Pride's Run (23 page)

Snuggling and speaking quietly he keeps my
wolf calm, distracted. We stay inside the cave until night bleeds
into day and the first traces of light are upon us. When we finally
shift back, both returning to our human form, we continue to touch,
to acquaint ourselves with each other’s bodies until touching is no
longer enough.

Soon instincts take over and I feel a tremble
in Logan’s body as he settles himself on top of me. He gives me a
questioning glance, uncertain, and that’s when I realize how much I
want to love. How much I want to be loved.

“Logan,” I say.

“Yeah.” I hear a tremor in his voice and
there is something about his nervousness that comforts me.

I swallow my apprehension. “I’ve never…”

“I know, Pride. I’ve never either.”

Shaky fingers gently push my hair back, and
when his lips find mine, an invisible fist squeezes my heart. We
exchange kisses for a long time and as his body presses down on me
everything inside me reaches out to him.

With the campers, hunters, and the PTF
forgotten, we let nature take over and lose ourselves in each
other’s arms, sharing trusts and intimacies that neither one of us
has ever shared with another.

A long time later exhaustion pulls at us both
and with our arms and legs in a tangled knot we fall into a deep
slumber.

I have no idea how long I’ve been asleep but
when I hear a noise at the mouth of the cave, I struggle to blink
my eyes open. Caught somewhere between sleep and consciousness I
try to focus, try to wipe the blur from my brain.

Unclear if I’m dreaming or not I glance up to
see a familiar figure standing over me. My pulse leaps.
“
Stone!
”

I watch the way he’s looking at me, the way
he always looks at me. Dark eyes move over my bare body, then slide
to naked boy sleeping beside me. Oddly enough when I realize what
Stone sees—what he knows—I feel a strange sense of disloyalty.

Without speaking, he turns and makes a move
to go.

“
Wait
,” I say and rush on. “
What’s
going on, Stone? What are you doing out here? What have you been
trying to tell me?”
I know I’m rambling but can’t seem to help
myself. Rattled, I continue, “
Tell me please. Tell me about the
number sequence. I don’t understand.
”

He twists back around and as his glance falls
over me, I can sense his struggle, feel a myriad of emotions
tearing him up inside. Despite his turmoil, his words are slow and
steady when he says, “
The master installed a new state of the
art security system. I wanted you to know the code
.”

I blink, confused. “Why?”

“
To help you escape
?”

Escape? Stone wanted to help me escape?

“
I don’t understand
. How do you know
the code?”

“
You’re not the only one who’s watching
and listening
.”

I struggle to make sense of things. “
No
one’s been able to break out before, so why now, after all these
years did he install a new security system?
”

“
I think the alarm system has more to do
with keeping someone or something out, rather than keeping us in.
It’s like he’s expecting an army to come for him
.” I hear a
shudder in his breath and feel his anger when he says, “
One way
or another I was going to get you out of there, Pride
.
Before anything happened to you.”

My head spins and I sort though Stone’s
chaotic visions, trying to make sense of things, then suddenly the
tumblers begin to slide into place. “
You were going to fight a
handler
?”

At first surprise moves over his face, then
he answers, “
Yes, on shift night
.”

“
The night we were supposed to
mate
.”

“
The night I was going to break you
out
.”

“
No
,” I say shaking my head. “
You
wanted to break me, not break me out
.”

His tone softens. “
Don’t you see?
I
needed the mating as a cover. It was the only way I could get the
master to put us in a cell together
.”

“
Stone
,” I choke out. “
The handler
would have killed you
.”

“
I would have fought,”
he whispers,
then I hear a hitch in his voice when he adds
, “For you, I would
have fought
.” He takes a quick look at Logan and the sadness I
see on his face rips though me like a silver bullet.

“
You would have died
!” I scream.

He doesn’t respond, instead he says, “
You
need to wake up, Pride. Now. You need to get moving
.”

