I sat, and after a moment, I stretched out on my back and shut my eyes. The pressure from the gashes Mitch had given me the night before ached, but the good doctor had stitched them up and rubbed them with a nerve-deadening serum. Bless him. The pain was there, but it was tolerable. The dizziness in my head had almost completely evaporated, and I felt normal.
I must have dozed for a minute.
“Get up,” a voice snarled in my ear. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll do it quietly.”
I knew that voice. And I wasn’t going anywhere.
“I said, get the f**k up!” Pressure came down on my fingers as my attacker crunched my outspread fingers beneath the sole of his shoe.
Jesus Christ, you gotta be kidding me. I shook myself fully awake. We were right out in the open. Yes, I was harassed often, but never this close to my father. The Compound was massive and sprawling; there were plenty of places to confront me away from the Alpha. “I’m not moving, Sean,” I murmured, my eyelids still drawn. “You can go to hell if you think I’m stupid enough to go anywhere with you. Leave me alone and get out of here before you get yourself into trouble.”
A hard kick hit my ribs, stealing my breath. Dammit. I opened my eyes. He wasn’t going to relent. My hand came up to shield my eyes from the noon sun. “Honestly, Sean, you can kick the shit out of me, but I’m not going anywhere with you. You should know better than to stalk me here. Your Alpha is barely fifty yards away. I didn’t know you had a death wish, but one can be arranged.”
Sean bent at the knees, squatting next to me. A glint of metal caught my eye as he moved. He was clutching a nasty-looking hunting knife, his eyes already simmering a fierce amber. He was riled up and full of emotion. Sean was Mitch’s best friend. His wolf was already poised at the surface, ready to hurt something, seeking retribution for his buddy. There was no absolutely no turning back for him.
I should’ve known this was a possibility. Double dammit.
Sean was a temperamental wolf, always struggling to keep himself in check. After Tyler had hurt Mitch, Sean had threatened me repeatedly, knowing I was the cause of the ass-kicking. But, ultimately, the damage to Mitch had been done by Tyler, so after Sean had given me a few broken ribs as payback, he’d moved on. The ultimate problem was Sean and Mitch belonged to a specific group of my greatest haters on the Compound. They were riled up on a regular basis by Hank Lauder, a much older werewolf. He and his son, Stuart, fueled most of the fires of discontent within Pack. Those two alone kept the Myth alive by reminding the other wolves about it. Hank was almost as old as my father and very powerful. His fear ran deep and his vitriol fanned the flames.
The two of them managed to get away with it because they didn’t come into contact with me very often and thereby weren’t directly disobeying their Alpha. They were happy to let the younger wolves do their dirty work for them, and Sean had come to do just that. “You’re not going to get away with what you did to Mitch, Daughter of Cain,” he snarled, spittle running down the corners of his mouth. “You’re coming with me, or I’ll kill you right here.”
“In case you missed the news flash,” I answered, easing myself into a better defensive position, “I didn’t do anything to your pal Mitch. Everything I doled out to him, he recovered from in less than five minutes, as per usual with you guys.” I’d tried my hardest to make it hurt as much as possible, but that was beside the point. “Any grievances you have must be taken up with James. I’m sure he’ll be more than pleased to settle them with you, if you ask nicely. And if you still don’t believe me, go find Josh. He’ll tell you the facts about his brother. Now, my advice to you is to calm the f**k down and walk away before you lose your sorry life fighting me.”
“Don’t push me. Get up,” Sean said through a set of sharp, tightly clenched teeth. When I didn’t move so much as my crushed pinky finger, he snapped. Throwing his arms outward in exasperation, he yelled, “Don’t you get it? I don’t give a shit what happens to me! We’ve all had enough of you flaunting yourself around the Compound like you belong here. We know you’re just waiting to bring us down, and fighting Mitch was the last straw.” His eyes went blank as he started manically reciting, “The unborn daughter of Cain shall live. And from this day forth, the Wolves of the Night shall pay. Their atonement as flesh of their flesh—”
I cut him off. “Wow, you can stop now.” I knew those lines by heart, since they’d been etched into my brain at a very early age. I didn’t need to be reminded of my bane. “I’m not sure if I should clap or get up and curtsy. Sean, I had no idea your memorization skills were so well honed. Good job, Sparky. When I get back to the lodge, I’ll be sure to find you a gold star. Now, like I told you, get lost before I tell your Alpha you’re harassing his severely injured daughter.”
The knife swept down in an arc before I could stop it. I rolled, but not quickly enough. Story of my life with these guys. The blade caught my shoulder and stuck there, lodged into my flesh like a carving knife in an Easter ham. “Jesus, Sean!” I yelled. “What the f**k?”
