Time Mends (14 page)

“
They should,” said my
super-organized best friend. “Are you okay? You look very…
red.”

“
I’m hot.”

“
Obviously. I would kill
for your legs. And waist. And boobs.” She examined her own chest,
which wasn’t so much flat as not curvy. “Maybe I could get Ashley’s
plastic surgeon to give me your boobs. Would you go with me to the
office so that he’ll know exactly what I want?”

She was spending way too much time with
Jase.

“
I meant, I feel like it’s
a a hundred and fifty degrees in here, smarty pants.”

I’m not a complete moron - I had an
acceptance letter to William and Mary hanging on my wall - but I
sometimes miss simple, common-sense things. Thankfully, that is
Talley’s area of expertise. “Well, I guess summer in Kentucky would
feel rather warm to a species designed for sub-zero
temperatures.”

Jase’s face scrunched up in concentration.
“You mean because she turns into one of those snow wolves,
right?”

At least I wasn’t the only one a step or two
behind the curve.

“
Coyotes are native to
Kentucky. Arctic wolves, not so much.” The frown on her face would
have looked patronizing if anyone else attempted it. “Poor Scout.
Do you want me to go get you an ice pack or something?”

“
Nah, I’m cool.” I held up
my hand. “Don’t want hear it, no matter how witty it is.” Jase’s
promptly shut his mouth.

“
Are you calling the
meeting to order?” Talley asked, pen poised.

“
Do I need to?”

Talley nodded enthusiastically.

I looked around for something to used as a
gavel and settled on one of Jase’s basketball trophies. “I hereby
call the meeting of the Donovan-Hagan-Matthews Pack to order,” I
said, banging the trophy on the floor. “Does that work?”

“
I think we need to
shorten the name of the Pack.”

This was the reason we quit doing school
projects together in the sixth grade.

“
The name stands. You can
refer to it as DHM if you want.” I took a deep breath, giving her
plenty of time to declare that we needed a logo or mascot. When she
didn’t, I continued. “Tomorrow night is our first full moon
together as a Pack.” And only my second full moon as a Shifter.
“We’re going to run an exercise tomorrow to ensure that we can work
together as a team to accomplish a goal.”

“
Like not accidentally
stepping over an invisible line?” Charlie asked.

“
That’s part of Talley’s
job. She’s been studying maps for weeks now and thinks she can keep
us wrangled into the accepted boundaries. Right, Tal?”

“
I think so.” She sound
less certain than I would have liked, but I trusted her.

“
She’s also going to guide
us to the same spot. We’re starting off at different points.” I
handed out maps I printed off the computer. “Jase, you’re going to
Change on the north end of the county. Charlie, the south. I’m
changing on the far eastern boarder. As soon as Talley senses we’ve
all completed the Change, she’s going to pick a fourth location
from a hat and guide us all there.”

“
That’s it?” Jase looked
less than impressed. “We go on a scavenger hunt for one another?
That’s our big exercise for the night?”

“
No, that’s our
communications lesson. Then we have our physical
training.”

“
Which is?”

My mind conjured up an image of snowflakes
dancing around a beautiful boy eagerly sharing his love of the
hunt. “Then we take down a deer.”

I lay crouched on the ground, my clothes
tucked away in the backpack I hid nearby. Being naked in the middle
of the woods wasn’t exactly my idea of awesome, but I couldn’t
really afford to lose an outfit a month.

I can’t do
this.

They said it would be easier this time, less
painful. When I was climbing out of Charlie’s mammoth truck he
grabbed my arm, the first non-training physical contact we’d had in
forever. “Just relax out there, okay? Try to initiate the Change
yourself instead of waiting for it to happen. Your body will
respond better.”

I tried. Really, I did. I crouched down and
thought about my muscles stretching and shifting, my bones
reorganizing themselves. I thought about the hundreds of thousands
of hairs poking through my skin. Unfortunately, I also thought
about all the pain that came with those things and couldn’t do it.
I knew it would actually kill me this time.

The first convulsion ripped through my body
as the last light of day disappeared from the sky. It hurt just as
much as I remembered. I stayed conscious the entire time and only
threw up from the pain once.

As soon as the Change was complete, I headed
for the hamburgers I stashed by my backpack. The food was Talley’s
idea. According to her, the animal wouldn’t be quiet enough for
Human Scout to be heard until some of the calories incinerated
during the Change were replaced. She theorized that having a vast
amount of food ready to eat immediately post-Change would give us a
huge advantage. Since I didn’t want a Thumper repeat, I was willing
to give it a shot.

Of course, Wolf Scout didn’t agree. She ate
the burgers because she was hungry, but she regretted the lack of
fresh meat. She missed the hunt.

She seriously freaked me out.

“
How are you doing?” the
voice in my head asked. I tried to find traces of the Talley I knew
in that voice, but there was none. This voice was deep and rich for
a woman, very femme fatale. Talley’s normal voice had more of a
Hannah Montana flavor.

I didn’t pass
out.

“
That’s an
improvement.”

If you say so. Are the
boys ready?

“
Jase is finishing up. It
will take Charlie a few more minutes.”

Something tickled in the
back of my brain and I had to really concentrate to process
it.
I thought you said Jase’s Change was
fast.

“
It is. You completed
yours in less than fifteen minutes.” It felt more like fifteen
years. “You’re a natural.”

You do realize that irony
is difficult for me to fully appreciate in this form,
right?

A sultry laugh echoed in my head. “I didn’t
even catch that. Your reasoning is amazing.”

So, what should I do while
I wait? Work a crossword puzzle?

“
What do you feel like
doing?”

I thought about it. My muscles were
twitching, but not in a
we’ve-got-to-rearrange-and-make-you-into-a-monster kind of way. It
was more like a need for action.

