Chapter 10

Cody took his motorcycle from the garage and walked it away from the house before starting it up and riding off into the night. He had a general idea of where he was going due to Dara’s telling of the story earlier, but he also had a faint trail of hers and Sasha’s scents left from when the two of them had gone to this cabin. Riding as he was on his bike, he had a hard time keeping the scent in his nostrils, but he managed.

Anger and fear drove him, his lion half barely controlled. Impulses and emotions rushed through his blood, out of his power, making him feel dangerous—capable of killing. He kept his thoughts focused on Sasha—the danger she could be in, the pain, getting her away from them, taking her away. He wanted to do things—desperate things—to her. He wanted to be able to hold her, to kiss her senseless, make love to her until they were branded permanently onto each other.

But amid all of the emotions that rolled through him was a deep sorrow that hurt the most. Tears glistened in his eyes, because of the furious wind whipping at him, he told himself. But really, deep down inside, he knew. He wanted to make everything okay, for her and for them, and the need to belong wholeheartedly and unconditionally was a heavy weight on him. To be so near having that weight lifted—the emotions were indescribable.

It didn’t take Cody very long to reach the cabin. Not bothering to hide his presence, he jerked the bike off, yanked the key out and swung his leg swiftly over it, striding with suppressed anger to the door, heedless of the mud. He drew one hand gun from under his jacket and kicked the door in at the same time.

It was dark inside and there were no sounds. Loosening the chain that held the lion back some, his eyes half morphed so that he could see in the darkness. No one was in there. The cabin was empty except for a couch, a table and a couple of chairs. The very essence of the building, though, told him that it recently been inhabited, as did the scents. Three shifter males, and Sasha.

He stepped into the cabin, leery of traps but suspecting none, and inhaled Sasha’s scent. He followed the slight trail, growling under his breath when he couldn’t separate hers from one of the male’s. He stopped at the window, looking out at the fading night. Her scent was strongest here, the male’s the weakest.

A single tear slid down his cheek. Had she sat here at the window and stared out at a dark sky, thinking about him, the same way he had done? Had she cried—wept? Had she been in pain? Was she now?

Suddenly he tossed his head back and screamed, a cross between a human yell of frustration and pain and a lion roar of fury.

Then, blinded by his emotions and instincts, he left the cabin and mounted his bike, gunning it and racing away, catching Sasha’s scent lingering on a woodland trail, like she was reaching out to him to save her. Though that one male’s scent stayed intertwined with hers, he could still discern where they had gone, and as he raced on, he knew he was gaining on them.

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Sasha stumbled in the mud. Ken’s vice grip on her arm tightened and he pulled her back up, placing her on her feet again with a deep growl.

“Stop trying to slow us down, Sasha,” he growled low against her ear so Rad couldn’t hear him. “I’ve already got a lot planned for you. Trust me, you don’t want anymore.”

She gulped, her heart skipping a beat and then steadily hammering away faster. Fear and bile rose up into her throat, choking her.

“Move.” Ken growled, pushing her on forward.

She tried to jerk her arm out of his grasp in a sudden flare of defiance, but he held on tighter, bruising her, as he jerked her around and slammed her back into a tree. Pressing his body into hers, pinning her there against the tree, he braced his hands on either side of her head and lowered his head down to hers.

“You know I play rough, Sasha,” he hissed, then ruthlessly shoved his lips against hers. The back of her head dug into the tree, giving her no where to go, no where to get air. His hands left the rough bark and went to her breasts, pressing hard as he curled his fingers in on her. She tried to squirm away but it only aroused him more—his grip tightened, his body pressed harder to hers, his hips giving one, instinctive thrust into hers.

“Get off of her, Ken.” Rad said. He didn’t touch either of them, but his voice carried the authority of one used to being obeyed, one sure that he would be now. “Let her go.”

Ken growled, peeling his lips off of Sasha. “I’m hardly finished with you, Sasha. Remember that.” With that soft, venomous promise, he jerked the rest of his body off of her. She hated the way he whispered her name.

Rad drew her away from his brother, to his side and stepped between the two of them as Sasha wiped the back of her hand over her mouth. She couldn’t erase the impression Ken had left, though, and it made her sick to her stomach.

