I stepped into the back yard just as the car carrying my Mate peeled down the road.
“Gabby?” I said, bending to pick up the girl. I needed her awake and watching for Isabelle. Lifting Gabby into my arms didn’t wake her, but Clay stirred.
“We’re too exposed here.”
He nodded and struggled to his feet to follow us to the back. When I returned to the front, Grey was helping Luke up. It took much longer for Bethi and Gabby to come to. I kept watch as Luke and Clay tried to wake them. They weren’t the only ones out. It didn’t seem like there was anyone up yet in the nearby trailers, either.
“Luv,” Luke said, tapping Bethi’s cheek yet again. “Your girl is gone.”
“Where is she?” Bethi asked groggily.
“She left.”
“Left? What? Where?” Bethi struggled to sit up and aggressively nudged Gabby in the process. “Can you see her?”
Gabby made a noise and blinked her eyes open.
“Yep. She’s across town, bouncing around again. What did she do to us?”
“She sucked our emotions out. What do you mean bouncing around?”
“She’s moving, but not a lot. Pacing, maybe.”
“Her nose was bleeding,” Bethi said. “She’s probably too full of the emotions she’s syphoned and is trying to work off the excess.”
I digested Bethi’s words, storing away everything regarding my Mate. I already understood that whatever it was that Isabelle did, could hurt her. What Bethi just said didn’t make sense, but I knew it would take more than a day to know my Mate and her peculiarities.
Bethi got to her feet. “We need to go after her.”
Clay helped Gabby up.
“No,” Gabby said. “We need to go back to the hotel. Some Urbat are getting closer. I think we need to move where we’re staying, and probably shower, before we try again.”
I could see Bethi wanted to argue and understood her concern. My Mate had run from us twice already. Now that I’d found her, I didn’t want to lose her.
“Luv, you have something in your hair. It’s not mud,” Luke said.
She heaved a sigh and agreed to return to the others. With no other choice, I followed the rest to the car. The neighborhood remained quiet as we piled in—with the windows down—and drove back to the hotel. Winifred was at the door to meet us.
“My best guess is that they’ll be in this area around lunch,” Gabby said before Winifred asked. “I don’t think we should take another hotel in this town. Something to the northwest might be better.”
“All right. Meet us here after you clean up. I’ll let the rest know.”
In less than thirty minutes, Grey and I were back in the lobby. I sat on the sofa and opened the book I’d taken when leaving the Compound. Books were my way of distracting my mind from real life problems. Usually, they worked. This time, I couldn’t stop thinking about Isabelle. Like the way her anger brought out the yellow flecks in her eyes, which made the green seem brighter. Or the way she moved, all muscle and grace, except for her backside. I shifted in my seat and tried to focus on reading instead of her curves.
The memory of her smile stopped me from seeing the words in the book I held. One corner of her mouth had lifted higher than the other, in a sexy smirk. She favored her right hand when hitting, but her left leg when kicking. The wisps of hair that had fallen around her face during our spar were just short enough to escape her pony tail. Rather than thinking it was cut like that on purpose, I had a feeling the hair had broken off at that length because she wore her hair up most of the time.
I closed my eyes, remembering how she’d smelled, and regretted not licking her skin. Next time.
“You taking a nap?” Grey asked, sitting next to me.
“No. Thinking about Isabelle.”
“I’m glad you’re calmer about her now.”
I didn’t correct him. I was anything but calm. Behind that wall, my impatience and need raged. However, I was in control; and that was key.
“How much longer until we try again?” I asked.
“We’ll check out and get something to eat as a group then split up.”
“Why split up?”
“Bethi thinks a bigger group will upset Isabelle even more, and after learning what she did to us, Winifred doesn’t want to risk everyone.”
A wise decision.
“That is something we’re curious about, though. Why weren’t you affected?” he asked.
“I’m not sure.”
Grey studied me for a moment.
“We acknowledge she’s your Mate. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t affect you the same.”
It could be. But, I thought it might have more to do with the wall I’d built over the years. To me, the wall was a metaphysical barrier that existed in my head. Perhaps it was something more. Whatever it was, it wasn’t something I could explain.