I want to run.

“
That’s what I thought.
See if you can figure out west on your own and go. You will have to
pass through town or cross the Interstate to go over the border, so
you should be okay.”

Needing no more encouragement, I was gone.
I’ve never been a runner by nature. My general philosophy was, why
run if you’re not being chased? Wolf Scout felt differently.

As I ran, I let her take over. She loved the
way the tall grass tickled her underbelly. She chased squirrels and
groundhogs. She splashed in a creek, enjoying the taste of the cool
water. She followed one trail and then another until finally…

Wolf. Him.
Mine
.

I was off, careful not to lose the
scent.

“
Scout, the others are
ready. I’m going to need to you head north.”

North was the wrong direction. I chased my
prey south.

“
Scout, do you hear
me.”

Hear you? Yes. Listening to you? Not so
much.

“
The Pack is converging at
the old Spicer Mill.”

The Pack could kiss my furry white tail. I
closed my mind off from well-meaning interlopers and chased after
the gray wolf. It wasn’t long before I caught up with him. I was
close enough to hear him as he padded nearly silently around a pond
just over the hill. I howled out a greeting and waited expectantly
for his reply. It never came. Instead, I heard him move away.

Crap. Where was he going?

I pursued him in a way my human form would
have never dared. It took Alex months to convince me we should be
together, and that was with him being fairly up-front about his
feelings. If he had even considered playing hard to get we would
have never happened. But my wolf didn’t have the same insecurities
as a teenage girl. She knew what she wanted, and she was determined
to get it.

He was fast, but so was I. I caught flashes
of fur through the bushes and glances of a tail or hind leg on
occasion. Those moments just made me run harder.

I paid no attention to my surroundings or
the direction we were heading. It wasn’t until I picked up the
scent of another Shifter I even considered it might be a valid
concern. I skidded to a stop and looked around, heart pounding. Had
I crossed the boundary? Was the Hagan Pack waiting for me? I was
very close to panicking when a howl cut through the air.

Jase!

Suddenly it all came crashing in on me. I
had just completely abandoned my Pack to follow a ghost through the
woods.

I trotted off towards the direction Jase’s
howl came from, sending up a reply of my own.

Reluctantly, I opened
myself back up to my Seer.
I made
it.

“
What the Hades were you
doing? You shut me out!”

Sorry
.

“
Sorry? I thought you were
Changing back or dead or God only knows what!”

Sorry.

I was really glad I couldn’t see her face at
the moment, because I was certain it was saying volumes in the
silence.

I crested the hill and spotted Jase. Over
the past month things had gotten better between us. There was still
some tension, a change in the relationship that couldn’t be undone,
but he was my brother. I knew he hadn’t hurt me intentionally. I
would never forget what happened, but we were working on being okay
again.

Wolf Scout hadn’t been a part of that
process.

I crouched down, protecting my soft
underbelly. A growl reverberated in my throat. I wanted the coyote
to go away, somewhere where he could never hurt me again. Coyote
Jase proved to be remarkably similar to Human Jase by not doing
what I wanted. Instead, he walked up to where he was in striking
distance and rolled onto the ground, exposing his underside to me.
Both parts of my brain recognized the act as one of submission.

Slowly I got up and went over to him. He
watched warily, unsure of what I would do. I might have been a
little unsure myself, but when I pressed my nose against his throat
and breathed him in there was no fear or malice in my mind, only
the comfort of family.

Tell Jase he looks mildly
ridiculous with a spot of mustard on his nose.

Talley must have relayed the message,
because Jase flipped over and and began pawing at his nose. I
laughed, or as close as I could get to laughing in my current
condition.

“
Jase says you sound like
you’re trying to hack up a hairball. Also, he is very adamant about
the fact that you’re not half as funny as you think you
are.”

You really should see it,
Tal. He’s got a yellow stain on the fur of his snout. It’s kinda
cute.

“
I’m sure it’s
adorable.”

We horsed around for a while, Talley
eventually refusing to pass along any messages. We were rolling
along the ground when he first noticed the scars which covered much
more of my wolf form than my human one. He licked the spot on my
right side where they ended, a whine in his throat. It was the
first time he saw the damage since the night of the accident.

“
What is going on? Jase is
really upset.”

We’re fine. We’re going to
be fine.

And I knew we were. It was the other coyote
I could hear approaching that I was concerned about.

Murderer.

The human, rationale part of me was quickly
drowned out by the emotions seeing him dredged up.

“
Scout, stop! It’s
Charlie! It’s just Charlie!”

I don’t know where Jase went. At that moment
the world was narrowed down to me and the coyote who killed
Alex.

“
Scout—”

I snapped the connection.

There was no planning or finesse in my
attack. I ran straight at him, no thought other than revenge. We
collided in a chorus of snarls and limbs. We rolled along the
ground and came to a halt with me on top of his prone body. I set
my sights on the kill spot in his neck and was about to lunge when
he moved, raising his head so that I could have better access.

I darted away and backed up against a tree.
My entire body was shaking, and I knew that if I was in my human
form I would have tears streaming down my face. Charlie slowly
lifted himself off the ground and started towards me. I tried to
move away, but I was bound by the tree and Jase, who had moved up
beside me. Like Jase had done before, Charlie stopped just in front
of me and laid down in a posture of complete submission. I repeated
my display of acceptance, though this time there was no sense
things would work themselves out somehow.

“
Where is our waitress? I
need another stack of pancakes.” The table was littered with empty
plates. Already I’d scarfed down two omelets, an order of sausage
patties, an order of sausage links, two orders of bacon, a short
stack of blueberry pancakes, two glasses of chocolate milk, and
three glasses of Mello Yello.