It pissed him off more to discover Balin had been right. He supposed, deep down, he'd known all the time that it couldn't possibly work, but he'd still thought it must have some damned effect! He'd marked her twice! Shouldn't that have some damned effect, even if she was human?
What the hell did human men use to bind their women to them?
Or maybe it was because he hadn't given her the third mark?
Not that he could have—then. He'd been pushing it to try for two so closely together.
But maybe that was why it hadn't worked? Maybe he just hadn't given the enzymes time to work their way into her blood?
If that was the case, though, he didn't understand why it had worked on him. He hadn't even given her the third mark yet and he was already feeling like killing Balin for marking her at all—and the others for encroaching on his female.
A horrible thought occurred to him. What if he mated and it worked on him, but not on her?
He
was
going to kill Balin! All that fucking mouthing off about the markings not working on Danika because she was human and he hadn't
once
suggested that it could backfire and bind
him
to her without binding
her
to him!
His preoccupation cost him.
Danika had nearly driven right up on the abandoned house she'd gone to check out before the scent became strong enough to snap him out of his thoughts. “Stop!” he all but bellowed.
Startled, Danika slammed on brakes so hard it nearly threw him into the windshield. She clutched her heart, whipping her head around to discover what had prompted him to yell at her. “You nearly scared me to...."
"Shhh!” he hissed harshly. “Put the truck in reverse and back out. NOW!"
"But what...?"
He turned to look at her. “Now, Dani!” he growled, jerking the door of the truck open and leaping out just as she complied and the truck started moving backwards.
Danika slammed on the brakes again, gaping at Dakota as he tore his t-shirt off and grabbed the front of his jeans
ripping
them from waist to crotch as if they'd been made of paper instead of the tough fabric they were and shoving them down his hips. Before she could even begin to find her voice something slammed into the side of the truck so hard it rocked the whole vehicle. She screamed, whirling toward the threat, but the horror that met her gaze sucked the breath from her lungs.
It was humanoid only in the sense that it was shaped roughly like a man. It was hairy all over—like an ape—except it was no ape. The distorted face with its long snout and wickedly long, sharp teeth was a horror unlike anything she'd ever seen in the natural world.
Her mind leapt instantly to Dakota—outside without even the little protection the truck could offer. In the split second it took her mind to grasp the situation, the thing had bounded over the hood of the truck. “Dakota!” she screamed in absolute terror, her gaze glued to the beast as it flew over the truck while she scrambled desperately to find her tranq pistol blindly with her hands. The beast touched down, briefly, on the other side, but she discovered there was another beast like the first waiting for it—launching forward to meet the attack.
She hadn't noticed the claws until the second beast ripped the chest of the first beast open with one swipe of the inch long claws sprouting from his hand—paw. The only thing more horrifying than the gashes the creature had inflicted was the fact that it didn't
kill
the one that had attacked him. He uttered a snarl, staggered back a few steps and launched himself at the second beast again.
Danika found her pistol at last and lifted it with shaking hands, scooting across the seat to the door Dakota had left open. The second beast rammed into it, rocking the truck, and slamming the door closed before she could reach it. The jolt to the truck tipped her off balance and she fell back, discharging one of the tranqs into the roof of the truck.
Both beasts whirled to look at her when the gun went off.
"Gods damn it, Dani! Go!"
Danika's jaw slid to half mast when the creature spoke to her—his words more of a growl than a human voice. She thought for several moments, in fact, that her mind was playing tricks on her and it
had
actually growled at her, not
spoken
.
She sat frozen where she was, staring in wide-eyed shock at the two beasts as they battled, slashing and biting at one another, the blood from their wounds spattering across the windshield and the window. The shattering of the glass behind her made connection with her instincts. She whirled in time to see yet another of the horrible beasts surging through the driver's wind toward her, his arm extended to grab her, his sharp teeth bared in a snarl. Whipping her pistol up, she shot him almost point blank in the mouth. He uttered a horrible guttural noise and fell back, clawing at his throat.
She stared at the thing in wide eyed horror for several moments and then emptied her pistol at it. The shattering of the other window brought her whipping around to the other side. She aimed her pistol at the creature and pulled the trigger, clicking it several times before it registered in her mind that it was empty.
"Gods damn it, Dani!” he roared at her. “If you shoot me with that thing we're both dead. Find the others. Tell them the rogues are here!"
"Dakota?” she whispered shakily.
Something flickered in his wild eyes. “Go!” he snarled and whirled away from the truck.
