Shutting off the lights, she stood in the darkness for a few minutes, smelling the sharp scent of paint. She’d done her best to fix the mess she’d been given, and she was proud of what she’d done now; she could begin teaching in a place that was warm and welcoming.
When she stepped out onto the porch, she realized just how dark it was and hurried quickly to her car. She’d never been afraid of the dark, had in fact welcomed darkness many times in her life, but that night the darkness felt different. It was charged with an energy she’d never felt before; an energy that put her on edge.
Feeling silly, she slammed and locked the door, quickly shoved the key into the ignition and turned it. But nothing happened, so she turned it again, only to hear a grinding sound. She sat there for several minutes, then pulled the key out and put it in again, hoping when she turned it this time it would start.
But when she did nothing happened, and she knew that she was stuck. Looking around the dark street, she tried to decide what to do: knock on doors until someone answered that could help or take the path through the woods home. The thought of waking a stranger up in the middle of the night made the decision for her.
Grabbing the flashlight from the glovebox, she switched it on, relieved to see its strong beam. Taking a deep breath, she got out of the car and shined the light over to where George had shown her the path to her cabin. She realized now that she hadn’t been paying very close attention that day, and the darkness made it even more difficult.
Finally, she chose a path and set off into the darkness, her heart pounding. As she walked through the woods, she kept reminding herself that she was a shifter, able to become a fierce wolf when she wanted or needed to. But she still jumped at every sound and wished she’d chosen to wake the entire town instead of taking the path through the woods in the dark.
Chapter 6
***Sophie***
Panic was beginning to swell in Sophie's chest. The trail was getting harder to follow, and she was sure that somewhere she’d taken a wrong turn. Shining her light around the forest in front of her, she spotted what she thought was the trail, but it went practically straight up the mountain.
She looked behind her, thinking about turning back, but decided after a few minutes to start up the trail. When she finally made it to the top of the rise, she was rewarded by the sight of a light burning in the distance.
Feeling renewed hope, she took a deep breath and followed the trail into the trees. It wasn’t long before she realized that it was a campfire, not lights from a cabin that she was seeing, but she plunged ahead, deciding help was help no matter where it came from.
She started calling out long before she got close to camp. “Hello, is anyone there? I’m lost,” she yelled before she could even make out the faces of the figures sitting around the fire.
When she finally stumbled into their camp, she was greeted by two men holding shotguns. A little flustered by the look on their faces, she said, “I’m sorry to bother you, but I’ve managed to get myself lost. I was hoping you could help me.”
The men stared at her, letting their eyes roam over her body, and she was sure she saw one of them lick his lips. Suddenly realizing that she’d made a mistake, she began to back out of the camp, but her foot caught on a root, and she started to fall. Reaching out blindly, she grabbed a tarp, and it slid away to reveal what she was sure was a still.
Scrambling to her feet, she continued to back away, her only thought of escape. “Well, since it looks like you’re busy, I’ll just find my way home myself,” she said, hoping they’d let her go but every instinct in her knowing different.
She felt the surge of power that came with a shift as her body registered the danger she was in. But before she could shift, Danny came walking into camp. “Oh, Sophie, what are you doing here?” he asked, completely unaware of what was happening.
“I, ummm, got lost. My car wouldn’t start so I decided to walk home,” she answered, her eyes never leaving the men. “I think I took a wrong turn somewhere.”
“She was just asking for our help,” one of the men said, then he licked his lips. “I was just thinking that we might just be willing to give her some.”
Danny looked from Sophie to the men to the uncovered still, then said, “This is the new school teacher. I’ll help her get home.” Then he turned to Sophie and said, “Let’s get you home.”
Sophie was more than ready to get away from the men, so when Danny took her elbow and guided her through camp and out the other side, she didn’t resist. She was having a hard time keeping up with the pace Danny set at first, but when they’d gotten a half-mile from the camp, he slowed down.
“I wish you hadn’t seen that,” he said, pausing to let her catch her breath.
“You mean the still? I won’t say anything,” she said, between gasps for air.
“Yeah, well, Gus and Mac might not believe that,” he said, pausing to listen. “I hope they’re not following us.”
Sophie looked back the way they’d come but all she could see was darkness, “I’ll be okay. I can defend myself.”
Danny shook his head. “Those guys are bad news; I don’t know how I let myself get involved with them. They’re wolf-shifters, Sophie,” he said, waiting for her reaction.
“Well, so am I,” she countered back, with far more confidence than she felt.
He grabbed her by the elbow, “Don’t even think about taking them on.”
Sophie heard the fear in his voice. “I won’t, I promise, and I won’t say anything about the still; that’s not why I’m here. I just want to teach school, not cause trouble,” she said.
“I’ll tell them, but first we’d better get you home,” Danny said, then pulled her down the trail.
They’d only gone a little way when suddenly the two men appeared in the path. “Fancy running into you here,” one of the men said, circling them.
“We were going to let you go home, but the more we thought about it, the more we began to think that you’re likely to tell someone about what you saw,” the other said, circling them in the other direction.
