Luke called my name, and I struggled to wake as I felt the dream try to shift. I didn’t want to remember any more. I wanted my own reality back. As crappy as it was. Someone pounded on a door, helping to pull me out of sleep’s hold.
I blinked my eyes open, cringing at the cold water hitting my face as I looked up into the spray of the showerhead. It took me a moment to remember what had happened. Tired after a few more hours of riding, we’d found yet another hotel. He said he’d run and get food. I said I would take a shower. I’d kept it cold thinking I’d stay awake. Instead, I’d set myself up for hypothermia.
I shivered uncontrollably and wiped water from my face. My numb legs didn’t want to move and my tailbone throbbed painfully.
“She’s trying to kill me,” I muttered as I struggled to lift myself from the bottom of the tub.
The door flew open with a crack, disturbing the air and making the shower curtain flutter. It stuck to my skin, and I curled my lip. Gross. Hotel shower curtain. Touching me. I frantically batted it away thinking of all the nasty things on it—and once my mind was on the subject, all the nasty things at the bottom of the hotel tub—when the curtain was suddenly torn aside.
Luke stared down at me. Rage and panic filled his eyes.
“What the hell?” I sputtered trying to grab the curtain and cover myself, no longer so picky about it touching me. Red crept up his neck as I watched.
Flustered, he let the curtain go, but he still had the sense to reach around to turn off the water. His eyes raked my face. “You fell asleep again, didn’t you?” he asked with soft reproach.
“Of course I did! I always fall asleep. Now, get out!” Embarrassment and anger warred for dominance. It was one thing to joke about us, to try to Claim him, and to kid about my boobs. But, to have him actually see me? All of me? I wanted to curl up in a ball of shame. I didn’t eat right and looked like hell. The scars on my arms still stood out vividly which was why I wore clothes to cover them. And he’d seen everything. I’d noted the shock in his eyes before he surrendered the curtain.
“Be out in two minutes, or I’m coming back in,” he warned, closing the door behind him.
“If you come back in, you better be naked too,” I shouted at the closed door, anger finally winning.
With shaking limbs, I pulled myself from the tub and wrapped myself in a towel. I used the other towel—the one meant for Luke—to dry my hair. Those dreams shook me. The first three had been the same girl. Gabby. No doubt the same Gabby Luke kept talking about. The second set of dreams also involved a single star. Michelle. Their lives sucked just like mine. It didn’t make me feel any better.
Taking my time, I brushed my teeth and gradually warmed enough that the blue tint faded from my lips. More than two minutes had passed, and I gave myself a weak smirk in the mirror.
Pulling my bag close, I dug for clean clothes. Not finding any, I settled for the cleanest. I took my time getting dressed.
Finally, I stepped out of the bathroom. I ran my fingers through my damp tangled hair and gave him the barest glance before I moved to the hotel’s TV guide, pretending to read it.
“Either we get where we’re going tomorrow, or we need to find a laundromat. Everything’s dirty,” I commented.
Silence greeted me. Stifling the urge to scrunch up my face in annoyance, I took a calming breath and turned to face him.
Luke reclined on the bed, his hands behind his head, as he watched me move around the room. His shirt stretched tight over his chest. I struggled to pull my gaze away. His exposed arms flexed as he moved one out from behind his head. On the inside, I sighed.
“Come on,” he said, waving me over. “Get some sleep.”
He knew sleeping in a cold shower didn’t qualify as rest, but I hadn’t expected him to be on the bed waiting for me after my smart remark. I shuffled to the bed in my stocking feet and lay beside him, not too eager to sleep just yet.
He pulled me to his side, slid an arm under my head, and tucked me under his chin. His heat melted away the lingering chill of the shower. His willingness to get so close while I was still awake puzzled me—he usually waited until I was already slipping into a dream. He lightly ran a hand down my covered arm. Right over the cuts I’d once made in desperation. I closed my eyes in shame.
“Don’t,” he whispered. “Not with me. I’m not here to judge you. I’m here to keep you safe. Always. Even from yourself.”
His arm tightened around me. This time I dove for the dream tugging at my consciousness. Anything to escape the little tug at my heart his words caused.
****
We left the room several hours later. I didn’t think he’d slept at all, but I had five hours of sweet nothing—well, not nothing. I’d woken to my face plastered to his bare chest. Best five hours of sleep ever.
“We should reach the Compound by nightfall.”
When we stepped into the parking lot, Luke’s stride paused. He tilted his head back, scented the light breeze, grabbed my hand, and pulled me toward the bike. I didn’t stop to wonder why. He’d smelled something. I quickly slipped the bag across my body and climbed on behind him as my eyes searched for the cause. Luke started the bike with a roar.
