Her eyes flew open. It was still night. No birds were chirping in the sky. The grass held firmly still. There wasn't even a single breeze in the air. Instead, it felt choking. There was a slight heavy chill-but only the kind that precidented the worst.
She held still. She forced herself to very slowly, very quietly breathe through the breath she had been holding.
Olivia's eyes scanned the perimeter from the right to the left, her nostrils flaring.
No.
She scrambled to her feet, scurrying to the still smoking embers on the ground. Her feet kicked at it, spreading it apart and shoving dirt on it.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Standing above the ashes, her nostrils flared again. Her body held still like a statue in time. A lone howl emerged in the distance-all too familiar to her from back home.
She felt her feet moving before she had even processed the fact that she was running. Twigs dug into her heels as the landscape rushed past her. Her mind raced as fast as her body.
The bags!
"Fuck!" She yelled out, suddenly stopping, briefly turning her body back to the direction she came.
A body slammed into her. They fell to the forest floor, a mass of bodies scrambling.
A yelp escaped the back of her throat. Desperately, she clawed at the wolf on her.
There was a sharp growl as her left foot connected with its jaw.
She was back up and running. Her mind screamed at her, the adrenaline raced through her. How much time did she have? How far back was he behind her? She wanted to look back so badly.
She could feel him behind her-she knew she could. He was probably moments away from grabbing her. His jaw was moments away from tearing through her arm.
She would be done, dragged back to the pack.
She had to actively stop herself from looking. The feeling of his hands weren't real. He wasn't about to reach out and grab her. Not if she moved.
Wait.
Where were his footsteps?
Silence met her ears, other than her heart-beat pumping through her skull. She could hear it in time with her feet, in-time with her heavy breathes. She was tired-but where did he go?
She did not out-run him.
She couldn't have?
Her running slowed to a jog, her head swinging in every direction. She felt crazed, like she were in a horror movie, ready for the chainsaw man to lunge out at her. Where was she going? She had no clue.
Where was she supposed to go?
What was her plan before she fell asleep?
Where could she hide? Somewhere with no scent. She needed to get rid of her smell. Hadn't she done that in the river?
Right. The river.
Her blood ran ice-cold when a hand gripped her arm. She was yanked from the side, into a large chest. Another hand came to grip her other arm.
Just like that, as quick as a second, she was held frozen within the grip of the man who was chasing her.
Time stopped as her world came to a sudden end.
She heard nothing but her own breath, and she saw nothing but the face looking down at her.
Even though his skin was warm, his eyes were ice cold. His jaw was tight. His hands were tight on her wrists.
Everything about this felt wrong.
Briefly, Olivia's eyes flickered down to the mark she left on his jaw. Then their eyes met once again.
That look told her all she needed to know. She didn't know much about most of the guards back home, but she had heard of this one. He was notorious.
Tears sprung into her eyes.
"Jameson-no." Her voice wavered. She sounded pathetic-looked pathetic as she tried to pull back against his grip.
"Shut up!" He growled into her face, dragging her towards the nearest tree. Her chest burned as she slammed into it. He kept his hands on her, holding her down, keeping her right where he wanted her.
Damn men.
Damn them all to hell for being stronger than her.
A tear rolled down to her chin, pausing, waiting for another to push it over the edge. They both came to a standstill, breathing heavily, glaring at each other.
He looked down at his pants, and he froze.
She realized it too.
He'd have to let go of her if he wanted to do anything.
She waited, abating her breath to see what he would do next. His eyes met hers again.
"Undo my pants, woman." He said.
She continued to stay silent. Her eyes flickered to the heavy belt buckle entwinted into his pants, pulling them tight against his waist.
She'd rather die before she'd undo his buckle.
Air escaped her lungs before she could process being thrown into the ground. His legs pressed into hers, holding him up directly above her.
"I said undo my belt!" He shouted into her face, his eyes ablaze.
Fear encapsulated her. She didn't know what came over her. To the left of her, in the back of her tiny little brain, she could hear a woman.
Fur sprouted from her skin.
Her teeth sunk into his throat. They were long, and sharp, and blood dripped out from underneath. Jameson struggled, throwing his hands into the side of her head to try and get her to let go.
She could feel the pain in the side of her head, but it only made her heart race faster.
It only made her more scared.
And angrier.
How dare these men take advantage of her? How dare they touch her?
Die.
She wished they would all die.
She wished she would die, too.
Fuck living alone in the forest, where she would be vulnerable to any man that came across her. She'd rather be a star in the sky, sitting along the beautiful Moon Goddess, out of reach of every man.
Blood pooled into her mouth.
Jameson's life ended with a crunch.
Her stomach did an internal flip. She let go of his neck, his body flopping over into the dirt. She rolled over and spit blood out of her mouth, using her hands to shovel fistfuls of dirt into it.
Anything to get rid of the taste of his blood.
More tears burned at her eyes, and she cried out on the soil, next to his dead body. She turned to glare at him, and on impulse, gave his limb a final, violent kick.
She couldn't stay in the area. She knew he wasn't the only guard, and if he was in the area, then more definitely weren't far behind.
There wasn't much left in her life.
Her brother would forget her.
In the end, the river would be her only savior.
With a much deserved final middle finger shoved in the direction of Jameson's dead body, she started to haul ass in the direction of the River. Blood stained her shirt and mouth and there was sweat dripping from every inch of her body despite the breeze. Pain throbbed in the side of her head. She knew he had probably hit her hard enough to give her a concussion and yet, the only thing that kept her from slowing down were the howls in the distance.
There would be no repeats of what just happened.
YOU ARE READING
Lightning & Thunder
Hombres LoboLife had not been kind to Olivia. Between her messed up family and her abusive marriage, she had been through it all. Throughout most of her life she had been quiet, silently resiliant. But underneath the surface she was cracking and she knew she n...
