something up.” I pushed aside a group of men, making my way to the pyre. “Let him go!” I screamed. “What is wrong with you people? Don’t you see how inhuman this is? Why do you have to burn him? Why can’t you just make him pay for the sheep?”
I realized how asinine I sounded. No one listened anyway. No one cared. Fine. If words didn’t work, perhaps brute force would.
I charged at the men tying Wolf’s hands behind his back and knocked them off the pile. But before I could do anything else, two more men grabbed my arms and dragged me away, holding me at the edge of the fire as if making sure I had a good vantage point for the burning.
“Leave him alone!” I yelled, straining against them.
Wolf howled. The men finished tying him to the pole and got down. My breath caught in my throat when another farmer came around the corner with a burning torch.
“Caroline,” the radio crackled in my hand. I could barely hear it over the roar of the crowd. “There’s something here.”
The man neared the wood. I slammed my heel down on the foot of one of my captors. He shouted in pain and released my arm. I jabbed my elbow into his gut and then swung my fist around and smashed it into the other man’s face. The moment he let go, I bolted back onto the pile and stood in front of Wolf, my arms outstretched.
“Stop!” I bellowed. “If you want to burn this wolf, you’ll have to burn me too. An innocent woman.”
A stunned silence fell over the crowd. People stared up at me, unable to make out what they were seeing. Then one man’s face contorted in revulsion, and he pointed at me.
“Wolf lover!”
The mob erupted again. I backed up until I pressed against Wolf’s chest. I had no ideas left. More men trampled up the wood pile and grabbed me. I struggled against them, kicking and pulling. I shoved one of the back into the crowd. My foot connected with another man’s knee and sent him tumbling off the pyre. Wolf snapped, straining against the loops of rope, his eyes flashing gold.
“No! NO! Get off of her! Leave her alone! She never did anything to you! Let her go!”
Finally the men managed to grab my hands and arms. I lost my grip on the radio, and it fell onto the sticks at my feet. They turned me around so I was facing Wolf and pulled my hands to reach around him at the pole. Rough lengths of rope wrapped around my wrists, chafing my skin. I kept pulling and tugging, making things as difficult for them as possible. Then I realized the position they’d put me in. I had better access to Wolf’s bonds this way.
“You love this wolf so much, you can die with him,” one of the men said nastily in my ear.
Hurry up Alex!
Wolf kept screaming at them to let me go, but no one listened. The rope circled my waist a few times then was tied off. I rested my head against Wolf’s chest, staring down into the tangle of branches and sticks. They meant to do it. These people were going to burn me along with him. Did they really hate wolves that much? For once I wished for the ranchers in Wyoming and their guns. A gun would be so much better to die by than fire. The second the men left the pyre, I tried picking at the thick rope around Wolf’s wrists. Moving my hands proved difficult. I didn’t stop.
“Caroline, you there?” Alex’s faint voice floated up from the kindling. “Caroline? There is something really fucking big out here…”
“Caroline, I’m so sorry,” Wolf said, pressing his head against mine.
I could feel his tears against my temple. I didn’t look up, keeping my focus on loosening the ropes. “I know.”
“Caroline, where the hell are you?” Alex yelled over the radio.
Behind me, fire crackled on the torch. I didn’t know where Alex was, what he’d seen. But he didn’t know what was going on. He wouldn’t get here in time. I closed my eyes, willing the rope around Wolf’s wrists to loosen. They’d used a lot. There was no way I could fail Wolf. Fail Marianne. I would not be this useless.
I savagely dug my fingernails into the knots. One of them loosened slightly. But the crackle of the torch was louder now, right at my back. I needed more