She stopped in her tracks and hurried towards them.
“Selena! You’re back!”
“What’s going on?” she asked quickly.
“It’s a mess,” Amy complained. “You were framed for stealing the medicine.”
“The medicine?” Selena echoed in confusion. She’d forgotten al about it.
“Wait. As in, they were al framed or Selena was framed?” Jack asked.
“Selena,” Amy answered regretful y. “Although they think Dan was probably behind it too.”
A few moments passed as it sunk in.
“Who did it?” she asked Amy.
The girl only shook her head in frustration, taking her hand. “You need to come with me.”
“Where?” Selena asked as she was pul ed along.
“To see Becky. Loraine managed to get some medication tonight,” she informed, holding a couple of plastic packets for her to see.
“Has she been okay? Where is she?” Jack asked.
Amy gestured brusquely toward the same cabin she had shared with her sister during their last visit. Jack set off had shared with her sister during their last visit. Jack set off in that direction.
Selena took the medicine to examine it. In the darkness, she could barely make out the words. Her mind raced as Amy ushered her along. It was an anti-inflammatory and fever reducer. “How did Loraine get ahold of this?” she wondered aloud.
Amy shrugged. “I guess Bil helped.”
“Who is Bil ?”
“He’s in charge of Josie’s cattle.”
“Oh. I remember now. Why did Jack ask if Loraine was okay? She didn’t have to do anything for it?”
“Bil would never,” Amy assured her. “And that’s always seemed like bul shit to me anyway.”
Selena stared at her face in the moonlight. “The things that happened to her?”
“Yeah. Supposedly.”
“Why would she lie?”
“To control Jack,” Amy huffed darkly. “She makes a big deal about every little thing. Queen of the guilt-trip.”
Selena frowned. “Jack believes it.”
“They grew up together. She knows how to get to him. Anyway, she wanted me to tel Dan that she got this for Becky, but now you can tel him yourself.”
“He’s here?” Selena asked, her heart quickening.
“Somewhere around here.”
“Where is Josie?”
“They camped somewhere else for the night. She’s got about ten men with her too.”
“What is she going to do?”
“I don’t know, but when she’s been crossed, there’s no tel ing what’l happen. She was going to kil her own brother for God’s sake. I know he was demon-spawn, but stil . It was her brother!”
They arrived at Bear and Susan’s cabin, and there was a light inside.
When they knocked, Bear’s great frame fil ed the doorway. “Selena,” he sighed with a mixture of relief and concern. “When did you get back?”
“Just now,” she answered. An unexpected wave of warmth swept through her.
He stepped out and pul ed her into a gentle hug.
“Are you okay?” His gruff voice was tender.
The tense barrier to her emotions eased away as she sank against him and disappeared under his arms. Her eyes wel ed. She knew her voice would crack if she answered, so she nodded instead.
He held her there for a while in his paternal caress before letting her go.
Selena had to wipe her eyes as she smiled up at him, showing him the medication. “Look what Loraine got.”
He took the packets from her, frowning at them in the darkness and led them inside the cabin.
They made their way into the room where Becky lay sleeping, and Bear promptly held the packets near the lamplight so he could read them.
Selena’s eyes widened. The little girl looked red and thin. Her blonde hair was stringy and damp, and she moved often in her sleep. Susan sat beside her, looking disheveled, exhausted and afraid. She’d been wringing out a wet rag in a bowl of water when she saw Selena come in.
Susan breathed a shuddering sigh and offered her a weak smile. Then her eyes fel to the packets her husband held and she rose swiftly to join him in examining them.
Selena stepped over to Becky and reached down to put a wrist to the child’s forehead. It was warm, but not terribly so. Susan had been doing her best to keep her head cool. When Selena reached down to feel her neck, it was hot. Next, she knelt down and put her ear to Becky’s chest. Her heartbeat was a little faster than it should have been, but it was stil strong enough, and her lungs sounded good and clear.
Bear was tearing a packet open when Selena finished her examination.
“God, Selena,” Susan whispered. “Wil they work?”
