Page 24 of Ash
ChapterNineteen
Lainey
It was like all my nightmares were coming to life around me. Even though I was still wrapped up in Ash’s arms, I sensed them stepping out of the trees. The foul, rancid odour hit me first and if that wasn't enough of a sign, Ash stiffened. His hot lips still pressed to mine. A shudder ran through him, the second the first low growl echoed around the road, bouncing off the snowy tree trunks.
I pulled away an inch, and Ash's big hands clutched me back. Holding me tight against his chest. “Eyes on me Lainey.” He whispered. “Don't look at them.”
He may as well have said don't look at the car crash that we had been driving past. My head swivelled and my eyes landed on the first. I expected the fear to be paralysing and in a way it was but as I stared straight into the face of one of the creatures of my nightmare, an eerie sort of calm settled over me.
They were real.
They were real and they were here, in front of me.
After months of being told I had imagined them, months of doubting my own sanity they were finally here.
And drawing closer by the second.
“I-” I had been about to say I knew it when Ash cut in.
“What do you want?”
My head snapped back to him. He was too calm. Any normal person would have been running screaming by now. At the very least he should have shown some shock but there was nothing on his handsome bearded face but a weary sort of acceptance and anger. There was plenty of anger in his eyes.
He knew.
Ash knew what had taken me. He had known this entire time and he had made me think I was crazy, I pulled myself away from him.
Ash glanced down, loosening his grip enough for him to slide his arm around my waist and pull me to his side instead.
“Lainey, stay close to me.” He didn't bother to whisper it. “I won't let them hurt you, I promise.”
Them?
He had said them like they were people and not animals. And they were animals even if they were the kind I'd never seen before. My mind was whirling, as it tried to make sense of everything that had happened.
I remembered in fragmented bursts what had happened to me up this mountain. The smell was always the one constant. But I also remembered men, filthy gruff men wandering around. Touching my face and hair with their rotted fingernails.
Were these animals their pets or were they… god help me were they one and the same?
My question was answered but then I’d always known the answer really, when one stepped forward.
I blinked and it happened in that millisecond. Where once stood a giant stinking black wolf-like creature there was now a black-haired man. A naked black-haired man. Dirt and what smelt like excrement smeared his body. The hair that covered his face was as matted and filthy as the animal's fur had been.
I squealed before I could help myself. Hiding my face into Ash's side.
“What do you want?” Ash asked again, and this time he didn't try to mask the anger in his voice.
In answer, the human one chuckled. And it was more bark than anything else. “The female.”
I hid my face further into the solidness of Ash's side. He couldn't mean me, could he? But I knew the answer to that as well. Of course, he meant me. They had taken me once before.
“Not going to happen,” Ash said quietly and there was so much conviction in his voice that I couldn't help but let out an audible sigh of relief. Ash wouldn't let anything happen to me. I knew he wouldn't. He had promised.
And yet there were so many more of them than him, even with his military training I wasn't sure he could beat them all.
“She is mine.”
“Not this one, we want our female.”
