Wild Wolf

by Karen Whiddon

  “Zach said we could use his motorcycle.”

  “Uh, no.” She shook her head, sending her long braid flying. “There’s no way I’m getting on that thing.”

  “We don’t have a choice. We can’t stay here. We’d be trapped inside this house.” He took a deep breath. “How about…I know. There’s a bus stop not too far from here. We can hop on the bus and go anywhere we want.”

  “One of these days, I’m going to have to stop running,” she muttered. Grabbing her coat, she tossed him his. “You got your hat and gloves?”

  “In my pockets.” He pulled the hat onto his head, then put on the gloves. “Are you ready?”

  She nodded. “As ready as I’m going to be.”

  Opening the front door, he checked the sidewalk in both directions. “It’s clear. Come on.”

  They hurried up the sidewalk, turning left, heading up the hill. Their breath left white puffs of moisture in the frigid air.

  “How far?” Raven kept glancing over her shoulder.

  “Half a block.” He pointed. “There.”

  About ten people huddled around a small wooden bench. “It’s crowded, which I’ll take as a good sign. That means the bus hasn’t shown up yet.”

  “And it’ll make it more difficult to spot us.”

  “Here comes the bus.” They sprinted the remaining distance, arriving just as the bus lumbered to a stop. Climbing on board, he looked back at Zach’s house. Still no sign of their pursuers.

  “Now what?” Crossing her arms, Raven gave him a disgruntled look. “I wanted to check on Theo.”

  “We can’t go anywhere near the clinic. They’ll be watching for us.”

  After more muttering under her breath, she seemed to accept his words.

  “What about Zach? How can we make sure he’s okay?”

  “Beck said he’d call me when he had news. And I’m sure Zach will text or something, once they let him go.”

  To his surprise, Simon realized the bus was heading north on the Diagonal Highway, toward Longmont. Just his luck to snag the bus that went completely out of town.

  The first stop was at Twin Peaks mall on Hover Street, a small, older mall with a Dillard’s on one end and a Sears on the other. Raven stared hard at the buildings, making him wonder if she’d ever seen a mall before. As soon as the doors opened, she jumped up and hurried off, leaving Simon no choice but to follow her.

  He caught up with her as she barreled down the sidewalk toward the mall entrance. “Raven? What’s up? Where are you going?”

  “I saw her.” She barely spared him a glance, yanking open the door. “She went into here.”

  “Who? Who did you see?”

  Impatiently scanning the throngs of shoppers, she frowned. “The woman who looks exactly like me, though she appears much younger. The one your Society is desperately hunting.”

  Chapter 12

  F rom the skeptical expression he wore, Raven knew Simon thought she’d lost her mind. But she knew what she’d seen. The instant she’d caught a glimpse of the younger other woman, she’d known she’d seen her doppelgänger.

  Why here? But then again, why not? This aging mall would be the perfect place for them to hide from their pursuers, as well. Who would think of searching for them here?

  Simon shook his head. “That would be too easy.”

  “Or too simple.” She couldn’t hide her grin. “And if I’m wrong, and the girl I saw isn’t the one, then we haven’t lost anything. We can even grab a bite to eat.”

  “True.” He glanced around, taking in the half-full parking lot. “But there will be a lot of people inside. How are you going to find one person, especially since you’re not a hundred percent positive what you saw?”

  “At least this isn’t a large mall,” she said, wondering at his unusual pessimism. “I saw what she was wearing. I really think we should be able to find her fairly easily.”

  To his credit, Simon didn’t argue. “She could be anywhere,” he warned. “I need a visual.”

  “She’s younger than me, like maybe ten years. She’s wearing jeans and a dark green, down jacket. Her hair is in a ponytail, but is the same as mine—color, curliness, everything.”

  “Good enough,” he said and nodded. “Let’s go.”

  “You go left, I’ll go right.” Raven kept looking, searching the crowded luggage store to her left, then the jewelry store to her right. “If you see her, stop her and talk to her. Keep her talking as long as you can and I’ll find you.”