She nodded, whispering back, “I think so. But they have probably lost some of their strength. I’d give her the dose that’s recommended on the packet, but if you don’t see an improvement by morning, you might try giving her a half a dose more.”
“Do you think she’l pul through?” Bear asked anxiously, pouring a cup of water.
Selena hesitated to consider, then final y nodded. “I think so. Just keep making sure her head stays cool and the rest of her stays warm like you’ve been doing.”
“We’ve been trying to keep her eating, but she can’t handle much more than chicken broth,” Susan put in.
“Keep at it,” she encouraged.
“Thanks Selena,” Susan whispered softly. “We’l let you know if we need you again. You should probably get some rest yourself. Have you seen Dan yet?”
Selena shook her head, swal owing hard.
They might have asked how Jack had treated her, but not with Amy in the room.
The two of them made their way to the door, bidding the concerned parents goodbye. When they were outside, Selena ran her hands through her hair nervously. It felt like a lifetime since she’d seen him, and memories of Jack’s touch worked their way into her thoughts insistently.
They made for the central fire pit and Amy was silent until they reached the path that led to Cal’s cabin.
“Are you okay if I go?” Amy asked.
She nodded with little confidence, but Amy took the gesture at face value and turned to walk away.
Selena watched her back as her figure grew smal er and smal er in the darkness. Soon she was alone, and turned her eyes ahead with a long breath.
She treaded quietly along, feeling the night’s silence al around her and wondering where he was in it. When she reached the fire pit, he was nowhere in sight, so she made her way slowly up the path to his cabin. There was a little light inside. Soon, she was on the doorstep, but found herself staring at the knob without the courage to open it.
Her heart picked up its pace as she waited for her hand to touch it. Instead, it went to her middle while she gathered her strength.
The handle turned of its own accord and Selena’s heart leapt in her chest as it swung open with agonizing slowness, revealing the commanding presence of the man she loved just two steps before her.
They took in the sight of one another, both crippled with apprehension that held them fast. In his eyes, she saw a tangle of emotions that she couldn’t hope to interpret properly, and wondered what he saw in hers. She wanted to throw herself in his arms, but it was as though Jack was holding her back.
It felt like forever before he stepped aside, and cleared the way for her entry.
Every hair on Selena’s head stood on end as she crept past him, so close to his touch.
Inside, a lamp was lit on the desk near the chair that she was sure he’d been sitting in not long ago.
The door clicked closed behind her. She waited until she couldn’t take the feel of his eyes on her back anymore and turned to face him.
“What did they do?” he uttered, his voice stiff and his fists clenched.
Selena’s eyes widened. He’d discovered her attackers. She shouldn’t have been surprised, but she was.
was.
“Nothing,” she breathed, her voice barely audible.
“They d-didn’t get far.”
“What did they do?” he repeated, his eyes narrowing.
Selena stared at the ground, suddenly feeling horribly ashamed that she hadn’t been able to protect herself. “Th-they caught me in the forest. There were three,”
she sighed, rocking nervously. “They gagged me and uh ...
they tied me up.” Her eyes flicked up at his, and they burned back at her. She had to look away to concentrate on speaking without crying, and closed her eyes before she went on, recounting the memory. “To a tree. One of them touched me. His name was Victor.”
“Where?” he queried in a deadly voice.
“I-I can’t... he tried but I stopped him. The other one stopped him. Please don’t make me explain it,” she begged in a trembling voice. “I c-can’t.”
A few moments passed before he stepped closer.
“Show me,” he demanded.
Selena’s eyes slid closed and she breathed in and out deeply. When she opened them again, she reached out to touch his wrist and shook as she lifted his hand to her waist, guiding it up her body until it rested just below her breast.
Dan’s breathing quickly matched hers in depth and speed. A tense grimace passed over his features.
“This is confusing,” Selena gasped, pul ing his hand away from her body and trying to separate the feel of his touch from the memory of her attacker.
“I’m sorry.”
She lifted her gaze. It was her turn to study his face now as she brought his hand back to her waist and pushed it down until his fingertips rested a few inches below the top of her jeans.
