Chapter Five

June

My head bounced as a pothole in the road jarred me awake. I was leaning against Dom. Jolting upright in my seat, I looked around, eyes wide. We had reached some microscopic town in the middle of nowhere, with a gas station and almost nothing else.

Dom's cut jawline ticked with some kind of annoyance. Was he pissed I fell asleep on him? I couldn't tell, and he had his arms crossed over his big chest, staring straight forward as Aaron pulled up to a dilapidated gas pump.

"Aaron, food. Jack, Carson, get back here with me," Dom ordered.

And the rest obeyed.

I was sort of pushed to the side as the ones trying to help Amelia and Jerod eat something moved to the back of the van. I used the moment to get some fresh air, slipping out the door.

"I'm, um, going to the bathroom. A real bathroom," I said.

I was pretty sure no one had heard me, or at least no one was paying attention, until Dom leaned his head out of the van. "I trust you. And we're here to get you the help that you're going to need, okay?"

"Okay."

The inside of the gas station was little better than the outside. The walls were covered with neon beer signs, relics of days past. Chipped paint caked the walls in at least four different layers, peeling around the doorway, and a collection of rather suspicious hot dogs warmed on the rollers behind the counter. An old man sat, blatantly looking at a magazine of women he probably shouldn't be looking at on the clock, and I had to clear my throat to get his attention. He shifted his eyes up, clearly bored and wanting me to speak my piece and leave him alone.

"Excuse me, do you have a bathroom?" I asked.

He reached under the counter and pulled up a block of wood with a key tied to it with yellow twine.

"Around back," he said. "Bring back the key or I'll report your plates."

I took the key off the counter and went back outside. Glancing over at the van, I could see they were struggling. I was glad to not be a part of it. Around the corner and to the back of the gas station, I found a thoroughly unimpressive bathroom door that looked like someone had tried to kick it in at one point. I pulled my hand inside my sleeve and opened it.

With the exception of the sink, the bathroom was filthy. I cleaned myself up. Hands, face, neck. My arm had scabbed over but the punctures from the teeth were red and irritated; at least now they were clean. I looked into the mirror, pulling my fingers through my hair as much as I could. I used the toilet, refusing to actually sit on the seat and thanking past June for all the squats and leg days.

Then I spent a good ten minutes hyperventilating as I came to terms with the fact that I was going to turn into one of those wolves. I had flashbacks of Carson shifting that first time in the woods. It still made me feel sick. More than once I had almost brought myself to tears with the idea of my body shifting like that into something else. At least I could distract myself with other thoughts, like my impending return to a job I didn't like and my unemployed roommate's panic as we tried to figure out how to make it another few months in our apartment. You know, no big deal.

When I took the key back to the counter, an ancient plastic phone caught my eye. I set the block on the counter and looked out the dusty front windows of the gas station. No one was looking my way.

"Hey, mister, can I use your phone?" I asked.

He looked up from his magazine and took the key back. "Make it fast."

He unceremoniously plopped the phone on the counter and went back to his reading material.

I quickly dialed one of only two numbers I had memorized. I prayed Kat would answer.

"Hello?" Kat said, uneasiness in her voice.

"Kat! I wasn't sure you'd pick up an unknown number," I said.

"I could kick your ass! Where are you? Are you hurt?" Kat's alarm rang through the phone. I looked up to see if the guy at the counter could hear. If he could, he was ignoring us.

"Listen, I don't have a lot of time. I'm going to—" Guilt hit my chest hard. I shouldn't feel guilty—they'd abducted me—but I could kind of see their predicament. I mean, if the world found out about wolf people, it would get messy. "A distant relative's house. It's an emergency, I'm sorry. Don't worry about me, but I'll send you plenty of money to take care of rent and groceries until I get back. Maybe a couple of weeks, or at least as soon as I can."

"Wait, family? What happened? I was so worried when you didn't come home, I didn't even sleep last night. The cops didn't take me seriously at all either."

"I'm fine," I assured her. "Promise. I'll send the money as soon as I can. And don't you worry, focus on you and the deli situation, okay?"

"Stay safe out there, and whatever happens, I'm sending good vibes your way. But when I see you next, you're going to sit your butt down and tell me every single detail about why you left town without telling me."

"I will. I have to go. Thanks, Kat. Later." I hung up the phone and slid it back to the man at the register.

"You want anything?" I jumped as Aaron came up beside me and set an armful of gas station food on the counter.

"Oh, you were right there?" I asked sheepishly.

"Yeah, long enough to hear you didn't give us away," he said. "You want anything before I pay?"

"That's it? No reprimand? No telling Dom?" I asked.

"Do you want me to? I don't see the need. Do you want anything else while I'm paying?"

I looked down at the counter. Any meatish products Aaron could find were stacked with some frozen breakfast sandwiches. Granola bars, power drinks, and canned food like soup and beans. He even had a stack of T-shirts too.

Turning to the disappointing selection of toiletries, I plucked a bar of soap off the shelf and added it to his pile. If I had to have another gas station bath, I was going to do it with soap. I grabbed bandaging supplies for my arm while I was at it and set them down with everything else. "Do you need a hand carrying it all?"

