Wolf Girl (Wolf Girl, #1)(44)

He pulled a knife from his belt and nodded. “What should I start with?”

The woman had stepped into the firelight and I could see her more fully now. She was younger than I thought. I mean, she said she’d been doing this for fifty years, but she looked early thirties. Stocky, with thick wavy hair and a harsh face, she wore dirty clothes that looked like they’d been pieced together. Life had not been kind to this woman, I could see that. But on top of that she was … what was she? I inhaled, confused by her pointy fey ears and yet vampire smell.

She looked right down at me, took in my confused appearance and laughed. The sound made my skin crawl. “You trying to figure it out, love?”

I nodded. Anything to keep her talking and not skinning me alive. Where was Walsh? Was he dead? My memories were fuzzy. The nice Paladin man had tried to help me and then they killed him. Walsh would have seen the dozen hunters and surely turned back for help … right? He’d tell Sawyer and Sawyer would come for me … he wouldn’t leave me here.

The woman reached out and grasped me by the hair, pulling me up into a sitting position. I hissed as pain shot up my skull, my wolf coming to the surface; pelts of fur rolled down my arms and I growled.

She grinned. “There you are, little demon.” Then she pointed to herself, and the dude standing next to her. “We are Ith-a-cki.” She spoke slowly like I was stupid. “Part fey, part other magical creature. It’s rare, but sometimes interbreeding with a fey results in pregnancy, and when it does…” She clicked her tongue: “You better flee to the forest, or the fey will kill that baby before it’s born.” She grinned, showing a missing front tooth. “We’re bad luck. Just. Like. You.”

My heart pounded in my ears as I processed what she said. The breeds couldn’t intermix, or at least that’s what I was always told. If a vampire and a werewolf had sex, a child would never result. Just like a dog and a lion couldn’t have a baby. But maybe … the fey DNA was closer … like a lion and a tiger.

The Ithaki were … ligers.

Before I could respond, anything to keep her talking, and not cutting, there was a shout of alarm outside.

That’s when I heard it.

A pack of wolves.

Thank God.

The woman hissed, her vampire fangs distending onto her bottom lip as the man went to the front of the tent.

“Paladins?” the woman asked.

He shook his head. “They aren’t stupid enough to come on our land for a little demon girl. It’s a pack of Wolf City wolves.”

She cursed. “Get Butcher.”

Butcher. Was that a name or a profession? Because I really needed it to be a name…

The man leapt out of the tent as the woman grabbed a pair of pliers from her desk and stalked over to where I sat, hands and ankles bound, leaning up against the wall.

I watched the pliers in her hand as she gripped them in her fist and then reached out lightning-quick and grabbed me by the back of the head.

“Hold still, I just need one eye.”

Oh fuck that.

Fear surged up inside of me as my wolf shook my skin like a cage, begging to be freed.

If I died, or lost an eye, these cuffs would be to blame. Sawyer would be to blame. I couldn’t let that happen, I liked living too much.

I let her get close to me, leaning in to try to take my eye, and that’s when I came up with my zip-tied hands, holding both fists balled together, and cracked her so hard under her chin that I heard her teeth break.

She stumbled backward, screaming in pain as I leapt from the fireplace wall and hopped like a bunny across the room. I almost lost my balance as dizziness washed over me, but knew staying upright was my only shot at living. When I reached the door, I threw my shoulder into it and leapt out of the house.

Oh shit.

Many things hit me all at once.

One: this was a tree house. Two: I was falling very rapidly to the ground. And three: Sawyer had just shown up with over thirty wolves, armed to the teeth.

By some trick of fate, the tree house was only about six feet off the ground, maybe to help with flooding or ground insects. There was a pile of freshly raked leaves that I crashed into, softening the blow, and I sent up a quick prayer of thanks to whomever raked them. Still, it hurt. Everything hurt so damn much from my first fall that when I slammed into the leaves a howl ripped from my throat, followed by a whimper.

“Demi!” Sawyer’s voice was panicked and raw. As I’d been falling, I’d seen him in human form, coming up the ridge with the others. He must have seen me fall out. I rolled over the bed of leaves and popped back to my feet, jumping again like a bunny, just wanting to get to Sawyer and his men so I could be safe.

He came for me. I knew he’d come for me.

“Look out!” Sawyer yelled, and everything in me tensed as someone grabbed me from behind, their strong hand coming around the back of my throat and a sleek steel knife going to the front.

This person holding me radiated power I could sense and smell. When he pulled me to his chest, I knew it was a different man from the one who had originally kidnapped me.

I was panting, out of breath and out of hope as Sawyer and his wolf pack finally reached us.

Doors slammed and ropes descended from the trees, and suddenly over a hundred Ithaki were gliding down from the tree houses and meeting their leader, who I was one-hundred-percent sure was the man holding a knife to my throat.