Hammer and Anvil: Chapter Two

The Hammer and the Anvil
Book One of Forging the Bond

Chapter Two
Plummet

The next morning, after showering and getting dressed in the large communal bathrooms at the end of the hallway, the group in their cabin trooped toward the main building for breakfast. Amanda mixed hot chocolate with her morning coffee, grumbling under her breath about the futility of trust exercises as she wondered if she would survive the day.

Josie was the sort you couldn't talk to until her third cup of coffee, and Peter wasn't much better that morning, so she sat at the table closest to the window and stared out, wondering if she might see any wildlife. She had never been close to deer or moose or any of the other wild things that lived in the forest and wasn't that keen to be anywhere near them. Seeing them through a window didn't sound too dangerous though, so she kept her eyes peeled as she picked at her food and sipped her drink.

Toby stood at the front of the room and waited for their attention. "Finish your breakfast and then we are all going outside to start the trust exercises."

"Trust should be earned, not given away," Amanda groused as they formed a loose circle twenty minutes later.

The first exercise of the day was simple. Just fall backwards into the arms of coworkers. For Amanda it wasn't too scary, simply because she lived in a northern state, which meant ice in the winter. Ice meant falls, and lots of them. She could handle that much if they dropped her.

Before she knew it, she was done. Two of her coworkers caught her, then she helped catch two others, and partially dropped a third before they all moved on to an obstacle course. Groans could be heard from nearly all of them. Amanda peered over at Toby, who looked a little green as he stared over the course, then peeked back at her.

"Alright," the blonde man who had met them that morning called out. Amanda thought she'd heard one of the others call him James. He hadn't left their sides since they'd headed out of the main cabin that morning. "You've all been paired up. I have to go help a neighbor, but my brother, Mark, will be out in just a minute. You have your assignments. Stick to the path. The blindfolds and handgrips are in this box. Just grab them and get ready. Wait for Mark to get here before you start," he added, then waved and walked away.

Toby had the list of groupings. Amanda let out a soft sigh as he pointed to her and a young man named Edgar approached. She didn't know him very well, and what she did know didn't bode well for this sort of exercise. He handed her a blindfold and a hunk of rope that had two loose round ends. It wouldn't tighten, which meant if she started to fall, she could catch herself. Still, the thought of having anyone lead her through an obstacle course was scary, and it being Edgar of all people was worse.

Not that he was a bad guy. He was just a vague sort who seemed to forget what he was doing half the time. He wore large coke-bottle glasses which certainly didn't inspire confidence. Amanda wasn't sure exactly what his job was. Some sort of coding for security purposes, she thought. He didn't talk to many people however, and she couldn't recall actually having a conversation with him. Even as she took the proffered items, he didn't say a word. A minute later she had the blindfold over her eyes and her hands clung to the outer edges of the ropes.

Edgar took her by the arm and started leading her through the woods. It was less than ten steps before their first mishap. Edgar led her right under a tree, and she smacked her forehead into a low-hanging branch. Cursing under her breath she sent a frown in his general direction. His mumbled apologies didn't dampen her frustration.

Hedging her bets, Amanda peeked out from under the blindfold several times. She certainly didn't trust Edgar to get her through safely. Twigs and small branches tripped her every few steps, and she scraped her arm on another branch Edgar missed. 'Seriously bad move,' she thought to herself, 'letting Edgar the Blind lead Amanda the Biggest Klutz in History.' She let out a heavy sigh and continued to peek.

The pair climbed over a small stone bridge, around a massive rock, and under several tall trees. Amanda was growing more frustrated by the minute, her sighs audible to Edgar, who winced every time she bumped or scraped against something. Still, he continued to lead her on.

"Are we nearly done yet?" Amanda asked, her irritation making her voice waspish in spite of knowing it wasn't Edgar's fault he had been chosen to be her guide.

"I don't -" Edgar's reply was cut off by Amanda's scream as she suddenly plummeted into a large, deep hole in the ground.

