by Cheree Alsop
I couldn't argue with that. I ducked behind a tree and pulled the shirt off, then phased quickly into my wolf form. I walked back around the tree, my paws silent on the soft ground. He studied me for a minute and I turned away from his scrutiny.
“Sorry,” he said. “I've never seen a black and cream wolf. And your eyes are amazing. You're quite beautiful even as a wolf.”
I refused to look at him, but saw him smile out of the corner of my eye. I hadn’t seen many werewolves at the rehabilitation center, but they were usually gray, black, cream, or white; my coat wasn’t too different from theirs, but no one else carried the contrasting colors. My eyes were another matter. Something had changed when I was turned into a werewolf in Dr. Tannin’s labs. My dark blond hair had changed to black with purple highlights, and my blue eyes were now a dark violet color that unsettled me every time I saw myself in a mirror. It was yet another reminder that I wasn’t the same person who had died when Kaynan crashed the car.
Rafe’s footsteps brought me back to the present. He walked around behind the tree and picked up the shirt I had been wearing. He then pulled the drawstring cord from his pants and folded the shirt into a tight bundle. He moved to pull his shorts off and I turned away just in time. If a wolf could blush, I would have been bright red.
“Sorry. Modesty isn't huge in the wild, but I'll take these with us. Easier than finding clothes wherever we end up,” Rafe said with a hint of humor in his voice.
I trotted a few paces away to give him some privacy and bent to smell a cluster of small purple flowers at the base of a tree. A strange scent touched my nose and my heart slowed. I turned, trepidation filling my chest. The woods behind us looked clear, but the scent was stronger. I was about to warn Rafe with a whine when a whistle sounded through the air; I ducked half a second before a bullet sunk into the bark above my head.
I darted to the left several feet, then turned and saw men running at us from the direction we had come. Rafe sprang out from behind the tree, a dark gray wolf whose muscles rippled under his fur. The small pack made of our meager clothes sat at his shoulders like a backpack. He snarled at the men who backed up quickly at his sudden appearance. He darted between them to my side and made sure with a quick glance that I was alright. He then turned and I ran beside him into the trees.
A whirl of bullets flew around us. Rafe let out a slight yelp, then took the lead. He ran left down a river wash to the bed. I followed him around the twists and turns of the river bottom until he found a place to cross up the other side. He slowed after a few more paces and we both tried to listen past our racing hearts and heaving lungs.
I willed my heart to slow and strained my hearing. Everything was silent for a few seconds, then the roar of motors touched my ears. I looked at Rafe and he stared back with wide eyes. He jerked his head for me to follow him and we darted into the underbrush.
It took several miles of running to finally lose them. The scent of blood, sweat, and fear wafted from Rafe by the time we stopped. I started to shake, and Rafe found a small cave between two slabs of stone. He mercifully phased outside, then tossed in my shirt so I could be somewhat decent.
“You can come in,” I said after I had pulled on the shirt. The cold bit into my bare skin after the warmth of a wolf's fur; I shivered and pulled the thin shirt closer around me.
“Are you sure?” Rafe asked after a minute. “You could have the cave to yourself.”
I smiled at his kindness. “It’s freezing out there and we're safer in here.” When he didn't move, I took a steeling breath and spoke the truth. “And I'm afraid to be alone.”
His bare feet scuffed the rocks outside the small cave a moment longer, then he ducked through the opening, a hand on his side. Blood ran between his fingers and his face was pale.
“You need help,” I said, alarmed.
He leaned against the rock wall and gave a wan smile. “Not too many doctors out here.” He took his hand away and I gasped at the bullet wound through his side. He prodded it gingerly. “Looks like it came in the back and went out the front, otherwise I'd be dead by now.”
“Why is that?” I asked with a pit in my stomach.
“It was definitely a silver bullet the way it's taking so long to clot. If it hadn't gone out, that much silver would probably kill me.”
