Forsaken (Book 3 of the Zara's Wolf Trilogy) BWWM - ON HOLD

12. The Calm Before the Storm

"He didn't kill my family," Emily mumbles, her back to me.

I'm completely taken by surprise. Where did that come from? "Huh?"

Emily is curled up next to me on the ground. The orange glow from the campfire outside my tent is the only light filling the space. The faint crackle and pop of the burning wood invades the silence of the forest around us.

After my bitch-slap session with Jade, Kairo disappeared, but when Emily joined me in my tent later that evening, she told me in a soft voice that he went and "spent some time" with her.

She didn't elaborate, and I didn't press. We avoided each other's gazes as visions of him hurting her filled my mind, despite the lack of injuries on her body.

"I just thought you should know," she whispers.

Sighing, I reach for Emily's shoulder and gently pull her toward me to get her to turn and look at me.

She rolls over to face me, but she won't meet my gaze. Instead, her eyes look down at the blanketed ground between us.

"What are you talking about?" I ask in a low voice.

If Kairo or Jade catch us talking, I don't want to think what punishment they might give me this time. I still haven't figured out why I was slapped by Jade in the first place.

"Kairo. He didn't kill my family," she says again. "He was there, though. In the background. Like he is here... in the background."

She sniffles, drawing a mild curse to escape my lips.

Reaching out, I draw her to my chest and rub her back.

"Don't listen to a word he says," I tell her in a breathy whisper. "We'll get out of here, and then we'll never have to see him again."

"Will we, Zara?" she asks, her large brown eyes rising up to look into mine. "Because the way he tells it, I don't see how we can ever go back to the way things were."

Scowling at her in the dim light, I wipe the tears from her cheeks with my thumb.

"Of course, Em. I'll make sure of it," I say as smooth her silky chestnut brown hair back from her face.

I still haven't been able to grasp my wolf and I'm beginning to think that the bottle of water given to me earlier was spiked with wolfsbane. Bastards.

At least they no longer have me tied up like a captive. That's one thing to be grateful for.

I won't be able to get away fast enough if I can't shift though.

With Emily now my responsibility to smuggle out as well, I'll have to be more careful with my plans.

I grit my teeth together as I close my eyes and try to go to sleep.

I'm going to have to give Kairo more leeway. For Emily's benefit too. The sooner I can convince him to trust me, the sooner I can get both of us out of here.

...

When morning comes, I'm in a foul mood from all the tossing and turning I did all night long. I can't let it get the best of me though. I might do something I later regret, and that will only set me back in Kairo's books.

I despise him with every fiber of my being. How in the world am I supposed to convince him to trust me and that he's gained my loyalty?

I thought Rick sucked, but now I see that he wasn't so bad. Alicia always kept him in line if he so much as stuck his big fat toe out of it. Rick had his moments of being a jerk, but when I think back on it now, he did what he did because he thought it was best. He had to gage whether or not I was up for a challenge that I could actually do, but at the same time, I need to experience failure. And when I do fail, I need to know that I can count on him to continue to support me so that the next time I face that challenge, I'll be more ready for it.