New Age Werewolf Series Book 2: Hunter's Daughter, Alpha's Mate

Part 51: Starting Gate

"Did you hide the bike?" Lani asked. She was looking out over the Shenandoahs, her hair blowing in the wind. She was frowning over it, as if trying to remember.

"Yeah," I told her, climbing out of the brush. "It's kind of wedged in."

"Great."

I stepped next to her. "What next?"

"We need to get off this road--"

I leapt over the roadside and extended my hand. "Let's go."

We hiked down into the park wilderness.

"Smell that?" she asked.

"What?"

"Snow," Lani breathed. "We've got to get as far as we can and find shelter of some sort."

"Alright." I agreed, inwardly admiring how honed her senses were.

"I know where some caves are," she frowned. "but we've got to move."

We spent the afternoon traveling on and off paths and roads. With the weather turning cold, we really didn't run into anyone, so that was good. No one could identify us, say they saw us. As the darkness came, we were jumping from tree to tree.

"Are you okay back there?" Lani called from the branch in front of me.

"Yeah, just make sure these branches can hold," I told her softly. "I'm a lot heavier than you."

"When you were chasing me--" she jumped to a branch that looked a lot thicker this time, much to my relief. "What were you trying to do?"

I jumped to the branch she just left. "You mean at the Falls?"

"Yeah."

"Bring you down."

"Seriously?"

"Did you mean to make me jump in the river?" I asked as we jumped again. "I could have been swept downstream, you know."

"Uh, yeah."

"Nice."

"Hey, it was a group of you guys against me," I shrugged. "I figured you'd be okay, but I also knew you had help that would be distracted if you fell into the river."

"Hmph."

"I was scared, okay?"

"That's why I gave you space."

"Yeah, I needed to slow down, I was getting pretty frantic, especially after dreaming--"

I noticed she stopped midsentence. "You've been dreaming of me for awhile."

"I--"

"It's okay, I dreamed of you too." I saw that she looked uncomfortable, so I decided to come clean. "I slept on your pillows and on your sheets after I got your camper."

"You did?"

"Yeah, it's how I got to sleep." I wanted to laugh at her expression as I finally caught up with her. She looked like she could be knocked over with a feather.

"Do you still have my stuff?" She was nervous as she looked up at me. Our faces were inches apart, and whether she realized it or not, she looked like she wanted to be kissed.

"It was put back in the camper, just in case," I answered. I put an arm around her and looked down. "That it?"

She looked down. "Almost. We've got to move."

"Where are we headed?"

"Jeremy's Run."

"We're going to the overlook?" That wasn't a good idea. I remembered a paved road to that.

"No, the actual stream, river, " She explained. "It's uncharted, and I found a cave near one of the small waterfalls." She looked around. "God, it's gonna snow, I don't believe it."

"Won't that kind of cover our scent?"

She smiled. "Yes, but we may have to worry about footprints." She sighed again, looking at the sky. "Depends on if the snow sticks."

Finally, we reached the southern most point of the river, walking in the shallowest parts just in case they were lucky enough to pick up a track. A small hole was next to a small waterfall and the creek widened after that. 

"There." She said proudly. "Let's fill the canteens now."

I looked at the small crevice she indicated. "Can I fit in that?"

"My father could."

"Oh."

She chuckled. "It's bigger than it looks."

We had to crawl inside, but then it opened up after we crawled a few feet. I felt a bit claustrophobic. There was hardly any light, and it looked like I could barely stand up in it. The place might have been the size of our closet, but our closet was bigger than most.

We built the tent, and then she had me put a huge rock in front of our exit. She told me that she and her father had used that for a door when they got stuck in a rainstorm and didn't want anything to get in. Now it was the night winds with possible snow we were fighting.

"Come on." She whispered.

I crawled in the tent with her, and she had our sleeping bags zipped together to make a double one. She turned on a battery heater, and set it so that if our temperature got lower than forty degrees, it would turn on.  We ate cheese, grapes, and dried meat, talking about our next stop, and what to do next. If it didn't snow, we would move in the morning, but if it did and it stuck, we would have to turn on an a.m. radio to find out if we should stay in the cave all day and move at night or not. The trek had turned into a battle not only with the terrain, but with the weather. We fell asleep in our combined bag, warming each other, feeling safe and confident about the dawn.