Catching sight of a street sign, I gave her my best guess at a location, and she told me she’d have someone there as soon as possible. When I got off the line, I felt no better. I was still alone. Every few seconds, a car went whizzing past, sending up sprays of water. One of them laid on the horn, and I realized we were still sitting in the middle of the road. I turned on the emergency flashers. The last thing I needed was to have a car plow into my rear and send me to the hospital.
My body ached, my scalp stung from when Rick had yanked my hair, my ass throbbed from falling to the pavement, and my hand was covered in tiny cuts from the glass. I wrapped my arms around myself, shivering, wishing with all my heart that I wasn’t alone.
It took a few seconds to remember where we’d been going in the first place. My head was still ringing, and none of my thoughts wanted to line up the way they were supposed to. Ollie had a pack. We were on our way to introduce me to Alpha JC. Could they help? Without Nate or Ollie around, I couldn’t think of anyone else who could come to my aid. Mom would, and Lesley would, but I couldn’t drag them into this nightmare. Besides, what could they do to protect me from Rick?
Shaking my head to clear it, I stared at the phone. Before I could talk myself out of it, I swiped through Ollie’s call list. One of the last calls he’d made was to a number labeledJC–Alpha. My finger hovered above the screen, hesitating. Would he even answer? When I told him what had happened, would he do anything? Why would they accept my word? He’d probably be pissed that I’d brought attention to his pack and end up shunning me.
“Fuck it,” I muttered, and hit the call button.
“Ollie? What’s up? Are you almost here?” The voice on the other end of the line was calm, assured, andmuchyounger than I’d anticipated. He sounded my age, or perhaps a bit older.
“Um, this isn’t Ollie,” I said. “My name’s Cameron Torres. I need help.” To my horror, I sounded on the verge of tears.
“All right, Cameron. I know you. Or know of you, I should say. Ollie’s told me a lot about what’s going on,” he said, an assuring warmth filling his voice. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
Something in the way he spoke shattered the floodgates. The tears came then, and I blubbered like a baby as I tried to explain everything. My embarrassment couldn’t stop me from telling him everything that had happened—the feral attack, Nate leaving, Rick attacking us, and Ollie taking off after him. By the time I was finished, I was completely drained.
“Okay, Cameron,” JC said. “I need you to stay calm. Don’t lose that phone. We’re coming for you. The pack is on the way.”
A little whimper of relief escaped my lips, and I wiped my face with my sleeve. Help was coming. The cavalry would come riding in and sweep me away to safety. I couldn’t have asked for more.
“What should I do until you get here?” I asked, sweeping my gaze across the tree line again. The storm had escalated a bit. The thick, dark clouds made the morning look more like dusk, but I could still make out the forest. Already, I could tell my vision was different—better—than before. Everything was in higher contrast, more visible, even through the deluge of rain.
If not for my enhanced eyesight, I wouldn’t have seen him. Rick stumbled out of the forest in his human form, soaking wet and disheveled. He looked even more unhinged than before, like anactualwild animal. Had he killed Ollie?
“Oh, God!” I shouted into the phone. “He’s back!”
“Cameron,run,” JC said into the phone. “We’ll find you, but you have to run.Now.”
Something about the commanding nature of his voice stirred me to life. Lunging toward the passenger side, I scrambled out through the missing door, then sprinted across the road into the forest on the opposite side of the truck.
“Cameron!” Rick bellowed behind me, a roll of thunder punctuating his voice. It made him sound like some kind of ancient storm god of mythology. With a whimper of panic, I ran faster, plunging into the woods.
My legs pumped, muscles flexing and pushing me faster than I’d ever gone in my life. I was too terrified to enjoy the speed. At any other time, it would have been shocking, exhilarating, and magical. Now? All I could think was that I wasn’t goingfast enough.
I could hear Rick coming for me. It was hard to tell exactly how far back he was, especially with my enhanced hearing that made everything sound closer. I risked a glance over my shoulder, and all I could see was a faint outline of a man some hundred yards behind. The pouring rain obscured everything else.
Looking back proved to be a mistake. My right foot caught a root, and the next thing I knew, I was tumbling through the air.
I’d run right into a ravine, and my body was now nothing but a badly designed bowling ball crashing down, a victim of gravity and momentum. Branches slapped at me as the ground pounded the breath from my lungs. The globs of mud were the only thing that kept me from breaking something.
The sodden ground slammed into me, coating my body as I tumbled, head over heels down toward the small creek at the bottom. A rock dug into my ribs, a branch scraped an agonizing furrow in my shoulder, and my ankle twisted as I rolled to a stop at the bottom.
An inches-deep puddle of mud cushioned my fall, but even as I lay there, covered head to toe in thick, wet earth, my fear stillpushed me on, urging me to move. Except, my body was spent. I could barely stand, much less run. All I could do was drag myself away from the creek into a pile of underbrush. Even as I did, I heard Rick’s chaotic approach.
As I lay there beneath the foliage, I shivered in terror and fear. He’d sniff me out in seconds. He’d drag me away, kicking and screaming, and it would all be over.
A moment later, Rick appeared only feet away. The foliage covered me, and the canopy kept most of the rain away so I could see him clearly. Body trembling, I watched him walk across the creek. I had to dig my teeth into my tongue to keep from whimpering. Rick stopped in the middle of the creek, then raised his head and sniffed the air. He looked exactly like a dog searching for his prey. To my shock, he let out a hiss of frustration and bolted upstream, leaving me behind.
I gaped at him. He hadn’t found me. How? I’d been less than six feet from him. Then I glanced down at the mud coating my entire body, even my face. Could that have masked me in some way? I took a hesitant sniff, and all I could smell was the earthiness of the wet soil. Unwilling to take this miracle gift for granted, I waited a few minutes to make sure Rick wasn’t coming back, then slowly got to my feet.
If anyone had walked by, they’d have thought some swamp monster was rising from its resting place. Gobs of mud tumbled from my shoulders, but I didn’t wipe it off. If it was keeping me safe from Rick, I wanted it to stay on me as long as possible.
My body screamed at me to stop, to lie down and rest. Instead, with a heave of determination, I put my foot forward and began to climb up out of the ravine, moving in the opposite direction of Rick. It was tough-going. With each step, my twisted ankle made me yelp in pain.
As I climbed, I realized I’d lost Ollie’s phone in the fall. There was nothing to do about that now. All I could do was run, and that was exactly what I was going to do.
32
