt takes a lot of fucking willpower to leave that door open.What I really want to do is slam it shut and barricade it closed so that the woman in my bedroom can’t leave. Just because I told her she was free to go doesn’t mean I want her to. I want to keep her right here with me, where I know some jackass isn’t putting out cigarettes on her perfect skin.What the fuck is wrong with me?The front door slams shut behind me as I step out of the cabin, and I shove my hands in my pockets as I stride down the front walk to the packed-dirt road. I don’t know why I want so fucking much for Sable to stay with me. She’s nobody to me. Some chick I found half-dead in a ravine, and to hear my brother bitch about it, I should have left her there.But as I walk away from my cabin, the thought that she might actually leave while I’m gone makes me sick to my stomach.For now, though, this council meeting is a lot more pressing than keeping Sable in my bed. If Lawson caught a whiff of me putting
SableThe cabin is calm and silent after Ridge leaves. I finish the bacon before moving on to the scrambled eggs, and even though the meal is as simple as it can get, it’s delicious—the bacon just the right amount of crispy, the eggs fluffy and moist. It hits the spot for me in a way no food has in a very long time.From what I’ve been able to tell, Ridge definitely lives alone in this small cabin. I’m touched that he went out of his way to cook me breakfast and to bring it to me in bed. He also wasn’t half bad at trying to be as non-threatening as possible. And I appreciate that too.That doesn’t mean you should stay, I think as I finish off my cooling coffee and put the empty mug back on the tray.But I’m torn. On the one hand, my fight-or-flight impulse has taken up what feels like permanent residence in my gut, and every nerve-ending in my body is screaming at me to run. Ignoring that self-preservation instinct that’s become so ingrained in me after life with my uncle feels like t
TrystanThese council meetings are a waste of my goddamned time.But I come to them because that’s what I’m supposed to do. The alpha plays nice with the other packs. The alpha builds bridges and shakes hands and kisses rancid ass to ensure cooperation between them and us. Inter-pack cooperation and all that stupid bullshit.That doesn’t mean I have to like it.I hate this drafty barn the North Pack has built out of recycled materials and spit, and I especially hate listening to fucking Ridge Harcourt droning on about trespassers on their land, or Archer from the East Pack talking about his sick father.Their problems are real, and they have my sympathies—but their problems aren’t my problems. My pack is doing fine. We’re handling the witch threat, beefing up our own security, and not for the first time, I’m spending every boring second of this meeting wondering what the fuck I’m doing here.The West Pack has never been stronger. My pack hasn’t lost a wolf yet, and those goddamned wit
SableRidge’s growl finally fades, but I swear I can hear an echo of it bouncing off the stark walls of the large building.The room has grown so silent, I feel as if I can hear every breath being taken. Beyond the breathing, I can also feel the weight of every gaze latched on to me, made heavier by the thick tension that clogs the air.I don’t like being the center of attention like this. I don’t like all these eyes on me—not Ridge’s concerned gaze or Lawson’s pissed off one or any of the different levels of emotion in between.My heart pounds with such force that I’m sure every predator here can hear it or sense the blood pumping overtime through my veins. I stand with my feet shoulder width apart, ready to run at the first glimpse of violence, even as fear threatens to turn my knees to jelly. Lawson left the door open, and I will absolutely make my escape if it looks like my only option.Two nights ago, I decided to live life on my terms for once.If it comes to it, I’ll die on my
SableRidge glances at Trystan and Archer, who are both watching us with intense expressions.“I honestly don’t know,” he murmurs, squeezing my hand as he turns back to me. “But there’s something in you that speaks to my wolf. And theirs as well, I guess. We need to find out why.”The elder finishes ushering everyone out and returns to us, his gaze sweeping over me for what seems like the first time. He purses his lips, pity filling his face as he takes in my bedraggled appearance. But I notice a careful sort of distance in his expression too, and I wonder if part of him believes what Lawson said. Does he think I’m a witch???I think it’s best if we go see Elder Jihoon,” he says finally. “Perhaps he can help.”I look to Ridge for an explanation, but he’s exchanging glances with Trystan and Archer. Something unspoken passes between all of them, and I bite down hard on my bottom lip as I attempt to decipher some shred of its meaning.Dammit. I hate this feeling of being outside my dept