Rise

by Heather MacKinnon

   “Have a good night, Ellie,” he said as he brushed past me just a tiny bit closer than necessary.

   When he was gone, I shut the door behind him and slumped against it.

   “You really have an issue with coworkers, don’t you?”

   I wanted to deny it but, how could I? He’d seen the situation with Ben Collins go from bad to worse back in Raleigh, and now I had Matt to deal with.

   Honestly, my brain was too full of everything else to properly worry about Matt Miller. I pushed thoughts of him out of my head as Wyatt and I left my office for the night.

  I hoped that Matt wouldn’t prove to be a problem. That Abraham and Wyatt were overreacting, and he’d prove to be as harmless as I thought he was.

  Chapter 37

   “Hey, Wyatt. Do you think we could get an early start today?”

   I’d come down to breakfast earlier than usual in the hopes I’d find him there. I’d woken up feeling less nauseated than the day before and thought I’d take advantage of the reprieve and get to the office before anyone else.

   I’d fallen behind on my work and I needed to rectify that. I knew Callie understood that I’d been sick, but that didn’t change the fact that they needed me, and I needed to pull my weight.

   Wyatt shoveled the last few bites of scrambled eggs into his mouth. “I’m ready when you are.”

   I gave him my most grateful smile. Wyatt really was a great guy. He’d been tasked with babysitting me again, and instead of complaining like I knew some of the other enforcers would have, he just did the job. In fact, he usually went above and beyond expectations.

   He stood from the long table and brought his dish over to Aubrey.

   That was another issue that rested in the back of my mind.

   The housekeeper still regarded me as nicely as you would a bug that had the audacity to die on your windshield. I didn’t know what I’d be able to do to change her mind, and to be honest, I was running out of reasons to care. If she wanted to dislike me, she’d do it no matter what I did. I figured my best course of action would be to keep doing the best job I could at the alpha thing and hope she came around.

   Wyatt sidled up next to me and gave me a look. “Aren’t you going to eat something?”

   I dug into my purse and unearthed a granola bar. “I’ve got breakfast right here.”

   He eyed my cereal bar with disdain. “That’s all you’re having?”

   I patted him on the arm and headed toward the hall. “That’s all I’ll be able to keep down.”

  I heard his heavy footsteps and knew he was following me. I also knew I wouldn’t be able to keep eating so little with how fast my metabolism was now I was a werewolf, but I figured I only had to hold out a little longer. Abraham said he’d probably be back by Friday and it was already Thursday. I could survive on bird food until then.

   I reached my gray compact car and unlocked the doors for the both of us. Wyatt eyed my little vehicle like he did every morning, but this was something I wouldn’t budge on. It was bad enough I had a babysitter again. I wouldn’t let him cart me around, too. I needed to have at least a little independence, and that was my preferred method.

   Wyatt folded himself into the car, making sure to grumble just loud enough for me to hear. I ignored him while I buckled my seatbelt and turned the key in the ignition. I started down the steep gravel drive, careful to drive slow enough that my little car didn’t bottom out along the way.

   “You seem a little better today,” Wyatt commented as I merged onto the highway.

   I shrugged. “Honestly, I still feel pretty crummy, but not as sick as yesterday. Maybe I had a stomach bug or something.”

   “Werewolves don’t get stomach bugs.”

   I shot him a glance out of the corner of my eye. “Well, maybe humans turned werewolves do.”

   He grunted from the passenger seat but didn’t comment further.

   He was right though. I’d been told over and over that werewolves don’t get sick. That their immune systems were far superior to humans’.

  Why then, was I so ill? Was it really the distance between Abraham and me? If that was the case, I should have felt worse and not better. That was how it had always been in the past when I’d worked in Raleigh during the week and only saw him on the weekends. Each day, I’d felt crappier than the last until we were reunited.

  I sighed as our exit loomed before us and flicked on my turn signal. There was no use worrying about it now. I felt better than I had yesterday, and I’d try to get as much work done as I could, just in case the sickness came back.

  I hit the brake to slow down before the exit, but the pedal gave no resistance, and my foot pressed it almost to the floor. I pumped the brake again, but it did nothing.

  I was already on the off-ramp, but I was going way too fast to take the turn.

  “Ellie, you need to slow down.”

  I gripped the wheel tighter and tried pressing on the brake over and over again, but nothing was happening.

  “I can’t stop.”

  “What?”

  “The brakes aren’t working! I can’t slow down.”

  The car continued to race toward the exit, only slowing slightly because I wasn’t pressing the gas anymore.

  “Ellie, you need to slow this car down. We can’t take the exit going this fast.”

  “I know! I don’t know what to do! The brakes aren’t working!”

  I continued to stomp on the pedal, but there was no change to the speed we were going.

  That’s when I remembered the emergency brake.

  We were just approaching the bend in the off-ramp and I yanked on the lever between the two front seats. The car began to slow, and I was able to navigate the curve well enough to get us around it. Thankfully, right off the exit was a shoulder, and I pulled onto it, letting the car roll to a stop.

  Other vehicles continued to drive past us, but all I could do was stare straight out my windshield.

