Wolf: To Your Bones (Wolf series Book 2), page 19
While I slipped into my shoes, I threw a glance out the window. The sky was gray and dull because it had rained all night. According to the weather forecast, it could even snow today, although I begged that this wouldn’t happen. A snowy landscape was not necessarily the optimal condition for our project.
After I tied my shoelaces, I went to the kitchen counter and took the pen from the sideboard. It was time to write a letter to my parents. They were still sleeping, so this would be my only chance to escape.
Dear Mom and Dad,
I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. Josh is in Calgary and he’s in big trouble. He won’t let me help him and he won’t answer my calls. That’s why I decided to go after him and bring him to his senses. I have a friend accompanying me, so please don’t worry. I will contact you regularly and explain everything to you when it’s over. Give me four days, then I’ll be back home. Mr. Harrison knows.
Please trust me and don’t be angry.
Ruby
Writing those lines gave me a strange feeling. As much as I wished that my parents wouldn’t care about my wordless disappearance, I knew better. I might be eighteen and old enough to go wherever I wanted, but that was just not the way we dealt with each other. I’d never done anything big without consulting them first. My parents were openhearted people who always tried to give me enough freedom, but that didn’t mean they didn’t worry about me. When they found this note, they would doubt everything, including my sanity, and my trust in them.
It broke my heart that I didn’t have another choice. I’d had far too much time in the last few days to think through every possibility. They all ended up at the same problem: If I told them the truth, they would insist on coming along, so I had to present them with a fait accompli. Not only for Josh’s sake, but also to avoid involving them in this matter. The less they knew, the better.
There was one thing I had not been completely honest about either: Mr. Harrison didn’t know about my trip. Telling him about it on Friday would’ve been too awkward, and there was the possibility that he might let it slip to my parents. I would call him on Monday and make up a story about why I couldn’t come to work. After my alleged stomach flu and the imaginary fever on full moon, my conscience was really weighing on me. My boss probably suspected that my “reasons” were only excuses, if only for my tears last week. The question was, rather, how long his trust and understanding would last. In any case, it couldn’t go on like this forever.
Engulfed in melancholic thoughts, I took a last look into the abandoned kitchen. Then I pulled my jacket on and left to bring Josh back home.
Chapter 16
A rude awakening followed when I reached the meeting place.
The pack was standing in front of Hunter’s garden gate—the most magnificent gate in the entire town—and was about to throw four large backpacks into Keith’s pickup truck. Two of the men looked grumpy and at least as tired as me, for the early hour on a Saturday seemed to be an ordeal for them too. I could see bad-tempered Keith loading the luggage while Liam was looking through his doctor’s bag. The latter’s blond ponytail was a little out of shape. Only Hunter seemed cheerful. He jumped nimbly into the back of the rust-colored Dodge, and the resulting clang probably woke up the whole neighborhood.
Seeing the old car made me nauseated. I had completely forgotten this detail. We couldn’t take the bus to Alberta, and Josh wasn’t here so I could travel on the hybrid. The clarity of that thought caused a terrible pain in the pit of my stomach. Suddenly the pack seemed endlessly far away, while the Dodge loomed before me like an insurmountable opponent.
“Ruby,” Hunter said, probably noticing that I was frozen. He beckoned to me enthusiastically. Keith and Liam also lifted their heads now and watched me.
“Hello.” I fought to sound normal, but my voice was a hoarse whisper. “Are we taking the Dodge?”
Just the thought of having to drive almost eight hundred kilometers made my heart sink. My face must’ve turned white as a sheet.
Hunter stepped to my side to lift the travel bag from my shoulders. He answered my question silently by putting it on the loading area with the others. I noticed that the Dodge only had two seats. How would that work?
Keith didn’t even seem to think about it.
“Of course,” he replied to my question. “Or did you want to order a taxi?”
Instead of looking at me, he checked the tires, the headlights and the bumpers.
