Chapter 46

Evan picks up his speed, navigating the dark forest until we reach the beach. I spot Zev holding Jeff’s weight. My heart sinks into my stomach because I don’t see Dustin with them. That means he wasn’t found. He’s somewhere out there still.

“Dustin?” I ask, whispering the words.

Evan shakes his head. “We couldn’t find him. Dante lost his scent at the creek. We had to make you a priority, Sasha. Dustin can take care of himself. He’s experiencing the effects of the bite.”

I want to argue with him, but there’s no point. I know why they chose me. It doesn’t make me feel less guilty about it though.

I’m glad for it. Does that make me a bad person? Maybe. But it seems it takes a bad person to survive this island. I just hope that Dustin is okay. I’m so terrified that he might die alone. Nobody deserves that. I wanted to be there for him with his transformation. Sadly, I don’t know how much I can do now. Not like this.

“Don’t worry, Sasha. We’re going to find him next.” Zev helps Jeff walk closer to me.

I wiggle until Evan sets me on my feet. I don’t make it far because my legs decide to give out on me. Breck catches me and helps me upright, stopping me from hitting the ground. Zev and Jeff close the distance completely, rushing together toward me. Flinging my arms out, I hug them both. I’m so glad Zev doesn’t reject me after the cave incident and instead embraces my affection. I know it bothered him that I don’t want to be with anyone exclusively, especially now after everything that has happened.

“Thank God you’re safe. Both of you. Are you feeling any better, Jeff?” I ask, tilting my face to look at him.

He offers me a weak smile. I can tell that something dark lingers on his mind. “I’m more worried about you, Sasha. I was so scared. It should’ve never been you. It should’ve been me that they bit. If I could go back in time—”

I shut him up with a kiss. He shouldn’t feel guilty over any of this. It wasn’t his fault. It’s not even his job to protect me. It was my job to protect both him and Dustin and I failed. This is on me.

I ease away, grazing my fingers over his scruffy cheek. “I wouldn’t change it. I’d rather it be me than you. Everyone seems to think that I’m going to survive. But you guys... fuck. We need to get off this island.”

Zev massages his fingers into my shoulder, remaining close despite the fact that I just kissed Jeff in front of him.

Clearing his throat, he says, “You’re right. We do. So we need to make some quick fucking decisions about what we do next. We can try to find Dante, and then we can wait for the next boat to land on shore with more people. Or we can try to build our own raft. Maybe we can swim together. Risk the ocean. I know there’s a couple of things that float pretty well. We can use what we have for freshwater and just hope that we reach the next island or another boat will find us. It might be better to risk that than risk anything else.”

We all look at each other, weighing our options. If we do decide to just swim, it’s nearly guaranteed that we would die. I can’t imagine us surviving otherwise. If we wait it out, someone is bound to find us. We’re being hunted by wolves, and they’re masters at tracking, especially if what Dante said about the bloodlines is true. It means that Ravi could track me because of the bite, and a member of the pack that turned my grandma could also track me. Fuck, probably anybody who came into contact with me and now knows my scent can find me. There are only so many places on this island that we can hide. And it’s not guaranteed that the yacht will come back with more people. It might finish the round this time because of the coming full moon.

A collection of howls ricochet through the vegetation in front of us, and I squeeze Zev tighter. We need to move. We’re too exposed on the beach. It’s too dangerous in the forest.

“I think we need to hide. We need to be able to think everything through.” Breck bounces on his bare feet, kicking sand with his nerves.

“Where? They’re everywhere. Seems like there are more wolves than ever.” Evan rubs his lips together and peers around the beach.

“We can try to find another cave,” Zev responds, adjusting me into his arms, preparing to keep me within his embrace instead of setting me on my feet. I’m grateful for it. I’m so tired. I’m in pain. All I want to do is relax and go to sleep. I don’t want to have to fight for my life tonight. I don’t want to have to fight for my freedom either.

“This might sound crazy, but I have an idea. We should head into the water. We don’t have to go far but just make it far enough from the beach that we can keep out of the way until we figure out a plan. I saw some big rocks just offshore. It’s swimmable.”

Jeff motions down the beach.

“I don’t think Sasha’s going to be able to swim that far. We’re going to need something to help us float.” Evan turns and looks at Zev. “What do you suppose we use?”

“We can use our clothes,” Breck says, tugging at his shorts. “They’re not as good as pants, but we should be able to tie up the legs and inflate them. It was something my dad taught me. We just need to get them wet. And since we’re already going into the water... who wants to volunteer? We don’t need everyone naked.”

The four of them look at each other, silently arguing with their eyes.

