Sharon’s Wolves(93)

More deep breaths. When she flipped off the light and turned it back on, the figure was still there. It almost seemed to sit next to her as if it would wait with her. It absorbed some of her fear. It was indeed a protector.

She closed her eyes again and tried to find a detail in her mind that would bring the rest of her life into clarity. It was as if she’d woken up the last time with no memories.

The pills… Had this man kept her drugged? She shuddered. Could a pill wipe out your memory? And would it come back now that she had no intention of taking them?

Something faint echoed in the back of her mind, as if someone was calling out to her. But who could that be? And what was her name? She glanced once more at the aura, flipped off the flashlight, and lay back down.

She sensed the shadowy figure inching closer, almost surrounding her. It calmed her racing heart more with each passing moment. She would survive this. There was no doubt. She just needed more time.





Chapter Thirty-Four


Cooper came to a halt next to Trace when Melinda and Wyatt did in front of them. The four of them stared at what appeared to be the entrance to a cave. Or was. Before it got covered with rocks and debris.

“She’s in there, isn’t she?” He knew. He didn’t need confirmation.

Shit.

He and Trace inched closer.

“Sharon. Baby, please answer me…”

Was Sandhouse also in there? And why was she not responding? He’d called out to her thousands of times in the last hour and a half. It was growing late. The night was dark. The moon was a sliver of light often covered with clouds as they floated by.

“Yeah.” Melinda paced in wolf form. “Get word to Jackson. Have him send someone up the south face of this mountain. There’s an access road not far from here if I’m not mistaken. We need equipment. We need help. We need water.”

Cooper sat on his rear haunches and tried to catch his breath from the long run. “Jackson. We think we know where she is. There’s a cave. It seems the entrance is blocked, probably from the earthquakes. We need manpower and tools. South access road behind this peak. I hope to fuck it’s still passable.” He glanced around and winced. If a volcano erupted… He shook the thought from his mind and focused on the scene in front of him.

“On it.”

“And Jackson…” Cooper turned around, opened his eyes, and faced north. He inhaled long and slow. If he wasn’t mistaken, enough tremors had opened up the earth for lava to flow. The pressure had probably gotten to be too much. “…Anyone who comes up here needs to be a shifter. I can’t keep humans alive. They won’t be able to run fast enough. Plus I’m naked. How are we going to explain that?”

Jackson sighed into his head. “Right. I’ll coordinate with Sharon’s parents. But just so you know, I’m not including me in your list of humans who can’t come to the site. Forget it.”

Cooper gave a mental nod. “I didn’t expect you would.”

How fast was lava coming their way? How long did they have? He had no idea.

“Can you feel her?”

“No. But I think Melinda can. In any case, the spirits that led us here stopped. They’re hovering at the blocked entrance.”

When he opened his eyes again, he found Wyatt in human form working as hard and as fast as he could to remove one rock at a time.

Cooper couldn’t stand the idea of the man working alone. He rose onto all four paws and let the shift wash over him. When he stood naked in the cramped space at the entrance to the cave, Wyatt shot him a glare. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, man? You’ll freeze your ass off. Stay in wolf form until help arrives. You have no choice. I’ll work as fast as I can.”

Dammit. Cooper ran a hand through his hair and glared at the night sky that dared to mock him in this crisis. “Fine.” He shifted back. He had no choice. It was fucking cold out. He was naked. Lucky bastard, Wyatt, got to take his clothes with him? Who made him the king of the beasts anyway?

He paced.

He watched Melinda pace. He watched Trace pace.

He watched Wyatt dig with his bare hands as if his life depended on it.

“Jackson?”

“Yes?”

“We need clothes. Tell Sharon’s parents to bring clothes.”

“Right.”

»»•««

Cooper stared at Wyatt, nearly crawling out of his skin. It had been thirty minutes, and Wyatt was like a machine, lifting rocks as fast as he could and tossing them aside.

Tremors came and went. A plume of smoke probably a mile away rose into the air. Cooper didn’t need a seismologist or a volcanologist to tell him lava was flowing down the mountain.