Page 37 of Color Chameleon
When Darcy came to, he could feel the movements of a vehicle and it was still dark out.Damn it.Despite his best efforts he was still on his way to his parents’ conversion camp.He curled in on himself and felt tears fill his eyes behind his lids.
“He’s awake,” someone said from next to him.
Darcy frowned.That didn’t sound like the guys that had taken him.
“Oh good.Is he okay?”
“Well, I haven’t had a chance to ask him yet, now have I?”He could almost hear the eye roll in the words.“Hey, Darcy?Are you okay?Anything hurting?”
He curled in tighter on himself and a gentle hand landed on his back, petting him carefully.
“It’s okay.You’re safe now.We’re just meeting up with your people to get you home safely.”
“My people?”He sat up, pressing himself against the door of the truck.He was in another goddamned truck.“Those guys are not my people.They kidnapped me!Please don’t take me back to them.”
“Whoa, whoa.Just a minute there.”The guy put his hands up in a placating gesture.“I don’t mean the guys who were chasing you in the woods, I mean the ones that came up to take you home.”
“Someone came to take me home?”
“Yeah, they’ve been looking for you since you got taken from what I understand.”
He was still confused.He didn’t havepeople.
“The Chameleon Clan?”the guy asked.“You do know them, right?We didn’t rescue you only to put you back in the fire.”
“The Chameleon Clan?”That had to be Charma’s people.That’s all that made sense.“They came looking for me?”
“Aren’t you one of theirs?I mean, I know you’re not a shifter—you smell full-on human, but you’re with one of them, right?”
Darcy nodded slowly.“I am.He’s a wonderful guy.”And he’d thought he’d never see Charma again and now it seemed Charma’s family had come looking for him, come to rescue him.
“Apparently, he’s been pretty worried about you.”
Darcy had been pretty worried about himself, too.He couldn’t quite believe that it was over, that he was on his way back.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but who are you?”
“Walter.I’m with the Western Wolf Den.”Walter held out his hand.“And I’m sorry I knocked you out back there.I didn’t mean to, but I needed to get you stopped before you got any deeper into the forest.No point in running when the threat’s been neutralized, right?”
“That was you?It felt like getting hit by a ton of bricks.”
“My wolf packs a pretty good punch,” Walter admitted.“The guys up front are William at the wheel and Weston is riding shotgun.We’re about fifteen minutes from rendez-vous-ing with the Chameleons.Why don’t you tell me what all hurts.”
“My head,” he answered immediately.
“I’m not surprised.You’ve clearly been punched in the face—the bruising is spectacular—and then you went down hard when I caught up with you.I think you hit your head on a rock.”Walter reached out, but didn’t actually touch him, fingers hovering over his left eye.“You’ve got a good-sized lump right here.”
“You probably should stay awake for the next while,” Weston noted.“Concussion is a real thing and better to be exhausted and proven to be not concussed than get some sleep and never wake up.”
Yeah, that didn’t sound optimal.He would do his best not to go to sleep.
“Anything else?”Walter asked.
“I’m feeling a little raw, to be honest,” he admitted.
Walter nodded sagely.“You look like you got pretty banged up during your run through the woods.Torn clothing—I bet there’s lots of scrapes and bruises.”
“I fell a few times,” Darcy admitted.He’d gone down more than once, tripping over hidden rocks and tree roots.Plus he’d been hit by low branches a few times, too.
