“My love…”
“I’m fine, I’m fine. I just needed to catch my breath.” She sat up and Seth inspected her face and body carefully to make sure there was nothing wrong. “I’m okay, really.” She even managed a smile, even though her lips were frozen.
A shriek of pain came from somewhere behind them, and the deep woods turned it into a never-ending echo. Seth jumped to his feet, his senses trained on the enemy. Amelia looked around her. Her whole body was shaking, and her teeth were clattering. She didn’t know if it was from the cold or the fear anymore, and it didn’t even matter.
“What was that?”
Seth didn’t answer. He sniffed the air and listened, but it didn’t seem like anyone was following them. He heard Amelia struggle to stand up, and he went to help her. She was exhausted, he could tell. Her knees were shaking and her fingers were twitching as she tried to grab onto his arm.
“We have to keep moving,” he said.
“Seth, tell me what’s going on. Who are those fox-shifters? Why did they attack us?”
He sighed. “Blake and I believe they are Tricksters. The assassins are the only ones who would launch such a reckless attack. They are strong and well trained, and when I got to Blake, she was fighting two at once. Elena and Aaron were busy with three more. I counted six, but I can’t know for sure. There might be more hiding in the woods, waiting to see if they are needed.”
“Oh my God! Why? Why would anyone send the Tricksters after us? Why us?”
Seth started rubbing her arms and shoulders vigorously, trying to get her blood flowing. “Blake’s position towards the peace treaty and the new law pissed off a lot of fox-shifters. She might have made more enemies than Roman had ever had.” He took her face between his warm palms and kept his hands there, pressing softly. “Come on, we need to go.”
She caught his wrists before he could remove his hands. “Seth…” She searched his eyes and forced him to pay attention to her and ignore the surrounding noises for just a second. “Seth, no. I can see the lights from here and I know where Damon’s cabin is. I’m going alone.”
“No.”
“Yes.” She took a deep breath although the air stung her lungs. “You have to go back and help Blake. You’re her Yako, Seth. A Beta should always stay by his Alpha’s side.”
“She told me to take care of you. It was an order.”
“And you did. I’m safe now. If there are so many Tricksters, who knows if Elena and Aaron will be able to protect her? Blake needs you.”
“You need me.”
Seth was torn. Again. For the second time that night, he was in a position when he had to choose between two women who meant the world to him. And he had responsibilities towards both of them. On the one hand, Blake was his Inari and, thus, her well-being always came first. On the other hand, Amelia was his mate and she was pregnant with his child. Duty versus family. He could never win. Yes, Blake had given him an order, but was that order sensible?
Amelia turned to look at the lights in the distance. Damon’s earth wasn’t far, and she was positive she could make it there in a couple of minutes. Twenty, maybe? Thirty minutes? She’d have to move fast and get out of the woods first, then it would be easier.
“Seth, I’ll be okay. I’ll bang on Damon’s door and scream my lungs out until he opens it. Go help Blake.”
“Amelia…”
“Listen to me!” She squeezed his arms even though she could barely feel her fingers. It was incredible how he could stand completely naked in the cold and still give off enough heat to warm her bones when she touched him. “I’m safe. I can take care of myself now. If Blake, Elena, or Aaron get hurt because you weren’t there to fight by their side, I will die of guilt. Go stall those Tricksters, and I’ll run to Damon and send help. I can do this, trust me.”
He looked into her eyes and he knew she was telling the truth. She was convinced she could help, and her confidence convinced him too. Despite himself, his heart was with Blake. If anything happened to her, the future of Clan Sylfur and the entire fox faction would be in jeopardy. Her uncles would tear the clan to pieces. He couldn’t forget the state Blake was in when she motioned for him to go get Amelia and take her somewhere safe. One of her ears was torn, she was bleeding all over, and she could barely use her left foreleg. The first fox-shifter Seth had put down had only had one tail, but the ones who attacked Blake had three tails each. The guild had known whom to send.
“Promise me you won’t stop for anything, and once you reach Damon’s cabin, you’ll stay there and wait for us.”
“I promise.”
Seth pressed a desperate kiss to Amelia’s lips, then stepped back and shifted. He waited until Amelia started walking towards the edge of the forest, to be sure that she could move properly and she hadn’t lied to him. She was fine, and her pace was brisk and confident. She would reach the earth in no time. All Seth had to do was get back to the isolated cabins and help the others keep the Tricksters at a distance until reinforcements came and Damon’s foxes surrounded the assassins.
***
It took Amelia a little over 30 minutes to reach Damon’s cabin, but to her it seemed like forever. At some point, she started counting from one to one hundred and then backwards just to distract herself from the pain in her legs and the numbness in her toes and fingers. When she felt she couldn’t breathe anymore, she kept pushing because she couldn’t afford to stop to catch her breath. There was no time for that. Up on Damon’s porch, she started knocking on the door, weakly at first, then harder and louder. It took all her strength to find her voice and yell that she needed help, that Blake was in danger. She couldn’t understand how Damon didn’t hear her when lights had started to appear in the other cabins. The small village the fox-shifters had built was dimly lit by lampposts scattered here and there, and when they started turning their lights on, Amelia could see the details around her. She had walked here almost blindly. When the light in Damon’s cabin was finally turned on, her eyes hurt.
“Please, you have to do something…”
“Amelia?” Damon pulled her inside the warm house before his fox-shifters started asking questions.
“The Tricksters… they attacked us. You have to take your foxes and help Blake and the others. Now!”