But I could tell she wasn’t. “How can you do that?” I pointed to the submerged entrance.
“I’ll just shift into my wolf form—that won’t scare you will it?—and go for help.”
“But your arm.” I remembered the warning Travis’s doctor told him. “It won’t heal properly.”
“The moon’s energy is waxing toward full moon. It’ll actually heal more quickly.”
I continued protesting that we could just wait it out here, but Sarah was having none of that. “This ismyfault. I won’t have you suffer because of me.”
“I’m not going to suffer, Silly. Besides, you drowning isn’t going to help.”
“My wolf is a strong swimmer,” she assured me. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Realizing I couldn’t talk her out of it, I climbed onto the highest ledge I could find. When I turned around, she’d alreadyshifted into her wolf form. She had a beautiful, shiny red coat and was about half the size of Travis’s wolf. With a short bark, she jumped into the dark water. I stood rooted to the spot, heart pounding in my throat, and watched as she swam through the mouth of the cave.
And then she was gone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Travis
After a boring-as-hell one-on-one with a fox shifter from Florida—I wasn’t interested listening to the time when she and her friends chased a bunch of chickens, I looked around the hotel for Daphne and learned that she and Sarah had gone hiking. A frisson of unease shot through me. Although the Crutchfield’s territory was on the northeast tip of the island, far from the sea caves, I didn’t like the idea of her possibly running into one of those assholes.
At the thought of being out in nature, my inner wolf gnawed at me like a leashed dog, and I realized I hadn’t run in days. Not since my injury, which seemed ages ago now. I called the pack together before my wolf got even crankier.
Unlike my father who ordered everyone in the Darkaway Island pack to attend, I sent out word that if anyone was available and wanted to go for a group run, we were meeting at the ranch at moon rise. Jada and Matthew were in, of course, along with my little brothers, and some cousins, including a few pups who were on their first runs. Once we shifted into ourwolf forms, we wrestled a bit in an upper pasture, then I led the pack through the dense forest and up the mountainside.
Surrounded by family, I ran through the trees, over ferns and felled logs. Wind rushed through my fur, energizing my spirit, the ground solid and sure beneath my large paws.
Heavens Moon, Imissedthis. A run through Stanley Park with a few co-workers from the set ofSecret Shadowsdidn’t hit the same.
We eventually got to a large clearing where we gathered in a circle around the littles and howled at the moon. The sound of my family rang like a chorus in my ears, and it occurred to me that this was the first time I’d led the pack since my father’s death. It was both odd and strangely comforting at the same time.
The air smelled of rain and was charged with electricity. A thunderstorm, though rare on the island, must be rolling in. I hoped Daphne was back from her hike and drinking hot chocolate at the hotel by now.
I was mindful not to keep the group out too long. While the young ones wouldn’t mind getting caught in a downpour, their parents wouldn’t want to deal with all that wet fur. It was the complete opposite of what my father would do. He’d keep the pack out till all hours, rain or moon shine, forcing them to listen to him yap about this or that. The man loved to hear himself talk.
I let one of the younger pups lead the group back down the mountain while I brought up the rear. We had just crossed another creek, this one teaming with fish, when I scented another wolf.
Someone not part of our pack.
While the Darkaway Island pack was the oldest pack on the island, it certainly wasn’t the only one. I stopped, braced myself for a confrontation, the hairs on my neck standing on end.
A small red-coated wolf stepped out of the trees. A female.Clearly exhausted. Though I couldn’t read her thoughts, I could tell she was in some sort of distress. She shifted into her human form.What the fuck. It was Sarah. She’d been running hard and leaned on a nearby tree trunk to catch her breath.
I shifted into my human form as well. Not being from my pack, I couldn’t communicate with her otherwise. “What’s wrong?” I demanded, glancing around. “I thought you were with Daphne.”
“I was, but?—”
The blood in my veins turned to ice. “What happened? Where the hell is she? Is she hurt?”
If the Crutchfields had anything to do with this, I was going to rip those assholes to shreds.
“No, no,” she said, reassuring me. “She’s fine. But the two of us got trapped in one of the sea caves at high tide.”
Fresh panic gripped me—Daphne was alone and in trouble—and the drive to go to her became my singular focus. I needed to shield her from danger before it was too late.
Protect her.
