Chapter 40: The Cabin

The minute we get there, I check to make sure that it is safe and sound before I hurry to scoop her out of the car and take her inside. Opening the door slowly, I notice that it is unlocked and that concerns me a little, but perhaps Omega Dillon forgot to latch it when he left. What is even more concerning when I get inside, is the fact that the building has been ransacked.

The furniture has been turned upside down and some things are strewn all over the front room. “What will the rest of the cabin look like?” I begin to wonder while turning over the small couch and a chair in the living room.

When I reach the back bedroom, I see it lying there on the floor. A dead deer that looks strangely familiar and then I remember it. If I am not mistaken, this is the same mother that protected her fawn the same night that I first met Arabella. Now I am saddened by the prospect that I may find the fawn dead also.

Sure enough, in the bathroom the fawn is huddled in a corner with a bullet in its shoulder. There it must have laid as it bled to death. Shaking my head, I begin to wonder who has gone through the cabin and for what purpose?

Deciding that we can not stay here because it doesn’t appear to be safe, I shut the door behind me and don’t look back as I get into the car and Arabella begins to stare at me uneasily. Before she even asks, I already know what she is going to say. “Why are we here?”

Turning to her fully and staring into her unwavering eyes, I state quietly, “I was going to take you inside so we could stay here for a while, but it appears that it is not safe and that there are other humans running about.” Hesitating, I pause for a moment and then continue, “I don’t think that they would take kindly to werewolves if they knew that we exist. Especially these ones, because they ransacked the place and then when I entered the back bedroom, I found a deer and her fawn dead on the ground with a bullet in each of them. They are not hunters, or they would have taken the carcasses with them.”

She stares at me before I watch it all sink in and she grimaces. “You mean they killed them for no good reason?” The tears in her eyes cascade down her cheeks as she asks, “Does it look like they suffered, or did they kill them right away? I love deer, they are so sweet.”

The look in her eyes tells me that I can’t tell her it took several hours for them to die. If I do, she won’t be able to sleep when we get some place safe to rest. Now, where can we go that is safe for the both of us? Racking my brain for several minutes, I finally come up with a place that I had forgotten about for years. If it is still there, no one will ever find us.

Glancing over at Arabella, I watch as she stares out the window blankly till I turn on the car and then she finally turns her attention to me and asks with a worried look on her face, “Now where?”

As I clear my throat, I put the car into gear and then state flatly, “A place I used to know as a kid. After a few days, I will go back to check it out. If the situation has resolved itself, I will be back to get you quickly. If not, then I want you to go to the nearest town so you can contact your parents. Is that clear?”

I see the fear in her eyes when she quickly asks, “Why would you not be back for me?”

Hesitating, I sigh and then answer softly, “If I don’t come back, most likely I am dead. That is the only thing that could keep me apart from you and that is why you would need to go home. If one of my kind found you alone, he will surely kill you because my scent is all over you and he would be able to smell the pups from a mile away. The sheer fact that you are almost ready to give birth, means that any shifters in this part of the woods, will smell you and find you the instant I open this car door. Trust me it would not be a pretty site if they got ahold of you.” I frown when I say the last part, because it worries me more than anything right now.

I can cope with the fact that everyone might want to kill me, but the evidence is pointing towards her and that chills me to the bone. If they capture her, they will torture her and rip her from limb to limb. Yet, I can’t take her back with me because the minute I do they will tear her apart right in front of me instead as they hold me down and force me to watch. My kind is vindictive like that.

Shaking my head, I drive away from the cabin before the humans come back. They are the only ones who use guns and things like that because they don’t have natural weapons like some of us do. When she says no more and just stares out the window again, I reach over to turn on the radio before she hears a song she likes.

“Oh. This is my favorite.” She yells excitedly before she sings along perfectly.

“Who would have known that I have a famous singer in the car with me?” I kid while smirking.

Looking at her out of the corner of my eye, I see her turn briefly and smile before scooting down on the seat so she can put her feet up on the dashboard. A thought runs through my head right before I feel someone hit us from behind. “She really shouldn’t do that, because if we have an accident, she may hurt her and the babies that way.”

As I feel someone slam into us, I push my foot down on the gas and speed fast down the narrow road till we come to a fork in the road. “Now which way was the house from here?” I murmur under my breath while I watch the truck gain on us and honk its horn. She hurries to put her feet down before the vehicle hits us again, all the while I speed down the road.

Deciding to take the fork to the right, I choose wrong when it comes to a dead end abruptly. “Shit!” I yell loudly, while frightening Arabella worse than she already is.

“Is it that bad?” She asks panicked, before she sees what I am looking at when she turns her head to look in front of us.

She cries out, “Oh, no!” And then closes her eyes, because there is a steep drop off and unless I quickly swerve to the side, the truck behind us will push us down into the ravine a few hundred feet below us.

There is no coming back from that, so I swallow hard and crank the wheel. Hoping it is enough to move out of the way in time, I watch the truck speed past us and right through the guardrail. As it plunges to the bottom, I close my eyes because it could very well have been us at the bottom of the ravine.

When the car comes to a halt, I take a deep breath in and glance over at Arabella who has been holding her breath for a while now. I manage to spit out, “Arabella, you can breathe now.” And then she opens her eyes, at the same time as she takes a deep breath.

With a frightened look on her face, she manages to smile before she turns her head to the right side and quickly opens the car door. Then I hear her throw up rather loudly before she finishes and sits there for a moment. “Are you alright, baby?” I ask because I am truly concerned for her as I run my hand up her forearm and up to her cheek.

I caress it gently and then say lovingly, “Come on, let’s get you some place safe.”

Now I know that I must take her some place where no one can harm her and the babies. I have a friend to call on in times of need and I believe this might just be one of those times. The whole time I spend driving to Eric’s, it bothers me that humans are involved now too. Did someone hire them or is this just a weird coincidence?