  “We’re not splitting up. No way. We’re staying together.”

  “Why?” Raven scoffed. “Do you think she’s dangerous?”

  “Of course not.” Simon gave her a look full of long-suffering patience. “Don’t forget you’re not the only one looking for her. Just because you feel anonymous here doesn’t mean we’re safe. They’re looking for her and for you. No way are we splitting up.”

  Put that way, he made sense. Raven took a second away from her frantic searching to glance at his familiar face.

  “You’re right,” she told him. “Then come on, help me look. There aren’t that many places to hide and the mall’s not crowded at this time of the day. She’s got to be here somewhere.”

  Agreeably, he ambled along beside her, checking out the stores on his side of the aisle. “What are you going to do once you find her?”

  Surprised, she frowned up at him. “Talk to her, of course. She went through the same thing I did. Maybe she even knows why your Society wants us so badly.”

  Her choice of words seemed to bother him. “Quit calling them my Society. I’m not so sure I want to be affiliated with them any longer.”

  With difficulty, Raven hid her shock. Simon didn’t appear to realize the magnitude of his revelation. All along he’d been insisting his treatment by the Society was some sort of error. Now, he appeared to realize the truth—something was very wrong.

  “Let’s head toward the Sears store.” Pointing, she started leading the way, checking into every small shop on her side. “Since she parked at this end, I’m going to assume she wanted one of these stores. We shouldn’t have to walk very far to find her.”

  Half an hour later, after diligently scanning every small store, they stopped in front of the Sears.

  “I’m beginning to think she didn’t come here to shop.” Raven couldn’t keep the glumness from her voice. “She probably thought this would be a good place to lay low and while away some hours, like I did.”

  Simon didn’t disagree. “Maybe we should return to the entrance where you first saw her. She’ll eventually go out the same way.”

  “If she hasn’t already left.” Straightening her shoulders, Raven turned around and began trudging back the way they’d come. As they passed a long hallway with a sign pointing to the restrooms, she glanced down it, catching a glimpse of what looked like a green, down coat before the woman turned the corner.

  “I think she’s down there.” Grabbing Simon’s arm, she tugged, half pulling him down the hallway. Heart pounding, she kept herself to a brisk walk when in fact she wanted to run.

  They turned the same corner, which dead-ended into a space with two restroom doors, one marked Women and the other marked Men.

  “Wait for me,” she said, pushing at the women’s door.

  “Hold on.” Simon grabbed her back. “Take it easy. You’ve got to go slow, like you were approaching a wild wolf. The last thing you want to do is frighten her.”

  He talked as if Raven’s look-alike might be Feral. Though she hated the word, she had to consider he might be right. “I’ll be careful.”

  She pushed the door open. Inside the restroom, only one stall was occupied. Excellent. At least their first meeting would be in private. Arms crossed, feeling oddly defensive, Raven waited.

  A moment later, the commode flushed and the stall door swung open. A young woman, a teenager really, emerged. The instant she saw Raven, her gaze darted toward the doorway, as if she contemplating making a dash f
or it.

  Why?

  Raven stepped into her path. “Don’t be frightened. I won’t hurt you. I think you know who I am. Maybe we should talk.”

  “Go away,” the woman said. “I didn’t ask for you to bother me. Leave me alone.”

  That voice…uneasy now, Raven hesitated. It was her voice, inflections, accent and all. Facing a woman who could have been her younger mirror image, she didn’t know how to act, what to say, what to do.

  So she reiterated her plea. “Please, we need to talk. I can help you.”

  Lifting her lip in a grotesque parody of a wolf snarl, the woman shook her head. With her youth and inexperience, she couldn’t hide her fear.

  Like Simon had warned, she reminded Raven of a trapped wild wolf, desperate to flee.

  Avoiding directly looking into her eyes since that was a sign of aggression to wolves, Raven lowered her head and took a small step forward. She pitched her voice low and soothing. “I mean no harm.”