“And you just ran five miles after being shot,” I pointed out, trying to stay calm. “That really doesn't help.”
“True.” He slid down the wall to a sitting position, leaving a streak of dark red behind him.
“That needs to be cleaned,” I said carefully even though I had no idea how to go about cleaning it.
He shrugged. “It'll heal by morning, or I wake up dead.”
“Nice.” I tore a strip off the bottom of my shirt and led him outside to the small stream we had passed a short ways back. He gave me a strange look when I took his hand without giving him a chance to argue, but he followed me into the graying dawn. “Kneel down.”
He did as I asked, his eyes guarded. I dipped the rag in the stream and washed the entrance and exit of the wound the best that I could. Rafe's breath caught in his throat at the cold water. “I'm not exactly fond of icy streams,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Better than nothing.” I hoped I was right. At least the wound looked somewhat better by the time I wrapped it in another strip of the shirt and led him back to the cave.
He stumbled at the entrance and I had to catch him before he fell to his knees. He gave me an apologetic smile. “Just tired. I'll be better after I rest a bit.”
I eased him down against the wall and he tipped his head back and closed his eyes. I sat down across from him, resigned to another few sleepless days.
His breath lengthened and I thought he had fallen asleep when he said without opening his eyes, “Why did you save me?”
I stared at him, but he kept his eyes closed. Hundreds of answers raced through my head, generic answers about how anyone would have done it, how everyone deserved a chance to live, and how I was heading that way anyway, but they were all lies. Roger and the others had left him there to die in the fire, though by accident or on purpose I had yet to tell; I could name several men that had shot at us that I didn't feel deserved to live; and the analysis center was exactly opposite from the exit I needed to take to escape the fire. I took a breath, let it out slowly, then told him the truth. “It was your eyes.”
He tipped his head toward me and opened his eyes slightly. “My eyes?”
His tone was even, but I felt myself blushing anyway. I looked away. “You have honest eyes. I know it's silly, but I felt like I could trust you.”
He fell silent for a minute and when I looked back, his eyes were closed again but there was a small smile on his lips. After several minutes, he said, “You can trust me.”
“I know.”
He fell silent, then opened an eye and looked at me. “You're not tired?”
“Exhausted,” I admitted. “But being changed into a werewolf also gave me insomnia. I don't sleep much.”
He thought about it for a second, then opened both eyes and sat up gingerly.
“But you should sleep,” I said quickly, worried about how weak and worn he looked.
He ignored my comment. “What do you do when you can't sleep?”
“Come talk to you,” I said with a small laugh.
He nodded and motioned for me to sit by him. I gave him a calculating look and he laughed, then grabbed his side. “Ouch. It's not like I'm going to take advantage of you. You said you trust me, remember?”
“I trust your eyes. I don't know about the rest of you,” I shot back, but I moved to sit next to him. The close proximity was both comforting and unnerving.
“You can trust the rest of me,” he said softly into my ear.
A shiver ran through my skin at the warmth of his breath on my ear and I had to force my heart to beat normal so that he didn't hear it. He waited a moment, then lifted his arm so that I rested against his
uninjured side. He leaned his head back against the wall and I listened to his heart beat and the steady rise and fall of his breath.
A slight rain began to patter softly outside. We sat in silence for a minute, then Rafe began to hum a soft tune I didn't recognize. After several minutes, he started to sing. His voice surprised me. It was warm and full, reminding me of the rolling thunder before a spring storm. He sang a soft song about a fox lost in its own forest. The song lulled me into a thoughtless calm that chased away my fears of the men who were after us.
It took me a while to realize that he had stopped singing. I glanced up to see his chin on his chest and his breath steady and slowly. I moved slowly from under his arm and eased him carefully to the ground on his good side. He shivered and I wished I had a blanket to put over him the way my mom always did for me when I was sick. The thought sent a pang through my heart and I rubbed my shoulders against the cold.
