Chapter Nineteen
Jay
“Do you even know where we’re going?”
I don’t know if we’ve been walking for a long time, or if I’ve never been this way.
I typically know exactly where we are. I’ve spent more time in this forest than most wolves do in their lifetime.
Especially some alpha pup. Most people can camp, but to live off only the land is a whole other experience he isn’t prepared for, given his cushy lifestyle.
“I know exactly where we are.”
“You seem pretty confident for someone who grew up with four walls around them,” I say.
“I am. Want to know why?” he rasps. “Because, lucky for you, when my father was killed, I became a bloodhound.”
I swallow. Well, that explains why Bloodhound never bothered to learn how to fight. Who would be dumb enough to mess with a pack who could hunt you for the rest of their life?
Oh, right. Me.
“If you have this capability, then how come you didn’t track me down sooner?”
I gave him plenty of motivation to track me down. Unless this generational power he speaks of is only a rumor.
“Time and place, baby girl. Time and place,” he says as he drags me farther up a steep incline.
He called us baby girl, my wolf swoons at the pet name.
I snap at her. Did you miss the part where he is talking about hunting us down?
But, Daddy, I love him, she whines.
I roll my eyes at her. So dramatic.
Standing in the woods, crepuscular rays beam through the trees tall enough to dwarf a dragon.
Caleb stops. Void of any emotion, he pulls a bow and arrow from the quiver strapped behind his back and points it straight at me.
“Whoa. Easy there.” I hold my hands over my head in surrender.
My heart races. I slowly back away, prepared to run. At the last second, he points it to the sky, closes one eye and lets it fly. The arrow launches and disappears in the sun, then dives into the forest, miles and miles away.
Caleb smirks. “Since you think you’re better than me, I’ll make you a deal.”
I lift an eyebrow. “A deal?”
“Have you ever played capture the flag?” Caleb asks.
“No.”
“It’s simple. Just capture the arrow before I catch you. In human form only, of course.”
I narrow my eyes at him. There’s gotta be a catch. “And if I do?”
“If you capture the arrow—which you won’t—I’ll let you go.”
My eyes widen, and my lips part. I close my mouth quickly and shake my head. “The king wouldn’t let you do something like that.”
Firmly planted in the ground, Caleb folds his arms over the top of the bow and leans. With a head tilt, he asks rhetorically, “Who said anything about letting me?”
I snort. “Yeah. Like you’d go against your king. Right.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time.”
I narrow my eyes, sticking my neck out. “You’d let me go? Just like that? No tricks?”
“No tricks. I give you my word.”
He seems sincere. Would he really go against his king like that? King Dax didn’t seem to respect Caleb a whole lot.
“What happens if you catch me?”
His lips turn up into a grin. “I get to devour my prey any way I see fit. And you’ll let me.”
I swallow. Devour? Prey? I hated the words, but at the same time, they stirred something inside me.
“Rules?”
“No shifting.”
“Fine,” I say snootily.
“Or you can admit you were wrong right here, and now and continue to be the good little bitch I tell you to be,” he adds.
Nothing has ever meant more to me than my freedom. I cross my arms. “Deal.”
A low growl of approval emits from his throat. Caleb unhooks the leash from the collar. Once he does, his eyes meet mine. His eyes darken.
“Five.”
“What?”
“Four.”
“Wait, I—”
“Three.”
My heart races.
“Two.”
I back away.
“One.”
I run.
An evil laugh rumbles deep in his chest. “Ready or not, here I come.”
***
Sprinting through the woods on pure adrenaline, my lungs struggle to keep up with my pace. My heart thumps out of my chest as I dodge branches and hurdle fallen trees. Caleb may have given me a head start, but I know he can’t be far. I’ve gotta find that arrow before he finds me.
It’s my only way out.
The full moon is my only light, and it’s not enough. I may know these woods, but that doesn’t help me if I can’t calm down enough to focus. It’s like when someone calls on you with a simple question, but you’re too busy panicking to answer.
I call my wolf forward and instantly my vision is amplified to make my surroundings clearer.
The forest floor is covered in moss. There’s a lake in the distance that divides the land with trees in the water’s natural reflection.
The water is so still, it makes it seem like there’s another world below us.
I glance behind to check and see if Caleb is close by, but I don’t see him. Yet.
Wind whips my hair at my skin. Each breath is a desperate fight in my lungs.
I weave through the trees, jumping on fallen trees, ducking under branches.
