Untamed: The Savage: The Complete Series (7 page)

“No,” I barked. “I need to take care of something.”

I
waited
in the cave for hours, wishing I had a way to tell time. I paced in the bedroom, looked through the books in the main room, cleaned and rearranged his tools. Nothing could keep the worry at bay.

Finally I decided I’d had enough. I was done being the passive princess. I’d been taught my whole life to follow rules, to do as I was told. Frankly, it was about time I realized it was all bullshit. If I wanted something, I needed to go out there and get it.

I slipped between the gap in the walls and retraced my steps to the cave entrance, pure determination staving off the fear. I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief when I emerged onto the plateau. I shielded my eyes from the sun and searched the forest, even though the chances of spotting Alaric from this height were slim to none. I closed my eyes and listened, searching the wind for shouts or screams.

All of a sudden, a hand snaked around my waist and jerked me back. A large hand clamped over my mouth and cut off my scream.

“Why are you out here?” Alaric demanded. “I told you to stay in the cave.”

I spun around to face him and pushed against his chest. “I was looking for you, you jerk.”

He flattened his palm to my mouth. “Be quiet.”

I bit his hand and pulled away. “No! I’m not going to play the quiet little g—”

He covered my mouth again and pulled me roughly into the cave. “There are people down there.” The urgency in his voice sliced through my chest.

I nodded, letting him know I understood. I turned to face him when he let me go. “Who?” I hissed. “Those men who tried to kidnap me?”

“No. The police.”

“But how?”

“They tracked us.”

Cold dread snaked up my spine when I heard voices echoing on the plateau, one sounding very much like it belonged to Officer Morcillo. Without thinking I grabbed Alaric’s hand and ran for the gap in the wall.

I was out of breath when we reached Alaric’s cave. “Come on, help me,” I said, putting all my weight against the bookcase. “We need to cover the gap.” A bookcase wasn’t going to keep them out, but just maybe it would fool anyone who came close to the gap.

Alaric’s chest was heaving but he simply stared at me, refusing to help.

“What are you waiting for? They’re going to find you!”

He shook his head, his eyebrows drawn together. But this look was different from the ones he’d given me earlier, when he’d been trying to figure me out. No, this look said he’d finally found the answer. “They’re looking for you.”

“They’re what?” Still, I shoved at the bookcase.

“The police, they’re looking for you.”

I stopped, his words finally seeping through the panic. “What?” My lips fell open as things clicked. “They were trying to save me from you, weren’t they? They think you’re keeping me here against my will.”

“The police are at your cabin.”

“Is that where you went?”

His nostrils flared as he nodded. “There are people and dogs. They’re all looking for you.”

The voices came closer, now inside the main cavern. Alaric walked to me, standing over me with an inscrutable expression. He bent down until his lips touched the shell of my ear. “You can go with them, Chloe,” he said in a voice so low I almost didn’t hear it. “If you want to.” He pulled away, a question written all over his face.

I shook my head, blinking away the tears. Just the thought of leaving him hurt. “Our time is not up.” I wrapped my arms around his body and held him tight, reassuring myself as much as him.

We remained silent as the voices came nearer and nearer. I held my breath, praying our little gap in the wall would not be found.

“Hold on, I think there’s something here.”

Alaric’s arms tightened around me. We held our breath as the men came even closer, seemingly right outside the gap in the wall.

“False alarm,” the male voice said. “Thought I saw something.”

The voices retreated but it was clear the danger was not over when Morcillo said, “Let’s get a dog in here. I’m sure they’re in here somewhere.”

“They won’t find us, Chloe,” Alaric reassured me a while later. He came towards me and folded my shaking hands in his own. “I’ve been hiding in this cave for a long time.”

I took several deep breaths, trying to calm my racing heart. But even if the men were gone for now, I knew it was only a matter of time before we were found. I felt it as sure as I felt the cold ground beneath my feet.

“What else did you see at the cabin?” I asked, trying to distract myself with details.

“A lot of people. Police from other towns. There was a man in a suit.”

I sat up, my spine going ramrod straight at the possibility that
he
was here. “What did he look like?”

Alaric eyed me for a long, tense moment before saying, “White hair. Very tan.”

I let out a shaky breath. “He found out.” Of course he would. He’d be the first person notified of my disappearance.

Alaric’s eyes narrowed. “Your husband?”

“No, of course not!” I stood up to keep my legs from twitching. “My father.”

I paced the room, biting my lip. I brushed my fingers through my messy hair and tried to gather it into a bun, but I didn’t have anything to secure it with.

“We have to go,” I said, facing Alaric. “We can’t stay here.” It was one thing to have the local police searching for me; to involve my father was quite another.

“And go where?”

“I don’t know. Anywhere else. Go south, find another cave.”

His eyebrows knotted. “I’m not leaving.”

“You don’t understand—my dad… he will do whatever it takes to find me. He’ll call the FBI if he hasn’t already. He will scour the entire state, uproot every tree, to find me.”

Alaric raised an eyebrow, seemingly unconvinced.

“One time, back in high school, I came home an hour late and he called the police. They were searching my entire neighborhood, calling my friends and teachers.”