Ken and Rad were engaged in a wordless stand-off.

It took Sasha a long moment to hear it through her heavy breathing, but when she did, she stumbled backwards. Giff, the youngest of the brothers, caught her in eager hands, pressing one hand to her hip and the other palm to her bottom. She spun on him, growling low in her throat and advanced, snarling. Giff’s eyes widened and he held up his hands in surrender, backing away for every step forward she took.

Then Giff heard it; she could tell by the shocked look in his eyes, the way they widened and glazed over. “Guys, do you hear that?”

Rad and Ken practically ignored Giff, their focuses fixed on each other. Sasha had only witnessed a stand off as intense and silent as this one once. One of the shifters involved had ended up dead.

Giff jumped around her and shook Rad. “Rad, listen—a bike!”

Rad seemed to snap out of the trance he’d been in, shaking his head and then cocking it to the side to listen.

“There’s only one,” Ken said as he, too, listened.

“Maybe she wasn’t worth all three of them coming?” Giff asked hesitantly.

“Giff, take Sasha and hide. Stay there until one of us comes for you,” Rad said in rough command. He and Ken took up defensive positions along the path, one on each side so they could attack from two different angles, after they’d tossed their packs off the path.

Since they were on a dirt trail in the middle of the woods, there were plenty of places to hide. But hiding was the last thing on Sasha’s mind. Even as Giff grabbed her arm and yanked on it for her to follow him, she stood her ground, her eyes fixed on the curve in the path that the rider was approaching fast.

“Come on!” Giff pulled on her harder, then circled her waist and tried to lift her. She fought him, but kept her eyes fixed on the path.

Even before the rider came around the corner, she knew who it was. Cody. Her eyes blurred with tears even as she kicked at Giff’s shins as Cody skidded to a halt on the bike, stirring up the dust.

Ken and Rad stepped toward the cloud of thick, night-choked dust, ready to knock the hell out of whoever emerged. A gunshot came from the cloud and Ken barely turned to avoid the bullet. As Cody’s outline became discernible from the dust, he fired two more shots at Ken. The second missed his arm, but the third grazed his left leg.

The two brothers attacked at the same time. Turning the gun in his hand so that it reinforced his fist, Cody knocked Ken’s jaw and took a hard hit to the stomach from Rad at the same time.

Doubling over with the blow, Cody whipped back up, knocking the back of his head with Rad’s face. Rad let out a piercing scream and stumbled back, a hand over his nose and blood trickled through his fingers. Ken knocked Cody’s legs out from under him and he landed hard on his back. Ken jumped him, punching furiously at his head, getting in three opposite hits before they started rolling. As Cody came to the top he landed a hard one in Ken’s chest, then Ken gained the upper ground and landed another to Cody’s face.

Giff seemed to remember that he was supposed to hide Sasha. He started pulling at her again and she struggled just like she had before. As soon as she got her balance on one foot, she kicked his kneecap in, hard, and he went to the ground with a scream much like his brother’s. She bent over and pulled him up by the front of his shirt. He didn’t put up any fight, his hands cupped at his broken knee as they were.

She raised a fist, mumbled, “Prides are established on more than sex,” and then gave him one punch that knocked him unconscious. Leaving Gifford in the dirt, Sasha turned back to the real fight.

Rad had a wire around Cody’s neck, choking him. Ken was knocking him senseless. Cody was kicking Ken in the stomach while struggling to get his hands around Rad’s neck. She rushed headlong into the fight, moving behind Rad and pushing his hands and the wire away from Cody’s neck. Cody ducked out from under the wire with the couple of inches she had given him and went for Ken with a rage. Rad turned on her, pouncing and bring her roughly to the dirt. His eyes darted to where Giff laid a little ways away.

They wrestled for a moment until he got her wrists in his hands and managed to stop her nails from digging into his face. He turned is head and spit blood onto the dirt, then glared down at her, pain shining in his eyes.

“Why, Sasha? Why?”

She pushed up against him, trying to dislodge his hold on her. “You can’t kidnap someone and expect her to fit right in, Rad.”

“But I love you!” he said, his voice breaking on emotion. “I’ve always loved you.”

