Chapter 105: Inseparable

Kodi woke up in a bed that felt strange - too soft and too hot. Blankets tangled around her feet like ropes that wanted to tie her down. She began to kick and scream, trying to rid herself of the soft restraints.

“Whoa, easy there girl,” a masculine voice tried to soothe her. A heavy hand touched her forehead. There was kindness in the voice, gentleness in the hand, but it wasn’t his hand, it wasn’t his voice. She would never hear his voice or feel his touch again.

She stopped fighting, but her breath still came harsh and ragged. She was on a bed, she realized. How long had it been since she had slept on a mattress? She didn’t like it, didn’t like the way her body sank into foam, like it was holding her prisoner. She wanted the earth under her bones, the solid support of unyielding stone, the rough bite of gravel in her skin, or the grit of sand under her fingernails.

She looked around frantically, trying to orient herself, but her brain was still slow and sluggish, partly from the drug they had given her, partly from the mania that had become her constant companion. The ceiling was painted white, with some rustic, wrought iron light fixtures. When she rolled her head to focus on the walls, they were rough-hewn pine logs. The floor was wide, polished wooden planks.

She squinted her eyes at the man. The man was not Bruce. Bruce had been skinny, this man was broad and barrel chested. He had a bushy beard and long hair that fell over his shoulders. His eyes were dark, and full of kindness and compassion. She deliberately turned her face away from those eyes, and everything they offered.

She didn’t want it. She didn’t deserve it. “Kill me,” she growled at the wall.

“I won’t,” the man refused, “I can’t.”

Kodi could have told him how easy it was to take life. It wasn’t hard at all. The human body was so frail. Hairless skin cut like butter, fragile limbs pulled apart like a well-cooked chicken. The soul fled from pain like a deer flees from the wolf.

From wolves.

She remembered the princess. She’d seemed so small, so weak, so skinny. But nothing could touch her. For the first time, Kodi’s knives couldn’t penetrate, even though her pale skin bore scar over scar. Someone had cut her before, someone had made her bleed, but not Kodi.

The wolves had come for her, and they had pretended to show her mercy and kindness. They had spared her life. But it was all a cruel trick. Because the wolves let her live, Bruce had to die. King’s had taken money, made a contract, they’d been paid for a life, and a life was required.

They’d taken her knives, and then they had taken Bruce. And it was the wolves' fault.

“Would you like some water?” The man with the bushy beard held out a glass. “I know those tranquilizers leave your mouth dry as f.uck. I’ve been nailed by them myself, twice.” He smiled, a little self-conscious and lopsided.

She took the glass and sniffed the clear liquid inside suspiciously.

“It’s okay, it’s just water,” the man reassured her.

She took a sip, tested it against her tongue, and then she tipped the glass back and drained it. Her mouth was dry, her throat was parched. But when she was finished, she clung tightly to the glass.

“Just relax, okay? This is my cabin, you are safe here.”

“Where is here?” Her voice came out raspy.

“Um, Canada.”

“Canada?”

He tried another smile, took a step closer. “Yes, near Lake Bienville. In Quebec.”

Quebec… something was pinging in her brain, making her ears ring. Something about Quebec.

A werewolf princess that would not die. A castle near the city of Quebec.

“When you are feeling better, we can take a walk outside. It’s beautiful here in the summertime. The mosquitos can be a bit of a drag, but… its peaceful, quiet. We are far from humans. You can make a new life here.”

Her ears were ringing too loud, she couldn’t focus on his words, they were too loud, distorted. “Who are you?”

“I’m Bart,” he smiled, offering a huge hand, “Bartholomew Laplante, but everyone just calls me Bart.”

“Bart,” the name felt foreign in her mouth.

She didn’t want Bart, she wanted Bruce.

“That’s right. I’m a bear-shifter, like you. I live here with my brothers. I’ll take you to meet them later.”

She turned the glass in her hands. “I can’t stay here.”

“Yes, you can. And you must, Kodi. You… well, you killed innocents. We made an agreement with the wolves that we would take you away, keep you safe… keep you away from humans. If you go back, you’ll be in danger.”

“Nobody is innocent,” Kodi mumbled, her hand tightening around the glass.

“Don’t kill him, he had nothing to do with it! I messed up, it was my job! Take me! He’s innocent!”

“Nobody is innocent.”

That’s what they said, right before they stuck him with her own knives. They could have slit his throat, they could have made it fast and clean, but they didn’t. One held him by the arms, while the other slid the knife in with surgical precision, missing the major organs, letting him bleed, letting him feel the pain.

Giving her the false hope that they were just going to wound him, but they might let him live after all.

The look on his face, as the color drained slowly. The accusation in his eyes, the disappointment, the fear. He waited for her to save him, but she couldn’t.

“Bruce!” hot tears ran down her face, “Bruce I’m so sorry!” She squeezed the glass until it broke in her hands. The sharp shards cut her fingers and her palms, but she didn’t feel the pain. She looked up at Bart, without really seeing him. He wasn’t kind eyes and smiles, he was just a faceless form, a large one.

“Kodi, don’t, you don’t have to…” He took a stop closer, extended a hand toward her.

Faster than a blink, she flicked her wrist, and the largest shard of glass flew at the giant man, embedding in his throat. He made a gurgling sound, but still he staggered toward her. To stop her. To save her from herself, perhaps. But she was faster, darting toward the door she’d seen behind him. It wasn’t locked. She fell into another room, stumbled into the back of a couch, found the glass door that led to the porch.

The door was locked. It would have been a simple thing to turn the deadbolt, but she couldn’t think, the ringing in her ears was growing painful, and she knew she just needed to escape, at any cost. So she backed up, made a running start, and slammed herself against the glass, just as Bart the Bear stumbled out of the bedroom, still pressing one hand to his bleeding neck. “Kodi! No! Wait!” The first attempt cracked the glass, but it still held in place.

There was no waiting. She shook herself, backed up, tried again. This time she broke through the glass, fell to her knees on the other side, cutting her legs, leaving more blood before she scrambled up.

The forest surrounded the back porch, slender trees grew thickly along the edges. As she passed, she slid one hand along the bark of a young pine, leaving a smear of fresh blood against the bark.

Had she been very still, very quiet, she might have heard the hushed whisper that seemed to pass through the canopy, the rustle of a non-existant wind through the leaves and needles as the trees whispered together. But Kodi heard nothing but the sharp, shrill sound in her ears, the heavy beating of her own heart, her own ragged breath.

The man who held the knife that killed Bruce was a human, but in her mind, it was the wolves who stole her mate from her. It was the princess, it was the twin mates… it was the beautiful brunette with the blue eyes. Eyes like sapphires. Her wolf's scent was still burning Kodi's nose. And she remembered the man, the stupid human man who had entered her hiding place, the man who had dared to put his gross, stinking hands on Bruce’s sweater.

They were mates. Kodi sensed it. It infuriated her.

She ran, long past the point of exhaustion, with no idea where she was going, only that she was headed south. Instinct told her that her home was south.

Not that she’d ever really had a home. She had always moved from place to place. Even when she’d been with Bruce, their life had been lived in seedy motels, moving from city to city, following the job wherever it took them. But she hadn’t minded, because her home was with Bruce. Even if it meant sleeping in the car.

Gods, she would give anything to be huddled in the car, cuddled in his lap to share body heat and comfort when the storm raged outside. Now the storm raged inside, in her mind, and she couldn’t find quiet or comfort anywhere.

Kodi screamed, and shifted, the woman’s scream turning into the primal roar of an enraged bear.