Leilani.

For the first few seconds after the big burly stinky men materialized out of thin air and crowded in front of us menacingly, no one spoke.

No one even moved or breathed wrongly.

We just stood there, engaging in a game of stare down while I wondered how we would navigate through this challenge without any of us getting hurt in any way.

The tips of my fingers thrummed as if possessed by some invincible energy and my eyebrows twitched uncomfortably when one of them came dangerously too close, took a whiff of my scent and drawled;

"You’re her."

I frowned. "Who?"

"You’re the girl. The Leilani girl, right?"

For a moment, I didn’t know how to respond to him. I didn’t know if to say yes or no... or whatever. I shrugged and took a step back, hiding between Kael and Zevran.

"We do not mean any harm and would like to be on our way now. So please, let us go."

My voice trembled slightly and goddess I hate it.

One of the men, the one who appeared to be their leader, cocked his eyebrows at me, and after a moment of intense stare down, he shrugged and hissed;

"No."

Caelum charged forward until he was almost standing toe to toe with the man. He let his eyes take over his body, his lower lip curling into a snarl as he hissed;

"Get off."

"A bloody werewolf!" The man snarled. "A bloody werewolf is trying to scare me!"

The laughs that rippled through the rest of them was almost embarrassing. In fact, it was embarrassing! I gritted my teeth to stop the curse word right on the tip of my tongue from escaping, and rolled my eyes when another stalked close— a little too close— toyed with a strand of my hair and hissed;

"There is nothing different about her."

"Nothing has to be different!" The big burly one snapped, "if madam Keisha says we’re killing her, then we are. We do not have to question if there’s something different about her or not."

I frowned.

Nothing different?

Can they not see the fact that I am stuck in a state of mid shift?

Can they not see my elongated lim—?

Wait, what the fuck?!

My eyes widened when I looked down at my hands and legs only to realize that the problem wasn’t that they couldn’t see my elongated limbs, the problem was that it wasn’t there. I had shifted back to normal without even realizing!

This realization made my eyebrows shoot into my hairline. It made my throat go dry and I was suddenly filled with annoyance slash apprehension.

Zevran, who noticed my frown, turned to look at me, his eyebrows cocked as he tilted his head to the side as if asking; "Is anything the matter?"

I shook my head.

Then he nodded.

I was however just about to ask the people what they intend to do to us when one of the minions standing at the back beat me to it, he asked;

"Do we have to keep waiting for Miss K or do we kill them off now?"

Kill them off... I froze.

"No, we don’t." The ’leader’ snapped, and then turning back to look at the guy who spoke, he continued; "you, go and check on Miss K, see what’s making her take so much time."

At the sound of those words, my heart dropped into the bottom of my stomach. My hands and feet instantly became clammy and I was filled with so much terror, you cannot even begin to imagine.

And why is this?

Because I knew that the so-called Miss K was Keisha and that she was currently passed out and chained up somewhere behind us— courtesy of Zevran and I.

I gulped. "I can pay you!" The words left my mouth way before I could take them back, and when it did, everyone including the triplets and Jarek who was slowly coming awake turned to look at me.

"I will pay you back whatever she paid you... even double if you let us go."

My intrusive thoughts told me that when it came down to a fight, I could take them all at once but that was all it was... intrusive thoughts.

So I shook my head to dismiss it and continued; "Triple."

I saw the greed slip into their eyes the moment I said that and while some of them pretended to be uninterested in my offer, the remaining few did nothing to hide their interest.

"Make it higher," someone said from the back but I instinctively rolled my eyes.

If the situation was any different, then I would’ve killed him first.

"No."

"Then you aren’t ready," he sneered.

It was at that moment that the one sent to check on Keisha finally returned, and from the cold distant look in his eyes, I immediately knew that there was a problem.

"She isn’t there," he said, confirming my suspicions, then turning to look at me— us— he continued; "I think there was a struggle between her and this lot. They may have hurt her."

And goddess, as soon as I heard that, everything in me stilled.

My entire body felt so cold, one would think I had been doused in cold water and my already shaking hands began to quake even more until it was visible enough to get Caelum to lace his fingers in mine.

My head snapped up when the jolts of electricity cackled between our touching skins and when I looked up to meet his gaze, he flashed me a grin and hissed under his breath; "calm down,"

His voice was so warm, if it was a different scenario then I would’ve found myself melting at the sound.

But it wasn’t.

Goddess it wasn’t.

"I found signs of struggle. I found some broken chains... but she wasn’t there. This freak must have killed Miss Keisha!"

At this blatant accusation, I froze. My heart skipped several beats all at once. I turned to him with my frown still etched onto my face and hissed; 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"I didn’t. She was there."

"Then where is she now? Who broke those chains I found on the floor?"

I couldn’t say it was me so I instinctively looked down, and for them, that was all that needed to be done for them to jump at me. The one who had called me not-special earlier cocked his eyebrows, his left eye thinning to scrutinize me as he spat; "You did."

"I didn’t." I hissed,

"Yes, you di—"

However, before he could finish saying that sentence, I vaguely heard the sound of fast air coming towards me. But because I was too slow— or it was too fast, I didn’t dodge early enough... And then there was pain.

Goddess, yes, pain.

That was all I felt. All I knew was that something sharp and stinging shot into the back of my left leg and immediately filled me with a sensation so agonizing, there were no words to describe such pain.

With a groan, I fell straight into Caelum’s arms who immediately caught me, and before I blacked out, I heard someone cluck their tongue before a familiar voice hissed;

"Ohhh, touché."