Soul Bonded - By Meghan Malone Page 0,8
hoped to accomplish, but she couldn’t just sit in that bed and worry about who had come calling.
Katie tiptoed to the bedroom door, holding up her hand to Shilah in a silent plea for him to stay. He whined low in his throat as she eased the door open a couple of inches, but didn’t move. Not wanting to leave the safety of the room, she closed her eyes and rested her forehead against the doorframe, listening hard.
Two male voices. As she strained to make out their words, a deep, unfamiliar baritone rose in anger.
“What the hell are you thinking?”
Rafe said something too quiet for her to hear, then added, “I had no choice.”
“Of course you did.”
“What? Let her die?” Rafe practically snarled. “That wasn’t an option.”
“Why not? She’s a human, for fuck’s sake. You should never have gotten involved.”
Katie’s eyes flew open. Rafe’s visitor was a straight-up crazy person. He’d spat out the word human as though it tasted bad in his mouth. As though he truly believed he was something else. Something better. She waited to hear Rafe’s response, praying he wouldn’t say something equally as insane.
Unfortunately, another low whine from Shilah drowned out Rafe’s response. She tossed a glare over her shoulder at the dog, shutting him up with one hard look. Then she turned her attention back to the conversation, which had grown even more heated.
“She can’t stay here.” The stranger’s voice radiated anger. “It’s far too dangerous. She’ll attract trouble. She’ll be killed.”
Katie’s heart stuttered, then pumped into overdrive. Killed?
“You think I don’t know that?” Rafe’s easy acceptance of the man’s warning raised gooseflesh on her arms, as did the anguish in his voice. Now she knew she wasn’t simply being paranoid. Her life was in danger.
“Then why is she still here?”
“What do you want me to do with her?” Rafe lowered his voice, forcing Katie to open the bedroom door another few inches so she could creep into the hallway to listen. “The roads are closed. She’s not strong enough to walk out on foot, or even travel by snowmobile, if that were possible. If we ran into anyone on the way into town, I don’t know if I could protect her. You know what it’s like out there tonight. Trouble would find us, and it wouldn’t be a fair fight.”
“Tonight is nothing compared to how it’ll be tomorrow.” The stranger matched Rafe’s quiet tone, but she still made out what he said next: “You could kill her, Rafe.”
She held her breath as she waited for Rafe to respond.
“I won’t.” He didn’t sound wholly confident.
“How can you possibly—“
Rafe cut him off with a harshly whispered reply, too soft for Katie to hear.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” The stranger’s booming reaction shook the walls, startling her backward a step, right into the doorframe.
“I didn’t know it would happen.” Rafe growled the words, meeting anger with anger. “That it even could happen.”
“You should have just let her die.”
“I couldn’t.” Rafe paused. “I know you don’t understand, but even before…I couldn’t do that.”
“At least it would’ve been an easy death. A clean death. Now she’ll most likely be raped, tortured, and murdered tomorrow—and I still think there’s a good chance that you’ll be the one to inflict one or more of those fates. It would have been better to let her go peacefully, brother.”
This time Rafe growled for real. “I will not let that happen.”
“You said it yourself—you won’t be able to protect her. You know how they are. They catch one whiff of human pussy in these woods, and you’ll be up against a goddamn horde trying to get at it.”
“Like I said, you think I don’t know that?”
More than anything, Katie yearned to close the door and stop listening. But her feet stayed rooted to the floor as she hung on every horrifying word. Terror didn’t even begin to describe what she was feeling inside. The urgency in their voices was real, even if nothing they said made sense. They might be crazy, but each of them clearly bought into their shared delusions. That meant they were beyond dangerous. Both of them.
“So what are you going to do?” Now the stranger sounded weary. Defeated.
“I’m going to keep her hidden. Keep her safe.”
“And then?”
“Then I’m getting rid of her.” Rafe fell silent for so long that Katie thought maybe both men had left the cabin, even though she hadn’t heard a door open or close. She considered venturing farther out of the bedroom, just