I glanced at my father as my fur shrankand my skin began to take form. He was bleeding a little but it didn’t look toobad. Once all of my bones had reset themselves, I crawled to Gavin. He wassitting up now and the first thing I noticed was how bloodshot his eyes looked.He was in human form and his clothes, miraculously still intact, sat in a pileat his feet. He slipped on his jeans and I could see that the left leg seam hadbeen torn but otherwise covered the major parts.
“Are you hurt?” I asked, reaching out totouch him.
He snapped out of his stare and took inmy naked form. Pulling his shirt from the ground, he handed it to me and Iplaced it over my head. Other than a few Swiss-cheese holes, it covered my ladylumps.
“I’m okay,” he mumbled to everyone.
‘What was he doing to you?’I asked him and felt for the matebond,relieved to feel it open.
Gavin looked me right in the eyes.‘Heis trying to make me like him.’
Fear shot up my body like electricity.‘That’s not possible,’I countered but Gavin didn’t say a word. He justlooked at the skies as if waiting for Mukesh to return.
“Let’s get out of here. The governmentwill be on our tail.” My dad had shifted and was standing there naked, holdinghis junk. To an outsider, it would be weird and embarrassing, but to fellowshifters it was just another day in the life of a pack.
I slipped my hand into Gavin’s and hesqueezed it. We were going to get through this. I didn’t know how, but we were.
‘Holy shit. Get to the car. It’s all overthe radio,’Jaxon toldme.
I picked up my pace.‘What is? Thebreakout?’My heart was hammering in my chest. Were the cops already here?
‘No. There are … side effects. The peoplewho have been cured are going partially furry when angry. Or even sproutingclaws in some cases. They’re like mild human werewolf hybrids.’
My jaw dropped and I stopped walking. Noway.
“What’s wrong?” my dad and Gavin asked atthe same time.
I just shook my head. “You won’t believeit.”
I recounted what Jaxon said and expectedmy father to look worried or enraged. Instead, he just grinned. “Karma’s abitch.”
*
It took over five hours to get to theedge of San Juan Island because we had to follow the big rig truck, which wasslow going up hills. Gretchen was able to get ahold of the rare herbs and meetus at a rest stop and Avery was now doing well. She was sleeping but not the nightmare-filledkind, just her body resting after the ordeal. Gretchen had also been able tostop Aunt Emma’s bleeding, so she was going to be okay, too. Other than theloss of three pack members, things were looking up. The only thing that wasn’tlooking good was Nahuel. He had aged twenty years and now sat in the way backof the SUV, quietly lost in meditation. I couldn’t stop staring at his whitehair.
I had driven while Jaxon edited thefootage from our breakout and now it had nearly ten million hits. There were afew naysayers who said the wolves deserved to be treated as such but the majoritywere appalled that there were secret concentration camps where wolves werebeing held without their knowledge. Being drained and killed off. It was astart of a much larger uprising we were going to need if we were going to winthis war. Tons of comments were flooding in about the recent news, too. The‘side effects’ of using a wolf to cure someone. Most were okay with it. What’ssome claws or hair if you can live pain free, but a lot of people thought itwas unnatural. Jaxon had asked Gretchen three times if she wanted him to editout the witches’ involvement and she said no. It was time they came out. Sofar, based on the comments, the humans were freaking out. A third supernaturalrace tipped the scales in our favor. They were worried we would gang up on them.
I pulled our car up to the Friday Harbor ferryparking lot and prayed my dad knew what he was doing. San Juan Island was somelittle-known place that was so far up Washington that it was almost in Canada.We were parked in Anacortes and would need to take an hour ferry just to get tothe island. My father just kept saying that he had an old friend who ran a packon the island and it would be a safe place for us. But I kept wondering if thisold friend knew we were bringing over 200 escaped werewolves into his territory,and what alpha would be okay with that?
The big rig had pulled off to the side,taking up a red fire lane and had begun unloading. Seeing my pack like this,dirty and injured … and broken, killed me. To treat people this way, like theywere animals with no dignity, it was not something I could easily forgive. Iknew Nahuel was trying to get me to see all of the races as my people, but thehumans had disappointed me in how barbaric they had become in their quest forhealing. As I let the thoughts mull over in my mind, I couldn’t help but wonderwhat it felt like to be sick. I’d broken bones, sure, or felt crummy after abig work out, but only for a few hours and then I healed. What would it be liketo feel that all day, every day? Would it make me desperate enough to trap andkill a werewolf for my own salvation? Maybe … I just didn’t know.
People around the ferry were starting tostare and I knew it wouldn’t be long before someone called the cops about the hordeof werewolves who had taken over the ferry platform.
“Avery, baby, wake up. We’re here.” Jaxonnuzzled Avery awake and she moaned. Gretchen said it would take a few days forher sleep to right itself but until then she would be really tired.
Gavin looked at me from the back seat andgave me a small smile. Out of everything that was happening, my mate problemswere the worst. I hated having a divide between us. Hated that he wasstruggling with something and thought I couldn’t help him. We hadn’t even hadtime to talk about what happened back there with Mukesh.
‘I love you, Anya.’His voice in my head sent chills down myspine and tears nearly pricked my eyes at his words. He knew I needed to hearthem, but they only patched the wound temporarily.
‘I love you too, Gav.’
I stepped out of the car and so did therest of them. Jaxon was carrying Avery while Gavin carried all of our packs. Nahueljumped out of the back and gave me a small bow. “I have a small motorboat Ipark here. I will meet you on the island.”
Of course, he does. Would I ever fullyknow that man? “Okay,” was all I said. Nahuel was a man of many mysteries and Iwasn’t going to attempt to figure them out right now.
We followed the throng of our shuffling packmates up to the ferry ticket window.
My father stepped forward. “I need 254tickets to San Juan Island.”