The hole was nearly seven feet deep, but to Amanda, who was falling blindly, the trip down seemed to take a hundred years. She let go of the cord she'd been holding behind her back, and reached out with both hands, grasping blindly at anything that could halt her downward momentum. Dirt and weeds met her clutching fingertips, and then she hit the ground with a thud and felt her leg snap.

For a long moment shock prevented the pain from reaching her, and then Amanda began to scream. She took a breath and let out another scream, her mind filled with pain and panic. She was hurting, alone, and couldn't see. For just a moment she thought she'd gone blind, until she remembered the blindfold and tore it off her face, scratching her cheeks in the process.

When she looked up, Amanda could see Edgar leaning over the edge of the sinkhole, his hands outstretched as though he had intended to catch her. His hair was wild, his glasses askew, and it looked as though he was only seconds away from crying his eyes out. Within moments most of her coworkers had joined him at the edges of the hole, staring down at her with looks of shock and sympathy, but none of them seemed ready or able to help her out of the pit.

"Do something!" she yelled, panic and pain making her voice hoarse. "Get me out of here!"

Still they did nothing. The group stood there, looking at each other, then down at her. It was as though each of them was waiting for someone else to make the first move. No one did. Mentally she was screaming for help, and in pain, but she simply stared back up at them, waiting for one of them to break free of the stupor they were in and help her.

"Help me," she whimpered, the pain growing stronger as time passed.

Amanda sat there, pain making her sweat, tears streaming down her face, and the wet earth dampening her jeans, wondering what would happen if no one ever got her out. Would she be in the hole forever? The ground was damp and smelled musty and pungent. Worms were crawling around on the floor and walls of the sinkhole and she knew there had to be other bugs as well. It was colder in the pit than above and she shivered wildly.

"Come and get me!" she yelled.

Still, no one moved. It was as though they were all paralyzed with shock and fear. Meanwhile it seemed as though a thousand years had passed while she waited in the bottom of the hole. And she was worried about shock. Looking around, Amanda concluded that she couldn't climb out on her own. The walls were muddy and there were no thick roots to grab onto, even if she had two good legs.

'Please,' she thought desperately, 'please someone help me.'

"Get out of the way damnit!" she heard someone yell from a distance. Several people were yanked backward away from the hole.

The man who appeared then looked like a god to Amanda, who was damp, muddy, and covered in blood, sweat, and tears. Though she recognized him from the morning before, she didn’t really know him, though in that moment, if felt as though she did. She sniffled once as she stared up at him. He had blonde hair, messy and a bit overlong. His shoulders were broad and heavily muscled, and he had the slightly crooked nose of a man who'd been forced to fight once or twice. Amanda let out a sigh, half relief, half longing. Even in pain her body responded to him, which was unusual, even for her.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his voice calm, though his eyes had a wild look of someone on the edge of dangerous action.

"I don't know," Amanda admitted, unsure what else to say. She was sure her leg was broken, though she studiously avoided looking. The last thing she needed was to add vomiting to her already messy look.

"Is anything broken?" he asked, concern etching his voice. She wished he had started with another inquiry. Anything was better than looking down.

"My leg. I heard it snap and it feels broken." Still she refused to look. She was sure it was, but it felt different than the few other times she had broken bones. She was trapped in the bottom of a pit, feeling helpless, and she wasn't sure how bad the break was. All the others were clustered together around the sinkhole, still staring down at her, as though they had nothing better to do than gawk at her. She wanted to be out of the pit before she assessed the damage.

The man, who she immediately dubbed Mr. Hunk, urged the others away from the sinkhole with a series of gestures, swear words, and the sheer force of his nature. He turned away for a long minute. Amanda felt bereft without his eyes on her. She let out a choked sob, but he immediately turned back and threw one end of a rope down to her.

"Tie this around your waist and under both of your legs," Mr. Hunk ordered, his tone firm and calm.

Amanda grabbed the rope like the lifeline it was, and followed his instructions, trying it in a loop around her legs and then her waist. Her trembling fingers messed up the operation several times, but eventually the deed was done. While Amanda's leg throbbed like a giant sore tooth, her mind was filled with images of the strong man above her, who looked like a god in her current situation. How had she not noticed how gorgeous he was the day before?

