Chapter 19
Something soft was nudging me awake. Fur brushed along my arm, and a warm breath blew over my face.
They’ve found me.
Wet clothes clung to me, and my fingers were numb with cold.
Pebbles and rocks dug hard into my body where I lay, sprawled on my front, my legs still bobbing in the river.
A shiver ran up my body and I heard the wolf grunt over me.
Despite my despair at being found, I almost nuzzled into the warm fur.
I was so cold. I should have known they would find me.
I should have known getting away wouldn’t be that easy.
I opened my eyes to face them and my insides froze.
Bear.
It sniffed me, its huge body leaning over me. I closed my eyes again, sealing them shut and playing dead. My heart pounded against my chest.
Death by grizzly was a bad way to go.
If it was down by the river it was probably hunting, which meant it was hungry. I gritted my teeth, refusing to let panic take over. I felt for my knife. It was still attached to my hip but one small knife against one huge bear wouldn’t be much use.
It pawed me, turning me over. I grimaced but stayed silent. One heavy paw rested on my chest as it sniffed and mouthed me, its breath a rank gust in my nostrils. I tried not to breathe. I tried not to think. If I started to think then there was a good chance I would start to scream.
Eventually, after moments that lasted an eternity, the bear huffed and moved on.
I lay there a long time after that. Breathing, calming myself.
I peeked one eye open and slowly, very slowly, I stood.
I looked around for the grizzly. But I was alone.
Completely alone. And more lost than I’d ever been.
Okay, Iona. Don’t panic.
I remembered hitting the water. I remembered the rapids.
I remembered slamming my head into a rock and then…
nothing. I felt my head and winced when I found a lump on the right side.
I could only guess that I’d been knocked unconscious and, by some stroke of luck, had been washed downstream.
How far I had gone, though, I had no idea.
Kole could still be nearby. Hunting me. Along with anything else out here.
Had I been taken far enough to trespass onto Gulf land? Had that bear been one of the giant grizzlies I’d come here to photograph? A look at the size of its paw print gave me some comfort that it wasn’t. Still, a regular sized grizzly would have no problem ripping my face off if it felt like it.
First step: get away from the salmon-filled river before any more bears come along.
I scanned the area for my pack. I couldn’t see it.
It was gone and I felt the loss in my gut.
All I had left was Oatis’s knife, sheathed at my hip.
My chances of survival had just slimmed down to almost nil.
I checked myself over. I was bruised, cold, and hungry but I could walk.
The night was coming which meant temperatures were about to drop, and in my freezing wet clothes that was very bad for me. I couldn’t light a fire, so I needed shelter.
I headed for the treeline, ignoring my exhaustion. My survival instincts kicked in as I kept track of markers. I was going to need to find my way back to that river. It was my only guide and water source now.
A rank smell hit my nose and I grimaced. Looking around, I spotted the culprit. A fresh pile of bear dung next to a set of tracks heading towards the river. This probably belonged to the bear that had woken me.
I was about to pick up the pace, to get away from the area as quickly as possible when an idea hit me.
An idea that was really going to suck. Gritting my teeth, I knelt.
Bear dung would keep the wolves off my scent as well as most other predators out here.
There was nothing for it. I dug my hands in.
Two minutes later I was back on the move, exhausted, cold and smeared in bear shit.
If Kole found me now he’d probably cancel the mating ceremony all on his own.
I let out a giggle before clenching my lips together.
I froze, hoping no one was close enough to hear my laugh.
I strained my ears but after hearing only silence, I pressed on.
I walked almost a mile from the river before I found a sheer rock face with a deep crevice in the side. I slipped inside, my knife in hand in case anything was hiding in there. But I was alone.
I slumped into the dirt, the cold hard ground a bad host for my weary bones. My stomach gnawed on itself, thoughts of those chocolate bars floating downriver made me want to cry. Somehow worse than all that was the ache telling me something was missing. Something was wrong.
I didn’t sleep, I drifted into delirium.
For the first time in days, I was trying to sleep without Kole and my body didn’t like it.
From the gap in the crevice ceiling I could make out the night sky.
