Page 14 of Planet Wolf

My stomach hurt. I leaned forward, gripping it, and Doc rubbed my back in circles. “I don’t suppose you have any more of the happy leaf on you?”

He pressed his nose to the back of my neck and took a deep breath. It was strangely comforting and didn’t feel weird, although it probably should have. Nothing about the way they treated me made a lot of sense, yet all of it had been lovely. Maybe I was simply affection starved.

Unfortunately, the gentle touching and breathing didn’t take care of the issue. There was only so much that anyone could do for me in this situation, which I understood. I had to remember that I felt great all day. I really had, and that would get me through the pain.

Being pain free at all was so unusual that I needed to feel grateful for it and not overwhelmingly mad because literally everything hurt again. Myeyelasheshurt. How was that even possible? I groaned and Doc put his hand on my forehead then the back of my neck. Finally, he checked my pulse. Things moved fast after that.

I was in his arms, and we were running.What ishappening?My current favorite question, right? It was sort of confusing, though, and I tried to make sense of things. If they wanted to travel more for the day, shouldn’t we wait for the other two?Oh well.I didn’t suppose it mattered. Not when there was so much pain, and it took far more attention than asking questions no one would understand.

At some point, Leader caught up to us. I couldn’t be sure—because really what could I be sure of?—but it seemed we’d traveled a lot further in the hours Doc had run with me than we had been doing up until then. The mountain certainly seemed closer.

He and Leader spoke in loud voices. With a smooth move, Leader took me from Doc who, in turn, took the bag from Leader. We’d left a fire burning in the woods, and a moment of concern flickered through me. Forest fires could do a lot of damage, but I knew nothing of the environment on their planet.

I blinked. Maybe Hunter was putting out the fire. I smiled at that thought.We couldn’t be responsible for burning things.

Another flare of pain rolled through me like a thunderclap. I moaned. Yes, I was still hurting, and now I had to puke. Ugh.I tugged on Leader’s arm. He needed to put me down so I could be sick. But he didn’t listen to me, he just kept running toward the mountain.

I closed my eyes, the rocking motion of his steps causing little explosions of pain.

I woke up to the sun glaring down on me. I groaned. It was way too light in this room… only it wasn’t a room. Not at all. I was in Hunter’s arms, and we were somewhere I’d never seen before. A town of some kind. Brown roofs, and every building looked the same. Where had Hunter come from? I didn’t even remember him arriving. And where was I?

The nausea came then, enthusiastic in its urgency. I was going to puke. Hunter set me down in time, and I rolled onto my stomach to hurl. He rubbed my back and said things to me that I couldn’t understand but appreciated anyway as I heaved helplessly. Doc knelt so that he was in my line of view. He kept talking, too.

But there were a ton of other people around as well, and they all stared at us. I blinked, trying to clear my vision, which had become blurry. And maybe it was the people—maybe that was why I didn’t notice what I should have noticed.

Shuttles landed all around us. Three of them. I blinked, recognizing Union insignias.Fuck.I was in so much trouble. I tried to sit up, but Hunter, who appeared to my left, stopped me.

Then there was a commotion. A tall, dark-haired man yelled at Leader, his arms waving furiously. He was mad, but Leader really didn’t seem to care. More strangers surrounded the other two, and everyone’s voices rose. Doc kept pointing at me and then at his ear.

That was about as much as I could comprehend past the fuzziness of my thoughts. It was like I watched the scene unfold from somewhere else, as though I’d left my body and wasn’t in it anymore.

I paid no attention to the metallic taste in my mouth or how I couldn’t stop staring at the Union signage, couldn’t pull my attention from it at all.

My body went stiff.

Distantly—in a way that I couldn’t have explained, not even if I’d been forced to under threat of death—I knew I was about to have a seizure.

Then I did.

* * *

I wokeup to the beeping sounds of a hospital, the sound so familiar, it was practically like being at home.

“I think she’s waking up.” I recognized Patrice’s voice, and I wrenched my eyes open. Her smile was huge, even if her eyes were tired. I saw her eyes tired more than not, which was one of the unexpected side effects of my illness. I got to see how it affected my family, which I hated even more than actually being sick.

Doug’s face came into view, wearing the worn out but relieved expression I knew so well.

Doug and Patrice were cousins raised like siblings with me under the care of our doting-but-tough-on-us grandparents. They were the closest things I’d ever have to siblings, and I missed them.

It was sort of bizarre to hear them speak… and understand what they were saying.

“Hi.” My mouth was dry, so Doug offered me some water that I sipped carefully before I handed the glass back to him. Refreshed, I began the hard work of trying to sit up. I knew the routine—I could practically repeat verbatim what would happen next, what the process would be to go home.

I blinked. “What am I doing here? I was on Planet Wolf…”

Doug thumped loudly into his chair. “Yes, about that. The next time you decide to go off on an adventure, I’d really appreciate hearing it from you and not from Patrice. Sound fair? I know you were trying to help me, but you almost got blown up by some faction the Bears sent. I’d rather have you than any kind of leadership position, anyway. Got it?”

I sighed. We could talk about all of that, but… confusion made it nearly impossible for me to focus. “How did I get here?”