#Chapter 64: The Getaviay
With the assailant down, I’m able to get to Rita. She can’t stand in her present form, despite several efforts at getting to her feet,
“I don’t know what. To do,” I admit to her. “I–1 can’t. Help you. Too big!”
With great effort and a lot of pain, Rita shifts back to human. It’s a slow process, and hard to watch. I have to turn my head because of the nature of the process and how coarse it really is. They’ve always changed so quickly that I
never noticed the details.
The details. Are. Gross. So is the wolf who is barely alive. Heisn’t shifting, and his large body fwitches sporadically, I wonder if he’s going to die here.
After Rita has finally taken human form, I hear her ragged breathing. She sits up, gasping and trying to calm
herself.
Then she turns to me, and for the first time, I see real concern in her eyes. “Are you okay?”
“I–yyy–yeah,” I say giving my body a glance over again. Amazed as I am at my fortune, I’m still too shocked to be grateful. “How are you? Your leg?”
I kneel down beside her as we study it. The pain must be intense, because she has to grit her teeth to straighten her leg out.
The bite marks are so deep, flesh has been torn away to reveal the bone beneath.
Between that and the stench of fresh blood, it’s all I could do not to throw up.
“Let me,” I say, getting on my knees and putting my arms under her shoulders to scoop her up. I straighten my knees and lift her with all my might, but even in human form Rita is heavy, and my Herculean strength is gone.
Rita cries out in pain but helps as best she can, and after I get her righted and steady on her feet, she’s able to hobble with assistance.
She looks over at her attacker and spits. “We’ll be back for you,” she growls. “Now let’s go. The best I can figure, we have about an hour’s walk if I can keep from stopping.”
“Okay.” With one arm bracing around my shoulders, we continue on our journey.
It takes almost two hours to get to the Malkeye base. We have to stop a few times, but Rita eventually finds a sturdy walking stick to shift some of her significant weight to. It’s amazing to me: She is shapely but slender, and she’s got to weigh well over one hundred and fifty pounds!
Finally, we do make it, and the sun hasn’t peaked yet, so I feel like we’ve made good time. I guess I didn’t realize the wolf bases were this close in proximity, and I’m suddenly grateful.
As we approach the first set of houses on the road, pack members begin to notice us. This makes me nervous: The last time I walked into unfamiliar werewolf territory, I had two native members with me.
That was bad enough…this is worse.
Rita must be able to sense my anxiety. “Don’t worry–they know me.”
I see a familiar face right away. Rushing through the crowd is a man…uh, or whatever….a little older, but husky and handsome. He has a dark beard, wavey hair, and strong features.
Close behind him is Alex.
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#Chapter 64. The Getaway
My heart jumps at the sight of him. I can’t help but call out his name.
Both men give me a once over before turning their attention to Rita. They slide her arm off my shoulders and pick her up, carrying her off.
Not even a word to me. Leaving me standing there with strangers.
I scurry to catch up and follow them, again regretting my decision to come.
We enter a large house, nicer than the others, and they fay Rita on a couch. Her wounds have clotted and she has stopped bleeding. Now her leg is covered in dried blood…and it still looks bad.
I stand back and watch as Alex and the man hustle to get water and rags and jars of unknown substances. They settle in front of her, rip away her pants, and begin cleaning her leg.
“It’s bad but I’ve seen worse,” the man says. “At least it’s started to heal. This will help,” he adds as he opens a jar, pours some of its contents on a clean råg, and begin wiping her leg.
With nothing left to do, Alex stands and watches. The smell of pine in the room is strong. I don’t know if the smell is coming from Alex alone or both of them. Wither way, it can’t overpower the scent of blood and sweat.
When Alex turns to look at me, some of the wildness in his eyes has dimmed, but they’re still gold and intense.
He stalks over to me and hugs me, then pulls me out of the room, down a hall, and out onto a back porch. There are a couple of beers on a wooden table, and I assume this is where they were when we arrived.
“How did you know?”
He huffs, like it should be obvious. “We could smell the blood a mile away.”
I guess his answer is obvious, now that I think about it. If I can smell it being so close, they must be able to smell it from a much greater distance.
He looks my body over, turning me left then right as he inspects me, and when he’s satisfied that I’m okay, he lets me have it. “Why are you here?!!”
The wildness comes back to his eyes and his scent becomes even stronger. His arms flail as he paces. “I don’t understand you, Cynthia! You know there are bad things out there trying to get to you and you–with no regard for yourself or anyone else–decide to put yourself in harm’s way!!!”
I fight back tears. Sad tears, angry tears–tears that want to let Alex know how overwhelmed I am right now. “We were tryyy–ying. To get to. You. Bastard!”
He stops, takes a few breaths, puts his hands on his hips, and looks at the ground. I don’t know what he’s thinking, and I’m so afraid for him to speak.
Calmly, he continues. “I’m sure you were worried about me, but I was planning on being back this afternoon before anyone’s radar went up.”
He walks over and wraps his arms around me, burying his head in my neck. His scent is evening out, back to a musky blend.
I just can’t understand why he wouldn’t tell anyone. Why did he leave me in the dark after sharing such an intimate confession with me last night?,
But all I can ask is, “Why?”
“I couldn’t risk my parents finding out. They don’t know I’m here.”
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#Chapter 64: The Getaway
I squeeze him tighter. I don’t want to ever let go.
When we finally let go, I whisper, “Rita. Will be okay.”
“I’m sure she will. The Alpha of the pack, Ryan, is who I was with. He’s the one attending to her now. He’s supposedly a gifted healer, so she’s in the right hands. Besides, it isn’t a mortal wound.”
He must mean for a werewolf. “Then what is?”
“The jugular.”
I cringe, and he laughs. “You asked.” Alex hugs me again, then kisses me on the head.
“We left it. The wwwolf. In the woods,” I say, almost absentmindedly.
His head snaps up. “Was it alive?”
I bite my lip and nod.
Alex starts growling and pulls back, holding me at arm’s length. “I need you to stay here–promise me!”
I nod. “Okay. But where are you…?”
And before I have the chance to answer, Alex is pulling me by the hands back inside.
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