Then he was on me. We rolled to the edge of the dock in a tumble. Luckily, the motion had dislodged the knife. We hit the lake with a splash.
The only thing running through my mind on the way down was that wolves hated to swim, but I didn’t. And I was good at it. I could use being in the water to my advantage.
When we were fully submerged, I wasted no time wrapping my legs around Sean’s middle and twisting both of us, making sure he was beneath me so I could pop to the surface for a quick breath. The water here was fairly deep, and that worked in my favor. Sean weighed three times more than I did, as wolves were heavy, their body mass much denser than any human of comparable size. So he sank while I was relatively buoyant.
He didn’t stay beneath me for long. I stole a breath as he broke out of my grasp and shot to the surface. He stopped only to grab a fistful of my hair, enough to yank me back under again. Damn hair.
Sean was taller than I was, and I didn’t want to run the risk of him touching bottom and gaining the advantage, so I started swimming with all my strength underwater. He had me by the hair, but I turned my lower body at a sharp angle and used my legs to capture him around the waist again. Then I used my free arms to stroke us both backward, deeper into the lake. I didn’t get very far before his other hand found my neck and gave a good squeeze.
Shit. But before he could figure out the best choke hold, I unclasped my legs from his middle, rushed my feet up to his abdomen, and kicked him fiercely. He flung backward in the water, his grip on my neck and hair releasing as he ripped away from me.
I darted to the surface, not wasting any time to catch a breath. Sean came up ten feet from me and immediately lunged for me again. When Sean’s fist came out of the water as he took a stroke, I saw another flash. That boy had produced a second knife. Unbelievable. This one was much smaller, the kind most guys wore on their belts—we did live in the backwoods—but the compact size didn’t matter; it was still capable of cutting a chunk out of me or slitting my neck.
I noted another important fact as his head came out of the water; his irises were full yellow. If I could keep him angry enough, I might be able to force him to shift. Wolves needed a place to drop and change, and by the looks of it, if Sean didn’t get ahold of himself, he was going to start a shift without his consent. Losing control of a shift was rare, but Sean was a hot-tempered human, so in turn, he was a hot-tempered wolf. I’d never heard of a werewolf drowning, but if he started his change, it would give me time to make it back to shore alive. The key was to keep riling him up.
I thrust myself backward, up and out of the water, with a giant kick and a flap of my arms. I had to stay one step ahead of him now. “Taking the…pansy way out…huh, Sean?” I panted. Kick. “A knife…again? What…? No room for…a gun in…your pocket?” It was hard to taunt and swim at the same time, but I was managing. Kick. “Werewolves…don’t use weapons…remember? You guys are”—stroke—“supposed to be…macho. Weapons are beneath you… They’re too…human.” Arm push. “Everyone’s…going to be talking about you…” Gasp. Stroke. “How you needed a pu**y knife…because you couldn’t kick my ass…yourself.”
“Shut up,” he growled, almost within reach. His canines had lengthened enough to jut between his lips. I pushed out once more in a last-ditch attempt to put more space between us. “You’re going to die now. I’m going to see it done.”
“Not if I can help it,” I panted as I swam backward. I kept the banter going while I still could. “All your cronies…are going to be talking about it…Sean. It’ll be the hot topic of conversation. The…only topic. How you had to use…a weapon instead of your strength…to best a…female.”
“Nobody is going to talk, bitch, because I’m going to be the one who finally kills you. I’ll be a hero. Nobody’s going to care in the end how the job was done, only that it’s finished.” He took a big stroke toward me.
“Nope, you won’t be a hero, because you’ll be…dead.” I gasped for air, my arms starting to falter as exhaustion crept into my limbs, my wounds from the previous night aching in earnest. Adrenaline was the only thing keeping me in the game. “Why can’t you boys get that through…your thick skulls? My father…is going to kill…you.”
The knife stabbed down in front of me, a hairbreadth away from my face. Water splashed as I dove under, kicking deep. Once I was down far enough, I twisted my body in a circle, searching for his feet. Once I spotted them, I swam over and yanked hard. Gravity worked in my favor, and he plunged down. I let go and swam backward underwater. Unfortunately, he wasn’t giving up or dying of water inhalation just yet. He turned to face me in the murky green darkness, his yellow, glowing eyes looking creepy underwater. I aligned myself in front of him as he swam forward and brought my body up so I was horizontal, my knees bent. When he got close enough, I shot my feet into his oncoming fists, hoping to dislodge the offensive knife still in his grasp.
I connected, but it didn’t work. The knife stayed.