  “Get back,” the girl said, her voice changing to a growl as she began yanking off clothing. An instant later, she changed. Her changing happened unbelievably fast, almost instantaneously. The change was unlike anything Raven had ever seen, though she knew she was relatively inexperienced. One moment the other woman stood there, human, fully clothed. The next, her clothing lay in a heap on the floor at the feet of a wolf.

  A wolf with a coat the same midnight shade as Raven’s beast.

  While Raven stared in stunned shock, the wolf leaped for her.

  Moving purely by instinct, Raven pivoted, just in time. The wolf crashed into the wall, still snarling as she slid to the floor.

  Heart pounding, Raven knew she’d have to go into defensive mode. The shifter who looked enough like her to be her younger sister wanted to kill her!

  Spinning around, Raven began her own transformation, pulling off her clothing and rushing it, even as the she-wolf picked herself up and shook off the effects of her crash against the wall.

  One second. Two. Raven’s change finished. Three seconds. She looked up. Four. The other sprang forward in another attack, this time wolf-to-wolf.

  Baring her teeth, Raven met her halfway, ready. With her lupine blood surging and her heart pumping, she felt savagely glad she’d had the experience fighting wild wolves for her Alpha spot. Fighting she did well. Maybe with this girl it was only a matter of proving dominance. This, she could do.

  She thought of her former foe, the she-wolf she’d called Mandy. Mandy had been larger, more aggressive in her fury. Fighting this teenaged shifter should be a piece of cake.

  Raven scored the first point, a quick dash in, jaws locked on the other’s flank. A tear, blood, a grunt of pain. Since she wasn’t going in for the kill, Raven let go.

  Piece of cake, huh? As they circled each other warily, Raven realized fighting this girl was different. This wolf seemed to know exactly how Raven would fight, how she’d move, when to dodge her lunges. This wolf met Raven’s every parry with a countermove, yet managed to get in several teeth slashes, tearing open Raven’s shoulder, then her chest.

  The score, if one kept it, was now two to one.

  Paws slipping on her own blood, Raven didn’t know how this bitch did it, but she’d had enough. Though she normally used the human part of herself when fighting and hunting, now she did what she’d never done before, and let her wolf part take over completely, retreating to a dark corner of her own brain and shutting down human Raven.

  Set loose, free, Raven’s wolf attacked with a ferocious vengeance, slashing and snarling, spinning and ducking, using her teeth and her claws and the weight of her lupine body to chase the other, forcing her to back into a corner.

  Not cowed, the other wolf crouched, baring her teeth, ready to fight to the death if need be.

  Wolf-Raven rushed her, slamming her back into the ground, using teeth and claws to hold the other wolf down.

  Victory! Standing over her, Raven prepared to rip out the other wolf’s throat.

  But something held her back. Her human half, struggling to regain dominance.

  No. She could not kill this wolf.

  Slowly, human Raven reeled her wolf-self back in, snarling and fighting all the way, eventually regaining control of her body, though she remained in her wolf shape, still standing over her conquest.

  Believing death was imminent, the other wolf submitted. She shimmered once and changed back to human.

  Still wolf, Raven snarled, baring her teeth.

  To her credit, or stupidity, the Raven look-alike didn’t cower. Instead, she lay still, her naked young body looking eerily familiar. Narrow-eyed, she waited for Raven to deliver the killing blow.

  “Raven!” Simon’s voice. The bathroom door swung open.

  Never taking her attention from the captive woman, Wolf-Raven acknowledged his presence with one quick sweep of her tail.

  He rushed over. “Let her go. What are you doing?”

  Baring her teeth once more for good measure, Raven sighed and let go, backing off a step, then two.

  The other girl kept still. Having already conceded to Raven, she didn’t dare move.

  Troubled, Raven began the change back to human. The instant she’d regained her form, she jumped to her feet and grabbed her clothes. Keeping an eye on the other, she hurriedly pulled on her pants, then her bra and shirt. When she’d finished dressing, she went to the floor, scooped up the other’s discarded clothing and tossed it to her.

  “Get dressed.” The order sounded emotionless.

