“I’ll kill you.”
His hand gave another squeeze. He knew what he was in for. A tear leaked from my eye.
“This is good enough,” Ethan said, pulling me back from the edge yet again. “Stop the car.”
The urgency in his voice didn’t leak through his emotions at all. Or maybe it did, and I didn’t notice. The human sponge was full. So full, she was ready to explode.
He removed his hand from my face—when had he taken over holding the tissue to my nose?—and gently pulled me from the car.
My legs didn’t want to support me. If not for Ethan’s arms locked around me, I would have fallen.
“Tell them to drive ahead. She needs everyone to stay back for a while. The bleeding has to stop.”
While he spoke, he dragged me. My heels bumped along the ground for several yards, then he stopped.
“Z, stand up now, or I drop you,” he barked in my ear.
That annoying, little—
He dropped me, but caught me again. The panic of thinking he’d actually let me go, gave me an adrenaline boost.
“Ass,” I whispered.
“What are you going to do about it? Come on, stand up.”
He jostled me, purposely annoying me. I yanked an arm free and swatted at him. He laughed and jostled me again.
I pushed back against him and found my own footing. Stance wide for balance, I stood there with my head hanging down. My skull pounded, and for a moment, the slight sounds of nature around us seemed as if they were under water.
“Poor little Izzie,” Ethan said in a singsong voice.
He tapped my arm. I swung out at him, wide and loose, and he easily stepped out of the way.
“That’s it? All you have is noodle arms?”
I didn’t even have that. Tired and ready to let myself fall to the ground, I exhaled.
“No, Z.”
A slap cracked against my right cheek, the one Brick had bruised. Rage ignited in me. Ethan. My eyes popped open at the same time a roar echoed in the air around us.
Ethan’s eyes were wide. They should be. Then, I noticed his focus wasn’t on me, but over my shoulder. I twisted and saw the mountain explode into a beast. It was just like the fight in the bar. One minute he was a man, the next a gigantic dog. Only, this time, we were in a field and there was no one else around.
The beast charged at us, his angry gaze on Ethan. I bent low.
“Ethan is mine,” I yelled a moment before I ran at the thing.
It tried to jump over me, but I was too full of energy to let it pass by me. I jumped up and drove my fist into its soft underside. It grunted as it twisted and fell. I landed lightly on my feet and quickly turned, ready for the next charge. But it didn’t come. Instead, the wolf stood there, growling its fury but otherwise motionless.
“Stop,” someone yelled.
I turned and looked toward the road. A group of people stood clustered around the cars. The woman with the white hair and the man with the bright grey eyes ran toward us. They were so fast. I blinked and relaxed my stance, swaying on my feet.
“No,” Ethan said, stepping close to me. His arms steadied me. “Let them go. Now.”
“Boy,” the man with the grey eyes said, “he means to kill you.”
“Hear that, Z? He wants to kill me,” Ethan said, nudging me.
“No,” the woman said. “We don’t have time for this. We need to move.”
Ethan’s slow exhale moved the hair at the back of my head.
“Fine. Ten minutes. Please.”
He turned me to face him.
“Just me and you. Show me what you got.”
My eyes watered. Ten minutes? I wished they wouldn’t have stopped Carlos.
“It’s okay, babe. I’ve got you.”
A tear leaked over the edge as I rolled my shoulders and swung. I kept the first few strikes slow, so he would get the rhythm, and I stuck with traditional boxing moves. Jab, jab, uppercut. Always right then left. He blocked the first set with ease.
“I’ve got you,” he said again. “Come on!”
Another tear fell, and I opened myself up. My hands flew. Ethan stayed with me as best he could. I kept my targets the same. Right shoulder only, until I noticed him favoring it. Then I pulled back a bit and aimed for the left. I always pulled back on the left side. It was too close to his big heart.
“Time’s up,” the woman said.
I immediately stopped punching. Ethan opened his arms, and I fell against him.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered as I sniffled.
His hand gently feathered over the lump on my head. It didn’t hurt as much.
“I know you are, Z.”
Four
When I lifted my head from Ethan’s shoulder, I saw it was just us in the field. The others had moved toward the cars once again. The mountain was no longer a wolf. He was a shirtless, angry man dressed in loose black slacks.
I stepped away from Ethan and wiped at my face.
“There’s no point to that,” he said. “You’re a complete mess.”
I stopped wiping and gave him a look. He grinned at me. I almost grinned back.
“Did I hit you anywhere too hard?”
“Not too hard. Just enough to remind me to keep up with you.”