Page 47 of Nanny for the Wolf Daddy

They waited a few more minutes while the last of the group arrived, and still no Kelli. His stomach bottomed out. Kelli was still in the cave, and God knew where. That worried him.

“I’m going back.”

“Not alone,” Elise said. “Please. Take someone. You could get lost, and that’s the last thing we need right now. Backtrack to see where she got separated.”

He nodded, already shifting, and took someone from each group with him. They headed into the cave.

Each person showed them their route and all the turns they made. His heart raced as there wasn’t a scent of Kelli in any of them. This meant she wasn’t with anyone at this point. She had gotten separated farther into the cave.

He frowned at himself. Why hadn’t he held her hand? It was so simple and something he should have thought about. Kelli was human, and she was strong, but she was so vulnerable with her fragile human body.

“Don’t beat yourself up,” Charlie, one of the guys, said. “Everything happened too quickly. Anyone could have gotten lost. We will find her. She seems like a smart girl and probably found another way out.”

He knew that was possibly true, but it didn’t help his worry at all. Kelli was the love of his life, and in the moment of danger, he hadn’t made sure she made it out with them. It forced knots to grow in his stomach, and he knew they wouldn’t go away until they found her. He prayed that it would be soon.

THIRTY-TWO

KELLI

She was lying in bed, and warmth surrounded her. She loved it, feeling secure. She rolled over to find Nox beside her. Her heart fluttered with excitement. She’d made it out.

Everything that happened wasn’t real, and she was just waking up to Nox.

And then she jerked awake and found she was still in the cave. Her stomach twisted violently, and tears burst free.

She was still lost in the cave with no one around. She was still on her own, and that dream had only been just that, a dream.

She wanted that to be her reality and all of this to be the nightmare, but it wasn’t. She was alone in the middle of nowhere with no one to lean on for guidance.

Her stomach hurt from hunger, and she was dehydrated from lack of water. Her mouth was parched, and her tongue felt like sandpaper.

She wished she had something to settle her stomach, but she was empty-handed.

She had no idea how long she had been sleeping. She had not intended to fall asleep. She planned just to rest her eyes for a few moments and give herself a chance to catch her breath. Exhaustion plagued her, so she didn’t sleep as long as she’d thought.

She pulled herself up. Her side ached from her cut, and her mind was foggy. She needed to get out of the cave. It was taking a toll on her body and her mind.

She rubbed her eyes, squinted, and looked around. She ran her hands up the wall, and she pulled herself forward. She coughed, tasting dirt and moss.

Her mind hardly functioned, and her ability to think about Nox became hard. She was never going to make it out, and soon she’d just die alone in the dark.

Tears prickled at her eyes, and she tried not to let them fall. She was already lacking water, and she needed to hold what she had left. She shook her head, grinding her teeth together.

“Stop crying. That isn’t going to solve anything. Pull yourself together. You can get yourself out of this mess.”

She straightened her back and forced herself to move forward.

She didn’t know how long she walked, but her legs ached, and her lungs burned. She paused when she felt the fresh air hit her. The darkness grew lighter, and she realized she was nearing an opening.

The opening was up a steep incline, pretty much a hill. It was just large enough that she could crawl through, but she had to scale the small mountain first.

She forced herself onward, her calves burning for her to rest. She stopped, gasping for deep breaths of air. She rubbed at her forehead. She didn’t feel powerful any longer, or like she could move the world. She felt like a little bug that was just waiting to be squashed.

She kept going. She had to. If she wanted to make it out, she needed to keep moving. “I got this. We are almost out. Just up this big motherfucking hill, and we’re free.”

She couldn’t even laugh at her own sarcasm. She was so tired. She did wish Nox was there because he would have found it funny.

It was clearly easier said than done, but she tried not to think about that. She tried to ignore that her head was pounding and the pain in her feet. Feet she was sure were bloody from walking.

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