I blink a few times to clear my eyes and get a better look at the wolf who is ripping out the downed soldier’s throat even as he stabs the knife into its flank. The small silver beast releases the dying man as it lets out a sharp female-sounding yip of pain and I realize that it must be Flora. The gun moves from where it had been pressing against my head and I see the barrel move past the side of my face to point at Flora. I scream out a desperate “NO!” and shove into his arm, throwing the aim off to the side as he pulls the trigger. The noise of the shot so close to my ear is deafening but I keep pushing and turning until I can bring my foot up and strike a sharp blow to his knee causing him to fall to the ground and taking me with him. I see fur flying past but all my attention is on this bastard who needs to fucking die even as my vision blurs again. I’m running on pure instinct now.
I roll onto him, straddling his waist, and wrench the heavy musket from his hand even as his fingers curl around my throat and start to squeeze. I bring it down to hit him in the face over and over screaming my rage with every blow until his face is a caved-in bloody mess and his hands drop away from me and still. It doesn’t matter that he’s done, I hit him again causing even more of his blood to splatter up and add to the mess coating me. My hearing starts to come back and I hear someone bellowing my name, men screaming in terror, and horse hooves galloping towards me but I can’t stop hitting this evil motherfucker beneath me.
Strong arms wrap around me and yank me away and I go into a defensive move that has the person who grabbed me flipped to the side. My fists and feet fly. It’s too much, I can’t let them do this to me again. The familiar red haze takes over and all I want to do is hit, claw, bite and tear at the motherfuckers who dared put their hands on me.
“STOP!”
As much as I want to keep hitting, the powerful voice freezes my body in place and as the red haze begins to clear and I realize it is Luca holding me in place. My bare chest heaves with my tank top hanging in bloody tatters from my shoulders and a keening noise comes from my hoarse throat as I stare at him, pushing against his command – trying to move, to fight - but I can’t. The only thing I can move is my eyes and they dart around to see a limping Flora, blood running down from her hip, and a naked Aiden wrapping a blanket around her bare body. Two huge grey wolves with gold eyes that I know are Finn and Cade prowl between the dead, bloody soldiers and Sebastian is striding our way with a panic-filled expression. Seeing them all here has the last of the fight draining out of me.
When I can finally speak properly I grit out, “Release me!”
He nods and I feel my muscles unlock causing me to stagger to one side. Luca moves toward me but I flinch back, stopping him in his reach for me.
“Eden, Eden - please? Are you hurt? Did they hurt you? I…I need to see. I need to make sure you are alright! Please, please let me… ” He pleads but I cut him off.
I shake my head violently. “N-no…you…you don’t get to d-do that! You don’t get to treat me like shit, make it clear over and over again you don’t want me here and then…and then…NO! You…you leave me alone!”
I finally see everything Luca has been hiding from me when his expression cracks wide open but I can’t deal with it right now as blood drips down my face, chest, and arms and the adrenalin dumps from my system. Shakes and shudders wrack my body as I sink to my knees. Sebastian shoves Luca to the side and scoops me up into his arms. I curl against him and let the sobs break free on how close I just came to losing them all again. I have no doubt that those soldiers would have used me repeatedly and then killed me. I would have gone back to my time and I had made a vow not to return.
He carries me toward the house but changes direction when Flora calls out, “Take the lass ta the well and rinse the blood from her first so we can see ta tend ta her wounds.”
He gently lowers me to sit on the stone wall that surrounds the well and pauses to press his forehead against mine as I continue to cry at how close we came to being over. The physical pain of my injuries is just starting to register as my wolves rush over, now in their human forms and completely naked. The four of us end up in a messy group hug with the blood covering my face, chest, and hair smearing on to them making me cry even more. Sebastian pulls away and rips his shirt off, tearing it into strips, and then hauls a bucket of clean well water up. Between the three of them they manage to wash most of the soldier’s blood from me but every time I wince from the contact against my cuts and quickly forming bruises the wolves’ growl. I manage to get my crying down to a few hiccups when Bas scoops me up again and carries me toward the house.
