Time Mends(6)

Coyotes. They weren’t the two who killed Alex, but they looked similar. I pressed my ears back against my head and growled deep in my throat.

The older coyote snapped at the younger one, but it was too late. He was racing towards me. All I had to do was wait for the perfect moment to spring onto him. He was small and clumsy. I would be able to dispose of him quickly. Just as he was closing in on the perfect distance a flash of fur darted out of the bushes, knocking the young coyote off course. I let out a frustrated snarl at losing my advantage.

The newcomer stood between me and my adversary. If it had been anyone else, I would have knocked him aside to get to the boy.

I barked out a plea, but the wolf remained in front of the boy, protecting him.

I fell back, but then circled around to the right. The wolf realized what I was doing and snapped at me. I moved back and he snapped again, this time stepping towards me.

He was running me off.

All desire to fight vanished as I was overcome with disappointment and humiliation. He didn’t want me. Not like this. I dropped my head, tucked my tail, and ran away.

I spent the rest of the night slinking around, following random paths for a while, but never committing to a hunt. I could feel the sunrise before the first rays broke over the horizon. My muscles began to twitch and I hunkered down onto the ground, praying this time the Change would kill me.





Chapter 3





I lay naked and confused on the dew soaked ground. The bad news was I wasn’t dead. The worse news was the Change back had been just as painful and much longer than the original Change. The worst news was I was conscious for every single second of it.

I think he may have been with me for part of it. Or maybe I was hallucinating. There was really no way to be sure. My brain was on overload, too much shock and pain to function properly. That’s why I didn’t realize someone was next to me until they touched my shoulder, sending a lightning storm of pain across my new, sensitive skin.

“Sorry!” Talley crouched down next to me. “I’m so sorry.”

I wanted to tell her it was okay, but I knew if I opened my mouth a scream would escape.

“Here,” she said, working a garment over my head. “It’s soft and thin. It’ll still hurt, but it’s the best I could do.”

She wasn’t kidding. It felt like I was attacking a sunburn with sandpaper. Once we got all my important bits covered with Talley’s old swimsuit cover-up, I was exhausted. I slumped back onto the ground, focusing all my energy on pulling oxygen into my lungs.

I must have nodded off, because the next thing I knew a hand was brushing the hair out of my face.

“Scout, can you hear me?” I nodded my head, but refused to pry my eyes open. “Do you think you can stand up if I helped you?”

“I don’t know.” The words felt odd in my mouth.

A fourth person joined our group. “It’s okay,” he said. “I’ll get her.”

“No, I’ve got her,” the first guy said, and suddenly I was being lifted off the ground.

He smelled like home and cinnamon.

“Dude, seriously, I think she should try to walk.”

“I’ve got her.” The sound of his voice echoed in his chest, loud and assertive. Everything was loud, but it didn’t hurt like before.

“She’s okay,” Talley assured Jase. “Let him take care of her.”

I could hear Jase’s teeth snap together even though he was a good fifteen or twenty feet behind me. Actually, if I concentrated, I could hear the air as it entered and left his lungs and the steady pounding of his heart. Somehow the ability to distinguish individual sounds out of the cacophony lingered post-Change.

The same must have held true for Charlie. “You’re hungry,” he said after my stomach gurgled for perhaps the fourth time. “Did you eat anything last night?”

“A rabbit.” The memory of the blood in my mouth, the crunch of bone between my teeth, caused me to gag. “I ate a rabbit.”

“You caught a rabbit? Good girl.”

Something in my chest fluttered pleasantly at the obvious pride in his voice. Everything was going to be okay. Charlie was here, and he was proud of me.

It took all of two seconds for my brain to catch up. My eyes flew open, revealing a familiar curve of neck and jawline. The physical pain from the Change was fading quickly, but it felt like someone slammed a fist into the solar plexus of my soul.

In my head I didn’t see the boy I had loved since before I was old enough to understand the word, but the coyote who rolled Alex to the edge of that cliff.

“Put me down,” I said suddenly, struggling against the arms holding me tight. “Dammit, Charlie. Let me go.”