Page 8 of Mated to the Enemy
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Jessica groaned as the Hummer settled on its side. Tire screeching behind her announced the imminent arrival of her pursuers.
She’d been so close. Just another few hundred feet and she’d have been at the gates to Ursidae Manor, and at least temporary safety. Probably. Maybe.
Are you going to give up now?
Defiance spread throughout her body like wildfire, pushing back much of the hurt and confusion. She undid her seatbelt, sagging heavily into the driver’s side window now that none of her weight was supported by the strap. Awkwardly twisting herself around, she kicked at the windshield. It was already cracked, and after several hard stomps it gave way.
Jessica crawled out into the grass, surprised at how little she actually hurt. The accident hadn’t beenthatbad. Even the impact of the tree had come after the Hummer had lost much of its momentum. Still, her balance was slightly wobbly and she stumbled. As she felt, her hand closed around a stick.
Behind her, she heard yips and snarls. Looking back, she saw the figures illuminated by the headlights of the running cars as they changed. There was no way she would be able to outrun them in their animal form. The werewolves would catch her well short of the fence and rip her to shreds.
“Here, boy!” she shouted as the first wolf raced across the grass toward her. “Here boy! Come and get it!” she called, whistling at the wolf while waving the branch in her hand back and forth. “Go on now, fetch!” As she screamed the last word, she hurled the branch at the wolf, forcing it to dodge to the side. Teeth snapped.
Yelping in terror, she turned to go, but the sudden movement on uneven ground was the wrong choice and pain flared up her ankle as she twisted it, going down hard. Jessica didn’t give herself time to think it over, she just pushed herself back to her feet and kept going, hobbling along. The gates were in sight. They were even open!
Safety was so close, if she could just reach it. Once she was inside, her plan ended, but if she got that far she figured she would just wing it. That, of course, was a bigif.
A snarl from extremely close announced that she was unlikely to make it, though. Looking back, Jessica shrieked as a wolf leapt at her. It was huge, easily double the size or more of anything that lived in the wild. The sight of its yellowed teeth and red-tinged eyes so close made her legs give out and she fell yet again.
The unexpected movement caused the wolf to sail right over her. She lay on her back, looking at the creature upside down as it skidded to a halt and turned to come back at her. This was it. This was how she was going to meet her end.
Just before Jessica closed her eyes to accept her fate, something even larger loomed out of the darkness of the night sky and swatted the wolf away. The meaty paw was larger than her head, and the force of its blow broke at least one of the wolf’s ribs.
Time seemed to slow. All around her, combat raged. Two of the giant bears charged into the faint light from the distant headlights, throwing themselves at the pack of wolves as they tried to drive them off.
At one point, a giant black beast turned and roared at her, its eyes unsettlingly humanlike as it tried to communicate with her.
“What?” she shouted back, wondering why it didn’t feel odd at all to be trying to communicate with a huge bear.
The fighting resumed as wolves came in at her again, the bears dancing around her with surprising agility for their size. They cleared out the wolves and, again, the black furred one tried to speak with her. This time, it pointed sharply with its paw. Jessica followed the direction of it.
“The gate?” she asked, putting two and two together. “I’ll never make it. Unless you’re coming with me?”
Although the bear was forced to whirl back around to fight, the noise it made was easily translatable across species. The universal sigh or exhale could mean nothing other than “duh”.
“Okay, I’ll make a run for it. Give me a double growl when you’re ready.”
Almost before she’d finished speaking, the bear was growling at her. Jessica yelped in surprise and took off as fast her ankle would allow, trying to conserve her breath instead of constantly muttering “oh shit” over and over again.
She kept expecting the fatal blow to come in out of the dark, but it never landed. The sounds from behind her were wild and ferocious, and though she was extremely curious, she never once looked back to see what was going on. The bears had put their lives on the line for her, and she wasn’t going to waste it.
“Holy shit, we’re going to make it,” she shouted, finding another burst of speed as the open gates approached.
Reality decided to intervene just then, as the air between her and the gate shuddered, then went hazy. A split second later, a fissure appeared. Jessica didn’t have time to contemplate what she was seeing before a familiar figure stepped through, the left side of his face still filled with green shrapnel and stained red from a combination of his blood and the wine that had splashed across him.
“You’re mine now,” he snarled, and light exploded from his palm. Jessica was spun around and dropped to the ground, her eyes staring straight at the sky.
Somewhere in the distance, alarms sounded. More bursts of light illuminated the sky and pushed back the darkness. This was it, she decided. The end of her life. At least she would go out with a beautiful view, the starry sky still visible. A cool chill worked its way through her body, a sure sign that she was going to die.
Nearby, something made a ferocious noise. There were a few pops. An explosion? She wasn’t sure. Her vision was growing faded, like static was playing across it, and the chill was growing ever worse. Jessica prepared herself for the end, silently apologizing to her sister, but content knowing at least she would be safe now.
“Hey, are you okay?”
She blinked as the hottest man she’d ever seen suddenly appeared in her vision, like a glowing spirit come to guide her on the next journey.
“Are you an angel?” she asked, stunned at how strong her voice was, despite being at death’s door.