“Should we play Rock-Paper-Scissors?” Jeff asks, raising one of his eyebrows, clearly not amused about the possibility.

“Since it was Breck’s idea...” Zev tries to keep a straight face.

“I’m not going to fucking expose my dick as fish bait.” Breck throws out his hands.

“You’re right. Some damn guppy will mistake your junk for a tiny worm or some shit.” Evan punches him in the arm.

I can’t help laughing. “Don’t be ridiculous. They’ll definitely mistake it for an eel. But if you guys are too concerned, somebody can squeeze into my shorts, and I’ll go naked. I just don’t think these are big enough to use.”

Zev groans and shakes his head. “That’s not necessary, Sasha. I’m not going to be a little bitch about swimming naked. It’s not the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done. I’ll volunteer.”

I smile at him and surprise him with a kiss. He relaxes and molds his lips to mine, acting as if he’s starving for my affection. It makes me feel a bit better about how he acted earlier. Maybe he’s not as upset as I thought. Maybe it was something else. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter right now. We have more important things to worry about.

“Damn. I volunteer if I can kiss you next,” Breck says, playing with the strands of my messy hair.

Zev spins toward the water, yanking down his shorts in the process. He kicks them at Breck and manages to smack him in the face with them.

“Too late, asshole. I’m also going to swim with her. Make the device. I don’t want to wait much longer.” Zev marches toward the water, his heart beating loudly enough for me to hear.

His action gets everyone else to follow his lead, and I hug him tighter as we enter the waves. The water feels colder than before, less tropical. I can’t help shivering as Zev heads deeper and deeper.

Breck swims up next to us, his weird flotation device surprising me. The wet fabric manages to hold the air in the shorts. I’m pretty impressed. I had no idea such a thing was possible, but I guess I should be more open, all things considered.

“Everyone stay close. You don’t need to swim fast. Try to save your energy.” This comes from Tristan. He treads water beside us, and I bob in Zev’s arms as he kicks to keep us afloat.

“Sasha, can you hold onto my back? It’ll be easier with both arms free.” Zev rests his forehead to my temple, brushing my skin with his lips.

I nod my head, letting Evan help me swim in place as Zev spins around. I slide my arms around his neck and hold on using one leg to help him kick. My other one hurts too badly to move.

He swims forward, following Breck, and Evan remains by Jeff’s side, ensuring that he can handle the stress of swimming as he heals.

I don’t know how much time passes, but it feels like forever. The longer I hold onto Zev the colder I get. Out here, I can’t hear the wolves, but the roar of the sea is just as intimidating.

Jeff points his hand, and I look in the direction he motions to. I expect to see the rocks, but fear tightens my chest and what appears before us. It’s not the rocks or land.

“It’s the yacht,” Breck says, swimming ahead. “Do you think they’ll see us? The rocks are over there.”

I flick my gaze to where Breck points next. The rocks look a lot bigger than I expected them to. And thankfully, they’re not that far.

Evan splashes up next to us. “I don’t think we should go to the rocks. We need to go to the fucking boat. If they don’t know we’re here, we might be able to fight them.”

“They’re probably armed.” Jeff frowns with his comment.

“If you’re not willing to risk it, you can take Sasha and wait on the rocks. I’m going. This might be our only chance. It’s dark out and all the wolves seem to be hunting on the island, looking for us. They won’t be looking in the water.” Evan heaves a breath, swiping the water from his face.

“I’m in. We don’t have much to lose,” Zev says.

“Fucking fine. It’s better if we stay together.” Breck adjusts his bag. “We still have a knife. We can use it.”

Jeff groans. “If Sasha is willing, then I’ll do whatever you guys want to do. We need to agree though. All of us.”

The four of them look at me. All I can think about is how I need to get away from here. I need far, far away from the packs who either want to breed with me, capture me and cage me, or control me. I need to go home.

“We can always come back for Dustin,” Evan adds.

“No, man. He wouldn’t want that.” Jeff crinkles his nose with his words.

I nod my head, inhaling and exhaling slowly. “He’s right. As much as I hate the idea of leaving him behind, we don’t know what’s happening. And if I start to change, you need to...” I let my words trail off.

“We’re going to handle it. But first, we need to take that boat.” Zev takes the initiative and swims, moving in the direction of the yacht.

“Hell yeah, we do.” Breck swims up next to us, offering me a smile. “Sasha is going to kick some fucking ass. You’ve seen her.”

I roll my eyes. “I’ll just flash my boobs, and you can do all the hard work.”

He chuckles. “That’s what I’m talking about. These fucking wolves are going down, and they’re not taking us with them.”