Mentally, I reach for my wolf, extending imaginary fingers until just on their tips, I can feel the subtle brush of soft fur.I need you. Please. Save us.
Sick and battered, he limps toward me pressing his muzzle against my hand. Together we concentrate on my mouth and throat, shifting enough to heal, before our energy fades and they return to human form.
“Sam,” I gasp, finally able to speak. “Alpha?”
“He’s at the funeral. He’ll be gone for at least a couple of hours,” she answers, well versed in my shorthand. “Your idiot brothers are with him.”
I nod, staring up at the wood ceiling. The whole house is nothing but wood.I fucking hate this place.
“Doesn’t mean we should sit here waiting,” she grunts, standing up and pocketing her phone. “K & D will be here soon, and I want us at that gate before they get here. Last thing we need is some random wolf spotting them. With all this shit, who fucking knows what they’ll do?”
Counting my breaths, I gather my strength, hurl myself back over, and up onto my hands and knees. The world sways underneath me, and I end up pitching over face first onto the floor with my ass up in the air.
“Nice view, but not really helpful,” Sam teases, tucking her arms underneath me, and with her help, I sit up. “Okay, I’m going to need you to walk or crawl out to the balcony. I got it from there.”
I wince when I frown at her in confusion, but I’m too tired to ask questions. With everything I have left in me, I crawl toward the window, claw myself up to the sill, and tumble out the other side.
“I meant using the doors that open up to the balcony in the next room, but that works,” she mutters, more neatly climbing out of the window. “This way.”
It’s earlier than I thought, the sky still pink with the setting sun, which explains why I’m so weak. The silver nitrate is still going to take hours to work its way out of my system. With sucking wet coughs, I crawl the few feet after her to a boom lift waiting on the edge of the balcony that surrounds the first floor of the house. A lot of the pack work in various fields of construction; this whole village was built with pack hands, and that means access to large pieces of construction equipment.
“Here we go,” she huffs, kneeling down and hooking her arms underneath mine. “On the count of three, you’re going to stand up. Once we’re inside, you can lean on me for support on the way down. I swear to god, if you fall out of that damn metal box after I had to flirt my ass off to get this lift here, I’ll never forgive you.”
“Okay,” I mumble back.
She sighs, then on three, we get me to my feet. Again the ground spins, and I lean so heavily on Sam that we more topple into the box than walk onto it.
“You’re so fucking heavy,” she groans, stretching to close the gate, then flips the switch for us to descend.
I close my eyes because the world won’t stop moving and mumble into Sam’s shoulder, “I’m sorry.”
“I know you are,” she whispers back, sad and resigned, her arms encircled my waist trying to support me. “Doesn’t change anything.”
“Didn’t want to hurt you,” I insist between heaving breaths. Now that I’m outside, I can smell the hints of smoke that cling to her hair and skin.
“Still did,” she replies with a wistful sigh.
We’re quiet the rest of the way down, and when we reach the bottom, there’s a shifter I’ve seen around school, but like a lot of the pack, have never talked to.
“I swear to God, you got big brass ones, Samantha,” he blurts, quickly moving to help us both out of the box.
“Just what a lady loves to hear,” she mutters. “And it’s Sam. No one calls me Samantha.”
“I know,” he croaks, his voice cracking, as I’m shifted between the two of them, one arm around each of their shoulders, and dragged down the Alpha’s property toward the street. “I just thought… maybe I could, you know… be different.”
Ah fuck. Come on. I’m literally near death. Please don’t make me listen to this.
“Thinking you’re getting a little ahead of yourself,” she counters, equal parts of strain and impatience in her voice. “I said a movie, maybe burgers after. Nowhere near pet names.”
“Your real name is a pet name?” the dumbass snorts.
God damn it. Leave me here. I’ll crawl to the fucking gates.
“Listen…” she snarls, but is interrupted when I start to lose consciousness again and fall forward. They steady me, and Sam hisses, “Don’t fucking pass out on me now.”
They get me to my car, Sam digs through my pockets for my keys, then leans me against the car with dumbass propping me up. She opens the hatchback, shoves down the back seat, and then pops back out to help me inside.
“He looks really bad,” he comments, as I lie dry heaving and dizzy in the back of my Tahoe.
