Chapter 42: : Chapter 42

The sun was high in the sky, and the brightness in contrast to the darkness of the cave was painfully blinding. Fresh air had never tasted so good. Relief flooded me at being out of that cave, but where the hell were we?

My wolf sniffed the air, then took off down the pebble beach. She was remarkably quiet, which was unusual.

I asked.

she responded.

I insisted, but I sensed she didn’t believe me, and maybe she was right not to. She stumbled slightly but pushed on, despite the pain of our open wounds.

I asked.

She sniffed the air, then hurried onward.

I guessed she was giving me a taste of my own medicine. I shut up and let her guide us down the beach. We were tired, and the wounds on our thigh and shoulder throbbed.

Fear tore at me.

Silence.

Finally, a few cabins appeared among the pines along the shore. She limped into the trees and sneaked through the shadows toward the closest cabin.

I asked.

Her thoughts were tired and broken.

At least she was willing to hand over control.

Guilt tugged at me.

She slinked behind a bush, and then I saw where we were headed. A clothesline was strung between two trees, loaded with at least ten sets of clothes. Mercifully, there was a pair of leggings and a sweater that looked vaguely close to my size. My wolf leapt up and grabbed them with her teeth, and then slunk back into the bushes.

Once she’d put some distance between us and the cabin, she stopped and dropped the clothes.

, she said, utterly exhausted.

Never had she been so willing to shift back to human form. I was both shocked and saddened. That fight had taken a little of the fire out of her.

, I told her, worried that it might not work without Jaxson here. But what choice did we have?

My wolf lowered herself to the ground, and then our body strained as the shift took hold. I gritted my teeth as I jerked and bent, and the horrors of the shift began. I had to stifle a scream as I felt the ligaments and muscles in my legs and arms tearing, and the wounds in my skin reopened.

Pain blotted out my thoughts. Why wasn’t it over? The shift to wolf form had been fast.

But the agony only increased. We were stuck between forms. Dread coiled in my chest.

, my wolf snarled in pain.

Jaxson wasn’t in control of our body.

I tried to calm my mind so I could let the shift take me. My wolf seemed to sense my cue and settled, and we both embraced the pain that worked through our body.

This time, when our joints popped and sinews stretched, the agony eased until it was gone.

Panting, I finally opened my eyes and stared up at the trees. The pine branches swayed in the ocean wind.

“We did it,” I whispered and rolled onto my hands and knees.

I was exhausted and achy, and pangs of hunger knotted my stomach. I glanced down at the wound on my bare thigh where Kahanov had sliced me with the Soul Knife. The skin was red and inflamed, but the bleeding had stopped. Maybe my wolf’s healing power was kicking in.

“Well, we could have gotten off worse,” I muttered as I inspected my naked body.

, my wolf piped up.

I smiled. “You and me both, sister.”

My shoulder was swollen, my ribs bruised. There were cuts all over my body, but the only ones that weren’t healing quickly were those made by the Soul Knife…which Kahanov now had. I tried to summon it, but nothing happened. I could still feel my bond with the blade, but I was too far away.

I’d failed to kill him, and now I’d lost the knife. My stomach clenched as the weight of failure pressed upon my heart. I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes.

, my wolf said calmly.

My heart warmed. If she could think clearly, then so could I.

I staggered to my feet. I needed to call Jaxson to tell him where I was—so where the hell was I? My ears picked up the sound of cars on a road, so I headed that way.

When I finally reached the highway, I stuck out my thumb. I was barefoot, scraped up, wearing twigs in my hair and clothes that clearly didn’t match. I looked like a survivor of a plane crash.

, my wolf chirped.

I asked, annoyed.

I wasn’t sure how to interpret that.

Thirty minutes later, I caught a ride with an older man in a Crown Victoria. Old Savannah would have never hitchhiked, but the man seemed harmless, and if he’d turned out to be a serial killer, I would have just clawed him to pieces.

Luckily, he was genuinely nice and helpful, and I learned that I was in Washington. I’d never been to the Pacific Northwest, but I decided I liked it, and so did my wolf.

It was tempting to hide out here so I’d never have to face my werewolf-hating family or the psychopath sorcerer or my condition. If only I could just forget it all and start a new life.

Deep down, we both knew there was no escaping things.

The chatty old guy dropped me off at a strip mall in a small town called Forks. He even gave me twenty bucks to grab a bite to eat.

I ordered a large turkey club from Subway and put on my best smile when I asked the cashier to borrow his phone. Thankfully, he was a teenage boy, and I could tell he had the hots for me. He unlocked the phone, and I slid into a booth and pulled up Google. I hadn’t memorized Jaxson’s or Casey’s numbers, so I looked up the number for Eclipse.

As the phone rang, I prayed to God that Jaxson was there and not still stuck in the Dreamlands. Just the thought of that place had my mind wandering, and I couldn’t shake the image of Jaxson’s lips pressed against mine as his fingers worked me in all the right places. Had that really happened, or was it all just a dream?

My cheeks blazed when I realized that my skin was flushed and there was a mounting tightness in my center.

Jaxson’s rough voice answered, and tingles worked their way up my thighs.

“Jaxson, thank fuck,” I blurted, clenching my legs together.

“Savannah! Where are you?” His words vibrated with agitation and exhaustion.

“I’m in Forks, Washington,” I answered. “And I found the bastard.”