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Up ahead, my eyes fix on a bus. A blonde woman steps inside, pulling a sulky little girl with long, brown pigtails behind her.
I don’t know where that bus is going, but I need to be on it.
Now.
I charge toward it, the sound of my bare feet overly loud as they slap on the ground. Whatever it is people see in my eyes is enough to make them back away, giving me all the space I need.
The bus door is slamming shut as I reach it, but I don’t even think about slowing. I throw myself through the gap, crying out when the metal doors crash into my ribs.
My eyes clash with the bus driver, a gray-haired, hazel-eyed man in blue who gapes so wide I count at least three missing teeth.
For a moment nothing happens, and then he snaps his mouth shut and pulls on a lever beside his thigh. The doors slide open again, releasing me.
I stagger up the two steps, everything burning: my ribs, my lungs, my feet, skinned palms.
Everything hurts.
And Simon…
I think my heart hurts worst of all.
My eyes itch.
I’m past the driver, heading toward the staring occupants of the bus who do nothing to hide their obvious interest when his voice stops me.
“Fare. You can’t just burst onto the bus and not pay, miss.”
Panic grabs me by the throat as I slowly turn. He gazes back at me, half twisted in his seat, his lips a determined line. “You can’t pay, you need to get off.”
My eye dart to the bus door. If I get off, I die. It will take Nathan minutes to catch up to me on foot. That’s if he isn’t already just outside.
“Please, I just need to get to the next stop. Just one stop. That’s it, and I’ll get off. I promise.” It’s a wonder the bus driver can make sense of what I’m saying because the words fly from my lips so fast I can barely make sense of them myself.
My eyes return to the door as I wait for Nathan to charge in.
“No fare, no—”
And then I remember.
I shove my hands into Simon’s coat pocket and yank out his wallet, nearly dropping it in my haste. Tearing the flap open, my eyes skate over the contents. Driver's license, credit cards, gym membership, and other things that won’t help me. My eyes snag on the bills stuffed at the back.
I grab one at random and throw it at the driver. “Here. The fare.”
I spin around and bolt to the back of the bus, shoving the wallet in my pocket as I go.
“Lady, this is too much. I can’t…”
I tune out the rest of the driver’s words as I rush to the side of the bus where I last saw Nathan standing behind the woman in red.
With my face pressed against the cold glass, my eyes search the few people still milling about. The car that nearly flattened me is gone, and traffic is moving at a steady flow. Even the woman in red is gone now.
My gaze bounces from person to person, hunting out Nathan’s dark head of hair, glittering blue stare, and the black sweatpants he wore as he stood behind the woman in red.
He was the wolf in the parking lot.
So he didn’t go to the other Jane Doe. He left the hospital, knowing I would run and was waiting for me in the parking lot. Waiting for Simon.
And he had clothes there too because a shifter has to strip naked before they can change to their wolf.