An irrational urge to curl up next to him ran through my mind, but I pushed it away with a quiet laugh at myself. Apparently after being turned into a werewolf and chased with a stranger through the forest after said stranger rescued me from a burning inferno, I was ready to forget all boundaries for him.
The rational side of me argued that he had indeed saved my life, possibly taken a bullet for me, and sang to me to help me sleep. Rafe shivered again and my werewolf eyesight made out a sheen of sweat on his skin. I sighed and laid down behind him with my back to his. It was the closest I could force myself to bend. The feeling of his hot skin against my back drove all thoughts of sleep from my mind. I stayed awake through the early hours of the morning listening to his fevered muttering and shuddering breath with the fear that he would need more medical help than I could give.
The thought reminded me of Kaynan, and I wondered how my brother was taking the fire. I hoped everyone had made it out. I hadn't seen anyone on my dash from my room to the analysis center, so I rationalized that meant the others had escaped before me. My deep sleeps after days of insomnia made me practically dead to the world. I could only hope we were in a safe place the next time my body gave in to exhaustion.
Chapter 4
Rafe stirred when the sunlight reached a few feet into the cave. He had stopped shivering about an hour before and the sweating had finally ceased. I sat up quickly before he awoke and moved to the other side of the cave.
Rafe pushed himself upright and gave me a knowing smile. “I didn't die. I suppose I have you to thank for that.”
I couldn't bring myself to meet his gaze. “I don't know what you're talking about.”
He rose to his knees and unwrapped the bandage from his side. The red, gaping holes had been replaced by pink, healing skin with no sign of infection. “I guess you're pretty good at doctoring.”
A small laugh escaped me. “I couldn't even handle dissecting frogs in Biology.”
He gave me a confused look. “Why would you want to dissect frogs?”
I laughed again. “I didn't want to. It was the only way to pass the class.”
His expression lightened. “Oh, at school.”
“Yeah, high school.” I suddenly missed my friends, family, and old life so much I could barely breathe. I focused on him instead. “You never went to school?”
He pushed to his feet. “We'd better get going.”
I stood up, surprised at his change of demeanor. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry. I was just curious after seeing your file.”
He glanced back at me, his expression unreadable; then he ran a hand through his tangled brown hair to push it back off his face and sighed. “Sorry; it's not you. It's just not a pleasant story. We'd better get going so they don't track us here.”
I followed him back out into the forest. It was midafternoon and birds talked around us with the carefree abandon of undisturbed creatures. We walked slowly through the trees. The sweet, earthy scent of decaying leaves and forest loam rose with each step. A soft breeze tangled through the underbrush and brought with it the smells of wild berries, burrowing mice, and the faint scent of a deer that sent a shudder through my skin.
It was strange to want to trail the deer, to chase it and kill it. I had never killed an animal in my life. I even carried the insects that made their way to my bedroom outside in a cup I kept especially for that reason. The want to sink my fangs into flesh and tear it, to taste blood flowing past my muzzle, to hear the last beats of a heart and know that I ended a life that would soon fill my belly, confused me.
I pushed away the urge to phase, then walked a few minutes more until the realization hit me that I had been able to control my body.
Rafe took a few more steps, then glanced back at me. “Everything okay?”
I stared at him and felt the first rush of hope that I would eventually be able to live a normal life despite being a werewolf. A slow smile spread across my face. “Better than it's been in a long time!”
He gave me a perplexed look and waited for me to catch up, then fell into pace beside me.
“Where are we going?” I asked a while later when I realized I didn't even know which direction we traveled.
“To my pack.”
My heart skipped a beat and I gave him a sideways glance. He studied the trees ahead of us. “A werewolf pack?” I pressed.
He shook his head. “A wolf pack.”
I couldn't help staring. “A wild wolf pack?”
He glanced at me, his lips fighting back a smile. “Is there another kind?”
