The engine roared to life. My truck rumbled across the dirt road, headed in the direction that Mike gave me. I wiped perspiration off my forehead with the back of my hand and took a giant gulp from the cola bottle.
Damn, that was good.
I kept my eyes on the road, heart drumming inside my chest, both excited and nervous to find out whatever I might stumble upon. Which was dumb. What'd I have to be excited for? Even if Ididfind someone out here stranded, an alpha jackalope shifter definitely wasn't gonna be their cup of tea. Sure, I was a sexy cowboy in my human form. But in my shifted form?
Who would want a jackrabbit with antlers for a partner?
The odds seemed impossibly stacked against me that I’d ever find a fated mate out here. Out in the open desert, it was a lonely world filled with silence, solitude and sand. Lots and lots of sand.
Still, I couldn't ignore this curious optimism inside my heart. This excitement and adrenaline charged me, making me feel alive and connected me to the outside world for the first time in a long time. It compelled me to keep my foot steady on the gas pedal, and I didn't think it was the simple act of being a good Samaritan.
This feeling had to count for something.
3
Frederick
“You’re an idiot, Freddie,”I muttered to myself, resorting to the hated nickname in my misery.
At this point, I deserved to be called Freddie for the rest of my life for making such a stupid decision. Lance was right. Even worse, Pete was right. I was just a city boy who had no business traipsing out to the desert wilderness all by myself.
I should have taken Lance’s advice and let him drop me off. Now here I was, sweating buckets, trying to reserve my energy and figure out how the hell to fix my car, living out the nightmare of the mistakes I’d unrolled for myself like a red carpet.
Nagging internalized thoughts rushed at me like a swarm of locusts:I'm an omega. I shouldn’t be left alone to do anything. I'm hopeless.
No. That wasn’t true. I tightened my jaw and hunched myself over the still sputtering, steaming engine.
I wasn’t hopeless. I was an academic, dedicated to biology and science. Thatstuff, I knew better than most people. I just didn’t know anything aboutcars.
I plucked my phone from my back pocket. Still no signal. To add insult to injury, my phone was close to dying with no way of charging it.
Well, I still had a couplehours of daylight left. At least, that was what I thought until I glanced at the horizon and realized I'd been sitting here fretting for way longer than I thought.
Shit.
That did little to pacify my unruly, panicked thoughts. What did I think was going to happen between now and sunset?
Panic crawled inside my bones, spreading like vines. I was doomed.
No. No way. I refused to die like this. I wouldnotbe the little city omega who dried up alone in the desert and got picked apart by vultures. I wasn't giving Pete the satisfaction of seeing my cartoon skeleton in the news.
Maybe I could just sleep in my car overnight. At least that would keep the predators away. And, I realized grudgingly, if I didn’t eventually show up at the lab when I was supposed to, my coworkers know something was wrong. They’d come looking for me.
But there was a snag in my plan. I was supposed to be camping out here, setting up for a few days work. Could I survive for that long? Humans could survive alone in the desert for a few days, right? I had the supplies, the knowledge of the plant habitat... but I didn’t have the ability to fix this car.
"Stupid tin can," I grumbled.
I kicked the front bumper in frustration, stumbling back at the pain shooting up my leg.
"Ow!"
What did Ithinkwas going to happen if I kicked a hunk of metal?
I groaned loudly as I sank to my knees, sand giving way around me as if waiting to suck me in. I felt like a tiny bug in a massive, ruthless void of sand.
“What am I going to do?” I asked desperately to the empty air.
“Well, you ain't gonna do much else other than limp around if you keep kickin' your car like that.”
