Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 71774 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71774 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Anguish overcomes me just thinking about it.
I know we’re getting close. Oh God, I hope I’m going to get to her in time.
Chapter 14
Bree
I’m going to die. That thought keeps going through my mind and I don’t know how to stop it. I would give anything to see Ronan one more time, but I hope he doesn’t come here. No, I hope he stays far away. The chance he’ll save me is slim. No one even knows where we are.
Solos may have only been playing with me in the beginning, but he finally tore into me. He ripped my shoulder open and although it’s already started healing, the pain is still there.
I’m on all fours, gasping for breath, a part of me wishing I was already dead. This is his game. Solos brings me so close to death, and then he releases me. He’s done it over and over and now I’m just exhausted. I can’t keep fighting him off. I just can’t.
I hear it then. My name, barely a whisper, but I hear Ronan saying it over and over. I turn in circles, lifting my eyes to the trees, the sky, trying to figure out where it’s coming from. I wait for it to stop, but it doesn’t. Over and over. “Bree, Bree, Bree.”
I decide then and there that I’m going to do everything in my power to stay alive. I’m not going to let Solos destroy me and what I have with Ronan. I put my head down, breathing in and out. And I wait. I know he’s going to attack again and this time I’ll be ready.
I don’t have to wait long; Solos is not a patient bear. When he comes for me, I bite into his shoulder, the sound of breaking bones loud as I gnaw on his leathery skin. I jerk him around and throw him as far as my bear is able to. It isn’t far, but it will give me a breather and some distance.
Another Eater in human form walks toward me. I stare him down, knowing my bear is stronger than him.
He raises his arm and points at me. “Shift into your human form.”
I roar at him, right in his face, letting him know that it’s not going to happen. I know what his plans are if I’m in human form and I’m not allowing it. Solos would destroy me.
The same man points over to Sayer. He’s in his bear form lying on the ground, surrounded by all the Eaters. He’s breathing, but barely hanging on. I can’t let them kill him. I can’t. He came with me to protect me and I should never have left the clubhouse. This is all my fault.
I know I’m dead either way, but if I shift back and do what they say, there’s a chance that Sayer might survive. I look around and Solos is still in his grizzly form. The others have shifted back to humans, but not Solo. I know his plans and I know what I have to do.
I morph back into my human form. I’m standing here, naked for all the men to see, but I don’t have a choice. I don’t cower or curl my shoulders in defeat. I focus on my love for Ronan and refuse to be the pleading, crying kitten they want me to be. I stand tall waiting on what will happen next.
Solos blows air out of his nose and ruts at the ground. The other men gather around us and I know they just want to see how Solos is going to torture me, his bear against my human form.
I would normally hope for a fast and painless death, but even now, looking the savage Solos in the eye, I still don’t want to die. I want to live and tell Ronan I love him. I want him to know what I think of him and how I want to be his… only his.
It’s then I hear it. A stampede of something. The noise is deafening and I can feel it getting closer.
Solos turns toward the forest and so do the human Eaters. We’re all curious, waiting to see what it is, when several grizzlies pounce through the trees at the same time. The first one I see is Ronan. He doesn’t stop once he lands on his paws; he tracks me and starts running straight for me. Once the shock wears off, Solos stands on his hind legs, ready for what’s about to come.
Ronan
She’s alive, but it looks like barely. I look between her and Solos and I know I have to end him now. I can’t let him survive, not after what he’s done to her.
I’m running toward him and he starts running to me. We meet in a mix of blood, sweat and spit flying everywhere. Solos is a big bear, but I’m bigger. And I have more to lose. There’s no way I will lose this fight. Even in this mix of flying fur, as we tumble and roll across the ground, gnashing our teeth at each other, I still have my eye on her.