“Hopefully, the third time will be a charm, and she’ll listen instead of putting us to sleep,” he said, patting my shoulder and standing.
I hoped so, too. I wanted my Mate not just beside me but on my side. The other end of the link in my mind had gone quiet again, and my gut was telling me I needed to hurry.
****
Jim eyed Michelle’s plate, and Emmitt kicked him under the table. It wasn’t unusual behavior for either of them. Yet, it made me impatient to get moving.
The impatience didn’t break through enough to create physical tension, but it was still there. We’d left Isabelle on her own for too long; we’d left the hotel over an hour ago.
I wasn’t the only one to feel the need to leave. Winifred stood and went to pay the bill while the humans, who ate slower, continued to consume their meals.
Across from me, Gabby’s eyes went wide. She slowly set down her burger.
“What is it?” Bethi asked.
Gabby stayed quiet for a moment.
“We need to get to Isabelle. I think the Urbat are following her human.”
Bethi stood, and I shadowed her move.
“We need to go now,” she said.
The rest of our small group stood. Luke moved with Bethi toward the door while Clay hovered by Gabby as she quickly spoke to Sam about where we would meet up afterward.
“Come on, handsome,” Grey said, elbowing me. “Let’s go get your girl.”
We followed Bethi’s cloud of fear out the door and found her pacing by the car.
“Now!” she said, motioning.
Grey handed me the keys, and I got in behind the wheel as the rest squeezed into the back. Gabby gave quick directions as I drove.
“They’re going to get to her before we do,” she said. My hands tightened on the wheel, and I increased our speed.
“By how much?” Grey asked
“Just by a few minutes,” she said.
When we reached the hotel, I’d barely stopped the car before I tore out the door and ran for the building. The rest scrambled to follow. Tracking the scent of werewolf, I used the stairs beside the elevator to reach the second floor. I continued to a closed door on the left, where the scent of two mutts was concentrated.
Just as I reached it, I heard her voice inside along with a wheezing rasp of breathing.
“I’m not stupid. He’s dead either way.” Anger laced her words.
I barreled into the cheap panel. Wood splintered and gave way. With one glance, I took in the scene. Isabelle stood only a few feet from me, just outside the bathroom. Moisture from her recent shower still weighed the air. A half-changed mutt held the human male by the throat. Another mongrel started to move from his position on the room’s bed.
As teeth erupted from his mouth and his nose stretched and thickened, I flew toward him. I reached the bed just as the male’s clothes split apart. A fully shifted fight near my Mate wasn’t going to happen. Wrapping one hand around his throat, I threw him toward the window. The glass shattered, and the wolf cried out as he fell two stories.
The other mutt dropped the human and charged me. I caught him by the throat and lifted him up, holding him the same way he’d held the human. While he tried to pry my hand from his windpipe, I watched Isabelle, who was pulling the human across the floor.
Do you think she wants help? Grey sent me.
The rest of the group stood in the doorway in front of her. She looked up just then, caught sight of them, and stopped tugging. Slowly, she turned and looked at the window. Was she really thinking of jumping out of it? I threw the mutt out, and we both listened to his howl and thud. Those two might walk away from that kind of fall, but I doubted she would.
“We need to leave,” I said.
She dropped the human’s arm. I watched her closely. Would she fight me again?
The man attempted to get to his feet, and Grey stepped forward.
“Come on, son,” he said, bending to help lift the man.
Surprise lit Isabelle’s features, and she glanced at Grey as he wrapped an arm around the man’s back and gently lifted him to his feet. The human looked pale and shaky.
“Isabelle, I’m Bethi. I dream our past lives. Mine, yours, hers,” Bethi said with a nod toward Gabby.
“More are coming,” Gabby said.
“Gabby can see their locations and the locations of the others like us. We need to leave. We can’t let them find us.”
Even with her attention on her human and Bethi and Gabby, Isabelle still had her body angled toward me. Prepared. Ready to move if she needed to.
“Yes, let’s leave,” she said after a moment’s hesitation.
She moved to follow Grey and the human out the door, grabbing the bag on the floor on her way.
Bethi thinks she’s going to try to run, Grey sent me.
I’ll watch her.
I know. There was humor in that message.