But whimsical strays still manage to hit me in the face.
When I try to recover, one knicks my eye, causing me to trip and fall. I check behind and squint.
I catch movement, and my adrenaline reignites full throttle. My body screams at me to rest, but there’s no time.
He’s gaining on me—and fast.
I scramble to my feet and pump my arms. The stakes are high, and the odds are stacked against me. Every second is critical. One wrong turn, misstep, another fall—all have the potential to cost me my freedom. I can’t afford another mistake.
His boots pound against the forest floor behind me. He doesn’t bother being quiet. He lets every leaf crunch and every branch snap in his path as a deathly battle cry.
Fear joins my panic. He’s coming for me.
I just have to find the arrow. Then, I’ll be free.
The giant sequoias and tall pines in my peripheral are a blur as I pass them.
With my blood pumping through my veins and heart pounding through my chest, I scan my surroundings the best I can.
I try to remember what kind of tree the arrow dropped near.
They were evergreen, cone-bearing, elongated needles with green on top, white underneath.
Cone-bearing . . . Well over three hundred feet . . . Redwood! It’s Redwood!
I’ve never been as happy as I am now. Redwoods are distinct in scent.
They have a stronger soil and wood aroma, but there’s a slight sweetness and mild spice to it.
It’ll be easy to sniff them out. Redwoods typically intertwine their roots, so they can survive and thrive together, growing in groups.
If I find one, I’ll find the whole grove. Which means I’ll find the arrow.
We’re looking for a Redwood tree. Help me sniff one out, I say to my wolf.
So just to be clear, we don’t want him to catch us? My wolf asks.
I growl.
My wolf’s ears go back, and she cowers. Okay, okay. One Redwood coming up!
There’s a slight release and internal thrust forward as my wolf breaks through the inner workings of my mind to join me at the surface.
It only takes her a few seconds to pinpoint a Redwood and change directions.
Caleb said I had to be in my human form, and I am.
He never said anything about using my wolf.
I mean, c’mon, you can’t expect me to believe that he isn’t using his powers right now.
Although I am a little farther west than the arrow is, I still got myself this close.
The mixed aroma of spice and sweet, earthy soil grows stronger as I near.
A minute later, I can see their massively thick, reddish-brown trunks that remind me of Caleb’s fur.
Between the trees, I spot the golden arrow sticking out of the ground at an upright angle with each fletching pointed in a cardinal direction.
I must’ve lost Caleb when I changed directions because I don’t hear his boots behind me anymore. I get why every movie character slows to savor impending victory, even as I’m screaming at them not to.
With no time to appreciate what is about to be my victory, I push every muscle in my body to work harder to make it. My lungs are on fire, but I’m almost there. I extend my hand to reach for the arrow and just as I’m about to grab it, I’m tackled from the side.
I don’t see, or even hear him coming—which frightens me even more. With the speed he had to be going to catch up to me, how could he manage to remain undetected?
I roll to my feet in a crouched position.
Caleb stands before the arrow and pulls it out of the ground. He grins.
Sorrow fills me as I process the heavy loss and say goodbye to my freedom.
***
Caleb is practically purring. His eyes flash gold as he says, “You know the deal. You’re mine.” He steps forward, bends down and hoists me over his shoulder. He treks back in the direction we came from.
Too exhausted to retaliate, I allow my feet to enjoy the break while I focus on the view to pass the time.
It’s unfair how perfectly perky his ass is, like a ripe peach. What captures my attention even more is the rope sticking out of his back pocket. I don’t want to know what it’s for.
“You never answered my question,” I say.
“What question?”
“Why didn’t you come after me before?”
“I did answer.”
My wolf wags her tail thinking back to his pet name for us.
“I want the real answer.” Silence lingers between us aside from the splash of his boots stepping through a puddle.
“I was busy deciding how I wanted to kill you.”
“And did you? Decide, I mean.”
“No, but if I had waited any longer, I might not have gotten the chance to. I got the sense that you want to be dead.”
“What would give you that impression?”
“You’re passively suicidal.”
“I’m what?”
“You may not want to kill yourself directly, but you’ll do everything else to put yourself at risk and make it more plausible that you’ll die.”
“I do not!”
He chuckles at my outburst. “Oh yeah? Remind me again why you were near my territory, knowing what you did? You had to think someone was hunting you.”
“Casey ran off course. We weren’t supposed to be near you.”
“You mean you let her run off course. Admit it, little Casey didn’t know where she was going, but you knew.”