  I’d never had something like that happen to me before. Never even been in a fender-bender. The adrenaline was pumping through my system and my stomach was rolling. I just hoped it would hold until we got off that road.

  “Are you okay?”

  I was still gripping the steering wheel when I turned to Wyatt. I nodded slowly, not sure if I really was all right or not.

  “I’m gonna call Brad and see if he can get us towed back to pack lands.”

  I nodded again and turned to stare out the windshield.

  What happened? How had my brakes failed like that? I was no mechanic, but I had my car regularly serviced and I knew it wasn’t time for me to have them replaced. Besides, even if they were old, it didn’t make sense for them to just completely stop working like that, right?

  Wyatt was talking on the phone but the ringing in my ears drowned out his conversation. I was still reeling from the accident we’d narrowly avoided.

  “Ellie.”

  I turned to Wyatt again, my hands still white-knuckling the wheel.

  “Can you pop the hood? Brad wants me to take a look.”

  I shook my head and reached underneath the dashboard to pull the lever. He slid out of the car and I watched as he walked around and lifted the hood.

  With another shake of my head, I gave myself a little pep talk.

  I was okay.

  Wyatt was okay.

  My car was okay.

  Everything was okay.

  I needed to get myself together and try to figure out what happened here.

  I unbuckled my seatbelt and climbed out to join Wyatt.

  “I don’t know, man. It all looks the same to me.”

  I heard Brad’s voice on the other line promise he’d be there with a tow truck within thirty minutes before they both hung up.

  Wyatt turned to me and wrapped his big hands around the tops of my arms. When he ducked down to catch my gaze, there was only concern in his light brown eyes. “Are you sure you’
re okay?”

  I took a deep breath and gave him a nod. “Yeah. I was just taken by surprise. I’m all right now.”

  He let me go and stood back up, placing his hands on his hips. “Yeah, I think we both had a shock this morning.” He turned to me again. “Good thinking with the e-brake.”

  I nodded again. “Thanks.”

  We stood there with the hood open, both of us just staring at the mess of machinery beneath it.

  “I thought you liked cars.”

  He shot me a look. “What?”

  “Back in Raleigh, you were always reading hotrod magazines. Shouldn’t you know something about this?” I asked, waving to the engine.

  He chuckled. “Just because I like fast and pretty cars, doesn’t mean I know shit about fixing them.”

  “I guess that’s fair.”

  He nodded toward my car. “Come on. Let’s get back in until Brad gets here. It’s not safe standing out here so close to the highway.”

  Just as he said that, a car went whipping past us, probably driving even faster than I’d been going when my brakes stopped working. Wyatt glared at the offending vehicle as he ushered me back into my seat.

  When he got in on the other side, he pulled his cell out and began pressing buttons. “I’m going to call Abraham while we wait.”

  I whipped around and put my hand over his phone. “Don’t do that.”

  He frowned at me. “Why?”

  “If you tell him about this, he’ll come home.”

  He shrugged. “That’s his right.”

  He tugged at his phone, but I wouldn’t let go.

  “Wyatt, you know how important it is that he keeps visiting other packs. He’s only been able to send another twelve enforcers back to us. We need more than that if we’re going to have a fighting chance against the Charlotte pack.”

  His frown deepened. “Ellie, I have to tell him about this.”

  I nodded. “Of course, but can’t we wait? Let’s find out what happened before we call him. Or we can just wait until he gets back tomorrow.”

  “He won’t be happy we kept this from him.”

  “I’ll take all the blame. I’ll explain to him it was my idea, and I ordered you not to call him.”

  One of his blond brows rose. “Ordered me?”

  I swallowed but shrugged. “If that’s what it takes.”

  My voice could have been a little stronger, but it would have to do. Wyatt continued to eye me as I watched a battle play out across his features. Finally, he sighed, and his shoulders slumped. “He’s not going to be happy about this.”

  I pulled my hand away from his phone now that it seemed like he wouldn’t make the call. “And you know how important what he’s doing is. If he found out, he’d just rush home and we need him to keep finding us new allies.”

  He pursed his lips but nodded. “Okay, Ellie. We can do this your way.”

  I let out a deep breath and leaned against the back of my seat. I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing, but I knew Abraham. He’d be back in Asheville before nightfall if he thought I was in danger.

  And until we knew one way or the other, there was no sense worrying him.

  Brad showed up about twenty minutes later and we got out to greet him. He had a big smile for me, and it was nice to know some of my pack actually liked me.

  “Hey, Ellie. You okay?”

  I gave him the best smile I could manage. “I’m all right. Could have done without the brake failure this morning.”

  He nodded slowly. “I’m sure you could. Let’s have a look.”

  He ducked his head and began fiddling with different things under the hood, none of which made any sense to me. Finally, after a few minutes, he straightened back up and sighed. He pulled a rag out of his back pocket and wiped his hands as he shook his head.

  “There’s nothing I can see from here. I need to get it back to my place and lifted before I can tell you more.”

