Page 106 of Knot Her Mountain Men

Brambles snagged my clothing like they were deliberately trying to thwart my progress. Hopefully that meant they were working against him too.

I wove through the trees, swerving off trail to make it harder for him to follow.

I knew these woods. Kit had made sure of that.

Brandon grabbed a fistful of my hair, yanking back hard as he came to a stop, sending me careening to the forest floor. Pumpkin was on him instantly. She sank her teeth into his arm while he screamed obscenities at her, but that only had her shaking her head, making the wounds that much worse.

“Good girl,” I gasped out.

Scrambling for anything that might be useful, I wrenched myself away from Brandon and picked up a broken tree branch. It was light enough it was definitely long dead, but I slammed it down on his chest like a javelin anyway, the wood splintering apart.

“Pumpkin, come!” I tugged on her collar until she released him.

He took aim for her, and I swung around to block the shot, but the gun clicked uselessly.

Empty. Oh my god, it was empty?

Pumpkin whined and I bolted back to my feet, grabbed a stick to smack the gun out of Brandon’s hand, and hurled it into the trees before taking off again. The cold stung my cheeks, made so much worse by the tears streaking over them. Brandon’s heavy footsteps returned behind us all too quickly.

“Morgan! Fuck’s sake. If you came back with me, this could all be over.”

Every moment took me further from the lodge, and I fought with the panic trying to devour me. What if I really died out here this time? What if I never saw my pack again?

More tears ran hot down my face, blurring my vision before I hastily swiped them away. Somehow dying wasn’t the scariest part of all of this. I had just found somewhere I felt like I belonged and Brandon was trying to take that from me.

I wasn’t ready to give up my new home.

If I was going down, it would be kicking and screaming the whole way. Brandon might think I was an easy target, I was going to prove him wrong.

The alphas,myalphas, flicked through my head. They’d become home so quickly.

I didn’t want to die.

I wanted to go home to them.

Swerving around a tree, I took off in another direction. Brandon cursed up a storm behind me, tripping over fallen logs and branches he didn’t have time to adjust for when he was watching me and not the trail.

I had to get back.

A sharp whistle filled the air.

“Bear!” I screamed out, desperately hoping he might hear me. His panic soaring down the bond sent me spiraling.

The whistle sounded again but I couldn’t tell the direction it was coming from. Straight ahead was the only one that mattered right now.

What would happen to Bear if Brandon killed me and snapped the bond? The others would never forgive themselves for being gone. I couldn’t let Brandon hurt us.

Sweat prickled at my temples. Pumpkin raced along at my side, far more in shape than I was. Maybe I should’ve been playing fetch right alongside her so I didn’t have to risk death by shit cardio.

I pushed through a section of tightly packed evergreens, dipping beneath them to claw my way forward on all fours.

“Morgan, you stupid bitch, you’re not getting away from me. Not this time.”

I scrambled onward, Brandon forced to crawl on his hands and knees to follow me. At least this was one part of the forest where being smaller was an advantage.

“I’ll even give you a choice,” he called after me. “You don’t have to die out here. You can come back to the compound with me and accept we were meant for each other. One little heat and you’ll be all mine.”

Revulsion choked me. I wouldn’t survive him doing to me what Paul had done to Maisie. “I’d rather die.”

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