Changing You ✦ The Sequel

Chapter 31 {R}

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✦ RILEY ✦

The wolf was a lot faster than me and the way it smoothly zigzagged between the trees made it hard for me to keep up.

But while I might not have been able to close the distance between us, I managed to trace him down to the point where he stopped, far in the heart of the forest.

I couldn't see him, but I knew where he was. From behind the giant oak tree right before me came the crackling sound of bones breaking, muscles tensing and expanding, skin screeching as it shaped around the reforming skeleton.

They weren't exactly quiet when they shifted, and the sounds they made painted a horrific picture in my head. It had to hurt; the way their fur traded itself for human flesh and how their body changed from a four-legged animal to a posture that wasn't anything close to it.

The footsteps that reached my ears were incredibly heavy compared to the light tip tapping from before as I listened to him fish something out of the bushes.

Clothes, I realised, as I heard him pull on some jeans.

When Caleb stepped out of the cover of the tree, he was still putting on his tank top, the name of a rock band I didn't know falling onto his chest.

He ran a hand through his hair, a hopeless attempt to fix the mess, and in a split moment I realised his hair colour was the same kind of oak-brown that blended exactly with the bark of the trees just as his wolf form had done.

"So it is you," I stated, the amazement shining through in my voice without meaning to.

I watched him closely through narrowed eyes. "Are you stalking me now?"

There was something earnest about the way he approached me, his palms lifted like he expected me to run from him any second, his eyes capturing mine. "You have to listen to me," he said, taking a quick glance back over his shoulder.

"I tried to warn you before, and it's fair that you don't trust me, but trust me when I tell you that this is your last chance, okay?"

Confusion struck me. "Last chance for what?"

"To stay out of this," he declared, his voice hushed with direct urgency. "We're not after you. Don't let him drag you into his mess."

"I don't-"

"Something," another hurried glance, "is about to happen and you don't want to be anywhere near when it does." He shook his head, eyes piercing into mine. "You really don't."

"What is about to happen?" I demanded while taking a step forward. "Stop being so vague and just tell me what the hell is going on, what are you talking about?"

Caleb flinched out of nowhere, a grimace misshaping his face as he forced his eyes shut. "I can't," he said through clenched teeth, and for a second it seemed like he actually, physically, wasn't able to.

"I- I just, I can't," he sighed. "I'm not even supposed to tell you this. But if you don't get the hell out of here you're going to be the one getting caught in the crossfire. Again."

My eyes snapped up to his and I was just about to speak up when a scream so terrifying, so raw, so pain-consumed reached my ears that his warning didn't matter for another second.