Page 25 of Oz
Laura
I woke up disjointed.The room was bathed in the greyish light of pre-dawn and everything was perfectly still. Too still.
Sitting upright made my head spin. Without thinking about it, I gripped my throat as pain lanced through my bones. My hand clamped over where Oz had bitten down. It hurt like a son of a bitch, a stinging, burning pain. Sweat dripped from my forehead as I slouched over to the bathroom. I needed to splash water on my face and see what kind of damage he had done to me. He hadn’t wanted me to touch it earlier. He had been adamant about it.
Just how badly had he marked me up? I was always down for a little biting, especially with him, but if he had taken a chunk out of me, I wouldn’t be able to hide it at work and people would start to ask questions.
I did a double take as I lifted my eyes to stare at my reflection. I looked different. My skin was pale, beaded with sweat, but my eyes were glowing with a new light. They sparkled like I was the picture of health. Slowly, I lowered my hand and whistled sharply.
Oz’s teeth marks were clear on my skin, the puncture marks red and raised. And a perfect crescent. He hadn’t exactly taken a bite out of me, but it had been close. It would most certainly scar.
Sure, I had bitten him first, but it had been nothing like this, Mine had been a nip. A little love bite in the throes of passion. When I got hold of him, I was going to kill him. My fists clenched at my side as the room swam around me.
Something was taking me over, some memory. Oz, pulling on his clothes as he spoke on his phone. What had he said? I racked my brains, but couldn’t keep hold of the memory at all. I couldn’t even be sure that it was a memory. Maybe it was nothing but my imagination.
“What are they, Ace?” His voice echoed in my head, and I had to grip the sink before I fell down. That was what Oz had said before he rushed out the door. He had asked what was up the mountain.
Dread and panic filled me in equal measures. He knew. They all knew.
Frantically, I stumbled back towards my bed, pulling clothes from the floor and tugging them on to my body. It didn’t matter what I looked like. All that mattered was that I got up the mountain before Oz and his men could. Already I could be too late. Oz had left over an hour ago. They had a major head start. I couldn’t let that get to me.
I couldn’t let the panic take over. I had to try. Otherwise, everything was lost.
* * *
I ranthe moment the taxi dropped me at the bottom of the valley. The military were skilled, the best of the best, and they knew these wooded hills, but I had an advantage over them. I knew where I was going. I would know it blindfolded and in my sleep. And that meant I could take the most direct route to them.
Taking the nearest trail, the one that was barely visible to anyone who didn’t know it was there, I forced my legs to keep climbing. Even when they started to burn, even as my breath was forced out in ragged pants, I forced my body to move.
A twig snapped to my right. A wet sound like a bone breaking. I whirled around as a deep, low growling filled the air. It was joined momentarily by another one. Whirling, I scanned the shadows under the trees. Nothing should have been visible in that gloom, but something was.
Something massive moved towards me on all fours, flanked on either side by two equally massive creatures. Because that’s what they were. I backed away as a giant wolf stepped out in front me. Its muzzle was low to the floor. Saliva dripped from fangs as long as my finger as it growled.
The one behind it nipped at it. A whine filled the quiet morning air. I frowned. Those eyes.
A deep golden that glowed as they looked at me. I knew those eyes.
“Oz.” I said his name without thinking. It couldn’t be. It wasn’t possible. How could the wolf in front of me be the man who had lain with me in his arms only a few hours ago?
It didn’t make any sense, but at the same time, it did. Everything about him made perfect sense now he was standing in front of me. Touching my fingers to the bite mark on my neck, I let the anger take over. Swinging my arm wildly, I slapped the giant head with all of my force.
My voice rose to a shriek that sent birds into flight above me. “You’re a damn shifter? You’re a wolf and you marked me!”
The lion, it's great golden head just catching the morning sun, chortled, and I turned to him in shock. How was it possible? How was any of it possible?
The shifters on my mountain were the only ones. The only shifters left in existence.
So how come three others stood in front of me?
Opening my mouth, I screamed obscenities into Oz’s face. Closing my fist, I pulled back my arm to hit him again, but this time my blow didn’t land its mark. The air rushed from my lungs as he tackled me to the ground. But it wasn’t a wolf on top of me when I opened my eyes.
It was a man. The same man I had shared my bed with, who I had given my body to.
“Settle Laura, settle, no one is going to hurt you.”
“Your secret.” I couldn’t breathe. I was so angry. He had said he had secrets, but never in a million lifetimes would I have thought it was going to be this. Shifters were all but extinct. “Your secret is that you are this? That you’re a shifter.” I struggled under him, but his grip on me didn’t loosen.
“And how do you know about shifters, Laura?” Oz’s eyes narrowed. “You aren’t one, but you know, don’t you? You know what is on this mountain.” With a groan, he bounced to his feet. Not caring that he was totally naked. “You have always known. Are you working with them? Do you help them kidnap women?”
I started at his words. “No, of course not. They don’t kidnap women. They…” I swallowed hard as I heaved myself to my feet, much slower than he did. “I can’t let you hurt them, Oz. Leave them alone. They don’t do anyone any harm.” Taking a deep breath, I looked away. “They are my family.”
