Red in the Blue

Chapter 26

James and I continued on. My headache had exploded past the confines I'd placed around it, and my lungs burned. My paws ached. My sides throbbed from where I'd scraped through the window, my shoulder from where I'd landed in the water. James stayed behind me, matching my pace. Distantly, I could hear a passing car. She trotted around in front and led me forward more cautiously.

We could see a winding road between the trees now, so we stayed back as far as we could to avoid being seen in the bright morning sun. We padded along parallel to the road until we broke through onto a gravel sideroad a ways off the main highway, an SUV parked with someone in the driver's seat. We gave the car a wide birth as we circled around, my heart pounding. Then, James seemed satisfied and approached it more directly, the driver sitting up as he saw us and caught our scent, starting the car, jumping out and walking around to open the trunk to neat piles of folded clothes. I could smell familiar scents mingling on the driver, clearly another enforcer left to watch everything. He disappeared back around the side of the car, and suddenly James shuddered back into her human form, stark naked, and I averted my gaze as she tugged clothes back on.

"You can look now," she said. Even tight with tension, her voice was such a relief. I watched her rifle through the clothes laying out on the floor of the trunk. I realized that I was safe. They had come. They had found me. They were here. I was safe. I looked back the way we'd come and listened hard and sniffed the air. Someone had howled to James. Someone was alright, Cade or Elias or Bowen or the gray wolf. I hoped they all were. Where were they?

"We don't really have spare clothes," James said. I turned back to her. She had a familiar white button-down gripped in her hand, drenched in Cade's scent. "There's no way we all fit in this car if you're still a wolf." She looked past me to scan the trees as she held the shirt out to me.

"Give her my pants, too." Cade stepped out into the gravel road, naked, sweat and blood streaking him in a blur as I turned my eyes quickly away, tried not to look. James grabbed his slacks, the belt clanking, and held them out to me too. I didn't take them, kept my eyes low as Cade walked past, then risked a glance up to see where that blood was coming from. He limped a little. I couldn't tell how hurt he was. He pulled boxer briefs up over his slick skin, the material skidding on the way up, and turned to me. I couldn't see any significant gashes. His hair was matted to his forehead, streaks of blood in his beard. There was an already-healing slash against his arm. He took his clothes from James, who grabbed Elias' clothes and walked them over to where he hovered at the edge of the tress in his wolf form. He didn't look bloodied.

"Come to the other side of the car and you can shift," Cade said, holding his clothes out to me. I was afraid to move. I understood we needed to be fast, but something kept me rooted in place. I thought of my own clothes sitting back in that cabin. I wanted my clothes. What would they do with them? The thought of them having my things...

I was afraid to shift back. My human body could feel such enormous pain. I was small. Kidnappable. And I would be so tired after I did it. What if they caught up to us again and I didn't have the strength to shift back into a wolf?

"Lore," Cade said. He had pulled his t-shirt on now too. His eyes trailed over me, checking for injuries he might have missed earlier.

I couldn't. I couldn't go back.

James and Elias walked up and startled me. I ducked down to the side, my breath kicking up. Bowen was there now too, dressed, and an enforcer I didn't recognize who must have been the gray wolf, and the driver.

"Get in the car," Cade said. They scattered to different sides of the car. Elias hesitated.

"What's she doing?" he asked.