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I gripped the wheel tight, a sliver of anger coming back, but not for the same reason. Couldn’t she make this a little bit easier for me?
Three hours into the road, I stopped for gas since the truck drank gas like water. Raika woke up then and went to the bathroom. She came back with two to-go coffee cups and a brown bag.
When I sat beside her again, she offered them to me. “We didn’t have breakfast. I thought you might be hungry.”
A lump got stuck in my throat. Even disappointed in me, she still thought of me. I got the cup and one of the glazed doughnuts from inside the bag. “Thanks.”
I took a sip of the coffee, a bite of the doughnut, put the coffee in the cup holder at the truck’s dashboard, and started driving.
As I steered us back into the highway, I glanced at Raika. She still looked out the window, half her body turned away from me, but somehow, I knew … deep down, I knew this was a small bump in the road. Any relationships had them, even the most perfect ones. It was impossible not to.
And sometimes, all you needed was a little time to digest the problem, for the anger to fade away.
Tonight, I would invite her over for dinner with Tyren and Minsi, and I would apologize properly for my reaction.
Feeling a little better, I stepped on the gas.
We drove for several more hours. Finally, we took the first back road off the highway that led deep into the forest, toward the pack lands.
Suddenly, a great force slammed into the car from the side. I held on to the wheel, tried controlling the car, but it was impossible. The truck was pushed off the road, into a small hill.
“Raika,” I called as the truck flipped.
Everything happened fast, and pain spread through my shoulders and my lower back as the truck rolled a couple of times, and then stopped against a tree, turned upside down.
My mind felt heavy, my body too, as if I was swimming in syrup. I blinked, trying to stay awake, even though the pain was too great.
“Raika,” I called again.
“H-here,” she whispered, her voice faint.
I turned, my neck hurting, and saw she was like me, hanging from the seat because of the seat belt. The airbags had gone off, the windshield was broken, and the front of the truck was smoking.
A sharp pain came from my shoulder. I reached for it and saw a little blood staining my fingers. Shit.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I think so.”
“We need to get out.” I braced myself with one hand and pressed the button to release the seat belt. I fell down on the truck’s top, all twisted, but I squirmed and turned toward Raika. “I’ll help you. Use your arms.”
She put both arms over her head, pushing against the truck’s bent ceiling and I released her seat belt. I tried cushioning her fall, but there wasn’t much I could do. Like me, she fell into a heap and yelped. Now that I was closer to her, I could see a trickle of blood on her forehead and her upper arm.
“Come on.”
We crawled out of the truck. I stood, my head spun for a second, my body screamed. Raika stood beside me, but leaned against the truck.
The fog in my vision cleared.
A dozen wolves surrounded us. Wolves with bright white spots on their brown or gray fur.
The Whitecrest pack.
“What the—?” I clenched my fists. “You’re the ones who did this?”
No one shifted to talk to me. Instead, they lunged at us.
My rage spiked and I started shifting.