“Where were you?”

“At the park. I’d turned my phone off so I could read in peace.”

The corner of Alaric’s mouth twitched. The damn man just wasn’t taking my warnings seriously. He walked up to me and cradled the back of my head with one hand. “This is my home. He can burn down every tree in this forest, but I’m not leaving.”

I put a hand on his chest. “And when they find you?”

“Then I’ll fight until there’s no fight left in me.”

It occurred to me then that he was like a wild animal. If cornered, he would stand and defend his territory. His feral nature was what drew me to him in the first place, and now here I was trying to tame him.

“Okay,” I whispered, tilting my head back to look up at him, the choice already made. Even if it hurt, even if everything is lost. “You should stay.”

T
hat night
, I slipped out of the bed while Alaric slept. I put on my clothes, my eyes fixed on his face the entire time. Part of me wanted him to wake up and stop me, but the sane part of me knew that would only end in tragedy. He was a man of nature, wild and untamed. If I stayed, he would be caught, and then this free man would be caged for the rest of his life.

With my eyes I traced his naked form one last time, trying to memorize every hard edge, every muscular plane, knowing it would have to be enough. Our parting was inevitable—I knew that—but what I didn’t expect was how much it would hurt.

“Bye, Alaric,” I whispered and grabbed the lantern.

The boots slowed my progress, but I didn’t dare stop in case I lost courage. Everything in me wanted to stay, to crawl back into Alaric’s arms and pretend we were safe inside the cave, but that was no longer an option.

The moon was bright overhead but even with the lantern, the forest was still filled with shadows and strange sounds. Walking alone in unfamiliar terrain with wild animals about was possibly the most stupid thing I’d ever done, but it was also the most necessary. I didn’t know if I was still going in the right direction, but I knew someone would find me eventually. I just needed to draw everyone away from the caves.

Around mile two I started to cry, the hot slide of tears quickly turning into great big racking sobs that robbed me of breath. But I walked on, blinded by my heartache.

By mile three I was sure a wolf or a bear would pounce on me and I would die alone and heartbroken. Still, the knowledge that I was saving Alaric from a lifetime of prison kept my feet trudging onward.

I had finally reached a point of acceptance when I stepped over a log and fell into a shallow ravine. I rolled over once then landed on something soft, not the tree roots I’d been expecting.

I sat up and felt around, my fingers making contact with wet, cold fabric. And then… skin.

I found the lantern a few feet away and held it up to see what I had fallen into.

And I screamed.

I
n my dream
the two men overpowered me, managed to knock me down into an open bear trap. With my leg caught in sharp, metal teeth, I was powerless as they snatched up Chloe and carried her away.

I woke up shouting and thrashing, the sheets tangled around my legs. When I opened my eyes I saw that I was alone. Chloe had chosen to leave me.

But there was no way in hell I’d let her.

I jumped out of bed, pulled on my pants, and ran out. My brain rolled back the film that was last night, reviewing all that had taken place. Everything she’d done last night had been deliberate. She had memorized me with her touch and apologized with her kisses. I should have seen it but had been too hypnotized by her scent and taste to notice.

I pumped my hands harder and forced my legs to go faster. I had to catch Chloe before she was beyond my reach.

I burst out of the cave, my eyes temporarily blind from the early dawn light. The metal steps threatened to fall apart under me as I jumped down three steps at a time.

I ran for four and a half miles, faster than I’d ever run before. My lungs screamed for air, my muscles burning. Only the thought of Chloe ahead of me, about to walk back into her life and out of mine, kept me going.

About a half mile away from her cabin, I slowed. I made a wide circle around the area to avoid being detected. Years of practice helped me move between trees and brush undetected. Still, I was risking much being out here in the open, being so close to those who would love nothing more than to catch me and throw me in jail.

But I had to see her at least one last time.

I wrapped my arms around a tree, set my feet against it, and climbed. I found a branch strong enough to hold me and there, hidden in the leaves, I watched the commotion around the cabin. People in raincoats, dogs on leashes, men in uniform bent over a table with a map. But Chloe was not among them.

A few minutes later there was a sudden burst of activity at the other end of the clearing. People ran towards the trees just as a man with a dog emerged. And right behind him walked a trembling Chloe covered in blood.

“
W
hat happened
?” Morcillo reached me first, looking me over with his sharp eyes.

The stranger beside me spoke quickly, stumbling over his words in the excitement. “I heard her screaming about a mile out. I ran quickly and found her in a ditch, wrestling with someone. When I came closer, I saw she wasn’t wrestling with him, she was just trying to get away.”

My father chose that moment to push his way through the crowd. “What the hell is going on?” He held out his hands as if to hug me but stopped short when he saw the blood. “Are you all right? What happened?”

I took in a deep breath, trying to contain the trembling of my limbs. Still, I straightened my spine and tried to keep it together. Losing composure, even when my face was caked with mud and blood, wasn’t the Randall way.

I opened my mouth but nothing came out. When he repeated the question, I managed a weak nod.

“It was a dead body. Actually, two,” the stranger said. He had grabbed my arms and dragged me out of the ravine filled with dead bodies.

