Savage Instinct (2 page)

Silver.

A burn like a thousand wasp stings reverberated inside
him.  His flesh felt shredded, ground into hamburger.  Mind numbing pain
threatened to swallow him whole.

He tasted blood in his mouth and realized he’d bitten his
tongue.

One thought remained when all reason fled—get the blade
out.

Aiden twisted, slashing at Lee with his claws, attempting
to grab the handle and rip it out of his body.

The silver poisoned his blood.  With every heartbeat, he
could feel himself getting weaker and weaker.  His movements were sluggish, as
if through water.

Lee pushed him backward, determined to take him to the
ground to finish the job.

The pair skidded through the pine sentinels, out onto the
blacktop road.  Beyond them, headlights rounded the curve as a car approached.

Aiden scarcely noticed the tarmac beneath his feet or the
lights coming towards them, only the pulsing pain in his chest.  He swiped at
his opponent, landed a blow that rocked him backward.  The blade moved by
degrees then snapped as Riker gave a vicious twist.

The wolf pack yelped with excitement around them, nipping
at his back and legs, eager for blood.

When had they changed back to wolves?  He wasn’t sure and
didn’t care.  Knew only that he couldn’t get a grip on the blade lodged in his
chest that was slowly killing him.

“Guess I win, purty boy,” Riker said, grinning with yellowed
teeth.

“Fuck you,” Aiden grit out, his hand on the seeping wound. 
Labored breath made his chest ache and cramp.

“Another time,” Riker said.

The road flooded with light around them.  Riker, still grinning,
pushed Aiden directly into the path of the oncoming vehicle.

Chapter
Two

Nydia Williams stood outside of the massive log home
belonging to Richard’s parents, crying.

Unwilling to let those little blonde bitches see how much
they’d hurt her feelings, she wouldn’t go back inside until she regained her
composure.  It was a matter of pride for her.  She hated for anyone to see her
emotions out of control.  And, if she and Richard were going to make things
work between them, she’d have to put up with his family even if she couldn’t
stand them.

And that included the twins from hell: Alice and Alex.

Tired of waiting for her to return, Richard finally came
outside.  He leaned on the support beam of the porch, watching her a long
moment before descending the stairs.

Gravel crunched under his boots.  Dusk closed in on the
mountaintop, and a yellow moon rose on the horizon.  A security light blinked
on, illuminating the growing darkness that seemed to close in on the wild
property from all sides.  Above, at the top of the lightpole, she could hear
the tinkle of moths fluttering against the bulb housing.

All her bad thoughts about his unwillingness to defend her
disappeared when she saw his long, lean form sauntering down the porch and
approaching.  His sandy blond hair ruffled in the pine scented breeze.

Her heartbeat quickened, and relief flooded her that he
must
care about her if he’d leave the dinner table to check on her well-being.

“Nydia” Richard said as he walked up, “what on earth is the
matter?  Why are you standing in the yard crying?”  He glanced back at the
amber lit windows lining the front of the house.  “Everyone is starting to ask
questions in there.”

Stopping in front of her, Richard put his hands on her
shoulders.

She tilted her face up to him, meeting his gray eyes.

“Richard, I can’t go back inside right now,” she said,
wiping her angry tears away.  She’d always had a habit of crying when she got
really angry and hated when people got her to that point.  People tended to get
smug about the fact that they’d made her cry—they didn’t realize she was on the
edge of wanting to pummel them for making her so mad she cried.  Her daddy had
always said to control her temper and count to ten, but that’d never worked for
her.

He gave her a smug look that radiated superiority.

Nydia frowned, getting the distinct feeling she was being admonished
even though he hadn’t said a word.

“Your sisters are being so snotty and mean, and I don’t
know why.”  Nydia dried her eyes in irritation and looked up at his face.

Richard sighed.  “What are they doing to you that is
cruel?” he asked.

“You’ve heard their whispers.  Don’t act like you haven’t. 
They keep making sarcastic comments about what I do for a living.  They said my
hair looks like a bottle brush and my elbows and knuckles are just
so black
and ashy,
that I need some lotion.”

“They generously offered you lotion and you took offense to
that.  I heard it.  They did not say you were ashy.”

She clenched her jaw.  “You just pretended you didn’t hear them. 
Alex said it under her breath.  And they keep saying I’m a germaphobe and--” Nydia
bent her head, “--I know this sounds like Junior high drama, but I get the
feeling they’re deliberately making fun of me and trying to let me know that I
don’t fit in here and never will.”

Nydia blew her nose in the tissue she was holding.

Richard placed his hand under her chin and lifted her head
so that he was looking in her eyes. “Nydia, you’re starting to embarrass me
acting like such a child.  My sisters are very loving individuals, and I can’t
imagine them acting like teenage drama queens unless you provoked them.”

She jerked her head away.  Her arched eyebrows drew down
over her eyes.  “Excuse me?  Exactly what did I do to make them act like that?

Richard rolled his eyes.  “Women.  I haven’t seen anything
that would make me come out here crying and feeling sorry for myself.”

“I came out here because I didn’t want to get into a
physical altercation with them.”

It was Richard’s turn to frown.  “Are you saying you’d hit
my sisters?  What in the world is wrong with you, Nydia?  You’re acting insane,”
he said, raising his voice.

“I didn’t say I’d hit them, but they damn sure made me want
to.  And I am not insane, and I resent the hell out of you acting like all this
is either in my head or all my fault.  You can’t have it both ways.  Either
your sisters are acting like little spoiled brats and treating me bad, or I’ve
shown my butt to earn their disrespect.”

He crossed his arms over his chest.  “Well.  You said it.”