Finally, the rope was secure and the man began hauling her up, without the aid of any of the others, who stood still as statues, faces pale and ashen. One hand over the other, the gorgeous man lifted her out of the hole and straight into his arms. She grunted in pain several times, and the man winced in sympathy, but kept his face calm.

Amanda felt like swooning the moment he was holding her. The pain as his arm came under both her legs was intense, but she focused on not vomiting all over him, using his chiseled cheekbones and the delightful cleft in his chin as a focal point. He smelled divine; perspiration mixed with a woody aftershave. Amanda was strangely content to be hauled around by him.

Staring up at the man while he moved quickly out of the crowd of her coworkers, Amanda could tell he was completely focused on the task at hand. He didn't seem to even notice the presence of the others. A strange urge to pull him down for a kiss tugged at Amanda, but she ignored it, secretly wishing she had a little less willpower. He was hot.

She hardly noticed the opening of the cabin door, or the change in light. When the man settled her onto the couch however, she nearly screamed at the pain. It hit her like a ton of bricks, the helpful fog disappearing in an instant. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and hoarse sobs forced out of her, shaking her entire body in the process. Frustrated that she was an ugly crier, she sniffled miserably as Mr. Hunk handed her a wad of tissues. The woman, Amanda couldn't remember her name, who ran the front desk and the food preparation, was on the phone speaking rapidly.

"We have an injured guest," she said softly. "Definitely a broken leg, but I don't think it's a compound fracture. Seems to be going into shock. She's shaking and crying."

Amanda shivered in response to her words and was surprised when a thick woolen blanket was wrapped around her shoulders. The gorgeous man tugged it close under her neck and fiddled with it for a moment, his glacier blue eyes never leaving her. He grabbed a pair of scissors and cut a line up the side of her leg, pulling the denim of her jeans away so he could take a look at the visibly broken bones.

Amanda shuddered and turned away from the sight. She felt spacy and cold, like she was standing inside a refrigerator, and her thoughts wandered away from what was happening to and around her, into the territory of what she might design for a web page for a place such as the one where she was currently trapped. Even the soft couch seemed to reach up and suck her in, making her feel like she was sinking into a cocoon.

Time seemed to fracture. Before Amanda could figure out what was happening there were the thwap, thwap, thwap sounds of heavy rotors. A helicopter had landed and in moments two men had entered the cabin. She was bundled up and the gorgeous man who had rescued her carried her out to a helicopter where a woman was readying to leave the moment she was loaded.

Surprise filled her when Amanda realized the gorgeous man had climbed into the helicopter with her. Something told her she should know who he was, but her mind wouldn't connect. She felt detached and cold. Mr. Hunk settled her into the chopper and then he had her hands and was rubbing them while one of the men prepared a needle and a thick plastic bag filled with clear liquid. She hardly flinched when the needle went into her arm, her eyes seemingly caught in the icy blue depths of her rescuer as he still chaffed the fingers of her free hand.

Feeling very silly, as she was still blubbering like a baby, Amanda sniffled, but couldn't look away. She wasn't sure exactly what was happening, which wasn't normal for her. She was always in control. It wasn't as though she hadn't broken bones before. Why this felt so different she couldn't understand.

Settling her entire focus on her hero, Amanda let the others take control. It wasn't something she did very often, and it felt strange, but the odd lassitude that had overcome her didn't dissipate. She let herself gaze into the comforting eyes of the man who still hadn't let go of her hand, and her mind drifted away, time flying as fast as the chopper. Before she knew it, Amanda was being unloaded and wheeled into the hospital.

Amanda lost sight of the gorgeous hunk only twice over the next several hours. The first time a nurse pushed him gently out of the room, pulled the curtain around the bed and carefully helped Amanda out of her shirt and bra and into a hospital gown, explaining that because she’d had such a bad fall they wanted to check for other possible injuries. Amanda knew the routine, but she wasn’t feeling at her best. She was given medication but wasn’t entirely sure what it was.

