Ugh.
I tried again.
Nothing.
Again.
My attempts were paltry and clumsy. If I had hands instead of paws- I sucked in a breath just as Matt’s eyes took on a glassy sheen like the marbles I used to roll on the hardwood floors of my childhood home.
Whoomph.
Matt went down so hard I jumped.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Matt!
His flattened ears didn’t flick.
I howled, hoping someone would come, but they hadn’t come for me, so they most probably wouldn’t come for him. Still, I waited. Wasn’t Frank worried? When no voice answered mine, I loosed a rough breath, shut my eyes, and willed my body to change.
I would be disqualified, but at least I’d be able to live with myself, wherever it was I would be living.
I’d been half-right about what my body would look like. Where I wasn’t entirely mottled with bruises, my palms and soles were in bloody tatters. For the first time since Matt had become unconscious, I was glad for it. After all, I was standing over him in my birthday suit.
Even though I felt and looked like roadkill, I was still prudish roadkill. I kneeled next to his massive, inert form, and worked my blood-soaked fingers nimbly around the levers, prodding them. In one swift jerk, I jammed my palms against them and the trap’s jaws opened like a night-blooming flower.
Sweat trickled down my neck, down my smarting spine, as I delicately lifted Matt’s ravaged paw and set it on the grass next to his head. I tossed the trap aside, and it clinked shut.
“Piece of crap mousetrap,” I grumbled.
Matt stirred, and I jumped behind the wild rose bush. They weren’t dense enough to shield me, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. The thorns felt like piranha teeth against my skin. I plucked them out, letting out a slew of choice words. Compared to the pain radiating inside my bones, being a human pincushion was peanuts, but still. A twig breaking had me snapping my gaze up, straight into a set of no longer glassy eyes.
I blinked dumbly at Matt. His paw dragged, yet he was already up! How?
Remembering I was naked, I spun around, willing fur to cloak my curves. I squinted so hard that anyone passing by would think me constipated. Thankfully, besides Matt, no one was even around.
When I felt a wet muzzle on the knobs of my hunched spine, I almost jumped out of my skin. “Go away!”
Matt made a noise my human ears couldn’t decipher. And then he released a soft wail that made my skin pebble.
Not pebble.
Change.
His howl made me change back.
Once cloaked in fur, I turned and nodded to the paw. Can you walk?
Not well.
Want to stay here while I go get help?
And let you win?
My shoulders locked up. Hulk’s competitive streak had apparently not suffered from the snare. You’re going to win anyway. I broke the rules, remember.
To help me.
Still, I changed.
I swear he rolled his eyes at me. Come on, Little Wolf.
I snorted, which earned me an amused sideways glance. We began to limp down the hill. Where Matt no longer whimpered, I did, and I felt absolutely no shame. I feel like I crawled through a garbage compacter.
Your back is one solid bruise.
There goes wearing most of my wardrobe in public.
Wolves didn’t laugh, and yet Matt made a sound that sounded almost like a chuckle. And then he asked how I’d gotten the bruise, and I told him about the rockslide.
Even though we moved at a slow pace, we moved nonetheless. Soon we’d reached the trees. I caught the scent of cigar and cedar. It was strong.
Almost there, Matt said, limping beside me.
A slash of red broke through the greenery. It flapped around Eric’s wrist.
I can’t believe we made it, I whispered.
Figures shifted through the trees like ghosts. I recognized Liam and Lucas and Cole and countless others.
Matt faltered beside me, then landed with a hard thump
I stopped walking. Come on, Hulk, get up.
He whined.
I shoved my muzzle against his furry shoulder. Get up.
Slowly, like a mountain rising from two tectonic plates, Matt got up. And even slower, he limped beside me.
Don’t tell anyone you saw me naked or I’ll stick a snare in your bed.
He let out a small grunt.
Metal blinded me as I focused on the scrap of red fabric. There were cars. Lots of them.
Good, because I was done with walking.