Filed To Story: Secret with Betas Daughter: Skylar Story Series
I can’t hide the desperation in my voice. I need this to be real, even if I have lost my mind, it can be real in my head for as long as possible. It’s the only thing that keeps me moving forward.
They each take turns telling me stories, some are stupid and completely made up and others are just what happened at the training compound recently. I tell them about what I see and when I come across a human’s scent. It lets me know when I am getting too close to a hiking trail or campground. And as much as I would love to see real people, it’s the last thing I need when I am in my wolf form and have a half unconscious person riding on my back.
I finally get to a large body of water that has cut a deep ravine through this section of mountain. I stop and sit letting Jena slide off with a thud.
“Ow! Rude. A little warning next time.”
I focus on shifting back, then look at her. She is still really pale.
“How are you? I ask tentatively, moving towards the water to get a drink. I cup my hands intending to take a small sip, but once the cool liquid passes my lips a frenzy takes over and I keep scooping up handfuls until my stomach hurts. When I look back, Jena still hasn’t moved. She is just staring out at the water. “You need to drink, it will make you feel better to have clean water for the first time in probably a year.”
She still doesn’t move.
I walk over to her and place a hand gently on her shoulder and she startles looking at me like she’s never seen me before. I don’t say a word, words won’t help her right now. Her mind has just started processing that she is out and probably the safest she has been in a very long time. The shock is starting to set in. I reach my hand down to her and smile and just wait for her to decide to take it. I won’t make any decisions for her. She has to choose to heal and get better, which means she has to choose to trust me out here, like I trusted her in our prison.
She slowly lifts her hand to mine and lets me pull her up, we walk hand in hand like that to the edge of the water and kneel together. I take my hands and scoop some water and take a small drink, then she mimics me like a pup trying to do it for the first time. She does the same thing I did at first and just keeps taking in the delicious liquid like a child eating ice cream for the first time.
She sits back and lets the cool water lap at her feet. I do the same. It is nothing a human would be fit to swim in but the temperature feels great to us. I start to wash at my dirt caked feet and then the exposed portions of my arms and finally my face. Jena does the same. The clean cool water is invigorating in more than one way.
I just need to find a cave big enough for the two of us, up high enough that most humans won’t come near it, and be able to start a fire to keep us comfortable as the night inevitably cools down.
It took us a little bit of time to find something suitable, but this seemed to be something that Jena was able to help me with. So she is at least trying and not lost in her head over the memories of the last year. We get a little fire going just outside the entrance and I let the team know what to look for and to approach with caution if they come in the night. I don’t know how Jena is going to react to strangers rushing at us, even if they are here to help.
“Have you talked to your wolf? How is she?” I ask as we warm ourselves by the fire.
“I haven’t talked to her yet. She’s there, I can feel her, but she’s still locked away somewhere. How did yours come back so quickly?”
It didn’t even cross my mind that it was a fast return for my wolf and the only thing she suggested was that Jena had more time with the poisons and other sedatives in her system than I did. Which I told Jena, but I have a feeling that it has something to do with my weird abilities. The same way my body encapsulated the silver in my scars. I don’t mention that part though, because I can’t explain it.
Through the night, Jena tries to sleep and I think she gets small pockets of real sleep right before she is torn from her dreams, or based on the screaming, her nightmares. But she always manages to scream for me and reach out for me, which means in her subconscious she trusts me even though we haven’t been around each other for that long. I take a small comfort in that, but I can’t bring myself to sleep. She needs me and I won’t feel safe until I see my team here, then I can rest.
The darkness settles around our cave and the cool night air chills me to the bone. Jena is curled up next to me sharing body heat. I managed to get a small fire going, but the area is still so wet, it was hard to find things that would burn properly without causing a ton of smoke first.
The noises of the spring night are loud and boisterous. Everything sounds alive and happy coming out for the summer weather that should be visiting us soon. This is a sound that I will forever associate with freedom. I take a deep breath in, filling my lungs with the fresh scent of the growing forest around me, the water streaming below and a calmness washes over me. We are safe.
Silence. That’s all I hear in a split second between breaths. All the buzzing, chirping, rustling just stops. There’s a predator near. The hair on the back of my neck and arms rise, my wolf on full alert.
To my left, I hear a footstep press into the soft earth. It’s coming from the path we walked up here. Someone is following our scent, but they are downwind so I can’t tell if it’s my team or one of Mike’s minions. I move into a crouched position just in front of Jena, ready to strike my would-be attacker. Another step, I work to control my breathing and my heart rate. I can’t let whoever it is hear the fluctuation, that will give me away. Another step, they are right outside the entrance about three feet from me. The final step, I lunge out and grab the person by the hair and twist them to their knees facing away from me, my claws extended into his throat.
“What. Do. You. Want?” I snarl.
“Midge, it’s me. Relax.”
His hands fly up in a sign of surrender and I take a deep breath in, smelling…
“Wyatt! What the hell? Why would you sneak up here like that? You know what we just went through. You’re lucky I didn’t kill first and ask questions later!”
“And that, my friend, is why you went first.”
Lillian steps around the cave’s edge.
“Oh Goddess! It is so good to see you guys!” I drop Wyatt with a grunt and run to her wrapping her in a hug.
“Love you too, Midge.”
I look over to see Wyatt nursing the deep red scratches at his neck. He really was lucky I didn’t press harder.
The rest of the team sidled into the cave with us. I had to wake Jena up, even with all of the commotion of my reunion with my friends. She was very lethargic and weak even after sleeping across my back for most of the day.
She cowered behind me as I suspected she would. So Osiston and Alpha Reggie had to talk to her over my shoulder as she clung to my back. They asked some basic questions, seeing how tired and roughed up she was.
Osiston brought Doc Sylvia right to her when she started to wobble and her legs gave out right behind me. Without my training I never would have caught her. Sylvia kicked everyone but me out. They left food and water behind for us and Osiston stood watch outside the door while the rest ran a patrol around our camp. Alpha Reggie hauled the medical supplies that Sylvia continued to ask for as she examined Jena. “Wh..what are you doing to me?” Jena’s voice wobbled and for the first time ever I heard Doc Sylvia use a slow calm tone with her. Not her usual bubbly ‘research is so exciting’ voice.
“I am going to do a superficial check on you here, just to make sure that it is safe to keep moving you. You were with those monsters so long and they kept you pretty sedated, you never know what else they might have put in you. I’ve seen trackers in so many forms and since you aren’t marked or a part of their pack they, most likely, would want a way to keep track of you if you escaped.”
Jena whimpers. I didn’t even think of that. And I didn’t miss the flinch when Sylvia said ‘put in you.’ That is something we are going to have to tell her, but not here with so many ears. Osiston and Alpha Reggie need to know, but not everyone else, she should be able to choose who she tells that story to.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.