Strolling toward her, I watched her lift her head and wince when she spotted me.
Other than being a shade paler than when I last saw her, she appeared fine. The smattering of freckles across her nose—six to be exact—stood out.
Serena folded her arms around her. “I was going to come back.”
“What did I tell you?”
“Not to leave the cabin, but—”
“There are no buts, Serena. I told you not leave. This place is full of others like me.”
“I only saw one, maybe two.”
Struggling with my patience, I placed my hands on her shoulders, unable to not notice how they dwarfed her shoulders. “That doesn’t matter. I told you not to.”
“You shouldn’t just expect people to obey your demands,” she said, trying and failing to shrug off my hands.
A muscle started to spasm in my jaw. “Did you even know where to go when you hit the road? Well, let me tell you. If you take a right, it would have led you into town.
But it’s about thirty miles and it’s not a straight shot, either. There are mountain lions around here, even a few wolves. Not to mention the bears. And a few human males you probably wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley. You know where taking a left brings you. This is a neighborhood of sorts, a very exclusive one, if you get what I’m saying. Others of my kind are here and they like to play with humans—and there were three of them focused on you.”
“What?”
“You were out here alone. That’s fair game to my kind. If I hadn’t come along, you really don’t want to know what would’ve happened to you.” The images that came along with that statement pissed me off. They would’ve played with Serena and she wouldn’t have enjoyed their game.
Serena’s shoulders slumped, and when she spoke, her voice cracked. “I can’t just stay here and wait for someone or something to kill me. I…I have to do something.”
“Do what?” Anger lashed through my voice, and she flinched. “Were you planning to make your way home? Is dying there somehow better than dying here, because you will die there, Serena, I can promise you that.”
“I’m…I’m sorry,” she said, her face screwing up. “I panicked.”
“I can tell,” I said dryly.
Her lashes lifted. Brown eyes with flecks of green met mine. “Mel’s never going to get any justice, is she?”
Caught off guard by the question, I leaned back. “No. Probably not.”
A sigh leaked out of her. “That’s not right. I can’t live with that.”
“Was that what you were doing? Planning to go back to Colorado to avenge your friend or something?”
Serena shrugged halfheartedly.
Now I really wanted to throttle some sense into her, but I could respect that, maybe even admire it. If Arum could understand anything, we got the whole need for revenge. But Serena was only a human. She would have no such revenge. And neither would her friend.
I looked away. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” But then Serena winced.
My fingers were digging into her shoulders. I removed my hands, eyes narrowing.
Watching her try to hold my gaze was amusing. Her little jaw was jutted out, brows knitted, but her lower lip was trembling. She opened her mouth.
I placed a finger against her lips. “Don’t.”
She leaned back and would’ve toppled right over if I hadn’t caught her. She glared at me like it was my fault. “Don’t what?”
“Don’t make up any more excuses for why you did this.” I pressed my finger against her warm lips again, mainly because I wanted to do it again. “I told you not to leave the cabin and you did. You look like you’re about to pass out.”
She swatted at my hand. “Hey! That’s not my fault. I think you damaged me when you tried to eat me.”
I almost laughed. “You are so clueless.”
“Oh really? And I guess you’re just so smart.” She rubbed at her eyes, but the slightly unfocused look was there.
“Yes.” I slid my hands under her arms and , as I stood, I hauled her onto her feet.
She swayed a little, so I didn’t let go. Keeping a hand on her arm, I led her away from the gazebo and back toward the cabin.
“Look, I apologized. You don’t have to be so pissy about it.”
I snorted.
Serena didn’t respond, and there must be some sort of higher being because she was quiet as we walked past the pavilion and hit the main road. During that blissful period of silence, as she stumbled along beside me, I realized that as furious as I was at her, I wasn’t angry with her now. I didn’t know how I felt. Annoyed? Yes. The rest I couldn’t decipher, which was new to me…and I didn’t like it.
I should’ve just let the others have her because that would’ve been one less thing for me to worry about.
“You don’t have to drag me all the way back to the cabin.”
I shot her a dry look. “Really, I don’t?”
She returned the look, but her version was a lot more hateful, and I tightened my grip on her upper arm. For a moment, the sleepy look in her eyes gave way to anger, and I readied myself for a fight. At least there was really nothing she could throw at me, but she was within kicking range.
Serena yawned…right in my face.
My brows shot up.
Then a disgruntled look crossed her features, reminding me of a small, pissed-off creature that really had no way of defending itself other than raising its hair and baring tiny teeth. Something about the imagery poked at me. Serena was a feisty little thing, but she could’ve easily been a dead,little thing if I hadn’t gone looking for her.
“You’re hurting me,” she said finally, nodding at where my entire hand wrapped around her arm.
“No. I’m not.”
Her face scrunched up. “Okay. You’re annoying me.”
“Want to know a secret?”
Serena looked wary. “What?”
I leaned in and whispered, “I don’t care.”
She rolled her eyes. “Real funny.”
I chuckled. I thought it was pretty damn funny, but what wasn’t funny was the fact we’d only passed the first bend in the road and Serena had slowed to the point that a one-legged baby would’ve outpaced her.
I was out of patience.
It took some time to recover from the kind of feeding I had done on her, and she shouldn’t have been up, running around.
Fuck it.
Letting go of her arm, I picked her up and tossed her over my shoulder.
Serena squealed hoarsely. “What are you doing?”
“Snails with broken shells move faster than you.”
Her small fists bounced off my back. “What is it with you?”
Smiling to myself, I put a little bounce in my step and was rewarded with an oomph, and then a much harder stab to the back. Ah, it truly was the little things in life….
“Put me down,” she said. “Or so help me, I’ll kick your ass!”
With one arm secure around her waist, I gave her ass a friendly pat with my free hand. “You should really watch your language. It’s not very ladylike.”
“Don’t you dare smack my—” A yawn cut her off, totally ruining the level of threat.
“You high-handed, arrogant son of a—” Whamp! This smack was a little harder. “Language, Serena.”
What came out of her mouth next almost made me drop her. She got her ass smacked again for that and after the third time, she quieted down. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, if I didn’t count what was going on between my legs. Maybe it was the whole carrying her thing. Maybe it was the spanking her ass. Or perhaps it was the fact I was in a permanent state of hardness since she threw a cast-iron pioneer at me. If that was the case, then my attraction was pretty dark.