Chapter 14: Connie

My dinner with the two families was quite an experience. I might have been accepted as a co-wife by Maria but I didn't truly believe I'd ever fit in totally. I was the only norm at the table. Shit, the three wolves were even enhanced.

It was strange to see them all sitting around the table when they were "talking" to Kyle. You could tell they were doing something by the look in their eyes but there was no sound, no words, no other indication. At one point I saw Burt get angry and then become determined. Grace looked ready to cry at that point. I guess that's when Kyle really screwed up and Burt did what he had to do.

I'll tell you one thing. I'm glad I didn't have to make the decision Burt did. Can you imagine having a brand new co-wife and having to sentence her son to death? He'd recently done the same with the men at that camp but they weren't family. Kyle was one of the few enhanced, he was Grace's son and Burt's daughter was pregnant with his child. Like I said, I wouldn't want to be in his shoes.

I was able to separate the two parts of my life a lot easier than I'd anticipated. At one moment I was a junior member of the family, the next I was a soldier on a special assignment. It was like Burt threw a switch. I could look at my actions, feelings and emotions as a family member but that part of me was completely compartmentalized and had no effect on my current activities. Instead of being Burt, my husband, the man who gave me my orders was the Senior.

I took the time to read the order I was to deliver once I got out to the barn. It was basically what the Senior had already told me. I rolled up the order and put it away, saddled up a fresh horse, filled my quiver with arrows, picked up my bow and headed toward The Town.

It didn't get dark until around 9:00 this time of year and it was just past 7. I could ride flat out because I didn't have anyone else to worry about. Alfie could take care of himself.

Alfie had gone off to the side of the trail, probably to grab a quick bite to eat and catch up with me later. I heard something as I passed a clump of boulders up on a hill on my other side, then saw a shape flying at me in my peripheral vision. Something hit me slightly below my left shoulder blade and then there was a pair of strong arms wrapped tightly around me. I went flying off the horse and hit the ground with the right side of my body, my face getting the hardest impact. The wind was knocked out of me and his arms were like a python around my chest. I lost consciousness.

He woke me when he yanked on the collar of my shirt, ripping it down the front, exposing my breasts. I'm not sure if it was the sound of the ripping cloth or the pressure of the back and sides digging into me or both. I discovered that my hands were tied behind my back and that he'd wrapped something from my wrists up to my elbows, which were touching. My body is exceptionally limber so he was able to do it without dislocating a shoulder or two but I'm glad I wasn't awake to feel it when he tied my elbows together. My legs were also tied together, but only at the ankles. It was a pretty safe bet that I wouldn't be able to untie them, trussed up the way I was.

I saw my quiver of arrows over to the side. My bow was next to it but it was missing its bowstring. That must be what he used to tie me up. My skinning knife had been removed from my belt and was a few feet from the rest of my arsenal.

This was the first time I'd be able to get a good look at him. It was Kyle but he wasn't the same person that had eaten dinner with us. This man was obviously insane. You could see it in his eyes and in the bead of drool coming out the corner of his mouth.

"You're a nice one. This is going to be fun. Let's see how Mr. Patrone likes sloppy seconds." He made a cackling noise that sounded more animal than a human.

This was a mad dog and it needed to be put down.

He undid my belt and ripped it out of the belt loops, lifting and turning my body as he pulled it out. Now that hurt my arms and shoulders.

He tore open the button at the top of my fly, pulling it apart, ripping the other buttons out of the holes, then started tugging the pants down. I was scared. I have no problem with sex, even rough sex, but this wasn't going to be sex. That look in his eyes confirmed it would be more like punishment and torture. I represented the authority he envied and had come to hate.

My pants were down as far as he could get them with my ankles tied together, leaving me naked from the waist to below my knees. I gave up hope on him untying my legs when he started undoing his own belt.

There was a noise from the far side of the trail. Kyle kept going, not hearing anything. He might have enhanced hearing but he didn't have the training I had from hunting several times a week for well over a decade.

"Alfie. Kill."