“I won’t say a word, I promise. I don’t even know where we are; I’m hopelessly lost,” Sophie said, praying that they’d believe her. “I’m just here to teach school.”
“Well, teacher, that’s the other thing: we’re thinking you might be able to teach us something,” the other man said, then licked his lips in a way that made Sophie want to retch.
Danny stepped in front of Sophie. “Gus, you’d better leave her alone, or the sheriff will be after you,” he warned.
“He can’t prove nothing if there’s no body,” Gus said, rubbing his hands together. “We haven’t had this much fun since the last teacher lost her way in the woods.”
The other man, who must have been Mac, began to laugh. “I never heard a woman scream the way that one did; too bad she didn’t last too long.”
Sophie felt her body tensing, felt power beginning to surge through her. She’d die before she let one of these men touch her, but she’d kill them first if she could. She hated shifting, always felt not quite herself when she was a wolf, but it was her only hope of defending herself.
As she gathered her strength, Danny shoved her. “Run!” he shouted at her, “I’ll hold them off; try to get away.”
She looked from him to the men, then turned and began to run, but it wasn’t long before she felt a huge hand grab her from behind. The scream that came out of her mouth pierced through the forest, but the man only laughed and picked her up.
“Don’t even think about shifting,” he said, dragging her through the forest toward the camp. “Things won’t go as easy for you if you do.”
***Jessie***
Jessie made it all the way home before he realized that he should have waited until Sophie had driven away, so he doubled back only to find her car there but empty. Suddenly filled with the sense that something was wrong, he took a second to find her scent then began to follow it up the path that led t
o her cabin.
He’d only made it halfway to her cabin when the scent left the trail at a fork. Knowing that it would be easy for Sophie to get lost up here, he began to run, hoping to catch her before she got much farther. Her scent was growing stronger as he ran. Suddenly, he heard a piercing scream ahead of him in the forest, and he knew that it was Sophie.
Stopping to get his bearings, he remembered that he’d found a still up here a few weeks ago, and his heart began to pound in his chest. If Sophie had found it and the men who ran it, it could mean big trouble for her.
When the fire came into view, and he saw Sophie struggling with a man twice her size, he felt an anger like he’d only felt one other time in his life. Glad that the moon wasn’t full, he raced into the camp, howling at the top of his lungs.
The man holding Sophie was so startled, he let go of her and she ran, but not before she looked him right in the eyes. He saw fear in her eyes, but for just a second, he was sure that he also saw recognition, that for a brief moment, she remembered him.
She’d just about made it out of camp when another man knocked her to the ground, and he heard the sickening thump of her head as it hit a rock. Anger surged through him like he’d never felt before, and it was all he could do not to rush at them both.
“If you’ve hurt her, I will find you and destroy you,” he said, between clenched teeth. “Do you know who I am?”
“It don’t matter much who you are; there’s two of us, and only one of you,” one of the men said, then stepped closer to Jessie.
Jessie struck first, and before either of the men could shift into their wolf forms, they were both lying on the ground unconscious. He rushed over to Sophie, who was seemingly lifeless, and picked her up in his arms. He looked around, trying to decide what to do, then loped off into the forest as if she weighed nothing.
As he ran, he could feel the blood dripping down his arm from where Sophie’s head had collided with the rock but didn’t want to stop to check the damage. If he were found with her in this condition, no one would even stop to question him; they’d just assume it was his doing.
So, he did the only thing that made sense and took her to his cabin. If her wounds were bad enough that she needed medical attention, he’d see to it that she got it, but for now his cabin seemed like the safest place for them both. If she’d seen the still, she was in far more danger from those men than she was from her head injury.
When he got her inside the cabin and into the bed, he looked at her head, grimacing when he saw the big gash in her skull and the lump. Hating to wake her but knowing that he had to make sure he could, he gently shook her shoulder and said her name.
It took a few tries before her eyes opened and she focused on him. When she saw him, her eyes got wide, then they got a fuzzy look, and she collapsed back on the bed. A few seconds later, her eyes fluttered open and focused on his again.
This time he spoke quickly. “You’re okay, you hit your head. I’m going to take care of you.”
“Those men…” she managed to say, but then closed her eyes, a look of pain on her face.
“I took care of them; just try to sleep,” he said. “I’ll give you something for pain in a few minutes.”
Sophie closed her eyes, and her even breathing told him that she’d gone back to sleep. Now that he knew that she wasn’t seriously hurt, he set about making her more comfortable. He’d have to clean the wound, but first, he’d give her something for the pain.
He built up the fire and heated some water, then made a home remedy for pain. Sophie woke up just enough to swallow it, but only after he told her what was in it. She’d been sleeping restlessly, but as the medicine began to work, she quieted.
After gently rolling her over on her stomach, he took some of the hot water from the stove and a cloth and did his best to clean the wound. It wasn’t deep enough for stitches; it would have been easier without her hair in the way, but he’d never consider cutting her silky red hair.
