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From the way the Irish pack was reacting, they were more along the norm. In their panic to help whoever needed it, they weren’t thinking. Town meant humans, which meant at least one Were should stay in human form.
Apparently, that Were was me. I was going to need more clothes.
I upended my bag, grabbing the first shirt and sweater I found. A pair of leggings. Running shoes. I spotted my down vest on the floor by the bed and threw that on along with a knit hat. Good enough.
I ran through the empty hallways, cursing the fact that I hadn’t paid better attention to the stronghold’s layout. I was going to need a car but had no idea where they kept them. When I finally got outside, I found a line of black hatchbacks around the side of the main entrance.
Distant howls broke the silence of the night. Danger. They were fighting something and I was going to be late. I hated being late.
I sprinted to the closest car and flung its door open.
“Shit.” Ireland. I was on the wrong side of the car.
I Dukes of Hazarded over the hood and got in the actual driver side. Keys were on the dash. “Come on. Come on. Come on,” I muttered as I fumbled with the keys. The engine sputtered. I hit my head on the steering wheel.
Think, Meredith. Think. I glanced around and saw the stick
shift.
An idiot. I’m a total idiot.
I was going to owe Max a bottle of amazing Scotch. I’d argued it was pointless to learn to drive a manual, but he’d insisted. It had taken me an embarrassingly long time to figure out how to not stall the engine, but Max was persistent.
It’d been a while, but I could do this. I took a breath. Calming down was key, but Donovan’s panic, pain, and fear beat against me, making it nearly impossible to focus. I put the car in gear and tried the key again.
The car lurched forward for a second before stalling.
Okay. One more time.
I went through Max’s lessons in my head and then hit the gas as I shifted into gear. The car jerked—not a pretty gear shift—but it didn’t stall. Good enough. Now how in the hell did I get to town?
I couldn’t really speak to Donovan when he was in wolf form, and I couldn’t see through his eyes, but if I really focused on our bond, I could feel how far away he was.
The only problem was that I kept trying to go the shortest distance to him, but kept running into meadows and fences. The car couldn’t handle that. I had to backtrack a few times, but I got closer to him with every turn.
A wave of pain came through the bond. He was hurt. Donovan was hurt.
I sped up, pushing the tiny car as fast as it would go down a dirt road when suddenly all I could see in front of me was black. It took me a second to realize the blackness was a thing and it was moving toward me. Fast.
I slammed on the brake, nearly slipping a gear as I downshifted.
“Fuck. Fuck. What the hell is that?”
It roared and all the hairs on my arms rose up.
Whatever it was, it was bad news. I needed to get the hell out of the road. Right now.
I tried to put the car back in gear, but it stalled.
Shit. I was so screwed.
I tried again as the dark mass got closer.
The beast turned, and moonlight glinted off its two shiny, black horns. A wolf raced up next to the beast, but it batted the wolf away with arms so massive its claws gouged the dirt road as it closed the distance between us.
More wolves chased the thing, but they weren’t making headway. Any who got close were swatted away like flies.
It was going to run straight into me and nothing was going to stop it.