Nydia planted her hands on her hips.  “So I showed my butt
because I offered to help prepare dinner?  They wouldn’t let me go in the
kitchen, and I could hear them in there complaining about having to cook
special dishes because I’m a vegetarian.  Alice said she should sneak some
chicken into my beans and rice, and I’d never know the difference.”

Richard laughed at her. Actually laughed.

Nydia fumed, feeling the angry tears threatening to come
back full force.

A smug look swept over his face.  “Nydia you have a
tendency to be difficult to get along with.  You have to have your food
prepared special, and you are a freak about the cleanliness of everything, and
to be quite honest with you, my sisters are probably reacting to you being an
uptight BITCH!  If you would relax and roll with the flow, everything would be
alright.”

Richard reached out and grabbed her by the arm, and this
time his grip was painful on her bicep.

Nydia planted her feet, refusing to move.  “I have done
everything within my power to get along with your family today.  I have spent
the majority of the day walking on eggshells for fear that I would do something
wrong and make them disprove of me.  Well, I’m here to tell you that if your
family cannot accept me for who I am then I’m leaving.  I don’t need all of
this crap in my life.”

She would be damned if she would allow him to blame her or
make her the one to blame for this family’s need to exclude the newcomer.  She
knew the family could hear the fight, and for once in her life, she didn’t
really care what others thought about her at the moment.

She jerked her arm free of his grip.  Richard clenched his
hands into fists.

She wasn’t afraid of him or anyone else there.  She bowed
her chest, feeling her resentment swell.  “I’m getting in MY car and heading
home.  Why don’t you go in the house with your stuck up sisters and make
sarcastic remarks about me the rest of the night?  I’m through with being
treated like there’s something wrong with me.  You people need to grow up and learn
to act like adults.”

“Yeah.  You do that.  I should have never brought you up
here to meet them.  It was a mistake I won’t make again.”

“That’s fine with me!”

“I can’t believe I wasted the past three months of my life
on your little ass.  I’m through catering to your whims,” Richard said, looking
smug and lifting his chin in arrogance.

“Catering to my whims?” she asked, outraged.  Nydia’s palm
itched to smack the look off his face, but she decided she’d be the better
person and not resort to violence.

She stormed away, holding back the tears that she could
feel stinging her eyelids.  She was going to cry, again, and she knew it, but
she didn’t want to give Richard the satisfaction of seeing tears running down
her face.

She felt guilty that the relationship hadn’t been what
she’d thought it was, and with that realization, her hurt and anger mingled
together, overwhelming her with emotion.

Slamming the car door, she jammed the key into the ignition. 
The engine roared to life.

Nydia put the car in reverse and gave it enough gas it shot
backwards towards the woods, coming within a foot of hitting a massive spruce
standing in the front yard.  She spun the wheel, switching to drive, and spun
the car around.  She half expected Richard to run up, jerk her door open, and
demand that she calm her butt down and come back inside.  The sense that she
needed to hurry pervaded her.

She pointed the car toward the driveway, feeling the world
close in on her.

She needn’t have bothered moving fast and worrying he’d try
to stop her.  Glancing in the rearview mirror, she saw him walk back up the
steps and into the house.

Outrage didn’t begin to describe what Nydia felt.

The bastard didn’t give two shits that they’d just broken
up!

How many times had she groveled at his feet, apologizing so
many times she wanted to throw up, just because she thought he’d leave her and
she couldn’t stand being alone or going to bed angry?  She’d been taught to
apologize and to work problems out by talking, that forgiveness was everything in
a relationship.  He’d never acted like anything was his fault—only hers.

She stepped on the gas pedal like she was trying to put it
through the floor.  The car shot forward, startling her into giving a little
yelp.  The car swerved from one side of the road to the next as she sped down
the country lane.

She’d wasted time hashing it out with Richard when she
should have just cut her losses and gone home back to her place in town.  She
was an idiot for thinking he’d take her side over his family’s.  Now it was
full on dark and the moon, though full, did little to ease her jangled nerves.

The trip back down the mountain seemed to take longer in
the dark.  A mist settled over the road, forcing her to slow down or risk
veering over the edge of the road.

What had seemed picturesque in the daylight now seemed
sinister in the night.  Gone was the bright green foliage of spring, replaced
by black and grey trees with branches that seemed to reach out to her passing
vehicle with fingerlike appendages.  Every time she took a curve too wide and
heard the scrape of twigs or brush against her car, she jumped in her seat and
bit her lip until it nearly bled.

She felt like even the forest was out to get her.

“Bastard,” Nydia muttered to herself.  “That’s the
last
time I waste my time on a man.”

She glanced out the driver’s side window, seeing nothing
beyond the glass but inky darkness broken by the shafts of tall pine trees and
the smoky mist that slinked across the background like a snake.

The sight gave her the creeps.

“Now I’m stuck out here in the damn boonies while you and
your sisters just laugh it up. 
Oh, she’s a bitch and overreacting.  She’ll
be okay on her own.  You stay here with us, Bubba
,” Nydia mocked her now
ex-boyfriend’s sister’s voice.

They hadn’t said it with their mouths, but she could see
that they thought about her on their faces.

Nydia was not crazy, and she wasn’t in the habit of
overreacting unless provoked.  The fact that Richard had been blind to what
they were doing only made her angrier at the unjustness of the entire
situation.  She hated feeling like she’d somehow done something wrong when she
knew damned well she hadn’t.

She shifted into second gear, feeling her car gaining speed
on the winding trip down the mountain.  The engine groaned but the car slowed
to a more manageable speed.

Somewhere in the dark, she knew sandy turnouts dotted the
mountain for vehicles that lost their brakes.  She’d seen them on their trip up
and asked Richard about the curious sight.

When he’d told her what they were for, she’d shuddered. 
Now, braking around every curve, she hoped she didn’t end up in one of them
too.