The second time Mr. Hunk disappeared from view was during her x-rays. He had growled a bit, at being separated, and for some reason the throaty reverberations made Amanda feel safer. She couldn’t have explained it had she wanted to, and at the moment she wasn’t ready to even think about it, let alone explain.

Both bones in her lower leg were broken. The tibia was a simple sheer break, but the fibula was slightly jagged. The nurse explained they were going to give a local anesthetic when they reset the bones. She grabbed the hand of the nurse before she could turn away. “I uh, I’m a red-head,” she said, not sure exactly how to explain. She heard Mr. Hunk laughing and glared at him.

Unfortunately, she had the curse many red heads seemed to struggle with. Anesthesia didn’t always work properly on her. She’d had one compound fracture when she was a teen and had been given general anesthesia to put her to sleep while it was repaired. She’d woken during the process, panicking. And her dentist dreaded her appointments almost as much as she did.

“You’ve had problems?” the nurse questioned, apparently understanding.

“In my medical records,” Amanda explained. “The ones that worked are listed.” The last thing she wanted was to experience the full pain of a ‘fracture reduction,’ as the doctors always called it. Like that made it any different than resetting a bone. She sighed.

“I’ll let the doctor know. Thanks for telling me.”

As soon as she was gone Mr. Hunk quirked an eyebrow at her. Amanda wanted to ignore him but sighed again. “Redheads and anesthesia don’t always mix.”

“Huh,” was his only response. She rolled her eyes. After a short time, she fell asleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Mark wasn't accustomed to feeling helpless.

"Both bones in her lower leg are broken, and she was in shock," Mark said, a sigh filtering out as he watched the petite red-head shift uncomfortably on the thin hospital bed she'd been transferred to.

They hadn't set the bones yet, which worried him, since she couldn't seem to stay still. The x-rays had seemed to take forever, and now they were waiting for the doctor. The young woman had long since stopped crying, but in spite of blankets straight out of the warmer, she was still shivering.

"But she's going to be okay?" Jenny asked. She sounded panicked herself.

Mark could understand. He was nearly insane with worry when he had heard her screams. “Yes. She’s come out of it now. The doctor said her case of shock was mild. Apparently, this isn’t her first time breaking a bone.”

“Poor thing. What do we do to help her?”

“I have no idea Jen,” Mark answered, worried. “I’ve never heard of something like this happening before.”

“Me either,” Jenny murmured. “Let me make a few calls and see if anyone knows what to do.”

After thanking his sister and setting up a ride back to the retreat, Mark sat in the chair next to the hospital bed and sighed, staring at the young woman. How had she come to be in such a state? And why was she so weak he had hardly heard her screams?

He leaned back in the chair, took her hand in his, and sighed. It seemed as though she felt better when he was touching her. While he didn’t fully understand the bond, he had enough knowledge of it to know she needed him now. How had everything changed so drastically? He could remember only a week before being so secure in himself, and now he felt like the world had been pulled out from under his feet. It didn’t matter, he would land fine, and bring her safely with him.

When he and his siblings had driven into Portland the morning before Mark had driven the van Amanda had ridden in. He had caught sight of her, even thought she was pretty, but hadn’t taken much notice. Except, he realized, he had seen a lot more than he had believed at the time. When he had heard her scream, Mark had known who it was, seen an image of her in his mind.

They’d gotten there a bit early the day before. The girl was probably the second or third to arrive after they had. All three had been starved for coffee and none of them were morning people. Mark had done his best to smile and nod at people, but thankfully had the excuse of driving on darkened roads through miles of forest to avoid being talkative.

But he had seen Amanda Pelletier arrive. Had seen her gulping a large coffee and eating a doughnut before exiting her car. He had seen the way she twisted her hair up and used a pencil to hold it in a bun. Mark had seen a lot of things. Her cute little tush, the breasts that seemed slightly too large for her petite frame, her slightly overwide hips that made him feel…

He shook his head. A hospital was no place to try and fight an erection. With a sigh he stared at her closed eyes. They were hazel. The colors had changed so rapidly when he was carrying her from the sinkhole into the cabin earlier. He had been able to see her confusion, her pain, her need. Never before had he been so pulled to another person. Never had he felt so fearful for anyone but his family.

