Just a Wolf

Amelia

Corinne and I join the group again after dinner to watch a movie, almost everyone all tumbled together on the floor with blankets and pillows and snacks. I don’t think she is really paying attention to the movie, though, and I definitely am not. My hand is on Dom’s almost-mark on my throat, my mind is constantly trying to picture whatever he’s doing, my heart is sending him all my love, and my soul is all tangled up together with his.

I’m more worried about him than ever, though. I can feel his stress oozing through our mate bond, and I wish so much that Alpha Ross would just give up on this cave expedition and try again when the weather calms down. But it’s not up to me, obviously, or Dom, so I know he has to get through whatever hardship they are experiencing.

After the movie, I take Corinne back downstairs, but I can’t stand the idea of being alone right now. “Um, would you like to come in my room and hang around for a little while?” I ask her.

Surprise flicks through her eyes, and she nods. “Sure.”

We go inside, and I sit on my bed, and she takes the chair next to the desk, looking at me inquiringly. I suppose she thinks there’s something specific that I want to ask her, but I really don’t.

“I just wanted some company,” I tell her, “just for a little while.” I cast around for something to talk about. “So, are you liking the kitchen work okay?”

“Yes,” she says, “it’s easy, and everyone is so friendly.”

“Barbara told us that you are a very hard worker,” I tell her. “It doesn’t sound easy, it sounds like you’ve been really busy.”

She nods. “Yeah, it’s been busy, but I like it.”

She looks sad, though. “Are you… happy?” I ask her.

The strangest contradiction comes to her face, as she nods and whispers, “Yes, I am,” but at the same time she gets a sort of tragic expression.

“What’s wrong?” I ask her. Clearly she needs something else.

She shrugs. “Nothing.”

“Corinne, I can tell that something is up. Are you worried about the leaders coming back tomorrow? They’ve found all the caves you marked, they know you were honest with us. You don’t need to worry about that.”

She just wrinkles up her face and wrings her hands.

I think back to our conversation earlier. I don’t want to mention the fact that I realize she’s pregnant, even though it is obvious by the fact that Darlene asked the doctor to examine her. However, I know there was something else she mentioned today. “Do you miss the other she-wolves with the rogues?”

She looks down and nods her head, and I see I have found the source of her unease. Or at least part of it. She whispers, “They aren’t just the other she-wolves, it feels like they are… my sisters.” She looks around my room, and waves her hand vaguely around. “They don’t have any of this. I’ve left them, and it’s so unfair.” I hear the emotion in her voice.

“Could they leave too?” I ask quietly.

“I don’t see how. It was only luck that I had a chance to slip away. They’ll be watched more carefully now. And besides, they probably wouldn’t have time before you….” She trails off.

“Before the battle?” I ask.

She nods, and a tear slips out of the corner of her eye, which she wipes away with her sleeve.

“We told you that we’d try to help protect them, remember?” I ask her. “I mean that. When the plans are being made, I’ll find a way to remind them.”

She shrugs. I don’t think she believes that it is possible. She probably doesn’t think that I have that kind of power. She’s not wrong. The leaders will make the plans, regardless of what I have tried to assure Corinne. Even though she was very useful, in telling them the locations of all the caves, I’m sure that they still see her as just a rogue.

I sigh. “Are you getting tired?” I ask her. When she nods, I get up and lead her back to her room.

“Goodnight,” she whispers, before I close the door behind me.

Dominic

We’re a few miles outside of Willow Creek, where Ross said we should stop for the night. The weather hasn’t let up. I still have the windshield wipers on full blast, but it’s still better than snow, so I’ll take what I can get. The car is silent but for the sound of the rain, and I think I might hear snoring coming from the back seat. Probably Evan. Theo is still driving the River Moon car just behind us.

Ross is staring intently out at the rain. The Trinity River winds back and forth through here along the edge of the road, and there is a steep hill just on the other side. We are coming up on a gully that crosses beneath the road we are on. There is a break in the ridge forming a little canyon where a stream probably flows along the bottom to join the river. I don’t think I’ll be able to see it in the dark, but I’ll bet it’s very swollen from all the rain. I realize as we approach that I can see just enough in my headlights to realize that the little stream in the canyon has become a river of its own and risen almost to be level with the road. We will be just barely higher than the water as we cross the bridge over the gully. Wow.

My eyes are focused ahead, so I don’t see the problem until Ross warns me. “Look out!”

On his side of the car, just where the hill descends into the gully, a mudslide is careening down the hillside, barely visible in the dark. It is like an avalanche of water and mud and rocks, too violent and large to be contained by the gully. It joins the already swollen stream, which bursts up over the bridge and starts swiftly flowing onto the road in front of us. I am barely able to slam on my brakes to try to avoid driving straight into the sudden river of mud and debris that materializes in the road. The tires hydroplane on the wet pavement once the brakes lock them in place. I have no control over the vehicle as it spins like a top over the slick surface, straight into the rushing flow of water, and is lost in its grip.

I see for a split second in the rearview mirror Theo’s headlights as he frantically tries to brake as well, but he has no better luck than me, and his car’s lights spin away from us and I lose track of where they are.

The mud flow is suddenly at least a foot deep over the road, and it seizes control of the SUV, hurtling us sideways over the edge of the road into the gully. All I can do is grab the steering wheel, heart pounding, adrenaline spiking, as our car tips onto its side, and then onto the roof, sliding several feet further down the muddy hill before coming to rest in the middle of the still raging mud flow. The water starts rushing in through the broken windows as we dangle upside down from our seatbelts, utterly shaken and disoriented.

Amelia

A jolt of terror wakes me up. It is physical, tangible. I don’t know what has happened, but my adrenaline spikes and my heart is pounding, and I know with absolute certainty that something terrible has happened to Dom.

Alive. He is still alive, I can tell that at least, but he is in trouble.

I spring from bed in my nightgown, and in two seconds I am running barefoot up the stairs, through the packhouse, to climb up to Darlene’s room.

She is coming out the door as I rush down the second floor hallway, and she looks just as disheveled as I am, wearing pajamas, her eyes wild.

“They’re okay!” she shouts. “They’re okay!”

I dash up to her, and I am sure that my face is a mask of terror, and she rushes to reassure me. “Ross says they had a car accident, but Dom is not injured, and they’re going to be all right.” Her words are meant to comfort, but her face doesn’t look any calmer than mine. She must have had the same jolt that I did.

“What happened?” I gasp, and realize that tears are flowing down my face.

“I don’t know,” she says, “he only told me enough so that I wouldn’t panic. He has to focus on what he’s doing.”

She puts her arm around my shoulders, and says, “Here, come inside, we can wait together.”

I would love to, but I can’t. I pull away from her. “No,” I say, “I have to notify Alpha Kanen.”

She nods, and looks a little shame-faced, like she realizes she should have thought of that. We go together across the packhouse to the wing where the Alpha’s private quarters are.