Page 5 of Planet Wolf

Of course, my goals are how I landed in this mess.

And it was a mess.

The naked hand holder set down the dead animal and then changed again. Thank goodness they had that bag. What would happen if they ran out of clothes? They’d probably have to shift and stay that way until we reached our destination. It was too cold to walk around totally naked, but then what would happen to me?

A thought dawned on me while I was puking—these guys had been at a meeting with the Union. They might not realize it, but we were coming at this thing from the opposite sides. They were, in some way, aligned with the Union. Did that make them my enemy? Maybe they were only being nice to me because they thought I was Union, too. What would happen when they found out I wasn’t?

The now-not-naked provider of what I could only assume was dinner gestured for me to sit next to him on the ground. I was pretty sure I stank. There was no toothpaste here for me to do anything about the puke smell on my breath. Really, it was gross.Hands down yuckiness.

But I sat where he indicated, because I had more important things to worry about than whether or not I smelled bad to these guys. The tallest of them, the one who seemed to be in charge, started tearing at the dead animal like he was getting it ready to cook. I forced myself to look away. I’d never seen food go from alive to dinner. Yes, I’d been spoiled my whole life. Even with my mother out of her mind, I had everything I needed and then some.

I wanted that opportunity for everyone.

The chance to live better.

Not a small order to accomplish before I died.Get Doug into office.I could do it. Then there would be a purpose to all of it, and to my having existed at all.

If I could just get out of this mess, maybe I could still accomplish the goal I’d been working on for the last six years.

The one with the lightest eyes had to be a doctor of some kind, based on his interest in my well-being. He took my hand in his and I could tell he used his fingertips to check my pulse. Yeah, confirmed—medical profession, that much I knew. Since I didn’t know his name, I’d think of him as the doctor. The one cooking was the leader. Which made the one who killed dinner… the hunter? It would have to work for the moment. At least it gave me some way to differentiate them, making it easier on my poor, tired brain.

But what else about them kept them together? Were they brothers? Friends? Work colleagues?

The doctor frowned. He likely noticed my pulse was too high, since it always beat that way. The leader went about his business, disregarding the doctor’s quiet examination. Instead, he used sticks and an impressive amount of strength to cook the food. I hoped they didn’t try to feed me again. I was sure the sizzling meat would be tasty, but… I just puked up berries. It was probably better if I didn’t try to eat anything else until we got to the mountains.

Exactly how long would that take?

Doctor said something. Then Hunter answered him, followed fast by Leader. None of them were smiling, and then they all turned to regard me. I sighed. You didn’t spend as much time as I did in hospitals without getting a sixth sense about when someone was discussing your health.

“I was born like this,” I explained with a shrug.

They all continued to look at me as Hunter put his hand on my back and rubbed gentle circles. Well… that was very nice, too. I wondered if they intended to walk all night. Were we taking a short rest before proceeding?

The group went quiet after that. Doctor scooted closer to me, which was nice, because despite the fire, the temperature had dropped again. Eventually, Leader grinned. I had no idea why, but something made him smile. His gaze met mine, and my heart stuttered. Usually, the reaction would make me upset, but this time, the flutter actually felt nice.

It wasn’t like I’d known them long enough to guess at their characters, nor did I think that our broken communication clued me into them enough to make a judgment, but I still didn’t think Leader smiled very often. It was nice to see his lips curl in amusement, even if I didn’t know the target at the moment.

He took one of the small pieces of cooked meat and extended it to me, clearly offering sustenance. I stared at it, panic closing my throat.Oh no. He really did expect me to eat. I shook my head, hoping to make him understand somehow. “No, thank you. Seriously. So nice of you, but I was just throwing up. I don’t want to risk doing that again.”

Leader tried again, and Hunter nodded his head like he wanted me to try. I turned to Doctor. He at least had to understand me. I didn’t want to puke, but how did I explain nausea to them? Instead of understanding, he rubbed my knee. I sighed. It seemed very important to them that I eat something. Okay. I accepted the offered food from his hand and took the smallest bite of the already small morsel.

Actually, it was delicious. My stomach rumbled as the first bite burst flavor across my taste buds. Despite my desire to gobble it down, I waited for it to come back up. Food always seemed to come back up, but the protein appeared to actually settle my stomach a bit.How did that work?I took another bite, finding it granted the same effect. By the time I’d eaten the whole piece he offered me, I felt… considerably better. My whole body seemed to sigh in relief, which was extra bizarre since eating usually proved such a chore.

Leader nodded, as if he fully expected the food to stay down, and Hunter grinned. They all started taking pieces, and before I knew it, I was the fullest I had been in years. It was the kind of full that made me want to lie back and just do nothing until the feeling passed. I yawned then jolted, remembering the explosion as soon as I closed my eyes. It wasn’t exactly the kind of situation where I could catch a quick power nap to regain my strength.

They were strangers, and male strangers at that. So far, they’d proved to be nice strangers who saved my life, but they remained strangers all the same. I guessed Icouldtrust them, just based on our interactions so far. It was weird… the men acted as if they knew me somehow, or I was familiar to them. I couldn’t explain why I felt that way, but it was something in how they looked at me and how easily they reached for my hand. Despite a complete lack of ability to speak to them or understand what they said, I couldn’t shake the sense of familiarity when I watched the men moving around me.

Hunter tugged me against him, and I startled, not expecting the physical contact. I stiffened, trying to make sense of what he was doing—despite me just thinking such nice things about him—when I realized hehuggedme. Yes, that was what he was doing. He was hugging me against his large, hot body. Doctor slid into the space on my other side and hugged me as well. In moments, their embrace leaned me backward. I might have screamed if I hadn’t caught Leader’s gaze. He wasn’t worried about their unexpected contact. There was something about him, about the serenity of his gaze. If he was calm, then I would be, too, even though the thought didn’t make a lick of sense.

My huggers were shirtless, yet they were so much warmer than me. Their skin felt smooth and hot under my fingertips. “Um. Thank you. I guess. I shouldn’t really be as okay with this as I seem to be. Maybe I have a head injury?”

Leader took a seat near us, then he lay back and stared up at the sky. He said something, and the other two laughed, tucking me in more comfortably against them. I could feel their amusement, see it in the curve of their lips. Laughing was the same on Planet Wolf as it was on Earth, and the realization struck me as being really nice. Comforting, too, that things were still the same, despite me being so very far from home.

“I’m sorry about how I stink,” I said, remembering again some of what I had endured so far. I hoped they weren’t laughing because of how badly I reeked. My jaw popped in another yawn. The ground was hard, but I barely seemed to notice it. The sky above hung like black velvet punctured by more stars than I’d ever seen before. They twinkled above me, but even the stars weren’t where I expected them to be.

I caught my breath. It was beautiful. So beautiful. Breathtaking, a different sky than the one I’d looked at my whole life. My friends and family couldn’t see the stars I looked at in that moment, which struck me as wild and wonderful and scary all at the same time. I was, for the first time ever, completely cut off from them.

Tears slipped from my eyes. Was it the realization? The explosion? The…

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