Page 76 of Wolf's Fate
“No, I noticed a tag on the car. I should have seen it earlier. Stupid.” He glared at the outside, and I reached over, taking his hand.
“You can’t see everything,” I told him. Trying to lighten his mood, I made a joke. “Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do?”
He grunted but said nothing.
With a sigh, I withdrew my hand, but his hand snapped out, catching mine and pulling my arm back across to his side of the table. “No.”
Good grief, I was melting like butter here. “What does the tag do?”
“Tracks us.”
Oh. Well, now I knew why he was so pissed. “Then we ditch the car?” His grunt was one I roughly translated intoobviously. “Is it far to walk? You know, to the…place.”
His eyes flicked to mine, the corners crinkling with amusement. “We’ll take the bus.”
“You have a bus stop?”
This time, he laughed. “No, we’ll get off at the closest point.” He raised my hand to his mouth, placing a warm kiss on the tips of my fingers. “I’ll help you, okay?”
I nodded, letting the warmth of his words settle in, the simple reassurance easing the tension in my chest.
“Who is it?” I asked softly. “Who’s after us?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted, his eyes darkening with unreleased anger. “But I’ll find out.”
“I’m scared.”
Caleb gave me a look of understanding that made me want to reach out to him. “I’ll keep you safe,” he assured me.
We paid for breakfast, I didn’t want to ask where the money came from and Caleb led me outside, unpacking the car quickly, leaving the keys inside, telling me that’s how he found it.
We started to walk into the town, Caleb’s arm brushing mine, giving me some comfort.
But I could sense the storm building around us. Something was happening, and I had the feeling that it was much bigger than either of us fully understood.
And I didn’t know if we were ready for it.
TWENTY-THREE
Willow
The bus hissedas the doors closed and left us standing at the side of the road. The driver had grumbled, but Caleb was persuasive, and he’d let us off in the middle of nowhere.
Well, not in the middle of nowhere, Caleb knew exactly where we were. We were at the base of Shadowridge Peak, and I’d been dreading this almost as much as Caleb, I think, though probably for entirely different reasons.
The air had too much bite to it, and I was glad of the coat I’d picked up in the town where we had breakfast. I was decked out in new clothes. Hiking boots, thick weatherproof pants, a long-sleeved thermal shirt under a fleecy hoodie, and then the new padded jacket on top. I felt a bit like a marshmallow, but as I felt the crisp air sting my cheeks, I wondered if I had time to pull another layer on.
The late afternoon sun cast long shadows, and as the fresh mountain air swirled around us, I noticed the sky remained asharp, cloudless blue. It was the kind of day where you could see everything laid out in front of you, including the climb that lay ahead.
Standing next to Caleb, I saw him looking up at the trail that was partially hidden in the dense forest ahead. Shadowridge Peak loomed large, almost too large, and I felt incredibly small as I stood staring up at it. My stomach was in knots as I considered the insanity of climbing this thing. But with another glance at Caleb, I knew I couldn’t back out.
“It’s really big,” I said stupidly.
“That’s what she said,” he quipped, and I grinned as I heard him grunt when my elbow dug into his ribs. Caleb looked over at me, his eyes betraying his uncertainty. “You ready?”
“No.”
He nodded, and I knew he had been expecting that. Quietly, he adjusted the straps of my pack, which he carried over his broad shoulders. He didn’t look towards the peak that was his home. If anything, he looked like he was avoiding looking at it. “I’ll be right beside you,” he reminded me.