“There…there was more of them. He sent them to check the outbuildings while he…”
His arms tighten around me and his lips tighten. “Dead. They are all dead and you are safe. I promise.”
Some of the tension flows out of me but not all of it and I sigh deeply as I lay my head against his chest.
“I’m not, though. This is just getting started, this revolution, this war, it will last for seven years and it will just get uglier and uglier.”
A low growl of frustration escapes him as he kicks the door open, unwilling to let me go.
“Then we will leave! We will pack up and take you as far away as we can to keep you safe. None of us care about this war as much as we care about you. We will keep you safe, Eden!”
He carries me to my room as I try and will the throbbing in my head and cheek away. I give up as he gently lowers me to the bed and I close my eyes while taking deep breaths as nausea rolls in my stomach. That motherfucker probably gave me a concussion when he hit me in the head with that heavy musket gun. For the first time, I’m thankful for the red haze of rage that I thought I had gotten over. Without it I probably wouldn’t have been able to fight him with my head in this state.
I come off the bed with a sound that is half scream, half wail of pain when Sebastian presses a damp cloth against the split skin and throbbing knot on my head.
“I’m sorry! I know it hurts but I need to see how bad it is.” He tries to soothe me but his probing fingers take over from the cloth making the pain so much worse.
Finn and Cade rush into the room, dressed now and with worried faces. Taking spots on either side of me on the bed and reaching for my hands. I catch Luca hovering in the doorway but look away, still so pissed at him even as I wish he would come in and try to comfort me again.
“Just bloody heal her, man! Don’t make her suffer in pain.” Cade barks at Sebastian.
My fingers squeeze his to let him know I’m ok even as my eyes roll up to meet Sebastian’s.
“Can you do that? How?” I ask with a little bit of whine in my tone. I’m not a wuss about pain and I’ve taken quite a few hits in the ring as well as the horrible beating by the gang. It’s not the pain of my wounds so much as the days of nausea and dizziness I know I have ahead of me if I do have a concussion. If he can heal that even a little bit then I’m down for any possible side effects. He frowns and shakes his head.
“It is not a good idea. My blood is not the same as Luca’s. I do not know how it will affect you.”
Luca steps into the room and pushes him to the side with an angry look while pulling a knife from behind his back. After slicing across all four of his fingers he hands the knife off to Cade. I can’t help but stare at the dark red blood that wells up across his cupped fingers, mesmerized by the burgundy thickness of it as a few drops spill over and drop to the rug. His eyes slide away from mine to the wolves and he nods for them to hold me before lifting his bloody hand and letting the pooling blood pour over the gash on the side of my head. I gasp at the searing heat but it quickly turns to a moan of relief and pleasure as the throbbing pain dims and my whole body lights up in a soft glow of pleasure.
My eyes flutter closed as Finn lifts my chin and gently pulls my mouth open so Luca’s slick fingers can swipe in against the cut on the inside of my cheek. The taste of his blood in my mouth should disgust me but instead a sharp need for more has my lips closing around them. I suck hard on them and my tongue licks against the quickly healing slices he made on his fingers. A whine of need escapes me as his wounds heal over depriving me of more of the rich coppery taste my body now craves. When he pulls them from my mouth, my hand snaps up to hold his hand in front of my face so I can lap at the smears of blood in the palm of his hand and he groans even as the wolves growl and press closer to me. There’s a throbbing need between my legs that’s hard to ignore and I realize that it’s his blood mixing with mine that’s causing me to feel this way.
Memories of the days of sexual madness I experienced the last time Luca fed me his blood fill me and cause me to drop his hand and pull back. Now is not the time to go into a sex-craved mania. Thankfully, the little bit of blood that he has used on me only leaves me feeling unsettled in a buzzy sort of way but even better, most of the pain I was feeling begins to ease off. I lift my eyes back to his to thank him and see a red ring around his grey eyes and his jaw tight with want and need. It clears as fast as it takes for me to blink twice and his expression is back to one of anger. He pulls away from me and quickly leaves the room, making me clench my fingers in frustration. Sebastian lifts my chin so I’ll look at him.
“We will make sure this never happens again, Eden. I promise. Wewillkeep you safe and protected.”
