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But Bob just starts laughing. “That’s what I thought!” He pries my hand off his shirt and stands as Cookie scrambles to clean up the mess I made. “Like I said, she’s trouble. Change your mind, kid, before you tear both the packs apart.”
I sigh and scrub my face with my hands. Bob baited me into revealing my feelings and I fell for it, but he’s Switzerland just as much as his place is. He won't say anything. I slip out of my booth and crouch down to help Cookie, who smiles at me sweetly.
“Don’t you worry about ol’ Bob!” she says cheerfully, holding her hand to cover her mouth so Bob won’t hear her. “I won’t say a word either, of all people I should know about impossible feelings.” She sighs and stares at the door to the bar wistfully.
Poor little human is lovestruck. Shaking herself, she turns back to me and resumes picking up glass while I wipe the floor with a damp rag.
“If I were you, and there was any evidence to prove I might be lying, I’d go clean it up before I went to sleep.” She winks at me as she gets up and walks away, leaving me dumbfounded.
Humans know everything. They always seem to know everything while us wolves are stumbling around in the dark.
* * *
Being back in the cave without Ruby feels wrong, like I’m invading some sacred space. Cookie was right, if I’m going to keep Ruby safe, I need to cover any trace of either of us being here and erase the scent of our mating. I start a low fire to burn the blankets, and nearly cry as the evidence that any of this happened fades from existence. I don’t stop cleaning the place until every trace of her scent is erased with soot and water.
I fall to my hands and knees when I’m done, struggling to breathe. I know that the time we spent in this cave will very likely be the last time I ever get to touch her skin or feel her lips on mine. The thought makes me physically sick. Every nook and cranny of this damn place has her memory on it, her screaming at me, trusting me, hating me, loving me. This is where it all began, and now I’ve erased it all.
I shift back into a wolf, unable to handle the feelings and walk on two feet at the same time. My body screams for hers, my soul cracking and shattering with every step I walk away from the cave. I hate Cole, I hate Ryder, hell I even hate our ancestors and the first werewolves. Cursing the packs into a lifetime of hate and fighting…it’s all Raina’s fault. She did this. She created werewolves and split brothers apart.
I blame Raina!
Lightning crashes above my head and I duck instinctively. The sky’s clear, the storms have passed, there shouldn’t be any lightning! But it strikes again and again, getting closer and closer behind me, chasing me as I run blindly through the woods. I duck and weave, confused and terrified. It’s as if the lighting is targeting me. Trying to incinerate me.
No matter where I run, it’s lashing the ground only a few feet behind me. The scent of burned earth fills the air. It’s only a matter of time before the smell of scorched flesh and fur is next.
Except my body tires before my desperate mind is ready to admit defeat.
The next flash of silver light strikes in front of me, making me halt in my tracks. My strength is sapped, my heart beating against my chest so hard it hurts, as I pant hard. The lightning frenzy continues, now striking around me in a circle, branding the place where I stand.
Then silence.
The lightning is gone as quickly as it arrived. Impossible, yet very real.
Without warning, another flash lights the night sky, this one further away. I’m just letting out a breath of relief that it’s over, that the freak storm is moving on, when terror ices my veins.
There, backlit by the lightning, is the grizzly that attacked us.
It drags its back leg as it roars at me, furious, vengeful, and tortured by pain. Fueled by all of those, it powers toward me, claws tearing the ground and ripping dirt and snow up into the air behind it.
I brace myself. The lightning chased me here, trapped me in this clearing with the very bear that almost took my life. For some reason, no matter how much I wish it were otherwise, I was meant to be here.
Maybe this is my punishment. For falling for the enemy. For forsaking my ancestors.
As the bear runs towards me, I prepare to die. To pay for the sins that felt like I’d found heaven.
The clouds part and the moon lights the clearing so brightly it hurts my eyes. For a brief moment I see the forest in flames, a man holds a woman against a tree. They’re running from something, terrified. When I look again I see a man on horseback. His rage is as palpable as the ground beneath my feet.
The vision is torn apart as the bear bursts through and attacks.
It pins me down, and I’m under the mighty grizzly, his intent to kill clear in his dark eyes, flashing teeth, and unyielding mass of muscle.
Except this time I am healed, this time I am rested. The flash of the moon and lightning is making his sight struggle as much as mine. And I refuse to believe that what I feel for Ruby is wrong.
I lunge upwards, biting the grizzly in the stomach and ripping viciously. Blood pours over me as its entrails spill from its body. The bear rears, roaring in pain, standing as it prepares to attack anyway.
Terrified, I turn and lunge again, launching myself at the dying and desperate predator with my jaws open and gleaming. He slaps at me, breaking my ribs with an agonizing crunch, but don’t let it stop me. I collide with his chest and he falls back, his wounded leg unable to withstand the force of my impact. There’s a deep thud as he hits the ground, his fur rippling with the impact, his entrails spreading over the dirt.
I take my moment and lock my jaws around the great beast's throat, kicking and slashing its chest and stomach with my back claws as I rip flesh from its neck. I bite him over and over, merciless, driven to survive. To live.
