Vice(51)

Natalia holds her arm to her chest, cradling it. She’s covered in blood, and her face is a strange, ashy color. “They won’t stop now,” she whispers. “We have to get out of here.”

I help her to her feet, moving slowly, trying not to startle the approaching pack. “We can’t outrun them,” I tell her.

She shakes her head. “This is their world. They can see in the dark. And they’re way better at running through the forest than we are.”

“Then what do we do?” There is always a way out of every sticky situation. Always. I can’t see the way out of this one right now, though, and it’s beginning to freak me out. I may be able to fend off a bunch of the wolves and save myself, but can I save Natalia at the same time? Can I make sure that both of us come out of this unscathed? For the first time, I wish I had been selfish enough to ask Jamie to be here. If he were at my side, this would be a f*cking cakewalk. He could have handled the majority of these f*ckers while I made sure Natalia was all right. Wishful thinking, though. I told him not to come. I told him to stay in New Mexico with the club, and it’s too late to be changing my mind now.

Moving slowly, I bend down, retrieving Natalia’s serrated blade from the dead wolf on the ground to my left, and I toss it to her. “Go for their necks. Their eyes,” I tell her. “Stay calm and we’ll walk away from this.”

She swallows, nodding, and I can see that she’s scared.

The wolves creep forward, darting ahead one at a time, testing us, trying to find the best spot to attack. There are nine of them now. Nine wolves against the two of us. The way they move is silent and menacing, and death hangs in the air.

“Cade,” Natalia says. The terror is plain in her voice. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. I’m sorry. You were supposed to leave. You were supposed to get out.”

“It’s okay. It’s going to be all right.” I can’t even convince myself of that, though. The wolves draw closer. Their teeth are clearly visible even though the light is failing, and I know how they will feel, ripping and tearing into our flesh. It will hurt. It will be agony, and it will be all my fault.

Closer, they come.

Closer.

One lunges on my left, snapping and snarling, and I slash out with my blade, growling back at it. The wolf falls back, but it’s only a matter of time before it strikes again. And the next time—

A loud, thunderous siren blasts through the forest, the depth and breadth of it making the ground beneath my feet shake. I jump, ready to slash and cut with my knife, but something miraculous happens. I’ve never heard anything so loud before. The siren shakes the leaves on the trees. My teeth rattle inside my head, the sound is so powerful. I try to shout over it, to ask Natalia what the f*ck is going on, but it’s futile; my words are swept away in the ear-splitting din.

The wolves have frozen. They’re no longer advancing towards us; they stand, glued to the spot, ear swivelling like crazy as they listen to the sound. Nearly all of them have a paw raised in the air. They seem conflicted. One skitters forward, and another gnashes its teeth, chasing it back.

The sound stops dead, just as unexpectedly as it started, and the wolves scatter, turning tail and bolting away from us, headed down the hill.

I can’t f*cking believe it.

My ears are ringing. I can barely hear anything over the loud, insistent buzzing inside my head, but I have the wherewithal to turn to Natalia and speak. “What the f*ck? What just happened? What the hell was that sound?”

Natalia slumps to her knees, her chest hitching up and down as she begins to fall apart. Wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, she inhales, obviously trying to pull herself together.

“My father,” she gasps. “He’s calling them to him. They know.”

“They know what?”

She looks up at me, and I see the pain in her eyes. “That it’s feeding time.”





CHAPTER TWELVE





NIGHTMARES AND VICES





Apparently a bound, helpless prey is much preferable to a pack of wolves than one who fights back. And the wolves on Orellana mountainside know when their dinner bell has been rung. As we run through the forest, back toward the house, Natalia explains her father’s method of attracting the wolves so they know a ready meal is being served on the front lawns of the estate.

The alarm means live, fresh meat. And it means hurry.

“Someone must have…tried…to run,” Natalia pants. “Someone must have…tried to escape.”

Well shit. Perfect timing for us, but not so great for the poor bastard who got caught trying to leave Fernando’s perpetual sex party. He said he had more players arriving today. He told me to leave the house because of it. Whatever happened after those sick f*cks arrived must have been really bad for someone to risk this. And the risk didn’t pay off.

“There’s no point in hurrying back,” Natalia says. “It’s already too late. If my father sounds that alarm, it means he already has someone chained and ready for the wolves. There’s nothing we can do.”

“Like f*ck there isn’t.”

“Cade, don’t be crazy. His men will all be there. They have rifles. They know how to shoot. If you even try to stop it…” There is a hopelessness in her eyes. Something tells me she’s already seen what happens when someone tries to stop her father feeding his wolves, and it didn’t work out well. I can’t help that, though. I have to try. I sure as f*ck can’t stand by and watch as one of the people Fernando kidnapped is torn limb from limb. It could have been Laura once upon a time, and the thought of that makes me sick to my stomach.