I didn't care. I was gone.
Midway down the next slope, I let myself glance back. Still nothing behind me but wind and the drag of old scents.
I swallowed bile, leaned against a tree to catch my breath.
I'd make it.
For the girls, for the twins, for every shifter who'd ever gotten killed by people like William.
I just had to move.
The world blurred, all black and green, and the snap of cold running water at the bottom of the gully.
I aimed for the stream. Any cover. Any way to kill my tracks.
I sloshed right through the water, toes curling with cold. It burned, but at least I'd broken my trail.
The woods closed around me. The dark swallowed my outline.
Somewhere up ahead, maybe a mile, maybe three, the world would open up. Roads, houses, maybe a stray light.
I'd get there, even if I had to crawl.
One step. Then another.
I prayed, not for a miracle, but for a single shot to get the word out.
Tell the girls to hide. Tell Chance I loved him. And wasn't this a fine time to realize it.
Chance
Fire.
It ripped through my skull, hotter than magma, shrieking with Caden's rage and raw panic. No warning, just the explosion. I went from dead asleep to adrenaline overdose in a heartbeat, bolting upright. My skin sizzled with it, every nerve a live wire.
It was Tash. Couldn't be anything else. She was terrified, stripped-bare, screaming-into-the-void terror, the kind that doesn't give a shit if you wake the neighbors. Caden went nuts, tried to tear out of my chest.
I lunged for my phone.
The screen blinked in my hand, and the last message from her burned at the top.
I'm home.
Tash had mentioned that Mere often got up early.
"Dad?" She sounded sleepy.
I calmed my voice as much as I could. "Hon, would you check your mother's room and see if she's home?"
"'Kay." She yawned and I heard shuffling noises, then the click of a door opening.
"No, she's not in her bed."
My heart pounded harder. "Please wake Gerty up and have her call me, hon?"
"Is Mom okay?"
"I hope so but tell Gerty to call me."
