Finding Elora

Chapter 32

MASON

I haven't met many humans, but I can confidently say Abby is one of the dumbest to exist.

She's laid up underneath a tree, her body curled into a small, tight ball. I shift my weight between my legs, annoyed with the sight.

It's like she's trying to kill herself.

She looks up as I approach, and her heart rate kicks up a bit, but not by much. I'm not a fan, and I resist the urge to nudge her with my nose and encourage her to do something more.

If anybody's going to kill her, it will be me. She doesn't get to run off and do it to herself.

This is all Kie's fault.

He thought it would be best to let her run off for a while and burn steam. She's easy enough to track, and she was moving in the right direction, so we hung back and let her do her thing.

Then it started to rain, and suddenly the tracks we were following were gone.

I had to shift into my animal form to smell her better, which I hate doing when it's raining. The water soaks my fur, and I don't like the feeling of it sticking to my skin. Plus, the wound on my side isn't entirely healed, and shifting exasperated it.

The puncture wounds on my bicep are gone, the skin as good as new, but the few stitches remaining in my side are just barely hanging on by a thread. Actually, they're probably gone by now, popped out with all my moving.

I've been walking quickly these past several miles, an anxious jitter working up my spine and urging me to speed up my pace.

Abby tucks her head into her arms, hiding herself from my view.

I step closer, hovering over her shivering form, before turning toward Kie.

He's several steps behind me, his lips curled into a deep frown as he does his own evaluation of Abby. We expected to find her cold and wet, but not whatever the fuck this is.

In front of her knees is the package of nuts she's been eating, but it looks like she ate the remainder and is using the container to store water. It's a surprisingly intelligent idea, but she shouldn't have finished her nuts so quickly.

She didn't pack enough food for this trip, and now it's guaranteed she will have to eat some of ours to keep going.

A low grumble pours from my chest as I hear her suck in a slow, raggedy breath.

I don't like this woman—in fact, I'd go as far as to say I hate her—but I can't help but be anxious. My pulse is racing, and I'm angry she's in this position. I'm angry with Kie, too, for convincing me not to go after her the moment we heard her running from us.

He's been doing his best to get on my nerves these past few days, and I'm glad I broke his nose earlier.

It healed within the hour, but I still hope it hurt.

"Abby," Kie says, stopping alongside me.

She doesn't respond to her name being called, and Kie pushes his hair out of his face with a low sigh before digging into his bag and pulling out my pants. They're soaked through, but we need to cover the exposed skin of her legs.

I can't keep her warm without it.

Abby lets out a quiet grunt as Kie bends and begins sliding the material up her legs, but she otherwise doesn't put up much of a fuss. I prefer it when she's fussing, and a low, involuntary whine slips from my throat when she doesn't.

Kie looks at me, clearly surprised by the noise, and I turn away.

I didn't mean to make it.

He finishes pulling my pants up her legs, coating them in mud in the process, before stepping away to give me room. I didn't tell him I intended to do this, nor did he ask, but we've always been on the same page.