Page 51 of Furever Loyal
Another six minutes passed before they reached the cover of the trees. Kincaid breathed a sigh of relief. “We’re going to have to run,” he said.
“How far is it?”
“Two miles.”
Haley gaped at him. “I won’t make it three miles in—” she did some quick math, “fourteen minutes. Are you crazy?”
“I know. So…you’re going to have to hold on.”
He tossed the bag of sweats to her and even before she grabbed them, he was pushing the change through his body as fast as he could. Pain seared across his vision, worse than usual. Every second mattered, and he felt his body wrench itself into unnatural positions as it altered.
“Getonnn,” he said, the words becoming deeper and twisted as his skull cracked and shifted, the snout emerging from the previous flatness of his face.
Haley backed away as he grew tremendously in size. White fur sprouted down his spine and then wrapped around to encase him in its protective warmth. Fingers became claws and his hands tripled in size.
As gallantly as he could manage once the pain faded, Kincaid dropped his forelegs to the ground in a mock bow, holding out one of them toward Haley to act as a sort of bridge or ladder. Hopefully.
The only way for them to make it to the border in time would be for her to hop on and hold tight to his fur as he charged through the forest. The noise would surely bring someone to investigate, but he hoped to be long gone by the time anyone realized just what the hell had happened there.
He’d not had time to explain the plan to her, and now that seemed to be backfiring as she stood staring at him, taking slow, tiny steps backward. Away from him.
No. Stop it. Get on! We have to run.
Gently, slowly, he lifted his paw from the ground, turned it over and did his best to beckon her forward.
“Y-y-you want me to get on?” she asked, her voice cracking.
Repressing the desire to express his frustration, he nodded.Slowly. The last thing he wanted to do was scare her off even more. There simply wasn’t time. Haley took a tentative step forward, then another.
“Y-you’re sure I’m safe?” she asked.
Kincaid lifted his giant head up and down some more, trying to smile, but keeping his teeth hidden.
“This is crazy,” Haley stated.
This time, he shook his head. It was, in fact, perfectly fine. She was in no danger from him. The other shifters on the property though, he couldn’t speak for them. Kincaid didn’t know a lot of them, not after being gone for so long. Many of them were newer, and a lot of those he’d grown up with were dead, killed in the uprising that had shaken his House to its core.
At long last, Haley took in a deep breath, approached him, and with a swiftness that surprised Kincaid, scrambled up his fur and onto his back, seating herself with her legs astride him as best she could, gripping his fur tight with both hands.
Not wasting any time, he got to his feet and started off. He moved slowly at first, giving Haley a chance to get used to the motion. She had the bag of clothing looped around one wrist, but both her hands were plunged deep into his fur, tiny fingers holding on as hard as she could.
Here we go, he thought to himself, ratcheting up the speed a little. Above him, Haley grunted—something hewasn’tgoing to inform her he’d heard—but then she settled in once more. The initial fear she’d felt was gone, and now he could sense her buckling in. Her legs squeezed tighter and he felt her hunch over him more, streamlining their approach.
Kincaid started to pour on the speed. Most normal bears couldn’t keep up the pace for this long, but then again, a shifter bear wasn’t anything like a modern-day bear, except in general shape and genealogy. He was bigger, faster, stronger, and far deadlier than any predator that walked the earth.
“Is this all you’ve got?” Haley growled fiercely into one of his ears. “We’re never going to make it if you’re plodding along like a turtle.”
Reconciling the tone with the Haley he knew took a few seconds in his mind, but when it did, he shot forward, hurtling through the forest at full speed. He dodged trees, leaped over bushes and plowed right through any shrub he deemed wouldn’t hurt Haley.
At one point, a thick tree-limb loomed across their path, but Kincaid just lowered his head and they went right through it, his powerful form leaving nothing but kindling in their wake.
He heard a startled yip from Haley, but she quieted herself down quickly. That was one thing he had to give her credit for. She was breaking the rules, something she was so adamantly against, for reasons he’d yet to discover. But when she committed to something, shecommitted.
They reached the edge of the forest with perhaps a minute or two to spare, and the stone wall loomed up in front of them. The ten-foot high construct spanned the entire property, running for miles upon miles, and it was now their final barrier to freedom, to clearing their names from this insane plot they’d been accused of masterminding.
“Kincaid,” Haley said as he didn’t slow down.
Instead, he sped up.
