CHAPTER 45

Bobby was a surprisingly good travel-mate. He didn't need to talk, played a radio station full of oldies, and had a selection of snacks, which I immediately dug into. I took the big bag of chips and dug into it.

"Don't get crumbs in the car," he snarled at me, turning off onto highway 90. It was late, but the city was just waking up. Traffic slowed us considerably while we were still in Boston's boundaries.

I munched for a long while on the chips and then reached into the bin beside the seat and pulled out a package of jerky.

"Where did you even get this car?" I asked. I hadn't known Bobby had a thing for old cars. And this one was something else, mint condition and definitely a collector's item. Some collectors didn't even drive their prizes, but Bobby obviously used his as his day to day.

"I won it in a bet. And before you ask," he held up a hand toward me, "yes it was legitimate. Donny Gravesford wouldn't have let it go otherwise."

"Huh," I told him, "it's nice."

I shoved the strip of jerky into my mouth and leaned back into the seat, watching the city go by. My stomach was a ball of twisted nerves and I couldn't sort out exactly why.

Obviously I didn't want Darius to die, especially not in such a horrific fashion. I wouldn't want anyone to die like that, not even Bobby. So the urgency and worry made sense. But those emotions were drowned out by the desperate fear that encased me. Why such devastation? I barely knew the man, hadn't seen him in five years. And before that...

I closed my eyes trying to sort through my emotions, slipping into the memory of the day we'd first met.

*I was standing on the railway bridge high above the river, the water churning below, the rapids creating white swells that rose and then disappeared beneath the current. I was alone, as I always seemed to be. Not that my parents hadn't tried. They'd had a cake and presents, all the things an eighteen year old girl would want for her birthday, but they couldn't give me friends.*

*I'd lied to them, told them I was meeting some of the girls from school for supper. I'd lied because I couldn't stand the looks of pity they would give me otherwise, and I didn't want them fawning and fumbling, trying to make up for my lack of social life.*

*So I came here, deep in the valley where the tracks crossed the river and I could be completely alone, not having to make myself into anything else to try to fit in. I'd let my wolf run too, as free as we could be, though the loneliness got to her as well.*

*My clothes had been back on the trail, well back toward the highway where I'd turned into the wilds following the tracks, so it was a little uncomfortable to find myself...not alone.*

*I could have run, I'd scented him long before, well out into the wilderness that overtook the other side of the tracks. I maybe should have, but something had stopped me. Curiosity maybe. I could feel my wolf perk up as he neared and then he was there, a great silver wolf at the edge of the forest. He'd stopped at the sight of me and we'd stared at each other, assessing.*

*When he shifted all I could remember thinking was that I'd never seen a more handsome boy in my entire life. Though he probably wasn't much of a boy any longer. He was strong, and fit with dark hair and eyes, and he walked up to me with the easy confidence and smooth grace of someone perfectly certain of their place in the world.*

*"I've been out here thousands of times and no one's ever been this far from the valley, but lately I've been smelling someone else, must have been you?" he asked when he neared. I was blushing, because as used as I was to life as a were, being naked with an extremely handsome man was a completely new experience for me.*

*"I come here sometimes, yeah," I told him. I'd left a scent because I hadn't thought it mattered and it made my wolf tired sometimes.*

*I wasn't sure what he would say next, what he would do. I braced myself for his ire, or irritation, rejection, basically. Which was the norm for my social interactions outside of my family. The scrawny dark haired girl with pale skin that never seemed to tan, no matter how hard I tried.*

*But he didn't reject me, he sat down, facing the river, legs dangling over the side. *

*"Beautiful, isn't it?"*

Maybe that was why I felt as though my heart was being stabbed with a cold blade. Despite what he'd done to me at the end, Darius had been the first wolf in my life, outside of my parents to show me a hint of acceptance.

We'd met at that bridge often over the next months, almost enough that I thought he might be tracking me there. Enough that I'd purposely left my scent so that he could. And things had progressed from there. Slowly, very slowly, because I'd had a hard time believing any of it was real.

And now he was dying, and whoever had sent me that pin...they were after me for whatever reason, using him to torment me, which made it somewhat my fault.

"You ok?" Bobby was staring at me from the driver's seat, his pale eyes wide. In general Bobby kept his skin covered, not because of potential damage, as most albinos had to, his wolf took care of that, but because he was pale enough to literally glow in the moonlight. Having a glowing man dressed in loose clothes like some ridiculous gangster was...a little alarming.

"Why?"

"You look like someone stole your best friend or you broke up with your boyfriend. You need an ice cream or chocolate or something?"

I blinked at him, because his words were so much at odds with what I knew of Bobby. "What?"

"That's what chicks want when they're emotional isn't it? You on your rag or something?"

And my slightly kinder thoughts of Bobby quickly fled out the window.

"Just shut up and drive," I growled at him.

"Okay, Okay...jeeze can't blame a guy for trying to mellow out the crazy chick in the passenger seat."

I snorted a little despite myself, because, yeah, I was the crazy chick in the passenger seat.

"Why we going to Newcomb anyway? just a little shi...small town off the highway, nothing there."

I narrowed my eyes at the road ahead. "We're going to kick ass."