He meant it, too, Sasha realized with a sadness that stilled her. Even if she didn’t love him, even if what he felt was not love, he believed that he loved her.

“I love you,” he whispered, like he was pleading with her.

Tears surfaced in her eyes and she just shook her head slightly. “I’m sorry, Rad. I’m sorry.”

He gulped and then howled his pain. “But I…” he laid his forehead against hers. “How can you…? …I love you, Sasha. Don’t do this to me,” a tear rolled down his cheek and dropped onto her face. Then another.

His pain hurt her; she may not been in love with him, but he would always be special to her. He would always matter to her, in some way or another. “I’m sorry,” she whispered inadequately again.

Ken’s grunt penetrated the bubble the two of them had been in. Then a punch made contact and Rad pushed up off of her. Tears still ran down his face and his swimming eyes begged her. But she couldn’t give him what he was asking of her.

He turned slightly and barked in a voice rough but not meshed with emotion, “Ken! Enough. We’re leaving.” Rad yanked himself up to stand, then reached a hand back down her for. She took it and he pulled her back to her feet. They locked eyes and stared at each other for a moment, then Rad turned his back on her. Ken and Cody were glaring at each other, both crouched in ready-to-spring stances, but Cody’s eyes were half on her. When Rad went to Giff, Ken backed up, picking up their bags as he did, keeping his front to Cody as Rad hoisted Giff onto his back.

Carrying his brother, Rad walked on down the path, the way they had been headed. Then suddenly he turned back around.

“Sasha.”

Her eyes shifted to his.

“Good luck. I… I hope he’s worth it.”

Within seconds, the three of them had vanished on along the path, but not before a graphic threat wafted back to Sasha’s ears in Ken’s voice.

She stared after them until she heard Cody whisper her name.

He came to her with open arms and she fell into him, sobbing into his shoulder, holding him tightly.

Cody mumbled to her while she shook and cried. He let his hands explore her body to prove to himself that she was relatively okay. She still smelled faintly like the one male, but now he also sensed another scent—one that belonged to the man he’d fought the most with.

When she wasn’t shaking quite so much, she pulled slightly away and started searching him with her own hands. He flinched when she touched a bruise on his ribs. He gently cupped her face between his hands and, despite his busted and bleeding lip, kissed her.

She couldn’t have spoken if she’d wanted to. She sagged against Cody, suddenly tired, drained. He supported her weight by putting an arm around her shoulders, leading her silently to where his bike lay in the dirt. He bent over and picked up her backpack along the way, then sat the bike up and put her on it. Sliding on behind her, he turned the key and spun them around, riding slowly back out of the woods.

Sasha was asleep in his arms by the time he reached the road again. She felt so small and vulnerable there that he held her closer as they rode who knew where.

He was tired himself and an eye was half-swollen shut and his neck burning from wire-burn, but he kept going. Finally, despite the blood that coated him and the fatigue that ate at him, he felt at peace with himself and his world. Finally he was home. They both were.

Copyrighted © 2007 Arden Ashart

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As I was writing and revising the last chapter, I was thinking about how little of the actual lions we see in The Pride. Part of me wanted to have Cody and at least Rad or Ken shift for the final fight, and though Cody showed lion characteristics—following faint scents, seeing in the dark, and how he fought—it wasn’t the same. But, unfortunately, having Cody shift would have meant that he would have had to put clothes back on, a problem that did not need to be in the final phase of the story.

So, as I sit down to do the final revision of the entire piece, I’m making plans to install more actual shifting and more of the lions themselves. Once finished, the final piece will be posted here on fpc.

Despite the lack of big cats, writing this piece has been so much fun for me. I really feel for Sasha and the rough past that she’s hand, and I fell in love with Cody from nearly the beginning—his youthful charm, his boy-almost-man physique and his unconditional love for Sasha. The second manuscript in the Shifters series has gone well overall. I really hope all who have read it have enjoyed it—as what is a writer without her readers?

Now, special thanks to all of my reviewers: Kenna-Kat11, writer262003 and HanglidersWing. Thank you all!

You all are the reason I came to the decision to publish my work online.

DreamWeaver010