Isat near the fire to dry my hair while Shepherd passed out beef jerky to the kids. They were ravenous—a perpetual state that all teenagers seem to exist in—so Shepherd had given up his own resources to keep them content.
The temperature hovered in the forties, but the fire kept us warm enough. Viktor tried calling Wyatt twice on the satellite phone to get a status on Gem, but something must have been going on, because nobody answered. Probably for the best. We had enough to worry about, and we needed to keep focused on what was outside our cave and not hundreds of miles away.
With my hair now dry, I stood up and squinted at the trees.
“No sign of them,” Christian said. “They’re probably regrouping.”
“It’s what Ican’tguess they’re up to that makes me nervous,” I admitted.
He put his arm around my shoulder and tucked me against his chest. We stood at the mouth of the cave, the fire burning brightly behind us. There was plenty of wood to last us a day or two, but staying in one spot was the worst idea. Especially without backup.
“Why won’t Viktor call our destination spot and see if they’ll send reinforcements? They’re probably close enough to help.”
Christian guided my hand beneath his shirt to warm my icy palm against his stomach. “They won’t help. It’s not part of the protocol. It would make them vulnerable, and they might think this is a trap.”
“So I guess it’s just us.”
“Aye.” He gave me a quick squeeze before letting go. “I need to step outside and listen for a while.”
“Stay close.”
He flashed a crooked smile and looked down at me. Christian didn’t say anything in response, but that was okay. Sometimes we bantered with just our eyes. After a playful bow, he slipped into the shadows.
Carol moved past me like a ghost, and I jumped before I realized it was her.
I caught her arm and tugged her back. “You stay here. I think you’ve caused enough trouble.”
Carol turned, her crazy curls framing her pale face. Claude’s tan coat was comically large on her, but she didn’t seem to mind. “I just wanted to see what was going on.” She kicked a few pebbles around. “If y’all hadn’t made Joshua stay behind, he could have protected us.”
“Really? A sixteen-year-old boy could have saved the day?”
“He’s a cougar!”
I pointed to the woods. “And those are lions. Like the kind you see in Africa. You should thank Viktor for making him stay behind.”
She folded her arms and lifted her stubborn chin. “He’s out there somewhere.”
“If he’s smart, he went home.”
“Joshua loves me. He’d never leave me.”
I tucked my hands in the pockets of my black sweatpants. “Why can’t you two just wait a few years? You’re only fourteen.”
“Almost fifteen,” she chimed in.
“You don’t even know what real love is yet. All that changes when you get older.”
“Haven’t you ever felt that way about someone? Like you just can’t be without them? How would you feel if you were separated for four years? I’m not waiting that long. Four years is a lifetime.”
“If he loves you, he’ll wait.”
She twisted her lips and glanced up at me. “Remember when I said that true love was when you’d die for someone? We have that. And it’s not because he’s a Shifter. I wouldn’t care if he was a human. But Joshua can’t be like me, so I wanna be like him. And you can’t stop us. You can lock me up in a camp for another four years, but what’s the point? I already know what I want. That’s four years you’re denying me to be with the person I love. What if he dies before then?”
I shrugged. “That’s life. You can’t predict what’s going to happen. Haven’t you ever wondered what a sixteen-year-old is doing with a fourteen-year-old girl?”
She huffed and looked at the woods. “We’re not that far apart in age. Anyhow, it’s not like that with us. We’ve barely kissed. He respects me, and he’s the one who doesn’t want to do anything more than kiss. He says Shifters don’t mate with girls who haven’t gone through their first change, and usually that happens in their older teens or twenties. Joshua looks out for me. Just because we’re young doesn’t mean we don’t know what love is. Romeo and Juliet were only thirteen.”
I turned to face her. “Romeo and Juliet were not only fictional, but they died. That story wasn’t a romance—it was a tragedy.”