Just then, two men stepped from the office. My heart leapt, and my arms involuntarily tightened around Luke. He took off with a squeal of the back tire. The bike slipped under us a bit, but I risked a look back. Where the men had stood, two large dogs stared after us. They didn’t give chase. Instead, they turned and ran into the woods.
“They’re not following,” I called to Luke.
He nodded and opened the throttle. My stomach rolled at the surge in speed. Thankfully, I hadn’t eaten anything.
We merged with an interstate that took us south, not north. I wanted to moan in frustration, but understood his decision. Since we were so close to our goal, they would know our intended direction. Hopping on the interstate would throw them off. Heck, it threw me off. I had no idea which way we intended to come in from.
How had they found us though? We’d been careful, zigzagging all over the place in a non-pattern. I’d been watching the map. Maybe Luke was right. They had sentinels waiting for us. But we were still so many miles away. Could they have so many in their pack as that? I doubted it. Maybe it’d just been luck. Or maybe, he’d told someone again. I rested my head against his back, emotionally drained. I’d fluctuated between “just let me die” and “I don’t want to die” too many times to count. I didn’t know what I wanted anymore except to be left alone. I had never asked to be in the middle of a werewolf tug of war.
We drove for hours the wrong way and then got off at an exit heading east so we could circle back around. Despite his efforts, I knew it would be pointless. Like he’d said, they would be waiting—because somehow, they always seemed to know where to expect us. I knew what I needed to do.
When he offered to stop, I pointed to a laundromat. He nodded and pulled in. He loosened the bag, and I slid off, taking the bag with me. His troubled gaze never wavered from me as he followed me into the light airy building.
He used the change machine as I shoved everything in a washer. After adding quarters and dumping in the powder detergent from the packet I’d bought at the vending machine, I finally faced him. He eyed me warily. Apparently his wolfie senses knew something was up. I let out a long, slow breath, calmed myself, and let the beginning of a dream wrap its arms around me—not enough to sleep, just enough to slow my pulse. I had to mask a lie.
“I saw a fast food place a few blocks away. I’ll get us something.”
He frowned at me. “I’ll go with.”
“No way. We’ll lose our stuff. It’s two blocks away and we’re in the middle of town,” I arched a brow at him and patted the bag I still had slung over my shoulder. “I have protection and can carry everything with this. Two burgers?”
“Three,” he grumped reaching into his wallet and giving me a twenty. We’d used all the money he’d given me for rooms along the way.
I plucked it from his fingers with a smile. “Probably a good idea,” I agreed. “You may not have fries by the time I walk back.”
He smiled at me as he sat down to watch the machine.
I strode out the door, turned right, and didn’t look back. Not far away, I flagged down a ride and asked them if they could take me north. Staring out the window, trying to ignore the ache growing in my chest, I watched the mile markers go by.
****
My jaw popped on my third yawn. The couple had taken me over an hour north. They dropped me off and wished me luck. I smiled and waved as they pulled away. My stomach grumbled, and I thought of the twenty in my pocket. I still had a long way to go; and with no Luke, I needed to save the cash for when I really needed it.
Going into the gas station, I used the restroom and drank from the water fountain. The clerk watched me in the convenience mirror. Apparently my days of looking like a runaway weren’t over. I ignored him and headed out the door to begin my long trek—the gas station hadn’t had anyone who’d looked willing enough to give me a ride. Plus, the clerk would have probably called it in.
I trudged north for an hour, lost in my thoughts of this life and past lives. Why had the Taupe Lady directed my dreams to Gabby and Michelle’s pasts? Why in order? And why couldn’t I recall all the details like I could with other past lives? Because they weren’t dead yet? It made sense. How could I remember everything when everything hadn’t yet occurred? Why direct my dreams at all, though? She claimed she couldn’t interfere, but then did just that, hadn’t she?
Something had me lifting my head instead of watching my feet. The trees around me had lost their leaves, and I could once again see my breath in the air. I huddled in Luke’s jacket and wondered if he’d figured it out yet.
A twig snapped, and a group of three men stepped from the woods onto the shoulder in front of me. Steam rose from their skin. Shorts provided their only covering. Their smiles froze my insides. My feet stopped moving, but my mind whirred with possibilities. Distract and run!
“He went that way,” I called pointing to my left. They all turned, and I sprinted to the right, crashing into the trees and ignoring the bite of the branches as they whipped my face.