Luna On The Run

Chapter Six

Rowan:

The sun hasn't started coming up yet, and this walk home scares the piss out of me at night. All I have is one beam from a flashlight, lighting my way through an entire forest of darkness. Branches groan with the weight of snow, making me turn to see if my worst nightmare has come true. It's always Jacob I picture in the darkness. f**k the wolves and bears and anything else that may go bump in the night. I would gladly die at the hands of a wild animal before I let myself be killed by a piece of s**t like Jacob.

Cynthiana has offered to take me home a ton of times, but I just… I can't let anyone that close right now. She has been training me and is probably the closest thing to a real friend I have had in a long time. I'm just not ready to share my haven with anyone besides old man Berny and the animals that were here before me.

Finally, I could see the porch light come into view, and something about that dim yellow beacon made me want to sprint the remaining few feet to escape whatever stared down my neck out here, but as soon as I started running, Lola Cow's mooing had my feet digging into the dirt.

"Is it time?" I called out to the pasture like an i***t who had expected her to call back to me. She shouldn't even be out here. I dropped my stuff and jumped the fence to find the very pregnant Lola, pulling her into the darkness of the barn. My whole body shivered. How did she get out of here? I flipped the light switch shedding some light on our situation. I hate this barn. I hate this whole farm in the dark. I have always had moments where I felt like I was being watched. But here on this farm, surrounded by nothing but trees for miles, it's like a large group of people are staring at me from the shadows.

I got to work making sure the heat lamps were on, and the stall Lola should have still been in was ready for her to give birth in. Then, as if someone had poured a five-gallon bucket of snow down my pants. I shook violently, feeling too vulnerable to breathe. What if she was out because Jacob had been in here? I turned, surveying the remaining dark stalls. Something in my gut told me someone was here and to run. So, I did. I ran like my ass was on fire until I was at the house's front door. Once inside, I grabbed the shotgun from behind the door and my Beretta tucking it down my pants. With one long whistle, my daisy girl was hot on my heels as we returned to the barn. This is the first time I have been made to believe Jacob was here since the night Daisy made me s**t myself from scratching on my door. My hands are steady this time, and I'm sure of myself. I don't know if it is Cynthiana's defense training or the cold metal at my back, but either way, the shock of being fearless in the pursuit of my nightmares had me feeling ten-foot-tall and bulletproof.

Two things I most certainly am not.

Bain:

I stood in the treetops, watching her lead a cow into the barn. Not five minutes after she entered, she ran out of the barn like her ass was on fire. I wouldn't have thought much of it if it weren't for the fear in her blue eyes. I dropped from the treetops. I don't know what scared the little flower so severely that she ran from it with that amount of fear. But whatever it was was about to die at my hand.

Her whistle pulled me from the rage I had almost allowed to choke me out. She and the dog were in a sprint back to the barn; she had a twelve gauge on her back, and determination had replaced the fear that was clear just minutes before. Then it hit me. I could smell rogues. I mind-linked Saint, letting him know what I had sensed. He said the farm waking up would be a beacon for creatures we didn't need around here. Now I see how right he was.

A blood-curdling scream tore through the night. It was Rowan's. The lights went out in the barn, and then a drumline of gunfire had the barn lighting up like someone had turned strobes on in there.

"Don't blow your cover, Bain! Stay away from the rogues!" Saint's link came just as I was about to rip the door open. I fought against his Alpha command, pissed that he would use it against me.

"What if she dies, Saint?" He never answered me back. But the woosh of men running past me, ready to charge the barn as the gunfire died down, made me breathe easier. Saint's command lifted from me when he slapped a cap on my head and tossed me a hunting vest. He just rolled his eyes at my confused look.

Saint and I tore open the front doors of the barn, and Gunsmoke rolled from the doors. Enough, you would think the place had caught on fire. Then the lights came on, and a wide-eyed Rowan stood in the middle of the chaos with a pistol pointed directly in our faces.