I lay there at my lowest point, in awe of its beauty, and I let the stars lull me to sleep, ignoring the moon who scowled at me for messing up her plan.
Kole.
When had he become the first thing I thought of when I woke? When had he replaced the remnants of old memories that haunted my every dream?
I shifted, waiting to feel his body press into mine, that low rumble I’d come to expect that told me to keep still and not wake him.
But it didn’t come. Instead I heard birds, welcoming the sun.
The day was dawning which meant heat was coming soon.
The skin on my fingers was shrivelled like dried prunes, and my clothes were stiff and still wet.
I could cry at the thought of the beaming sun warming me. A few more hours and it would be here.
Deep inside, I felt that ache. The one that told me something was missing, something was wrong. I pushed it away. Distance and time would rid me of it altogether. I had to believe that.
Okay, positive thoughts, Iona.
Time to put everything I knew about survival to the test.
I slid out of my hiding spot, scanning the area. Besides the birds, I was alone. The bear dung had dried and cracked, flaking off, but the smell remained. I wanted to jump in the river and bathe it away but I didn’t dare. Not yet.
I headed towards the river, seeking a few mouthfuls of water.
It tasted glorious on my parched tongue, and I drank and drank before forcing myself to slow in case I threw up.
Drinking water straight from the source was a risk but it was cold and fast-moving so I hoped it wouldn’t make me sick.
Besides, I didn’t have much of a choice.
A fish swam by and my stomach grumbled. I thought of my fishing line and hooks that were probably floating downriver somewhere. I could try to fashion a net out of my shirt but I didn’t have time. I had a water source, I was unhurt, now I just had to keep moving. I stood, trying to get my bearings.
Kole undoubtedly knew this area well. He’d seen where I’d jumped and would follow the river down, searching for me, which meant if I kept walking downstream, eventually I would run into them or they’d catch up to me.
I couldn’t outrun them, not now. But if I hiked far enough into the woods that I wouldn’t be heard from the river, and if I doubled back on myself and went upstream, I might just miss them.
That was if the bear shit did its job and covered my scent.
If it didn’t, it didn’t matter which direction I went in, they would find me.
It wasn’t a good plan but I didn’t have any good options.
All I had were my instincts and my instincts told me that the further I followed this river, the closer I would get to the Gulfs.
I couldn’t explain how I knew it, I just did.
I’d been lost in the wild before and my instincts had always led me out, I’d trust them again now.
A branch broke up ahead and I crouched behind a rock, my heart pounding. A smell hit me, a familiar one. Bear. I needed to get the hell away from the river.
I crept away and began walking. Soon, I picked up my pace into a steady run, parallel to the river, hidden by the trees, using my senses to watch for predators and werewolves.
I wondered how the Gulfs would track me. Would they track Kole and hope he would lead them to me? Would Alpha Carson try to take us all out in the middle of the woods? I had no idea. No way of knowing. So I just kept moving.
Hours passed before another smell hit my nose, a welcome one.
Huckleberries. I followed my nose and found the plant, but the berries were disappointingly small and inedible.
I thought of Dinah, of the tea she’d brewed for me.
It had been sweet. I wondered if she was angry, or alive even.
What about Lucy? Kara? Were Molly and her baby okay?
Did Siobhan survive her fight with the wolf she was protecting me from?
I straightened. I couldn’t afford to think about that now and I didn’t understand why I was.
Why should I care about those women after what they’d allowed to happen to me?
They weren’t my problem. I jogged on, anger pooling in my gut.
Anger that for the first time in my life I’d been offered family, but it had come at such a twisted cost. Why was that always my lot in life?
Why couldn’t I ever be loved just because I should be? Just like everyone else?
Tears pricked at my eyes and brushed them away.
Enough with the pity party, Iona.
Feeling sorry for myself wasn’t going to get me anywhere, it never had. I’d been dealt a bad hand in the family department. That was just the way my cookie had crumbled.
The day passed, the sun moving across the sky from east to west as I headed north. My pace was strong and steady, a pace I maintained for the rest of the day.
As the afternoon drew to a close, I returned to the river, drinking my fill. I saw elk up ahead, doing the same. The animals looked at me but paid me no more mind than that.