Page 54 of Wolf Forsaken

“I’ll carry him.” He pushed more pants to the side. “Unless you have a better idea.”

“That sounds like the best option.” I looped the bags over my wrist.

"That man is lingering in the store. I don't like the smell of him."Silas squatted down."Let me try to get him out, and if he shifts, I might need you to create a diversion."

I casually looked around, and sure enough, the man, who I hadn’t even gotten a good look at honestly, was lingering by a wall of snowboards."Let's be quick."We were lucky we could communicate silently.

"All right, bud. Let's get you out of here, okay? I'm going to carry you and make sure you're safe. I'll put you in the front seat too and then you can stick your head out the window on the way back home." Silas spoke in such a calm and hushed voice that it made my heart swell.

Silas moved into the rack and then emerged from the other side, Xander in his arms. He was speaking to him in a hushed tone that I couldn't hear as I followed him to the back of the store.

The back of my neck prickled, and I turned and looked back to find the man staring at us, a small smile turning up the corners of his mouth.

I shut the door after we exited and breathed a sigh of relief. Silas had the passenger door open and put Xander right in, shutting the door quickly so he couldn't run again. He climbed into the driver's seat.

"That man was staring as we left." I climbed into the back, setting the bags on the seat next to me. "Do we think he was just staring because of Xander or because..."

Xander was suddenly halfway over the console, growling at the bags."No,"was all he communicated. No, what?

"I don't know what to think. Sometimes something completely unrelated to trauma can trigger a reaction. Maybe it was a smell or a sound." Silas tried to pull Xander back and Xander snapped at him, turning back to the bags on the seat.

"But what if Xander was held close by here? I know he's from Washington, but he's mentioned a helicopter." I grabbed a bag and looked in it. "What is it, Xander? I don't want you to ruin your new flannels."

He snapped at the bag, and I squealed as he caught hold of it and began ripping into it. I was glad Silas hadn't started driving yet.

"Out."

"He's saying out." I tried to take the bag back from him. "You want your flannel out?"

"Bad."

"Bad?" I got the bag out of his jaws, but then Silas snatched it from me. "Hey!"

"Give me the other bags." Silas pulled forward and stopped by a dumpster. "Now, Ivy."

He jumped out and threw the bag in the open side of the dumpster and then opened my door. He took the bags from me and threw them in there too. He got back in and peeled out, not caring there were people milling about.

Xander, satisfied, sat back in the front seat. He still looked out of sorts, but wasn't shaking or growling anymore.

"It’s possible that man put a tracker in one of the bags or something. Why else would he act like that?" Silas turned onto the highway and headed in the opposite direction of Arbor Falls. "Just to be on the safe side, I'm going to drive for a bit and see if anyone is following us."

"Are there people other than wolves that know about us?" There had to besomepeople. I know they went to regular schools once they were past a certain age, and with that came the possibility of regular humans knowing.

"If there are, they keep it very hush hush. The coalition would lose their shit if humans knew about us." Silas's eyes continuously darted to the mirrors as we headed west. "Which makes me wonder why my dad would want you adopted away from here. Maybe he knew you wouldn't shift."

"I've been doing a little thinking, and what if I'm half human? Maybe when I got in the accident it killed the human part of me." It sounded like something out of a book or movie, but what other explanation was there for me not shifting until that very moment. "What if it would have happened and I wasn’t around other wolves? Could you imagine being a first responder and showing up to a crash site to find a wolf strapped in the driver's seat?"

He made a noncommittal noise, and the soft music that was playing made a ping. "Call Rover."

"Calling Rover." I wondered why Silas insisted on calling everyone by nicknames. Maybe it was just his thing.

The phone rang twice before it was answered. "Alpha. What's up?"

"I need to talk to Cole." Silas tapped a hand on the steering wheel. Was he nervous? He seemed nervous.

I turned in my seat and watched out the back window, trying to determine if we were being followed. There were several cars behind us and in the next lane over. They were all going about the same speed as us, but I wasn’t sure what I should look for.

"Yeah? Don't tell me you did something stupid." Cole's voice was raspy with sleep, and I wondered if he'd been napping. He seemed to be more tired than usual, even though I'd healed him. But maybe I hadn't healed him completely.

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