Page 142 of Just One Bite
I sprint as fast as I can, dodging trees and broken limbs.Push. Push. Push.I thank my practice for the stamina to run for twenty minutes straight. Anytime I hear someone near, I run the other way. I’d know if it was him and I’m not far enough west.
It’s dark, and I don’t know where I am. There’s no sun to guide me, only my memory of the map and the trust that I’m still moving west. How fast can Weres move?
I stop at the sound of movement. Wet, sloppy kisses. Hurried breaths. In the clearing are a couple, clearly having found their desired mark, so I move on, running as far as my lungs will allow.
I don’t know how long the potion will last.
Something large and dark moves in my peripheral, so I stop. Ten yards away, I spot a silver werewolf with glowing green eyes. They’ve found me.
I go to bolt in the other direction, and my heart stops. There are two others circling me. None of them Parker. It’s so dark I shouldn’t be able to tell, but I can. Safety. Sureness. All of it is far. He isn’t here.
How? How did three of them catch my scent?
Zant’s words echo.Expect things to go wrong.
My smell. It has to be my clothes. There must be something they can smell that they like because I should still smell like Parker. Maybe someone tampered with my clothes.
Removing it in one swipe, I throw it toward the werewolves behind me, then bolt in the only opening I see. It works. They’re drawn to that scent.
I run till my ankles chafe and my already bruised toenails feel like they’re going to fall off. I dart between the trees, stopping only when the noise ceases.
Without Zant’s potion, I’d have never made it past them.
Parker. Please, come on. Where are you?
Stripping off my bottoms, I stare at the tree above. I need to move my scent around. Decoys. I need decoys. My fingers snap the bark as I climb branch by branch to place my shorts, then drop back down into the dirt. My whole body aches, and I stumble into the dirt. I have to find the river to the north.
Sprinkling rain cools my hot cheek. I swipe it, along with the sweat, and wipe it on my camisole. Definitely a good choice for underwear today.The rain is good and bad. Harder for Parker to find me but easier to hide.
I rush toward the sound of pouring water, but I stop and hold my breath at every snap of a twig. I know it’s close, but the only light is from the moon.
At the bank of the river is a werewolf on four legs stalking back and forth. Waiting and sniffing the air, trying to find the scent of someone to hunt. Waiting in the cover of the trees for them to move on, I take off a shoe and place it on a piece of wood, then send it down the river.
My foot snaps a branch, and I hold my breath.
The werewolf’s glowing red and silver eyes stare back at me.Run.
I run toward the rocks and the embankment, anywhere not out in the open. There’s a cave covered by a fallen tree. I don’t have time to think if it’s a good idea. My feet slip in the mud, so I grip the vines on the inside to keep myself upright.
Howling pierces the air, and mud squelches while the ragged breaths follow me. My body moves on its own until I spot a pool with water rushing in from a hole up above, so I throw my last shoe farther into the cave before diving in.
I submerge myself under the water till the last bit of air runs out and my lungs scream. The werewolf is still there. Brawny shoulders of fur and pure instinct.
I place both hands over my mouth as the werewolf steps in close to the water. I stay completely still, with the waterfall rushing over me. He sniffs the air, his eyes glow in the dark. The waterfall is hiding my scent and frantic heartbeat. I count fifteen seconds before he’s out of sight and moving farther into the cave.
I wait another five before climbing out of the water and bolting out of the cave entrance.
I’m soaked and it’s slowing me down. My feet are bleeding and so are my knees. Parker has to find me.
A crack of thunder runs down my spine, stopping me in my tracks. Lightningstreaks across the sky, and the clouds crowd the full moons overhead.
Where are you?
Chapter Forty-Seven
Parker
“Find me,” she says.
