Hitchhikers (Wolf Point #1)

-63-

The smell lurks in the air, so heavy I'm not sure how I didn't smell it before, when Zeke and I were eating. They must have been here watching us even then. My shoulders slump and I stare at the mess of cellophane and wrappers on the ground. All I had smelled was the food.

snap out of it

They can't be far. I was only in a bathroom a few minutes. A quick glance around tells me the rest stop is deserted. I take off my clothes, scowling at the cold air as I stash them behind a tree, and

change

The scent is clearer now, painfully clear. Zeke's unwashed body odor drowns out that piney milk smell I once associated with him. But there's that black wolf smell again, that wild musky smell. I close my eyes and inhale deeply. I don't smell any others.

I don't smell lilacs, either.

I follow the scent. It's strong here where Zeke and I sat, spreading wider than where we had crouched. Zeke must have put up a fight. I circle until I find a trail leading away. Strong, so strong I can run and still follow it. Winding into the trees, then back toward the rest stop. It stops before the rest stop. Exhaust and motor oil fills the air.

As a wolf I can't see as well as when I'm human, so I change to make sure. A narrow dirt road, more of a dead end, coming from the rest area parking lot, the perfect place to hide a car. A car was here. I can see the tire tracks from when it drove off in a hurry.

Footprints of several people scuffling around are here too.

Trudging back to where I've hidden my clothes, I puzzle through this. The black wolf came back, and took Zeke away in a car. I have no idea where they're headed. Or why the black wolf didn't stay to take me on.

It occurs to me that it was the black wolf who bit Zeke in the first place, so maybe Zeke and this other wolf have some kind of connection. Maybe I can't be Zeke's alpha if he was bitten by someone else.

It occurs to me that I should have changed back into wolf form instead of hiking back through the snow, as my feet are now completely numb.

I get there soon enough, half running to keep warm, and start pulling on my clothes. I don't know if I can track down Zeke, but I do know that if I can ever bet back home, at the very least my mother and my aunt can help me out. And Kayla, if she has been killed by those other wolves already.

No time to think about it. I slip-slide-run into the parking lot, look around. A man in flannel and a down vest is coming out of the bathroom, heading for the big rig idling next to the building. "Hey," I call, slowing down when I see that I've startled him. "Hi. Can you give me a ride?"

"A ride?" The trucker's gaze flickers back and forth. He's trying to come up with an excuse not to. I'm so used to getting rides only from people who stop that I'm rendered speechless for a few moments.

"I need to get to Montana," I say. "Please." I finally catch his eye and plead with my own.

Montana please important Kayla Zeke need to get there

He scratches up under his cap, where the hair is sparser than the gray ruff around his ears. "That's a far piece off. I'm only going as far as Rapid City."

"Great! That would be great! Thank you!" So he didn't come out and agree to give me a ride, but my enthusiasm must have eased his fears of serial killer hitchhikers, because after giving my second-hand clothes and lack of any supplies a once-over, he nods and walks toward his truck.

We've been on the road cruising north for a time before he says, "My name's Roy."

"I'm Dan."

"What's in Montana?"

I remember a time when someone asking me all kinds of questions would have made me dizzy and murderous. I can control the wolf now. I don't have to hide now. I have a mission, a purpose. No more running away.

"Home."