Then again, the girl was his mate. It was supposed to be that way, wasn’t it?

Mark ran the fingers of his free hand through his hair. He was frustrated. With himself, and with the young woman in front of him. With nature itself for putting her in danger. There were so many unanswered questions.

How had he seen so much of the young woman without even trying? He could probably recite everything she had done since the moment he met her, but he hadn’t been watching. At least not intentionally. He wished he knew what the hell was happening and why he had suddenly found his mate in the most unlikely of places.

Her smell was driving him crazy. Even obscured by dirt and blood, he could smell something sweet and tangy. It wasn’t just pleasant, it was intoxicating. He wanted nothing more than to grab her into his arms, bury his face in her neck and smell her. And then he could lay her in his bed, where nothing could ever harm her, and he would spread her open and-

The entrance of a doctor, a nurse, and an orderly into the room stopped his train of thought just in time. Mark willed his erection down, mentally swearing at his body to behave, and let out a frustrated sigh. He stood and moved the chair out of the way before he grabbed her hand again.


~*~*~*~*~*~

They ended up giving Amanda a strong pain medication nearly an hour before they used the anesthetic and began setting the bone. The handsome man who had followed her into the hospital sat next to the metal table and held her hand. She didn’t feel the pain, exactly, but she could feel a pressure and scraping that made her extremely nauseous.

Afterwards, wrapped in blankets fresh from the warmer, Amanda lay back on the exam table, tears streaking her cheeks, and closed her eyes. She was fairly sure she dropped off once or twice. She was very worried about drooling in front of her hero, but she felt so exhausted.

She could feel him there, in the room, probably staring at her with that odd look of confusion he’d had most of the afternoon. Then again, Amanda couldn’t figure him out either. Nothing seemed to make sense anymore. It was so quiet. Amanda felt like she had to say something or burst.

“My name is Amanda.”

“Mark,” the hunk answered, his voice rough. His jaw was clenched, and Amanda worried he didn’t like her for some reason. It wasn’t like she had fallen into a sinkhole on purpose.

“Well, thank you Mark.” Amanda peered up at him.

Finally, he nodded his head. She turned hers away, gritting her teeth, frustrated that he didn’t say more. She was keenly aware that she was sweaty, covered in dirt and blood, and that she had ten pounds that seemed to adore her hips and butt and would never flee no matter how much she worked out. Amanda guessed he didn’t care for her very much and that she was ruining his day. He was probably worried she would sue.

She shook her head. She wasn’t like that. If it had been their fault, she would ask them to pay for medical bills and any time she lost, but no one could predict a sinkhole, or that her boss would pair her with someone who could hardly see.

“You don’t have to stay,” she whispered. “I’m not suing you.” She gulped when she said it, but if he didn’t start talking the only other option was to drive him away. She hated awkward silences and she could still feel his eyes on her. She’d spent too much time watching her parents in their silent battles to handle silence with a near stranger. At least her parents were semi-separated, but even now there was still hostility. She sighed again.

Mark grunted. That was all he did. He sat there, holding Amanda’s hand, but was looking out the window, sitting with her in complete silence until she started to squirm. She found she was extremely uncomfortable and couldn’t seem to hold still.

“Really, I’m fine,” she lied.

She most definitely wasn’t fine. The painkillers weren’t really stopping the pain and she was feeling nauseous and dizzy. Not to mention Hottie-Mc-Cranky-Pants still wasn’t talking. “You can go if you want,” she said deliberately, hoping he would take the hint.

“No.”

Amanda stared at him in shock for a long moment, then decided she would just sit there quietly too. There wasn’t a point trying to talk to him. She drifted off to sleep even in the uncomfortable paper gown on an examination table in the emergency room, with a stranger holding her hand.

Half an hour later she woke when the doctor came in for a final check and to go over her discharge papers. Amanda had to take her hand back to sign them. It felt strange. Letting go of him made her sad. She watched as the nurse shooed him out of the room for a second time so she could help her dress.

