The sound of her own voice jarred her into action, and, even though the dizziness hadn’t gone anywhere, she walked faster. The sun’s position in the sky told her it was mid-day, but it wouldn’t stay that way long. If she didn’t make headway to somewhere habitable before nightfall, she’d really be screwed. Cold would only be part of the problem. Predators would be in the woods on the side of the road, and at night, she’d seem like a tasty morsel.
If only she could shift into her werewolf form on demand like her mate could. That sort of ability would be very useful.
But that was one of the reasons he was Alpha.
Okay. So something had happened since leaving the house and getting to Destiny. She either walked in the direction of Destiny or away from it. The latter might be preferable since she wasn’t exactly sure if she was ready to deal with Destiny on her own yet. What would she say to people? How would she keep her parents from being killed?
A car sped by her and slammed on its brakes. She darted backward, wondering if she should make a break for it into the woods. Not knowing what had happened left her feeling tremendously vulnerable.
Panic made her sloppy, and as she turned to flee, she slipped, hitting the pavement with a thud that jarred her bones and cut up her skin through her clothes. Damn it, what was wrong with her?
She pushed herself up. Somehow she had to run from whoever was in that vehicle….
The door to the car flew open, and a scent she recognized wafted out. Citrus. She took a deep breath and whirled around. Lake, her mate’s sister was the first to exit. Three werewolves—John, who shouted orders, Kirk, and Taylor followed. She didn’t know the other two very well, other than they had come on the trip, but she’d never been so happy to see four pack members in her life.
Lake reached her first and drew her into her arms. The Healer trembled against her. “Oh, Betsy, thank the moon.”
“Lake.” Her voice sounded hoarse, and suddenly her idea of keeping it together seemed pretty far-fetched. Tears swam in her eyes, and her vision blurred. “What happened? What is going on?”
The other woman pulled back to look at her. “Are you serious? You don’t know?”
“No. I woke up about half a mile back. Or maybe less. I don’t really know how far I walked.” Everything was so confused, jumbled, as though she’d never make sense of it again. How much time had gone by? She really didn’t know.
Lake shuddered. “I can feel your pain. You need to let me heal you, and then we’ll talk.”
Despite herself, Betsy laughed. “You mean you need my permission to do that?” She hadn’t when she’d taken her from latency to full-fledged were.
“I could see how you might think I don’t, but I’m turning over a new leaf, so to speak. I’m asking before I interfere. Can I make your head stop hurting?”
“Yes please.”
“Everything okay, Lake?” John’s voice interrupted the moment. “Where is the Alpha?”
“I don’t think she knows. Give us a minute.” Lake placed her hands on her head and a slow warmth spread inside of Betsy.
“You don’t know where Cyrus is?” Some of the warmth in her body dissipated. Where was he? What had happened? Why couldn’t she remember?
“Ssshh. It’s okay. We have a general idea of what happened. And we’re all going to work this out together.”
The heat picked back up again, and for a moment, she couldn’t keep her eyes opened. She knew it was ridiculous. She couldn’t be falling asleep standing on the side of the road, but it had to be something Lake was doing. Would the other woman let her fall? Right at that second, she really didn’t care. There was such peace in the warmth flowing through her.
Her eyes flew open, and Lake smiled. “Better?”
“Yes. Thanks, wow.” Even her muscles felt looser. Her body felt something akin to having gotten out of a hot bath.
“You’re welcome. Any memory return?”
Betsy bit her lip. “No, damn it. Shouldn’t that have helped?” What was wrong with her? Could someone have reached inside her brain and pulled out her memories for a whole chunk of time?
“Only if the loss was from the head trauma. I strongly suspect it was not, but I’m reaching in the dark here. I can only fix what ails you on the outside.”
“And this is not that?” She scratched her head. Did Lake think she’d become emotionally damaged in the hours since they’d arrived in Montana?
“I think it’s possible you had another blackout from fighting. Like the one you had in the bar.”
Betsy shook her head. “Cyrus said that would only happen once.”