UtM: Chapter 2 Excerpt 1

Author: Gayla Drummond
Word Count: 905
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Connor glared at Shane, silently telling him ‘This is your fault’.

If he’d just stayed in camp as ordered, there wouldn’t be any need to do it. No one could know what they were; it was the only way for them to survive. Their parents had made the mistake of trusting somone five years before. It’d been a fatal mistake, costing them their lives and keeping their three sons on the run since.

His eyes met Jesse’s. He was the eldest, the leader since their father’s death, but would Jesse challenge that right if he lifted a hand to break the woman’s neck?

Connor didn’t know. Jesse was the calm, gentle one of the three of them. He, Connor, was the one who made the rules and protected their tiny pack from harm. A responsibility made more difficult with Shane now a teenager, who wanted the things other teenagers had: friends, fun and a place to call home.

Two pairs of blue eyes silently begged him to spare the woman. The same blue eyes of their parents; the same color as his own. The woman trembled, her scent full of hot terror.

Connor felt sick, never having been in the position of ending the life of a woman before. He’d been lucky, only having to kill a few times. Those had been armed men, hunters after them on the payroll of Merchant.

“I won’t tell anyone,” the woman whispered. “I promise.”

“She won’t,” Shane spoke up, his eyes wide. “She didn’t get scared when I changed. She promised me she’d take care of me.”

The statement went through Connor like ice. Shane had only been nine when their parents had been killed, and he missed their mother with an ache neither of his two older brothers could soothe. The woman’s promise to him would make him hate Connor if he killed her.

“People promise all sorts of things when their life’s on the line,” Connor snapped, anger filling him. Damn her, why’d she have to go and promise the kid that?

“I trust her. Doesn’t that mean anything?” Shane asked plaintively. “She pulled me out of the water and took care of me, Connor. She’s not like the others.”

He couldn’t do it. Not just because of Shane, but because she was a woman. Connor let go, stepping back. She moved away, putting her back to a wall as she raised wide, gray eyes to look at him. “I won’t tell anyone.”

“Break that promise, and I’ll break your neck,” he replied, his voice a threatening growl.

“Connor, be quiet,” Jesse ordered, standing up. “You made your decision, she’s made her promise. That’s the end of it.”

Connor shot him a flat, unfriendly look. Jesse glared back, not flinching, his hand resting on Shane’s head. Out of the corner of his eye, Connor could see the woman’s eyes flicking back and forth between them. Shane broke the stalemate, lunging up off the couch and landing with a thump next to the woman. He was almost as tall as she was, but burrowed against her like a much younger child. Her arms went around him, and she actually half-turned, putting herself between him and them.

Jesse grinned suddenly, and the tenseness pervading the atmosphere evaporated. “I don’t know, she looks friendly enough. Don’t you think, Connor?”

Connor sighed, relaxing. “I hope she is.”

...

Mikala studied the two men as well as she could in the dim light stretching from the kitchen. She rubbed the boy’s shivering back gently, feeling something she hadn’t noticed in her shock at seeing him change: he was thin. He had his face buried against her neck, his arms tight around her waist and seemed to be clinging for dear life.

They looked worn, from clothes to expressions. Like they’d been travelling for a long time, she thought.

“Are you hungry?” she asked, and her voice drew both sets of eyes to her. The one who’d held her prisoner scowled.

“We’re leaving.”

“No!” the boy yelped, his head jerking up. “I want to stay with her!”

“Shane, we can’t stay,” the other one said, his tone patient. “If nothing else, it would put her in danger.”

Mikala saw tears filling the boy’s eyes. “I’m sick of running and hiding! I don’t care anymore, Jesse. Let’em get me.”

“You want them to get her, too?” The snarl came from the first one. Mikala glared at him as the boy dropped his head back to her shoulder, the tears spilling over. He glared back for a minute, then his shoulders drooped as he raised a hand to scrub at his face. “We’re not safe, staying in one place. Besides, her husband will probably be…”

“I’m not married. I live here alone,” Mikala interrupted him. “Just what kind of danger are you talking about? Seems to me, you’re enough danger to anyone.”

The other man laughed, a deep, rolling spill of sound. “He is that, ma’am.”

Mikala decided to take charge by just acting. Pulling the boy along with her, she walked into the kitchen. They could stand out there, or whatever, but she was going to feed the kid.