“Hunter’s and my car are too small for so many people,” Liam added. Unlike Keith, he looked directly at me when he spoke. “We have to take the Dodge. Sharing a car will keep the costs lower.”
“But . . .” I murmured.
I guess Hunter knew what I wanted to say. He came back beside me and folded his arms, looking a little amused. “You can sit up front if you want. Liam and I will ride in the back.”
I opened my mouth without replying. It was certainly clear to the pack that it was illegal to travel in the cargo bed of a pickup truck without anything to secure them. I hardly needed to point out the dangers of such an undertaking. I remembered how Keith had driven me to the hospital when I had smoke inhalation. At that time, Hunter, Liam, and even Josh had been riding in the back. The pack must’ve had more luck than sense not to have attracted the police so far.
While the other two pack members jumped onto the back of the truck, Keith dropped into the driver’s seat. It was only understandable that he wanted to drive his own car, but that only added to my panic. My legs were shaking so much that I could hardly manage to get a step closer. Not only did I have to get into a car, I would have to put up with Keith—for hours. It made me wonder how long I would actually survive this trip. I was quite aware of how explosive Keith and I could get around each other.
Keith threw a glance over his shoulder at me. It was rigid, challenging, and unsympathetic.
“What?” he snarled. “Changed your mind?”
My blood boiled. Everything about this alpha was so complacent right now. Just the way he slumped in his seat made my hair stand on end. He wasn’t taking me or this trip seriously. I could’ve sworn he was only coming because Liam and Hunter had managed to chip away some of the ice around his heart.
Josh.
I pulled myself together. I couldn’t forget why we were here. We had to save the person I loved above all else. If I had to endure a kamikaze ride with a rude and hostile werewolf for that, I would.
My breath hitched. I felt the sweat on the palms of my hands as I held on to the fence and walked toward the Dodge. It just stood there on the driveway, yet it felt as threatening as a sleeping predator, an immeasurable danger that could strike at any time: on the street, in the parking lot, anywhere. The fear made my muscles stiff and confused my thoughts.
But there was no going back. I remembered how I had left Josh’s Toyota to avoid facing my fear. Whatever happened, I wouldn’t let that happen today. When I reached the door, I embraced it like a last lifeline.
“Hop in.” Hunter leaned on his arms on top of the driver’s cab. There was an excited glint in his eyes, as if he could hardly wait to finally set off. First and foremost, though, he struck me as amused. I was just about to force myself into the passenger seat when I heard him giggling softly.
“By the way,” he added, and made my panic even greater. “Keith drives a little . . . fast.”
Fast was an understatement.
Before the accident with the Jetta happened, I had been codriver for people many times. There was Josh, my parents, Audrey’s mother, and Layla’s older brother, and also Olivia when she started driving. Even Mr. Harrison brought me home once when the bus system hadn’t been working. I had thought I knew many different driving styles, but Keith’s surpassed them all.
He was the nightmare personification of my phobia. Someone who preferred to keep the speedometer needle as far to the right as possible and steered so roughly that every curve catapulted me against the door. It felt like we were in a plane on the runway, there was so much g-force. At the same time, at this speed, the road felt like the swell of the ocean. Keith never took his foot off the accelerator—not on gravel, not on the highway, and certainly not when we crossed a pothole. Every bump in the road threw us into the air, only to make us feel the concentrated weight of the Dodge on impact afterwards. The jolts shook through my bones like an earthquake. I highly doubted the vehicle was up to carrying this load of three men and a girl. The old tin grunted as if it had long since left its best times behind.
As I desperately clawed at the door handle, I felt Hunter banging his fist on the roof. The thunderous knocking reminded me far too much of the accident twelve months ago—of how one of the pack members had jumped onto the Jetta to get us out. I wanted to scream.
“Step on it, bro!” I heard Hunter calling from outside.