With apprehension surging inside me, I jolt
upright in the cave and rub the sleep from my eyes. My gaze
instantly darts to the spot where I’d seen Stone standing, but when
my glance comes up empty my insides churn. I twist to see Logan,
still sound asleep beside me and my mind races.

Had I simply dreamt it?

I shoot a glance around the cave and a
barrage of emotions tear through me, unsure of what’s
happening.

Logan stirs awake beside me. His eyes open
and he smiles when our gazes meet, but when he sees my distress,
his smile dissolves and panic spreads across his face. He sits
upright and reaches for me.

“Pride, what is it? Are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” I lie, not at all certain I’ll
ever be okay again. “It was just a dream,” I say, more to convince
myself than anything else, because I can’t bear to think that Stone
was really here, that a wolf who I thought was my sworn enemy—a
wolf who was planning to die for me—just had his heart torn out
because I’ve given myself to another.

August 30
^th
waning moon

S
tark naked after a
night in the cave with Logan, we make our way back to our tent. I
gather my torn clothes and look them over. With a tuck here and
fold there I figure I can still wear them.

As I dress I try not to think about Stone,
try not to let the pain on his face haunt me.

Had he been here?

Or was it merely a dream?

Confused, I breathe deep to see if there are
any lingering traces of his scent in the air, but when Logan’s
familiar aroma fills my nostrils, not Stone’s, I shake my head to
clear it, unable to make sense of it all.

Logan tosses the pack over his back and puts
his arm around my waist, a gesture that fills me with warmth. “How
do you feel?”

He looks so sleepy and rumpled that it has my
mind racing to what we did in the cave. Then a grave thought hits
me. Was it merely a diversion tactic on his part? Or does he really
want me to be his mate?

“Last night, when we, you know, was it
because—”

His grin is slow, soft and a smile reaches
his eyes as he rakes my hair off my face. “It was because I wanted
to, Pride. I’ve wanted to do that with you for a very long time
now.”

A surge of warmth floods me. “Then why didn’t
you? Why did you wait for so long?”

He gives a soft laugh. “Because whether you
realized it or not you were vulnerable, and I wasn’t going to take
advantage of that. You needed to come to terms with your own
feelings before you could come to terms with mine.”

“So you have feelings for me then?” I ask, my
voice rough with emotion.

His brow lifts in amused awareness then he
laughs out loud. “For a smart girl—”

My heart tightens and I press my lips to his
to stop him before he can finish. When I finally pull away surprise
registers on his face.

He quirks a perplexed brow. “What was that
for?”

I think about the last few days, think about
where I would have been without him. My voice comes out a little
shaky when I say, “I think you know.”

All humor fades from his eye when he says,
“And I think it’s time for you to know, too.”

Not liking the sound of that I tense and take
a small step back. “Know what?” I ask cautiously, my entire body
tightening at the seriousness I hear in his voice.

He lowers his tone, like he thinks it will
help soften the blow when he says, “I’m not who you think I
am.”

In an instinctive move, my throat tightens
and my nape prickles in warning. “What are you talking about?” I
begin to move away, trying to wrap my head around this unexpected
turn of events.

“Pride. Don’t.” Logan grabs my arms, but
there is something in the way he says my name that immobilizes
me.

“Who are you then?” I ask.

He goes quiet for a moment then says, “You
remember when you asked if I believed there were packs who roam
free in Canada? Compassionate wolves who live normal lives amongst
the population and take to the woods on shift night?”

I watch him carefully, and give him a look
that conveys my unease. “Yeah. Why?”

“Well they do exist. And that’s where we’re
going.”

Incredulous, my eyes widen. “So you’re
telling me you know for a fact that they really do exist?”

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I’m one of them.”

He goes quiet and lets me look at him long
and hard as I sort things through in my mind. My glance pans his
face searching for the truth, but there is nothing in his
expression or his body language to suggest he is lying to me.

