7. Wolves In Wolfdale

Layla’s head was pounding. She winced when her eyes opened against the light and tried to cover them, but she couldn’t move her hands. 

Sounds of a moving car and quiet sobs filtered through her muddled head.

And then it all came rushing back. She forced her eyes open again and found her hands tied behind her. Someone had also tied her feet together. They must have thrown her into the back of a van because it wasn’t just her head that was painful. There was something sharp digging into her back.

“Layla?”

At the sound of her sister’s scared voice, she turned her head and saw her on her side, also tied up.

“Shh. It’s okay,” she whispered.

But Brit wasn’t stupid. She would know it wasn’t okay. Neither of them knew who this man was and where he was taking them. They didn’t even know if he would keep them together for much longer. Fear filled her and muddled her thoughts even more. Brit was all she had, and she had failed her.

“I don’t know what they did to Dad,” Brit whispered. “I’m scared.”

“Hey, listen to me. I’ve taught you how to take care of yourself. If you find a way out of this, take it, okay?”

From the day she had realised that the world was a cruel place, she had taught herself and Brit how to fight to prepare her for when she went out into the world. None of it would help against all these men, but if they got separated and Brit found an opportunity, she had to save herself.

“I won’t leave you,” Brit said. 

“Yes, you will. Go to the police and find someone to help you. I’ll find you, okay?”

“You know they won’t—”

The van braked hard, throwing them against each other as the tyres screeched. Something thumped against the truck at the front, and she felt the motion as it lifted on one side and threw them across the van bed again. Whatever had been digging into her back before felt like it had punctured through her t-shirt as she slammed into it. The pain was excruciating and took her breath away. 

Car doors slammed, and there was shouting outside. And then the sound of gunshots. They sounded too close.

Brit screamed, but she couldn’t comfort her with her hands tied; she couldn’t even move to cover her with her body.

But above all that commotion, she heard something that made the hair on the back of her neck stand. Growls. Menacing growls before the screams started outside. 

Wolfdale was called that for a reason, but the wolves never ventured this far out of the woods. The shots continued, and the screaming and shouting increased. They were undeniably screams of pain, and when they suddenly cut off, she knew what that meant. One by one, scream by scream, as if something was hunting the men. Until it was just the snarls of the wolves left. 

Was it just one? Or several? She couldn’t tell from just listening to the confusing noise outside the van as a couple of car doors slammed closed, and tyres screeched as cars sped away. But their van remained unmoving.

For the first time since Brit had called, she felt hope. A wolf, of all things, had saved them. 

“Let’s untie each other before they come back,” she said as she struggled to push herself from whatever was hurting her back and right herself. “I’ll do yours first.”

She felt her blood dripping onto her hands as she just about managed to put her back against her sister’s. Her fingers slipped when she tried to grip the rope around Brit’s wrists.

“Are you okay?” Brit asked in a shaky voice.

“Shh,” she whispered.

She had just gripped the rope when the van door wrenched open. 

And the last person she had expected to see on this side of the tracks stood on the other side, highlighted by the moonlight.

It was the crazy stranger from the hotel, still in his expensive suit.

Her heart started hammering for a different reason as he looked into her eyes for what felt like an eternity. 

“Layla?”

Only her sister’s voice brought her out of her head. What was she even thinking? They’d been kidnapped and almost trafficked, but she was thinking about getting naked with the cold stranger instead of taking care of her sister. 

Another man came beside him, and she recognised him as his boyfriend. And that put the fire out in her body instantly. She couldn’t get naked with the stranger because he liked men. The boyfriend had only a pair of jeans on. His muscled, tattooed chest was glistening in the moonlight. She didn’t have to imagine what they had been doing in these woods. These out-of-towners never appreciated how dangerous it was out there, which was why so many of them went missing. 

The boyfriend pulled a knife out of his pocket, and she flinched back against her sister. Had they escaped one dangerous situation into another?

But the man didn’t stab her as she had thought. He grabbed her feet and easily sliced through the rope holding them together.

“Turn around,” he said gruffly.

She didn’t hesitate. The air around them was still full of danger. The last thing she wanted was to linger around too long with the wolves so close. They had to get to safety, then she could worry about a safe place to stay for the night. 

There was a pause and a sound she couldn’t decipher. A growl? Without warning, the handsome man came behind her and cut the rest of the ropes off instead of his boyfriend. Once her hands were free, she rubbed her raw wrists and inspected the rope burns and bruises. The man lifted the back of her t-shirt, making her wince as it pulled off her wound. She knew she needed to get it looked at, but something inside her didn’t want the stranger doing it. It felt too intimate. Besides, they were in the middle of nowhere and still in danger.

She moved away from his scrutiny and turned to face him. The expression on his face was indiscernible as he handed her the knife. She took it without hesitation to free Brit and briefly held on to her little sister’s trembling body. Once they were out of the van, she tucked the knife into her jeans. Costas and his men had probably taken her gun; she needed a weapon to protect Brit. 

The handsome stranger remained silent even though his eyes had lowered to her jeans. But if he wanted the knife back, he would have to prise it from her cold, dead hands.

She saw nothing when she looked around them. No bodies on the road as she had expected. It was already dark, but the moon provided enough light that she would have seen Costas and his men if the wolves had killed them. Had she imagined it all? Or had the wolves dragged them into the woods and were waiting to pounce on them, too?

She had to get Brit away from them.

“Thank you,” she muttered.  

“Get into the car. We didn’t get to finish our conversation earlier,” the handsome stranger said.

Their only other option was to trek down the secluded road next to the woods in the middle of the night, and that wasn’t happening. They weren’t too far from home but that was the first place Costas would look for them, if he survived.

The man didn’t wait for her to agree, though. He walked to his car, a dark-coloured, expensive-looking SUV, and opened the door, gesturing as if he was used to ordering people around. He probably was. That aura of danger around him was more pronounced as if he was the predator, the king of everything that went bump in the night, not the wolves that had attacked them. 

But now was not the time to mouth off. She took Brit’s hand and led her to the car, allowing her to go in first before she followed. The stranger closed the door and then walked back to talk to his boyfriend before he got into the driver's seat. He didn’t even look back at them to ask what had happened or if they were okay. Maybe they were an inconvenience. He probably didn’t appreciate having to save them from the loan shark and wolves while he was having his private time with his boyfriend. 

The man in question walked from the van with their two bags and put them in the back. When he sat in the passenger seat, he had his top back on. He didn’t look too pleased about the situation. She knew if she were the one interrupted while climbing all over that sexy man, she wouldn’t be happy, either.

As the car started moving, she sat back and pulled her sister into her arms, wincing a little from the pain in her back. What would they do now? She wasn’t sure it was safe for Brit to return to school. They would have to move out of town and start afresh somewhere else. 

“What are we going to do?” Brit whispered.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you.”

She kissed the top of Brit’s head and tightened her arms with a sigh, only to catch the stranger’s gaze on her in the rearview mirror.

His eyes were still cold as hell, but there was just something in them... 

Before she could figure it out, he looked away and concentrated on the road. But now, all she could see in his eyes was anger. So much anger. What could she have possibly done to piss him off?