Morcillo’s demeanor changed. “Where?”

“This way.”

The two men dove back into the forest, leaving me suddenly alone with my father.

“Chloe Jane,” he said, embracing me. “I’m so glad you’re safe.”

To have my father’s arms around me should have filled me with relief. But it felt more like the breaking of a heart.

I bent my head and blotted my tears on his five thousand dollar suit. I couldn’t bring myself to speak. What would I say anyway? That the man I’d spent the last four days with had turned out to be deceitful?

My father held me at arm’s length, looking me over from my dirty sweater down to my oversized hiking boots. “Let’s go inside and get you warm.”

I didn’t remember the walk up to the cabin. I just found myself sitting on the old flowery couch, the plush blanket around my shaking shoulders.

My father stood, hands in his pockets, watching and waiting. “Chloe, start from the beginning,” he said gently.

“I went out for a hike and got lost.” The lie came out quickly, hopefully convincingly because somewhere, deep down, I was still stupidly hoping I was wrong.

“For four days? Where did you sleep? What did you eat?”

“I…” I swallowed. “I foraged for food. Slept in a cave when the sun went down.”

His normally icy blue eyes softened. “Oh, Chloe.” He sat down beside me and held me in his arms. “We thought you had been kidnapped.”

I shook my head. “I wasn’t making the best decisions, going out there by myself,” I said, losing the battle and crying. “I made some stupid mistakes.”

Boy, wasn’t that the truth.

“Why don’t you go take a shower,” he said, helping me up. “Perhaps it will make you feel better.”

I walked to the bedroom, a strange sensation coming over me as I passed the wall where Alaric had pinned and scented me, walked over the floor where we’d first made love.

I shook my head to clear it of cobwebs. We hadn’t made love. How could someone be capable of love if they’re capable of murder?

I didn’t look around the bedroom, didn’t even give myself permission to glance at the wildflowers on the nightstand. I sat on the edge of the bed and toed off the large boots, wincing as I discovered several blisters that had exploded from my five-mile hike.

I stripped the rest of the way and climbed into the shower. Even after the warm water hit my skin, I still couldn’t control the shivers that racked my body.

I closed my eyes and turned my face up into the water, but Alaric’s face filled my mind, the fierce look in his eyes burning into mine. Just as quickly, his face was replaced by those of faces I’d seen in the ravine—the same two men that Alaric had fought.

I need to take care of something.
Alaric’s angry words spat my way right before he’d left me alone in the cave. He’d said he had come to the cabin, but what had he done along the way?

I took a deep, shuddery breath and let it out. I curled into myself and let the tears fall. How had I allowed myself to fall for his act? How could I have been taken for such a fool?

A
fter getting dressed
I gathered my belongings, folding and setting them back into my suitcase carefully. Among my clothes I found the brochure from Tim Well’s office. My eyes fell on one line:
Hidden in the depths of the forest lay secrets waiting to be uncovered.

I let out a humorless laugh. I had uncovered a secret of the forest all right, and boy, was it a doozy. Hidden in the depths of the forest was a true monster, someone who stole without regard, hearts and lives included.

I threw the brochure into a metal trashcan and finally faced the little bouquet of wildflowers, most of which had already wilted. I picked it up, intending to throw it into the trash as well, but my fingers would not let go.

I walked to the glass doors and looked into the forest, imagining Alaric out there watching me. Like the first night, I shivered, goosebumps crawling all over my skin.

“I’m ready,” I told my father and Morcillo a few minutes later. I set my luggage down by the front door, ready to leave as quickly as possible.

Morcillo nodded. “We need you to come to the station first. We need you to confirm the bodies.”

“Hasn’t she been through enough?” Dad asked, coming to my side. “The girl’s been wandering around lost for four days, then fell into a ditch full of dead bodies. She can’t possibly go through much more.”

A part of me wanted to rise up and disagree, but then, I wasn’t so sure I could endure much more either.

“At the very least, we need a statement,” Morcillo said in a tone that brooked no argument.

“I’ll do it,” I told my father. I picked up my things and walked out, heading directly to the black sedan. “Hey, Preston,” I said to the driver who took my luggage and set it in the trunk.

“Happy to see you well, Miss Randall,” the older gentleman said.

Before I could get into the car, Morcillo called my name. “You’ve forgotten something,” he said, coming down the steps with a pair of men’s hiking boots dangling from his fingers.

“Thank you,” I said primly, taking the boots even though they clearly didn’t belong to me.

“Do you normally hike around in men’s boots three sizes too big?” Morcillo asked with a twitch of his mustache.

I tried to control my breathing, handing the shoes back. “I found them in the closet and since I didn’t have a pair, I thought I’d use them.”

Morcillo set the boots back down on the cabin steps, not saying anything.

I jumped when my father touched my shoulder.

“Are you ready?” he asked, holding the door open.

“Yeah.” I stared out into the trees one last time, trying to catch a glimpse of Alaric, knowing I shouldn’t still want to see him. And yet there it was, the longing, in the sweep of my gaze.

“Chloe?”

I glanced at Dad. “Okay,” I said and, with one last smile into the trees, I got into the car.