  My spirits sank at that news. I was hoping he would be able to tell me this was nothing more than a system failure and we could all go about our day. But there was a deep, dark intuition inside of me warning that it wasn’t that simple. That nothing ever was.

  I watched as Brad got my little car hooked up to his tow truck. Wyatt walked up next to me with his phone in his hand.

  “You want to go back to pack lands with him or head into work? We could probably walk to that store across the street and call an Uber from there.”

  I weighed my options and realized there was only one place I’d be of any use. “Let’s head to the office. We’ll only be in Brad’s way.”

  We walked over to the new pack mechanic just as he finished getting my car all settled.

  “Brad, we’re heading into the office. Will you give one of us a call when you know something?”

  He tipped the brim of his baseball cap and gave me a smile. “I’ve got Wyatt’s number. I’ll call him when I figure out what happened here.”

  “Thanks, Brad. Make sure you let me know what I owe you.”

  He shook his head. “Don’t worry about this, Ellie.” He nodded at Wyatt and then gave me another smile. “Try to have a good rest of your day.”

  We said our goodbyes and walked across the street to the little convenience store Wyatt pointed out. A few minutes later, a middle-aged man in a black suburban pulled up, and we hopped in.

  When he dropped us off at The Asheville Initiative, Callie’s car was already parked on the street and I realized all the time I thought I’d saved that morning had gone right out the window. On the bright side, my stomach was still feeling fine, so hopefully I’d be able to get a bunch of work done and make up for the past few days.

  Unfortunately, my good luck ran out, and within a few hours, I was throwing up into my trash bin again. Wyatt paced the floor of my office while I was sick, asking over and over what he could do. Every time I waved him away, his pacing got more intense, and I almost had to send him out of the room because he was making me dizzy.

  At a low point in my nausea, Wyatt’s cell rang, and I lifted my head from the pail.

  “It’s Brad,” he said before sliding his finger across the screen and raising the phone to his ear.

  Another wave of sickness washed over me, and their conversation was drowned out by my retching. I lost track of time, but it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes later when I heard Wyatt growl and promise to see Brad soon.

  I wiped my mouth with some tissues and took a tentative sip of my room-temperature ginger ale before looking up at Wyatt.

  “What’s going on?” I croaked.

  His jaw ticked, and I could hear his teeth grinding from across the room. “This morning wasn’t an accident.”

  My stomach rolled again, but I swallowed and did my best to hold it down. “What does that mean?”

  He pursed his lips into a thin white line as he squeezed his cell in his big hand. “It means someone cut your brake lines. This was intentional.”

  Chapter 38

   “We need to get back to pack lands. Now.”

   My stomach was still gurgling, but it felt like it would hold for a little while at least. Knowing there was no use arguing with Wyatt when he was like this, I nodded and began to pack up my things.

   He continued to pace the floor, his hand squeezing his cell phone.

   “We need to call Abraham. He needs to know about this.”

   I sighed. “Yeah, I know. Let’s go talk to Brad and get all the details before we call him, though.”

   Wyatt’s shoulders slumped, but he nodded.

   When I was done gathering my things Wyatt rushed to the door and opened it for me. With a hand on my back, he ushered me down the hall faster than I would have walked myself. We were almost to the lobby when Callie stepped out of her office and frowned at us.

   “Hey. What’s going on?”

   Earlier, I’d explained that something had gone wrong with my car, but I hadn’t gone into detail. I fig
ured it didn’t make much sense to worry her before we knew anything. Now seemed like the appropriate time to tell her, but Wyatt was on a mission to get me out of the building as quickly as possible.

   Without pausing, Wyatt grunted, “The issue with her car is bigger than we thought. We’re heading back to pack lands right now.”

   Callie spared him the smallest of glances before training her eyes on me. “I can give you guys a ride home if you want to wait a minute.”

   Wyatt shook his head. “Don’t bother. Wes is almost here.”

   I turned and frowned at Wyatt. It wasn’t what he said, but how he said it that was bothering me. Sure, Callie hadn’t always been the friendliest toward him, but she didn’t deserve for him to be that short with her.

   I dug in my heels and Wyatt had no choice but to stop pushing me down the hall or knock me over. Thankfully for me, he chose the former.

   “Thanks for the offer, Callie. You stay here and finish out your day. I brought a bunch of stuff home with me, so I can get more work done there.”

   She waved a hand. “Don’t worry about that, Ellie. There are bigger issues you need to be focusing on than The Asheville Initiative right now.” She shot another glance at Wyatt before turning back to me. “Have you told Abey yet?”

   I winced, and her expression turned exasperated.

   I held up both hands. “I didn’t want to worry him when we didn’t know if there was actually anything to worry about yet.”

   “Ellie, he’s not going to be happy about that.”

   I sighed. “Yes, but his trip is more important than what’s going on here.”

   She raised a brow. “Don’t you think he should be the one to decide that?”

   My shoulders slumped as I released a deep breath. “Probably. I thought I was doing the right thing by holding off. You know how important it is for him to find us more allies.” I lowered my voice in case any of the humans in the office were listening. “The Charlotte pack could attack any day. We need all the help we can get if we’re going to have a fighting chance. You know that.”