Run With Me

Chapter Eighteen

It was the biting cold that woke Terri. Everything hurt, but it was the cold slowly freezing her skin that roused her. Very slowly, Terri used her hands to check for injuries. Grateful that she still had gloves on, she felt from the top of her head and down her neck.

"Ouch!" The wind ate her exclaimation of pain. There was a massive egg on the side of her head. She only hoped there was no blood as she continued to trail her hands down her neck, crossing over her chest and down her arms. Other than some slight tenderness, nothing seemed to be overly wrong with her. She must have hit something on the way down only once before landing in the snow pile at the bottom of the cliff. She was lucky to be alive. Well, lucky for now. If she didn't get out of the wind and somewhere warm and dry soon, she wasn't going to last the night.

As her hands drifted down her legs, she felt that he left leg stopped short. The prosthetic was gone. Terri wondered how mangled it was after one of the Petty Pack had torn into it. It hadn't been designed to withstand the bite of a wolf. 'But the next one I make certainly will,' Terri thought to herself as she rolled onto her right side and tried to look around. It was night and the wind was blowing too much to see more than a couple feet ahead. Turned away from the wind, Terri rose onto her hands and knees and started crawling towards what she hope was the cliff face.

There was no way she would be able to climb into the caves in her current state, but even being tucked up against the rocks would be even a small buffer from the elements. She had gone a few feet when she heard a howl raise over the scream of the wind. Kirk. She had never heard his wolf's voice, let alone seen him. But only he would be this close to her and cry with such desperation.

"Kirk!" She shouted back, aware that he probably couldn't hear her. Sitting back on her calves, she shouted his name again, hands cupped around her mouth. Even just that simple act drained her. Aware of the pounding in her head, the cold that was sapping her strength, and the fact that no one except Kirk would be looking for her, she screamed his name one more time. Tears started to flow from her eyes, freezing on her cheeks even as they fell. Falling back onto her hands, Terri continued to crawl through the snow, trying to find some semblance of relief from the wind.

She just about hit her head again as she reached the rock wall. Apparently Anna's foot had kicked her even further from the edge of the rocks than had probably been intended. The force of that blow had probably saved Terri's life. 'I'll be sure to thank Anna for that when I get back,' Terri gritted her teeth at that thought, thinking carefully about how she would get back at that petty she wolf for all the abuse she had taken over the years. Enough was enough, she just needed to survive until the storm was done, then she would make her way, somehow, back to the pack house. And to Kirk.

Terri's heart constricted as she thought about Kirk. He had been patient, understanding, and more times than she cared to admit, she had felt the pull to give into the mating. But she was as equally glad that she hadn't. Because she knew, deep down, that she would be dead long before anyone found her. She would try to stay alive, but she was even more glad that there was no mating bond in place, because at least he would survive. She had never been more grateful for a lack of bond between them than she was right now.

If the bond wasn't in place and a member of a mated pair died, then the other would survive. If one of them died after the bond was in place, then the other would not long survive their mate. And Kirk's pack needed him, Terri shivered into the frozen rock as she pressed her body against it, trying to escape the wind. If she died, then at least he had a chance to keep going. But deep down, within her core, a small part of her cried out that she wanted to be saved, that she wanted to survive. Her wolf whimpered within her chest, a low mournful howl echoing in Terri's soul. This was not the end she had wanted.