When it came time to settle her in the bed for what he knew would be a long night for them both, he stood and stared at her. Finally, he stripped off her jacket and shoes, covered her up and through some tricky maneuvers, managed to get her clothes off and one of his old tee-shirts on her.
Then he settled himself in a chair next to the bed, his hands still tingling from touching her bare skin in places he’d only imagined in his mind. It was going to be a long night, one made even longer by the memory of her warm skin under his hands.
Chapter 7
***Sophie***
As the sun began to rise, Sophie woke slowly and opened her eyes, then closed them quickly when the sunlight hit them. A throbbing pain on the back of her head confused her at first, and then the horror of the night before came back to her. The last thing she remembered was falling, then nothing after that except for a vague memory of a dark-haired man with green eyes taking care of her.
She cracked her eyes open, slowly letting them adjust to the bright light, while the pain in her head throbbed away. The man was asleep in a chair next to the bed, so she had a second to study him. His dark hair was slightly too long, and his large frame barely fit in the chair, but he was very handsome.
It should have scared her to find herself in a strange man’s bed, but as she studied him, she realized that she felt only safe and protected. The throbbing in her head was getting worse, so she laid back and closed her eyes, surprised that such a small thing could exhaust her so much.
When she opened them again, he was staring at her, his green eyes full of concern. “You’re awake,” he said, then nothing more.
Sophie tried to smile at him, but it made her wince in pain. “I’m not sure that’s a good thing,” she said, bringing her hand up to her head, which was pounding.
The man jumped to his feet. “You’ve got a pretty big goose egg on the back of your head. Let me get you something for the pain,” he said, going over to the stove and pouring something into a cup. “It doesn’t taste great, but it’ll take that pain away.”
He brought the cup over to the bed, but when she reached for it, her hands were shaking so much, he shook his head. “Let me help you so it doesn’t spill,” he said, sitting down on the edge of the bed.
Under normal circumstances, Sophie would have jumped out of the bed, but her head was pounding, and it was beginning to make her feel nauseous. She nodded her head, and he held the cup up to her lips and let her sip at the dark brew until she sat back again.
“Close your eyes again and give that a few minutes to work, and then we’ll talk,” he said, then went back over to the little stove and threw a few more pieces of wood inside.
Sophie had a million questions, but the pounding in her head was making it difficult to think clearly, so she did as he said. It only took a few minutes for the pain to begin to recede, and she opened her eyes again, breathing a sigh of relief.
The man was sitting in the chair next to the bed again. “Better?” he asked when she opened her eyes.
“Yes, thank you,” she said, managing a small smile. Then she asked, “Who are you? What happened to those men and Danny? Is Danny okay?”
The man held up his hand. “Slow down a little. I’m Jessie Rayburn, and this is my cabin. I took care of those men, at least temporarily, but I don’t know what happened to Danny. He must have run off; I don’t remember seeing anyone else.”
Sophie was quiet for a while, thinking that through. “Thank you for saving me,” she finally said. “I got lost trying to find my way to my cabin; I guess I should have tried to wake someone up in town.”
Jessie nodded. “These mountains can be dangerous, but you’re safe for now,” he said, then winced at his words.
“What do you mean for now?” Sophie asked, her heart rate going crazy.
“Well, I don’t want to scare you, but those are some rough men you met last night, and they might not like the fact that you saw their still,” he explained.
“Do you think they’ll come after me
?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
“I don’t know. In the light of day, they might decide that it’s not worth it. But I wouldn’t count on it,” he said, but when he saw her face, he added, “But you’re safe here; they’d never dare to come up here.”
Sophie wanted to believe him, but she wasn’t even sure where she was. “Where’s here? What’s going to stop them?”
Jessie took a deep breath, and she wondered why, then he said, “You’re on Swensen Mountain.”
***Jessie***
Sophie’s eyes got big, and she pulled the blanket up to her chin when she heard his words, and he knew that she’d been warned about this mountain. What she’d been told, he wasn’t sure, but whatever it was, he knew that it wasn’t good by her reaction.
She studied him for a second then said, “George warned me about this place. He said I should stay away.”
Jessie nodded. “I’m not surprised, but honestly you have nothing to fear up here. Most of what keeps people away is nothing more than mountain legends, ghosts and ghouls, stuff like that,” he answered, hoping it would be enough.
“And the rest?” she asked, studying him. Then before he could answer, she said, “I feel like we’ve met before.”
Jessie got up from the chair and crossed the room to look out the window. Then he took a deep breath and without turning around, said, “We didn’t really meet, but I’m not surprised you remember me; if it wasn’t for you, I might not be here today.”
She was silent for so long, he finally turned to look at her, and when their eyes met, he could see that she remembered that day. He watched the fear creep into her eyes, and then she whispered, “You’re the werewolf they were chasing that day.”
Jessie nodded and turned back to the window. “No one knew until the night before you saw me, and once they did, they were determined to kill me,” he said, his voice devoid of emotion, but his heart pounding in his chest. “Would you have told them I was there if you’d known?”
Third Time a Charm: Wolves of Gypsum Creek Page 4