I hadn't even finished when I saw a blur shoot out from the side. It took less than a second for Alfie to go from standing to flying. His mouth was wide open and I would see his razor sharp teeth gleaming. He hit Kyle with all his weight, clamping his mouth around Kyle's neck as he did. He bit down before Kyle could get out a sound. The only indication I saw that Kyle even realized something was happening was the look of fear in his eyes just before I heard a crunch and he died. I've seen that same look from prey on a hunt when they were dead but the body didn't realize it yet.

I wondered if what Kyle had gone through was destined in the position of junior god. When Burt had been filling me in on the situation at the ranch (and he was Burt then, letting me know what to expect and what he thought my relationship with the others would be), he mentioned Kyle as an afterthought, "Of course, then, there's Kyle. He's my daughter's boyfriend." I wondered if that was the only value he held for the rest of the group. It had to be tough, thinking you're just as superior as everyone else, being considered an afterthought by your peers. The only one lower in status was his younger sister.

I couldn't imagine Val losing it like that, but then, Val wasn't excluded the way Kyle was. Val might not have been in on the decision about the bandits but he was right in the middle of the action, put in charge of the majority of the people who went out there to handle the situation. He was one of the people taking care of the prisoners, helping to free them and patch their wounds. He even helped a few of them by easing their pain and making them heal faster. Kyle got none of that.

Well, I was no longer in danger of being raped and probably killed (I'd seen that in Kyle's eyes, too) but I wasn't home free. I had my ankles tied together and my jeans holding my legs tight to just below my knees. My knife was out of reach and I don't know if it would have done me any good even if I had it in my hands. They had lost most of their feeling by now and I don't think I could have maneuvered it to saw through the bowstring that he'd wrapped guitar string tight, all the way up my lower arms.

Alfie had inspected his work and, satisfied that he'd done a good job, was now sitting, his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth, looking like he was grinning at me. I rolled over on my belly. "Don't just sit there, Alfie. See what you do to loosen this shit around my arms."

He got up and walked over to me. I couldn't see what he was doing behind me but I felt his snout pushing me as he worked on my bindings. He finally pulled back, lifting my arms up toward my shoulders, making me cry out. There was a moment of excruciating pain, then I felt something let loose and my arms were suddenly freer. They weren't completely untied but the end near the elbows was. He moved his mouth down to my wrists and he soon tugged on that (towards my waist, thank God), pulling it loose and unraveling more. I tried to move my arms apart but there still must have been a dozen or so loops around them. I needed something to pull the loops out one at a time and my hands were sort of tied up at the moment.

Alfie knew what needed to be done and, starting at the wrists, he got the first loop in his mouth and pulled. It took about five minutes for him to get most of the loops undone and I was able to move my arms enough to get the rest loose.

There was a combination of pain and relief as I was finally able to roll over and move my arms in front of me.

Alfie went to start working on the piece around my ankles but I stopped him.

"Alfie. Go get the knife." I nodded toward the stuff on the ground and the other side of Kyle's body.

He went over and picked up the bow but I was finally able to get him to bring the knife over to me. In less than a second my ankles were untied. Then I had to struggle to get my jeans back where they belonged. Not the simplest task when it hurts to move your arms and they have less than 50% normal strength.

Half the buttons didn't fit the ripped button holes and most of the belt loops were torn but I was finally able to get my pants on and held up enough so they would stay unless I tried to do some kind of acrobatics. I wondered what I was going to do about a shirt since Kyle had torn mine apart when I recalled that I had a change of clothes in my saddle bag. The ruined things went into the same saddle bag. Rosa would probably be able to use them for something.

I went over to Kyle and inspected the body. There was no way he could still be alive. His throat was torn open and his head was only attached by the skin at the back of his neck. Most of his spine was still together but it was crushed and I don't know how much support it would provide. He still had a crazed look on his face.

I got my quiver of arrows, picked up the few that had come out when he tossed it away from me and got my bow. I whistled and my horse came over. I had a spare bowstring in one of the saddle bags, something I'd made sure to have for the last eight years or so. I'd been a half day out with nothing to show for it when a string broke on me. I had to spend another four hours walking home with empty hands. What was frustrating was that the string broke when I was taking a shot on a trophy elk I'd stalked for the last couple of hours.