He had a death wish. Every single one of these werewolves seemed to have gone completely crazy. Keith drove like a madman and didn’t even bother to hold the wheel properly. He touched it with two fingers and listlessly laid the other arm against the window. Hunter, on the other hand, stood on the back of a stone-age pickup truck going at least one hundred and fifty kilometers per hour and held on to the driver’s cab as if he were windsurfing. I could see his dark shirt fluttering as he raised his fist and howled into the sky. Liam sat next to him, the wind tousling his hair, completely relaxed with a book.
I was surrounded by lunatics.
“Keith,” I whimpered. We had only been driving for about thirty minutes, but I had already sunk into a bundle of fear. I didn’t want to look. I had to keep my eyes closed and fight my panic with short, hasty breaths, but the panic just kept engulfing me and sending tears into my eyes. I couldn’t think straight. All I saw was the accident, the rollover, and Josh’s remorseful eyes in the headlights.
We were going to die. That crazy alpha would kill us all.
“Please!” My words were almost drowned out by the roaring of the engine. “Slow down!”
I took a cautious glimpse at the street. It was my biggest mistake, because now I saw the puddles. This morning’s early rain had left water on the road, where they reflected the sun and turned our way into an obstacle course. Keith didn’t try to avoid them and dashed through the water at full speed. Apparently, he had never heard of hydroplaning before.
At my request, he leaned his head back and laughed. It was an unforgiving tone without real humor.
“Don’t be a wimp,” he said. Country music blasted from his radio, because we couldn’t find a better station at the moment. Dad would’ve loved it, but it wasn’t helping me one bit. “Do you want to save your half-wolf, or would you rather play backseat driver?”
Another pothole earthquake kept me from answering. With that speed we would surely reach Alberta in less than ten hours, but only if we survived until then.
“But you are werewolves.” My hand had wound so tightly around the door handle that I couldn’t pry my fingers apart. “You’d survive an accident, but I wouldn’t!”
Keith snorted. He still didn’t slow down.
“Accident,” he repeated and now looked me in the face for a second. I could see how he noticed my clenched lips.
“You know what your problem is?” He raised his free hand and tapped his temple. “You think too much.”
He was silent for a short time.
“People today are all like that. Instead of trusting themselves, they’re constantly thinking and blocking themselves.”
I closed my eyes and focused on staying calm. I didn’t want to have this conversation. I wouldn’t be told I was thinking too much—not while sitting next to a werewolf that had nearly killed Josh and me because he didn’t think enough. I could’ve come up with ten if not a hundred snappy retorts to his advice. In the end, I decided not to choose any of them. I had realized something. Keith was talking to me. In his own way, he seemed to want to help me, somehow. He had brought up the subject because I was afraid.
For a moment, I forgot our life-threatening rally in the wilderness and watched him. His steel-blue eyes kept gazing at the street. Like always, he had his forehead in wrinkles, as if he were in a bad mood. I’d never seen him any other way. The sleeves of his denim shirt were rolled up and strained against his biceps. He was the epitome of a gang leader. A muscular man with an unforgiving expression who never avoided a fight. His dark blond hair was shaved so short that I could see his scalp. Suddenly I was amazed that he had even agreed to help me.
“I heard you got bitten,” the alpha finally said in little more than a murmur. This time he was waiting for an answer, so I nodded.
“Yeah,” I replied. “In the shoulder.”
“Have you turned?” His voice became strangely serious while his gaze flitted in my direction again. Something about the question seemed important to him; I just didn’t know what.
“No. Not yet.”
The corner of his mouth twitched. It was the trace of a smile—a sight I never thought possible. “If you do, you could be part of the pack,” Keith said. “I am the alpha of this territory. Every new werewolf has to introduce itself to me. Remember that.”