Scrambling back into the driver's seat, Danika jerked the truck in reverse and floored the gas pedal, careening backwards down the track she'd followed and taking out several small saplings along the way. She shot all the way across the highway when she reached it and nearly lost control of the truck completely. Screeching to a halt, she grabbed the gear and shifted into drive. The wheels of the truck spun uselessly in the grass for a moment and then caught traction and shot forward. Narrowly missing an oncoming car, she jerked the wheel in first one direction and then another to avoid the car and straighten up the wildly fishtailing truck. The drive to the site had taken twenty minutes. The drive back took ten. She swung into the drive of the fishing camp on two wheels almost rolling the truck and nearly taking out Balin and Con, who'd stopped their motorcycles on the verge of the main road.
She half fell half leapt from the truck, racing to Balin. “Things, things, things. Big—big things. Hairy! Dakota! You have to go!” she babbled hysterically.
Balin's hands tightened on her shoulders. “Slow down, Dani! You're not making any sense!"
"Is it the rogues?” Con demanded sharply.
Danika's head whipped toward him. She nodded jerkily.
"Where?” Balin demanded, giving her a shake when she merely stared at him.
"Everywhere. Everywhere! Three! No! Two! Maybe more. Maybe. You have to come now! Right now! Guns! You need guns! Big guns!"
"Tell us where, Dani!” Jared growled, frustration threading his voice.
Danika nodded and jerked free of Balin's grasp, racing to the truck again.
"She's in no state to drive!” Con growled.
"Nor any state to tell us!” Balin said grimly. “They'll kill him."
They managed to dodge the truck as Danika whipped it around in the drive, shot across the rode and into the ditch, and then out again.
"Fuck!” Con yelled. “Dani! Watch what you're doing!"
Balin revved his engine. “We'll be lucky if she manages to make it there in one piece!” he growled, shifting into gear and shooting out of the drive behind her.
Balin and Con, still in the lead, nearly slammed into the back of the truck when Danika abruptly stood up on the brake so hard she left a trail of black rubber and smoke behind the truck. Whipping around her, they cut down the narrow, rutted road she was trying to aim the truck at.
"Stay here!” Balin bellowed at her as they passed the truck.
Danika nodded jerkily, but she no idea what he'd yelled at her when he passed her. The moment Xavier and Jared sped around her and onto the track, she followed them. Xavier glanced back at her several times and finally slowed his bike to a stop. Danika stopped behind him. Parking his bike, he walked back to the truck. “Turn off the truck, sweety,” he said in a soothing voice.
Danika stared at him uncomprehendingly. “Dakota,” she said finally, bursting into tears. “I left Dakota.” She shook her head. “It wasn't really Dakota, though. They're not going to shoot Dakota, are they?"
Xavier reached inside and turned the truck off himself, pulling the keys from the ignition. “Nobody's going to shoot Dakota.” Backing through the window, he scanned the woods. “I don't like leaving you here, but you were lucky you made the drive the first two times.” He turned to study her face again. “Just stay here, sweety. Ok?"
Danika nodded. “What if those ... those things...?"
"You'll be alright here. Just don't get out of the truck and if you see one—leave. You got that, Dani? You don't drive the truck again unless you need to."
She nodded again, taking the keys when he handed them to her and trying to put the ignition key back in the ignition. He watched her until she managed to ring the hole.
When she sat back without trying to start the truck, he patted her cheek and turned away, peeling his shirt off as he strode purposefully down the track. Danika watched him until he disappeared. It wasn't until he had that she realized he hadn't had a weapon of any description—not even a club or a crowbar.
None
of them had had weapons!
Grabbing her bag, she upended it on the seat, snatching up the extra tranq darts and fumbling until she managed to reload the pistol she'd found in the floorboard. She didn't want to go back to that place in the worst kind of way, but they were unarmed. She'd sent them in there and they didn't have anything to defend themselves with against those ... monsters!
Shaking all over, she grabbed the key and started the truck, hoping she could reach them before the monsters found them.
She almost ran over the bikes, clipping one with her bumper as she swerved to avoid it and knocking it over. There were torn clothes all over the road, pieces of jeans and t-shirts. “Oh god!” she exclaimed, mopping at the tears on her cheeks. “They already got them!"
Hoping against hope that they weren't all dead already, she eased the truck around a curve and then slammed on brakes. The things everywhere! Two dead ones lay in the road where she'd been parked before, one with a half a dozen tranq darts protruding from his face, chest, and belly, the other shredded and crumpled at impossible angles. There was a trail of dead monsters and pieces of the horrible things leading up the handful still fighting in the road ahead of her.
Dakota was laying in the grass along the side of the road almost halfway between the truck and the fighting creatures. She recognized his fur—though how she could have when it was such a bloody mess she had no idea. She stared at his form hard, looking for any sign of life but she was still too far away to tell if he was alive or not.
She glanced at the monsters again, more focused on whether or not they were far enough away that she might have a chance of reaching Dakota than with the same horrified fascination as before. She was still scared to death, but she couldn't just leave him. What if he was still alive and helpless? It was still Dakota, even if he didn't look like Dakota anymore.