Rite of Submission - Rite 1

26: Runaway

                As soon as the garage door opened, we rocketed forward. Everything around us was a blur, we zoomed through the streets and walkways between buildings and down a road that disappeared into the thick forest I'd watched the sun set behind the day before. We raced along the narrow road into the densest part of the trees, even without leaves on the branches overhead; the sun had a hard time shinning through the trees to reach the ground. Most of the light came from the one headlight on the bike. It was the freest that I had felt in much longer than I could remember. It was like flying through the wind between the trees.

The trees opened up and we came to a halt in a massive meadow. "Here you go, walk, run, skip or turn cartwheels to your heart's desire," he waved at the open space. "Stand in the middle and scream if you like, just go get it out of your system so you can stop moping around."

He didn't have to tell me twice, as soon as my feet hit the ground, my legs took off at a full run. It'd been a long time since I'd gone running. My parents had yanked me of the school's track team after I sprained my ankle tripping over a hurdle. Running let all of the thoughts and feelings I'd been drowning in fall away, almost as if I could outrun my problems. There was just one crystal clear thought, the feeling of freedom as my body sang with the wind.

It wasn't long until I realized he was running beside me with a goofy grin. I couldn't resist reaching out to tap his shoulder, "Tag, you're it," I laughed and abruptly changed direction. And just like that we'd entered into the weirdest game of tag I'd ever played in my life. It ended with a final "tag" when he grabbed me around the waist and made us both fall to the ground, gasping to catch our breath.

We laid there on the yellowed grass and stared up at the sky, until our breathing returned to normal. All I could hear beyond us were the sounds the wind and a few winter birds chirping somewhere in the trees. His deep voice brought me back to mountain of questions that I'd tried to chase away, "When was your first shift?"

The question felt like a slap to the face. "I've never..."

"How's your arm?" I looked down to where he pointed, not a mark again. He held out his own arm and pointed at the tiny pink dot, "she was right, you heal faster than I do."

I sighed heavily, "That could just be part of my supposed super Immunity."

"No immunity is going to let you run that fast," he gestured around the field.

"I used to run track in school," I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, a few years ago," he shrugged, "but that's the first time I've ever gotten winded running with someone."

"Clearly you're out of shape old man," I teased.

"Ok, tell me something, how do you feel now that you've gone for a run?"

I shrugged, "I was feeling less annoyed with you, but it looks like that may have been a fluke. Don't you think if I could shift I'd shout it from the rooftops so I could break free of that stupid contract?"

"There have been female shifters that have had children before," he argued

"Maybe, but I'm no Alpha. Do my parents seem like they'd ever ranked higher than omega to you?"

"I don't know what rank they held, just that they came to my father asking for asylum."

"So because I can heal and run faster than you, you're sure I'm a shifter and lying about it," I scoffed.

"I never said you could run faster than I could," he laughed, and I couldn't help but to smile a little.

After laying in silence for a while I worked up the nerve to ask, "Can I still have a copy of the contracts?"

"Ok," and just like that we were back to watching the sky in silence for a really long time. I was finally getting some answers, and it did make me feel a little bit better to know I wasn't the only one thinking about some of it.

Eventually the cold ground started to seep into me, making my teeth chatter. He jumped up and peered down at me, "Your lips are turning blue," he lifted me up into his arms and started carrying me back towards the bike.

"I-I-I g-g-guess I d-don't b-b-burn hot l-l-like a sh-sh-sh-shift-ter," I stuttered trying to curl into his chest for his warmth. He walked past the motorcycle and into the tree line a short distance, carrying me down a set of concrete stairs I hadn't noticed on our way in. He punched a code into a keypad and rushed us in through the steel door.

The ground opened up behind the door into a massive and impressively clean locker room. He set me down on a bench near some shower stalls, reaching in to start the water. I wrapped my arms around my chest, and focused on trying to stop my teeth from chattering. As soon as steam started to roll out of the small space he scooped me back up and stepped into the water, cradling me against his chest.

"G-great," I covered my face with my hands to keep the water out of my lungs, "n-now w-we're b-both w-wet." His chest rumbled under me as he chuckled, "W-why are you always sh-shoving me in t-to the shower?"

"It's the fastest way to heat you up right now, so hush," he moved around to let the water wash over my whole body, almost like he was trying to rock me to sleep.

"But now we're both wet," I pointed out after my teeth had stilled, "and it'll still be cold outside."

Laughing he turned the water off and stepped out of the stall to set me back on my feet. "You think we don't have preparations in place for our patrols or a full moon?" he led me through the rows of lockers to a room with tables and shelves covered in stacks of simple, non-descript clothing. Sweats, leggings, tee shirts, and baggy shorts were all folded neatly, and they were all the same color of dark charcoal grey. He strode to a shelf and pulled a fresh set of dry clothes for himself, and headed back to the lockers. "Help yourself," he grinned smugly as he walked away.

"Smart ass," I muttered under my breath as I looked through the table closest to me. I grabbed a tee shirt, and a pair of leggings. I also grabbed a large sweatshirt before I followed after him. He had already changed; his wet clothes tossed over a towel rack to dry, when I found him back near the door we came in at.

"Just come back out when you're done," he handed me a towel with a grin and darted out the door.

Shaking out the towel, a tampon fell at my feet. "Asshole," I mumbled again, peeling the wet clothes off and wrapping the towel around me so I could hang them over another rack. I decided to take my time drying off and changing. I was surprised when I took the shoes off and my feet found the tiled floor to be warm. Looking around the room, I couldn't help but wonder how big was the pack, and how many members could shift to need a set up like this.

When I finally stepped back outside, he was pacing at the top of the stairs. "It took you long enough, let's go." His mood had shifted again and he took off back towards the motorcycle before I even started up the stairs.

I had to chase after him to catch up, "Mood swing much?" I rolled my eyes.

"Something happened and we need to go," he hopped back on the bike. When I hesitated he growled out, "Now Alexandria!" It made me jump a little. He was worried about something.

As we sped off, my mind went to the darkest place it could. "Did something happen to Sophie?" I yelled against his back. No answer, he leaned forward and went faster. I had to close my eyes against the wind as we sped on.