"Nah, you can go back out," he said, and turned to the cashier. "Hey, I'm ready to check out if you're done with your nude mags. I need all this and pump two."

"I'll just go back then," I muttered, a mix of impressed and embarrassed at how he called out the cashier, and made a quick exit.

I walked slowly. I didn't want to get back inside the van if they were still flailing around, trying to feed Amelia and Jerod.

"This was only supposed to go on for nine hours, warlock." I heard a growl from inside the van and stopped.

Warlock . They had said that when I found them in Washington Park, but now it had a whole new meaning. If werewolves were real, that meant warlocks were real too?

I stepped away, not wanting to hear more. Instead, I waited for Aaron to come out of the gas station, and opened the front door for him to put in the bags.

"Do you want a fresh shirt?" He held up the stack. "You can pick between ‘Big Sky Country' or this one with horses on it."

"Big Sky Country, I guess. Thanks," I answered.

The shirt had long sleeves, which was nice since I was going to ditch my jacket. It smelled like campfire smoke and there was still blood on it from my arm.

I took the shirt and went around to the other side of the van to put it on. I was wearing a tank top under my jacket, but I still didn't want to stand where that creepy cashier could see me. With my jacket gone and Big Sky Country pulled over my head, I already felt cleaner. Washing my face had helped, too, and if I could get something to eat, that would be even better.

"All right." Dom's head popped out of the van. "We're done here, let's go."

After the others had resettled into our unspoken seating arrangement, I climbed into the van last. Aaron passed a bag to Jack as he pulled out of the gas station and back onto the road. Jack rifled through the bag and handed out some form of makeshift lunch.

"You didn't get any chips?" Jack complained.

"We've got enough of those left," Aaron said.

"Aw, no gummy worms?" Carson asked.

Dom reached forward to take a handful of granola bars and a drink. "We aren't living off of potatoes and sugar until we get there. Alice will whoop your ass if she hears what you've been eating."

"If she's still there," Carson said sadly.

A cloud fell over the van. Those few words put a damper on whatever peaceful mood the guys had kept until now. Dom's face darkened, Jack and Carson looked like kicked puppies, and Aaron pulled a pair of sunglasses he had just bought from the bags and slid them on to hide his eyes. Someone was throwing up behind me, and the smell in the van immediately hit all of us.

"For fuck's sake, Jerod. Hold it in," Aaron growled.

"Pull over," Dom grunted. "Get way off road. We'll clean this up and start up camp."

I looked at the clock on the van console, surprised. It was only a little after midday, no reason to stop yet.

"You feeling it too?" Jack asked. "It started to hit me right before the gas station."

"Hopefully it isn't as bad as usual," Carson added. "That's what the fae lady said, right?"

"Feel what? What's going on?" I asked, but I was met with reserved silence.

"Pack business," Dom finally answered, and I laid my head against the window with a sigh.

We drove a few more miles down the road and then Aaron turned onto an overgrown gravel road, and into the trees we went.

The stench was bothering me, but I could keep it together until we got out of the car. The others, however, didn't look well. Jack was the worst, hunched over, holding his head. Dom looked uncomfortable, too, but he was stubborn, sitting up through whatever it was that was bothering him. Carson looked fine, but nervous, and so did Aaron, as far as I could tell.

The path through the trees clearly hadn't been used in a long time, and the van jostled and bumped as we eventually ran out of gravel road and onto rocky ground near a stream. Maybe I could manage some form of bath situation while we were here.

We got out and everyone pitched in to make camp. Aaron was busy with the fire and Dom dumped a pile of blankets on a log nearby. He turned to me with a frightening expression, and spoke low.

"Stay here. There's a lighter for the fire and food in the bags."

"Where are we?" I asked.

"If I had to guess, it's some hunter's land that hasn't been used in a while. Cross your fingers that it's offseason for whatever they hunt," he answered.

I froze. "What about bears?"

"There's not going to be anything at this site tonight," Dom said. "Listen, do you hear anything?"

No, I realized. Though there was still daylight, even the birds were silent, as though they knew a predator was here. My lips parted as I met Dom's hard stare. There were predators here, and the biggest one was staring right at me.

"Nothing is going to come here, not with the smell of so many wolves. Stay put, don't wander."

I pressed my lips into a thin line. "Are you going somewhere and leaving me alone?"

"We are," he said. "Nothing you need to see right now, you've had enough to take in already. We'll be back in a few hours. Don't follow, and don't wander. For your own safety."

"You're putting an awful lot of trust in me," I murmured.

"Believe me when I say this is a last resort situation for us. Now, stay here. You're only putting yourself in danger if you leave."

The intensity in his eyes and words was scary. But after everything I had already seen, it was sinking in how much I didn't want to go through this wolf thing alone, blind to what was happening.

"Okay."

"Good," he said. "I'll come back when I can, June."

A chill ran down my back. Was that the first time he had used my name? It sounded rough on his throat. I shook my head. There was something seriously wrong with me if I thought this pseudokidnapper was any sort of sexy.

"Get it together, Juniper," I muttered to myself, busying my hands with laying out a blanket.

Dom, Aaron, Jack, and Carson carried Amelia and Jerod deep into the woods. The muscles of Dom's back bunched as he moved through the trees, capturing my attention until he disappeared.

And then I was alone.