“You can do it.”I imagined him putting a reassuring hand on my lower back.“Ease back and relax. She’ll come forward and do most of the work.”
Taking a deep breath, I tried to do as the Nate voice in my head told me. Relax. Release. Trust. With an effort, I reached out to my wolf and opened my mind to her.
“Just like that.”
That encouragement was exactly what I needed.
After a moment of vertigo, I found myself curled up on the floor in my wolf form, warm, dry fur covering me. The warmth was almost more than I’d hoped for. Relief washed through me, and I curled even tighter into myself, enjoying the comfort of being dry and cozy.
“Good job,”the Nate voice murmured in my mind.
Responding to that imaginary voice, my wolf let out a whine of desire. She wanted him as much as I did. Now that basic survival had been taken care of, I could descend into my misery at losing him. Would I ever see him again? I didn’t know, and that uncertainty ate at me. All I wanted was to have him here, to apologize for how things ended. Even a few minutes to tell him I was sorry would be better than this.
“Why didn’t you say all that this morning?”the Nate-voice said in my head.
I had no answer to that.
I tried to figure out what more I could have done to de-escalate the fight and let us both get our points across without the anger and hurt, but a smell caught my attention. It was familiar and getting stronger.
Raising my head, I sniffed the air hesitantly. Was that really what I thought it was? Slowly, I uncoiled my body and stood on my four paws, sucking in great gulps of air as the scent wound its way into my brain. Motor oil, gasoline, and a manly musk I would recognize anywhere. Throwing my head back, I released a deep, booming howl.
The sound echoed out into the valley and the mountains surrounding me. I waited, scanning the trees hopefully as the sound of the howl faded. My excitement and hope slowly vanished as the echoes died. Maybe I was wrong. I’d hallucinated the scent like I had hallucinated seeing Lesley and Nate.
Hanging my head in disappointment, I went to lay back down when an answering howl broke through the quiet. My fur stood on end, not in fear or anger but in surprise and happiness. I recognized that howl. It wasn’t a hallucination.
I unleashed an answering call of my own, and another howl answered, closer this time.
Nate?
I sprinted out onto the sodden grass, rushing toward the sound of his wolf, my paws digging in the wet mud as I ran. Another howl, this one close enough that I could practically feel the sound reverberating in my bones.
He’d found me!
A familiar, lithe, and powerful wolf erupted from the forest, sprinting toward me. Had I been in my human form, I probably would have burst into tears. Unlike my amorphous daydreams and hallucinations, Nate stood out in stark contrast to the world around him. Solid and alive. He was real. He was here. This was no fantasy.
Nate galloped forward, moving with a speed I could barely believe was possible. The sight and smell of him urged me forward. His scent was now strong enough to envelop me. It reminded me of safety, of strength, ofhome.
His wolf bounded into me, nuzzling against me, running his muzzle across mine. I wound my body against his, nearly bouncing in my excitement to see him. Then, with an effort, I shifted back to my human form, the transition getting easier each time. Within seconds, Nate had me in his human arms, pulling me tight against his chest. My knees buckled, and I sagged into his hold. Pressing my face into his chest, I took a deep breath, letting his smell wash across me. Desire coursed through me. Our fight forgotten, a bone-deep need filled me as his arms wrapped around me.
Exhaustion dug its claws into my mind. Safe in Nate’s arms, the adrenaline that had kept me going the last few hours was rapidly depleting, vanishing, leaving me a husk of my former self.
“Are you okay?” Nate asked, cupping my cheeks and staring into my eyes. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. A little cold, a lot dirty, and really fucking tired.”
Another wolf bolted from the woods, and I flinched.
Rick?Had he tracked me all this way? Dear God, no…
Instead of attacking, the wolf slowed to a trot, then shifted into a man roughly my age with a heavy beard. He didn’t look angry or threatening. Instead, he had a satisfied smile on his face.
“Looks like you were right about those tracks we saw, my friend,” he said, grinning at Nate. The man caught my eye and held his hands up in surrender when he saw my apprehension. “My name is Joseph Christopher Watts. JC. We spoke on the phone earlier?”
Relief slashed through the fear when I recognized his voice. “Oh, yeah,” I muttered.
Before I could say more, the edges of my vision went gray and fuzzy. Fear, panic, and exhaustion, coupled with the fading adrenaline and mild hypothermia, took hold like the fingers of some vengeful god and dragged me down.
“Cam? Cameron?” Nate said.