She’d been lucky the violation had been cut off twice, but judging by the murderous expression he wore, Dan was anything but appeased. He withdrew his hand and turned his back to her abruptly, stepping away as the air rasped in and out of his lungs.
It was a long time before he spoke.
“How did you escape?”
The strain on Selena grew, but she had to answer.
“Jack found me that first night and cut me loose. He stole their horses and helped me find my way back.” She knew her voice had changed and that she couldn’t have prevented it.
She watched his back in the fol owing silence, afraid of what would happen when he turned to look at her again.
When he final y did, he wore a hard expression.
“What did you do?”
She stared back at him, and to her own surprise, she felt her confidence surge. She could stay or leave if she wanted. Her choices were her own. Jack was right about one thing. Although Dan’s power was irresistible and intoxicating, it could suffocate her if she let it. But Jack seemed to think there was nothing she could do to change it, and that was wrong. She might be new to dealing with the thoughts and opinions of others, but she was learning.
There was a solution to every problem, and her problem was staring her fiercely in the face. She fixed him with a bravely defiant and unapologetic look.
He squinted sharply at her and she could sense his mind working fast to comprehend this change in her.
“Did you let him fuck you?” he growled abruptly, pronouncing each word deliberately.
Selena squinted back at him and wondered aloud in a whisper, “What if I did?”
Dan’s eyes bored into her. “How I feel about you doesn’t matter anymore?”
“You asked because you need control more than because of how you feel,” she answered boldly.
The look on his face was at once both defensive and aggressive. He didn’t respond.
Selena regarded him with new clarity. She drank him in from where she stood, the boiling emotions behind his ferociously perceptive eyes, the power of his height and beautiful y sculpted muscles, the way he held himself like he was always ready. It was as though she were looking at him for the first time.
She began to step around him just out of his reach, flicking her eyes at the door behind the place where he stood. She could see every muscle in his body go taut the moment she moved. “Look at you,” she breathed with unmasked fascination, observing how no part of him moved but for the steady rise and fal of his chest and his predatory eyes as they tracked her position and intention.
“What are you going to do, Dan?” she dared to ask, moving herself into the space behind him toward the door.
“Don’t play with me, Selena,” he warned when she’d nearly gotten behind him.
She doubled back with pointed deliberation to continue her trek around him in the opposite direction.
She was not dissuaded, and examined his eyes, finding them radiating an impulse that was completely sexual, dominating and primal. Testing him like this was asking for trouble, and the tension was so thick that if she didn’t love him, she could never have withstood what she saw in his eyes. Even now, her nerves were on fire, but she ignored this.
“You’re a weapon,” she murmured as if he couldn’t hear her. “And you’re an animal too.”
She stepped just within his reach, meeting his blazing glare confidently, marveling at the unbearable struggle it took him to keep from devouring her, from succumbing to his need to bend her to his wil . She sensed these things so strongly; she could feel him on her skin, although he hadn’t touched her.
She kept her eyes fixed on his and stepped in closer, within easy reach of him, and closer until she could feel the warmth of his body, which was rigid with his struggle.
He towered over her, and she had to crane her neck to look him in the eye. She felt the stalemate between his wil and his urges, and also sensed by the quickening of the rise and fal of his chest how precariously they held each other in check.
“I don’t think I’l let you dominate me now, Dan,” she informed him firmly. Whatever it took, she was going to match him.
His eyes darted back and forth between hers as he tensed the muscles in his jaw.
“Keep stil ,” she instructed, refusing to break her stare. Then Selena reached up, curled her hand around the back of his neck, and pul ed his face down. She embraced his struggle and pushed her lips against his, regardless of how he felt about it. The sensation was electrifying. He wasn’t ready to return her kiss yet, perhaps because he didn’t trust his self-control, but al of that was irrelevant. She held him in place and tasted his lips at her leisure. He was exquisite.
He held his breath, and then final y he kissed her back, hard, and reached out to grasp her hips.
“No,” she snapped, prying off his grip and shoving his hands away forceful y. She stared him down again, and he stared back as though he couldn’t believe what was happening, as though what she wanted was impossible.