I rolled my eyes. “You know what I mean.”
He fell silent, his strange golden eyes light and a slight smile on his face. I walked beside him and began to enjoy the simplicity of forest life and the fresh air that felt alive around us. It was easy to forget that we were being chased by men intent on killing us, or that the rehab center had been blown up.
But as the sun began to set, I couldn't stop thinking of Kaynan. He had no way of knowing that I had made it out of the center. He had always taken care of me; I owed it to him to at least let him know I was still alive.
I put a hand on Rafe's arm. “I need to call Kaynan.”
His brow furrowed. “We're a long ways from civilization. It'll take a few hours to get to a phone.”
“I need to. They don't even know I'm alive.”
He fell silent, then changed our direction until we walked down a gradual decline. It was well after nightfall when we saw the lights of a one-gas-station town nestled in a small valley between two mountain ranges. Every time moonlight broke through the clouds and touched my skin, the urge to phase surged through me so strong I had to stop to hold onto the sliver of control I had found.
Rafe waited patiently beside me while I fought another battle inside myself. I leaned against a tree, hidden from the moon in its shadow, and put my face against the trunk. The cool bark helped me center myself and drive away the chaos that warred beneath my skin. I took a deep breath of the tangy, crisp scent of the aspen and stepped back to find Rafe watching me.
“What?” I asked self-consciously.
He gave a half-smile. “You fit in here.”
“A wild animal too dangerous for civilization?” I asked, then kicked myself mentally when I remembered that was how he had been classified at the rehab center.
He shook his head and said seriously, “No. A graceful creature so beautiful she hides in the shadows so others can only guess at the contours of her face and the shade of her skin.”
I stared at him, speechless.
He tipped his head toward the town. “Ready?”
I nodded, but could barely remember why we were going there. He gave another half smile and led the way down the mountainside.
***
I watched from the shadows until a lone woman in her late fifties pulled up to the gas station. My heart jumped in my throat and I had to push down the urge to run away. Rafe stayed in the shadows, a wild, wary look about him as though he would melt into the trees and I would never see him again. I forced my feet to move and
approached her car from the side farthest away from the gas station.
“Um, ma'am?”
She turned with the half-scared, half-defiant expression of a woman who feared getting carjacked late at night. Her eyes widened when she saw that I wore only a shirt. “What happened to you? Are you okay?”
I nodded, then figured I should probably milk the situation for what it was worth and shook my head. “I ran away from my boyfriend and I'm trying to get home.” I tried to bring up tears, but my acting skills were lacking. My voice shook enough from nervousness that at least I didn't have to force it. “Can I borrow some quarters to call my mom?”
She grabbed her purse from the car and handed me two twenty dollar bills along with several quarters. “They have some clothes in the gas station. It's not a great selection, but it'll let you go home with your dignity.” She gave me a wink, her fake eyelashes fluttering. “We've all been there, so you have nothing to be worried about.”
“Th-thank you,” I stuttered, surprised. I turned to go.
“Miss?”
I looked back to see her digging in her purse again. She pulled out a small bottle, sprayed some on me, then handed me the perfume. “To cover up the smell,” she said with another wink. “I don't know what you kids are into these days, but you smell like a forest.”
I fought back a smile and accepted the bottle. I waved at Rafe surreptitiously, then stepped around the gas station to the three pay phones. My heart pounded in my chest as I inserted the coins and dialed the number Kaynan had made me memorize the second I could think without phasing every minute.
The phone rang several times, then the voice that had been with me since I was born said, “Hello?”
“Kaynan?” I blinked back tears.
“Colleen?” The heartache and relief in his voice broke down the feeble wall I had put up and the tears flowed down my cheeks. “Colleen, is that really you?”
“It's me.”
“How. . . I mean. . .but how? Colleen, I thought you were dead.” His voice cracked and he sniffed. I knew him well enough to know that he was crying, too. “I thought I'd lost you again.”