"Whoa. Cool it." Saint grumbled as the little mutt dog she loved so much limped up beside her with a gash running up its front leg.

"Daisy!" her voice was calm, but her whole body trembled with the adrenaline I could smell mixing with her usual sweetness. She grabbed a red duffle bag from a room, dropping it in front of the dog.

"Couple of questions, boys. First, what the f**k are you all doing on my property? Second, is it illegal to kill wolves in Montana?" My stomach flipped when she injected the whining dog with something that made it fall over.

"That dog would have healed. You didn't have to put it down." Saint growled.

"Don't be ridiculous. She is asleep. Now answer my questions." She got to work stitching up the dog's leg. I'm unsure if it is the Crown I drank or the needles and stitches going around, but damn, my stomach is f****d.

"We were hunting a pack of wolves coming too close to town, and we tracked them back here. No, it isn't illegal to kill wolves in… Montana." Saint answered her questions before rustling in the back of the barn caught my and everyone else's attention. One of the rogues was trying to stand up but had been shot multiple times and was fighting its death. She stood walking over to it as Saint and I started toward her; she pulled her pistol from the back of her pants, shooting it through the head, ending its misery.

"Poor things. I wouldn't have bothered them if they hadn't tried to kill Daisy." She grumbled, giving the dog a once-over examination.

Stunned. That was the expression on every man in this barn. We are all stunned at the actions of this small, fragile human woman. Clearly, she is not as fragile as we all believed.

"What do I do with them?" She pointed to the four dead wolves in the back of her barn. Then walked past all of us with the dog in her arms. We all stood there, watching her walk away until she turned, looking at us each before rolling her eyes.

"Well? Come on, then. It's colder than a witch's titty in a brass bra in December." I chuckled at her choice of words. The Cooper farm is the notorious coven house of the most powerful witches to ever grace Diathorne. Saint motioned for the men to clean Rowan's c*****e while Saint and I followed her into her home.

"Look over the mess." She grumbled, laying her dog on the rug before the fireplace.

She turned back to us, stripping off her winter coat, revealing the same little strappy shirt she had worn at Lucid. I couldn't help but dissect every movement she made and how her tattooed curves demanded my attention. What a delectable little flower she is.

"The guys outside are taking care of the wolves for you." Saint sounded nervous, making me quirk my brow at him. She tied her hair up, nodding her thanks at us, and when she turned, a gash ran from the back of her neck to the center of her back. Saint and I both jumped at her and when she pulled her gun from her pants, pointing at our faces again, I almost smiled at my little flower's bravery.

"Get out." She spat through clenched teeth.

"You're hurt." The words fell from my lips so quickly that I thought Saint had said it. Saint pulled me behind him like his massive body could shield me when we were the same height.

"You have a gash from the nape of your neck that disappears into the back of your shirt." Saint sounded much more relaxed than he felt. I could feel his nerves running through our bond like water rushing in a stream.

"I know. I can take care of it. Now get the f**k out of my house and take your buddies with you." She clearly was confident in her ability to shoot that gun because she was clinging to it.

I bucked against Saint when he started backing us out the front door. I don't want to leave her like that, and who knows how many more rogues are circling this property looking for something to eat. Finally, he got me outside and away from the house, where he turned with a fury in his eyes that surprised me.

"We can't leave her alone. This place is calling out to magical creatures, and more will come. I'm sending the men out to check the property. Do you mind sharing your tree with me?" I wrapped my arm around his waist and used my magic to blow us high into the trees, where we sat watching the little house. Something about how he is acting tells me my little flower has become ours, and the thought of having them both makes me feel complete in a way that only having one or the other couldn't touch. I leaned back, feeling the familiar bite of tree bark against my back, and with a sigh, the two of us settled comfortably, waiting for word that the property was free of other creatures. Then, with Saint's next words, I would be mind f****d until the answer came from Rowan.

"Why does she think she is in Montana?"