I stared at him and even forgot to hold on to the door. Was that an invitation? Was Keith really trying to be nice to me? Or was it more of an obligation, something he had to say as an alpha? I couldn’t figure him out. On the one hand, it was normal that he kept his territory under control. On the other hand, he didn’t have to invite me into his pack. Liam, Hunter, and Keith were totally different and had been little more than scary creatures for me, and it was hard for me to not associate them with Ian and my fear of him. Gradually, however, I realized that they were perhaps not so bad. At least, they were going with me on a possibly wild goose chase to find a werewolf they didn’t even like. Not everyone would do that for a stranger. Was Keith’s offer a compromise? Or was it an attempt to get some loyalty from me in case I actually transformed?
I didn’t know. That was probably the reason I chose what, to him, was the wrong answer.
“Thanks, but . . . I think I’m a pack with Josh.”
I knew Josh would never condone to officially joining Keith’s pack. He just couldn’t stand Keith enough for that. But now I felt that I had put my foot in it. The distance and hardness returned to Keith’s features and tightened his jaws.
“In my territory there can only be one pack,” he growled. “If you want to start your own, don’t do it in Shatterlake.”
His words ended our conversation for the rest of the day. He seemed to have had enough of me, because he was now left me to my terrible fear in silence. I also could’ve sworn the old Dodge had gone even faster since then.
Around nine o’clock in the evening we were looking for a place to stay for the night. I was finishing a call to my upset mother when Keith spotted a small motel on the side of the road in a tiny town. Liam had opened a map on his smartphone, and it showed that we had already arrived in Alberta. There was still a lot of miles to cover before Edmonton, though, but everyone was too tired to drive further until morning.
While I was standing outside, leaning my head against the glass and listening to my mom’s tirade, Liam and Hunter entered the motel. Keith, still in the driver’s seat, had his chin resting on his hand and was tapping his other hand against his knee and staring out the other window.
“Mom,” I murmured, “you don’t need to worry.”
“You’re kidding, Ruby.” The reception was lousy. Her voice often cut in and out. “I don’t understand . . . gotten into you. Why didn’t . . . talk to me about it? We talked last night! You could . . . at least asked us!”
I sighed. I had known for sure that my mother would be offended, but I had never heard her so angry before.
“I’m sorry.” My apology was sincere. Mom hopefully heard that, because she paused for a while. “Honestly. I know it was unfair, and I will make it up to you.”
I raised my shoulders, even though she couldn’t hear me.
“I’ll do whatever you want, but I need to clear this up. It’s important.”
I imagined her frowning. Of course she didn’t understand. Nothing about my behavior made any sense. Suddenly I had pretended to be sick, I’d told lies, and now I’d disappeared early in the morning. My parents had to believe that I had gone crazy—or gone off the rails. I could only hope they wouldn’t blame Josh for it. Unfortunately, I had the feeling I they would and already were.
“I will explain everything to you. I promise.” I tried to appease her. Keith must have heard me, because through the window I could see his annoyed face, but I didn’t let it bother me. “Let me handle this, okay?”
Mom snorted.
“You got three days, lady,” she said gruffly. “If you don’t get your butt through the door on Monday night, we’re coming after you.”
Her threat tied a knot in my stomach. I knew she wasn’t kidding. In my whole life I had never experienced a situation in which they hadn’t fulfilled their threats.
My eyes flew to Keith. Time was breathing down my neck. We had to find Josh and leave early Monday morning at the latest to be back in Shatterlake in time. The alpha didn’t seem to care. He just ignored me.
“Okay,” I replied mechanically. I saw Hunter and Liam leaving the motel with long faces, so I decided it was time to hang up. “I have to go now, Mom. I’ll text you before bed.”
“Yes, you will,” was the answer. It hurt me terribly to see her so angry. She had to be feeling so confused. I could only hope I could regain her trust one day.
“And Ruby,” Mom said, stopping me before I could hang up. “We will talk about that. Just so you know.”
After I hung up, I peered sadly at the dark sky. I knew that my parents wouldn’t be pleased with my behavior, but the fact that they resented my decision so much affected me. What could I do? I’d had no choice—I would have to try and make them understand that, somehow.