A pair of sweatpants had been doctored to fit around her cast and the nurse helped her into them while Amanda gratefully put her bra and shirt back on. She handed Amanda the crutches and went through the now-familiar speech about not resting her armpits on them. She only nodded and smiled.

Mark returned to the room the moment the nurse opened the door and moved to stand next to her as another nurse brought in a wheelchair. He picked her up off the bed and put her into it, nodding to the nurse as he did so. Amanda gaped at him for a minute. She had a cast on now and could move without further damage to her leg, but he’d just picked her up again. Her heart raced as she watched him shrug.

Amanda had no idea what was going to happen next. She had no plans, and no clue if anyone else had made any. Was she going straight home or back to the retreat? Was she going to be put into a hotel to manage on her own for a night? She hadn’t considered any of those things before and her mind was racing. She was on pain medication and had no clue what choices she could make.

The nurse wheeled her to the exit with Mark keeping pace beside her. Amanda breathed deep the moment she was outside. Then she smiled as a very sheepish looking Toby held up a bag full to the brim with all the chocolate he’d been able to find. “This is just a start, I promise,” he said.

Amanda laughed. “You better. I told you this would happen.”

Mark’s arms suddenly went around her, and Amanda gasped as he lifted her out of the chair and into the second row of the van. Toby climbed into the front seat and grabbed her purse, handing it back to her. “Josie told me you have to take dramy-something-or other,” he explained.

Mark took the bag and handed it to her, putting himself in front of the seat, blocking the space between them until Toby turned around and faced the front. Amanda glared at Mark. How dare he ignore her and then stop her from having a conversation with her boss. She opened her mouth to yell at him, but he murmured, “meds,” at her. Shaking her head, she grabbed the bottle and shook out two pills. After taking a slug of water she popped the pills into her mouth and swallowed.

The anti-nausea medicine added to the drowsiness she had already been feeling. Her eyes closed without her permission and she fell asleep even before Toby pulled the van away from the curb. She felt Mark adjust her in the seat before he climbed forward and sat next to Toby. But then she was lost in dreams of a massive purple-scaled dragon standing over her protectively as some unseen enemy approached. The dragon raged and screamed, and Amanda could see, over to the side, a dragon with deep blue scales was glowing and before her eyes he changed into a man with hair the same color as her own. Even in sleep tears poured down her face.

~*~*~*~*~*~

It was nearly nine at night when the van pulled up beside the porch. The lights were all on and it looked to Mark as though everyone was still awake. He sighed, turning to look over his shoulder at Amanda. She was still out of it. What she needed was rest, not to be hounded by her co-workers, or his siblings. It had come as quite a shock that his mate had screamed for his help, and not just for him.

He climbed out of the van and opened the sliding door behind his seat. Amanda didn’t even stir. He had pulled a blanket over her during the drive. Now he wrapped it around her further and lifted her into his arms. He nodded his head toward the crutches. Toby seemed to understand and immediately picked them up.

“Should we tell the others to go away?” Toby asked. Even though he didn’t like the man, who had put his mate in danger, he had to respect his quick thinking.

Mark sighed. “They’ll probably want to see for themselves that she is alright. You could go in first and make sure they don’t make a lot of noise.”

He waited a full minute after Toby disappeared inside before making his way carefully up the steps, his precious bundle held close to his chest. Other than his siblings and his parents no person had ever been as important to Mark, and he didn’t even know her. He didn’t want to let her go. Holding her in his arms felt right.

In spite of Tony’s warnings everyone wanted to crowd around Amanda. He frowned and hurried around them to the infirmary. He would put her there to keep her safe. It was the best place for her, other than his bed, though it would be a while before she was ready to take that step, he was sure. He gently laid her on the bed and pulled several more blankets from under the cupboard, piling them on her.

Once Mark was sure she was comfortable he lay on the couch beside the bed and stared at the beautiful petite redhead who was his mate. What would she think of him? Would she like him, or hate him? It seemed she knew nothing of their kind. At least, she hadn’t responded to his mental pleas. She was certainly the one who had called to him, but she didn’t know who, or what, she was.