  Face expressionless, the other woman complied, watching Raven through long, black lashes. Once she was fully clothed, she crossed her arms, her youthful expression mutinous.

  “Who are you?” Raven asked. “How old are you? Where did you come from?”

  No answer.

  “Too many questions at once,” Simon cautioned. “Ask one at a time.”

  Raven scowled. “I have no patience for this. She attacked me. I want answers. I want them now.”

  “Shh.” Simon soothed, warning Raven with his gaze before looking at the girl. “Do you have a name?”

  She glared at him, still silent.

  Simon moved closer, his voice gentle. “We can help you if you let us.”

  “Help me?” she finally spat. “I don’t need your help. I don’t need anyone’s help. I’m alone because I like to be alone. You people need to go away.”

  Raven read Simon’s thoughts in his face. Feral. This woman was Feral, too.

  As she had been. Finally, she understood why they used this word. She, too, had been Feral. Once. Past tense. She wasn’t anymore.

  Stunned, she realized she had changed. She’d given her human side more importance than her wolf. She supposed this was some sort of progress.

  Stranger still, she didn’t mind at all. Tucking that revelation away to examine later, she focused on the young stranger.

  “We’re the same, you and I.” Raven crossed her arms, too, mimicking the other’s dismayed expression.

  “No, we’re not.”

  Raven lifted a lock of her black, curly hair. “Look in the mirror, sweetheart. Though you’re younger, we look the same, move the same, even our wolves have similar coats.”

  “So?” She sounded bored.

  Taking a deep breath, Raven went for broke. “You were caged by the professor, too, weren’t you?”

  The girl froze. “How do you know about that?”

  “Because I was, too.” Raven swallowed. “For years, before you. I finally escaped.”

  “You lie.” The other narrowed her eyes. “He had only me. All my life. My earliest memories include him and him alone. I don’t remember you. You weren’t there.”

  “All your life? How is that possible?” Raven kept her arms crossed.

  No reply. The two women glared at each other from identical brilliant blue eyes.

  “Your entire life,” Raven mused. “That’s so odd…”

  “How old are you?” Simon’s clipped ton
e indicated the girl had better answer.

  “Old enough,” she shot back. “I’m over eighteen, if that’s what you mean.”

  “You’re what, nineteen?” Raven kept her voice gentle.

  Sullen, the girl nodded.

  “Do you have a name?”

  “You can call me Cee. My real name is too ugly.” She took a deep breath, then met Raven’s gaze straight on. “Why did you lie to me about the professor?”

  “I didn’t lie. I was his prisoner for many years.”

  “Prisoner? Isn’t that too strong of a word?”

  Raven shrugged. “He kept me in a cage. What else would you call it?”

  “He only put me in a cage once he realized I could change. He said he had to, for my own safety.”

  Outraged, Raven struggled to remain neutral but lost. “For your own safety? Have you ever attacked a human while you were wolf?”

  “Of course not,” Cee scoffed. “Why would I? I’d rather run and hunt and live my life. I don’t need that kind of grief.”

  “Exactly. So tell me again why you had to live in a cage.”

  Rather than answering, Cee chose to focus on another technicality. “I didn’t live there. He let me out to exercise and go to the bathroom.”

  Trying to hide her exasperation, Raven sighed. “Yeah? Me, too. But I slept there. I took my meals there. He kept me there like some wild animal in a zoo.”

  “Hmmph.” Cee’s scowl said plainly what she thought of that.

  Raven had to ask the next question. “Did he ever…touch you?”

  “Of course not.” Bristling at the suggestion, Cee looked as though she wanted to attack.

  “He did me,” Raven said softly, sadly.

  Her words deflected Cee’s anger. “Why would he treat you like an animal and not me?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe he felt fatherly toward you, since he raised you from an infant?”

  As Cee opened her mouth to speak, the bathroom door opened. A young mother with three small children in tow entered, stopping short when she saw Simon.

  “What are you doing in the women’s room?” she asked, her voice low and furious. “I’ll give you three seconds to get out of here, and then I’m calling the police.”