I shake my head and realize I shouldn’t be
surprised at what I’m hearing. All the signs were there, waiting to
be pieced together. As I think about his knowledge of the woods,
his ability to hunt, to remove the microchip, to fit in so easily
with the hikers, the puzzle known as Logan finally begins to fall
into place.

Still, I remain cautious when I ask, “If
you’re telling the truth, why did you wait so long to tell me?”

“Would you have believed me?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well I do know and what I know is that you
wouldn’t have believed me for a minute. I’ve learned that trust
isn’t something that comes easy to you, Pride.” There is a real
sadness in his eyes when he lowers his head and I hear gentle
understanding in his voice when he says, “After everything you’ve
been through it’s not much wonder. It took forever for you to trust
me.”

While I know he’s right and that trust isn’t
something that comes easy to me, I still can’t help but feel he
betrayed me. “You still should have told me.”

“Let me ask you something. If you thought I
was trying to lead you somewhere would you have run in the opposite
direction?”

“Yes,” I say without hesitation. “I would
have.”

“That’s why I didn’t tell you. You’re a girl
to lead, not a girl to be led.”

“Okay, fair enough.” I incline my head,
smooth down my ripped shirt and ask, “So you got captured, broke
free, and now you’re trying to find your way back home?”

He nods and runs his hands along the back of
my neck. “I’m trying to get us both home.”

My heart hitches. “You want to take me to
your home?”

“Of course I do. I need you, Pride.” He
glances around. “I couldn’t have made it this far without you.”

“I wouldn’t have made it without you,
either.”

As I mull things over longer and realize what
this really means for me, a surge of excitement rushes through my
veins. I take a moment to think more about his family in the
Canadian mountains and give further consideration to the
compassionate pack of wolves that live normal lives, wolves that
work together, and only take to the woods on run night.

My heart races a little faster and a plan
begins to formulate in my brain. My mother once thought this pack
could help her, which was why she tried to make it across the
border. Now that I know such a pack exists I begin to wonder if
it’s possible. Would they be willing to help me take down my
master?

“If we can make good time today, we can be at
the ferry by dinner time.”

I’m already stepping over brush and pushing
branches out of my way.

“We might have a small problem though.”

I stop and my hair whips around my face when
I turn back to him. “What?”

“You don’t have a passport, and in order to
get into Canada you’re going to need one.”

“Do you have one?”

“I have one stashed in the dash of my car.
It’s been in the parking lot at the ferry dock since my capture.”
He pulls a face and says, “Let’s hope it’s still there.”

We’re so close I refuse to give up now. “We
need a plan.”

“You’ll have to shift to wolf.”

My head comes up with a start. “You want me
to shift? Won’t the PTF be all over that place?”

“Probably a few trackers, too. But they’ll be
looking for two humans, or two wolves. They won’t be looking for a
guy with his dog.”

“I’m not a dog. I’m a wolf,” I remind
him.

“Yes, but once again your size proves to be
an advantage for us.” I stare at him, still unconvinced. “You’re
small enough to pass yourself off as my pet, Pride.”

He’s right and I have to remember to start
thinking of my size as a positive trait, not a negative one.

He pauses and asks, “So what do you think? Do
you trust me enough to shift and put your fate in my hands?”

Without hesitation I say, “I put myself in
your hands last night, didn’t I?”

He smiles. “Good. Then let’s do this.”

Working side by side, we finish packing our
supplies, and take to the woods. We walk long and hard and I have a
million questions for Logan, wanting to know more about his family
as we make our way out of the forest. Would they be the kind to
help? I’ve never asked anyone for help before and honestly wouldn’t
even know how to begin.

The time passes quickly as he fills me in on
his life. The schools he’s gone to, the houses he’s lives in, and
those he calls family. I learn that he lives on a quiet cul-de-sac
with his aunt, uncle and his teenage cousin Gem who happens to be
the same age as me.