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“Thanks,” I said. “Where have you been?”
I was summoned.
“Billy Bob?”
Yes, the gray wolf called. He is worried for you. His mate.
I didn’t like how pleased Brother Wolf sounded on that last bit. “Did you tell him I got away?”
Yes. He says to tell you he will tear heaven and earth apart to find you. He will not rest until you are safe and in his arms.
“Tell him that’s kind of personal stuff to be relaying through a third party, but that I appreciate the sentiment.” I know Brother Wolf saw me in his plane of existence, not in this one, but I wondered… “Tell the doc that I’m near a large lake, maybe the size of two football fields, the moon’s reflection is to the right side. I didn’t smell any human scents, so I don’t think I’m near any homes.”
Seconds passed.
I have done as you asked. He says to keep hidden and keep safe. He will find you.
I found a giant hollowed out tree nearby. I curled up in a ball, holding my knees tightly. As the adrenaline in my body waned, my lids and my limbs grew heavy with exhaustion, and I’m sure there was a little bit of the drug left in me as well. I didn’t dare close my eyes. Didn’t dare sleep. Billy Bob was coming for me. I just needed to stay vigilant and stay alive until he got here.
Strangely enough, I didn’t cry. Unlike the last time I was kidnapped, this time, I’d gotten away. I might not be one-hundred percent safe, but I’d managed to save myself.
Not a victim, I told myself. Not this time.
I don’t know how much time passed, but it had felt like three lifetimes when I heard the gentle pad of four paws on dried grass. I stayed hidden but leaned out from the tree enough to glimpse a large, gray wolf standing less than thirty feet away. His fur glowed as the moonlight turned it silvery-blue. His gaze captured mine, and I pushed myself to a stand, stumbling toward him. Jagged rocks dug into my bare feet, but I ignored the pain. The only important thing in my world was the wolf.
He bolted toward me, his body shifting on the way. By the time we met, closer to my side than the middle, Billy Bob grabbed me into his arms and clutched me so hard I couldn’t breathe. His hands roamed my body as he examined me with his touch. Last, his fingers were in my hair, holding my head back so he could check my face.
“He didn’t hit me,” I told him. “He just knocked me out and hauled me out here in the back of his truck.”
“Who?” Billy Bob asked in a way that promised violence, ending in a brutal death.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. He drugged me with something. I couldn’t move. I was paralyzed. He had a canvas tarp over me.” I shook my head again. “I…I just can’t tell you more.”
“Can you describe him at all? His height? His weight? Hair color?”
“I was able to burn some of the drug from my body. Enough to shift.” My voice cracked with emotion. “But everything seemed warped and weird, even for a while after I ran away.”
He pulled me against his chest, the warmth of his skin easing the tension in my weary muscles. “It’s okay,” he murmured. “You’re safe now. I have you, Chav, and I’m never letting you go.”
My nose started to run. I sniffed. “But what if I have to pee?”
His tone was fierce. “Get used to an audience.”
“I really do love you, Doc. But there is no way I can poop with you in the room.”
A low growl rumbled gathered in his chest. “I will board up the bathroom window.”
“Good, because watching me use the toilet might have been a deal breaker.”
The low rumble turned into a chuckle. “You staked your claim on me at the Blonde Bear Café, Chav. There are no take backs.”
I looked up at him pushed his silvery locks back from his face to drink in his raw, masculine beauty. He was everything. “No take backs,” I agreed. “Will you take me home now?”
“My place.” It wasn’t a question. “We’ll call the sheriff on the way. He can meet us there.”
“My brain is still foggy,” I said as I tried to remember more about the abduction.
“The tox screens came back on Wares and Blackwell. They’d both been dosed with a safrol, a drug extracted from the root of a sassafras tree used to make MDMA, and a paralytic compound. But the dose in both victims would have been enough to kill a human.”
“Ecstasy?” It explained why I was super thirsty. I remember something more. “He knew about me.”
“What?”
“The man who took me. I remember now. He said something about knowing last year that I would be the third sacrifice. That I was his or rather their destiny. He was talking on the phone with his partner. He said that I could be their deliverance.”
“They can’t have you. I won’t let it happen. I can’t lose you, Chavvah,” he said. He kissed me gently. “Not when I’ve just found you.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I told him. “I promise.”
I hoped it was a promise I could keep.
