His arm tightened around me.  This time I dove for the dream tugging at my consciousness.  Anything to escape the little tug at my heart his words caused.

*    *    *    *

We left the room several hours later.  I didn’t think he’d slept at all, but I had five hours of sweet nothing—well, not nothing.  I’d woken to my face plastered to his bare chest.  Best five hours of sleep ever.

“We should reach the Compound by nightfall.”

When we stepped into the parking lot, Luke’s stride paused.  He tilted his head back, scented the light breeze, grabbed my hand, and pulled me toward the bike.  I didn’t stop to wonder why.  He’d smelled something.  I quickly slipped the bag across my body and climbed on behind him as my eyes searched for the cause.  Luke started the bike with a roar.

Just then two men stepped from the office.  My heart leapt, and my arms involuntarily tightened around Luke.  He took off with a squeal of the back tire.  The bike slipped under us a bit, but I risked a look back.  Where the men stood, two large dogs stared after us.  They didn’t give chase.  Instead, they turned and ran into the woods.

“They’re not following,” I called to Luke.

He nodded and opened the throttle.  My stomach rolled at the surge in speed.  Thankfully, I hadn’t eaten anything.

We merged with an interstate that took us south, not north.  I wanted to moan in frustration, but understood his decision.  Since we were so close to our goal, they would know our intended direction.  Hopping on the interstate would throw them off.  Heck, it threw me off.  I had no idea which way we intended to come in from.

How had they found us though?  We’d been careful, zigzagging all over the place in a non-pattern.  I’d been watching the map.  Maybe Luke was right.  They had sentinels waiting for us.  But we were still so many miles away.  Could they have so many in their pack as that?  I doubted it.  Maybe it’d just been luck.  Or maybe, he’d told someone again.  I rested my head against his back, emotionally drained.  I’d fluctuated between “just let me die” and “I don’t want to die” too many times to count.  I didn’t know what I wanted anymore except to be left alone.  I had never asked to be in the middle of a werewolf tug of war.

We drove for hours the wrong way and then got off at an exit heading east so we could circle back around.  Despite his efforts, I knew it would be pointless.  Like he said, they would be waiting—because somehow, they always seemed to know where to expect us.  I knew what I needed to do.

When he offered to stop, I pointed to a laundromat.  He nodded and pulled in.  He loosened the bag, and I slid off, taking the bag with me.  His troubled gaze never wavered from me as he followed me into the light airy building.

He used the change machine as I shoved everything in a washer.  After adding quarters and dumping in the powder detergent from the packet I’d bought at the vending machine, I finally faced him.  He eyed me warily.  Apparently his wolfie senses knew something was up.  I let out a long, slow breath, calmed myself, and let the beginning of a dream wrap its arms around me—not enough to sleep, just enough to slow my pulse.  I had to mask a lie.

“I saw a fast food place a few blocks away.  I’ll get us something.”

He frowned at me.  “I’ll go with.”

“No way.  We’ll lose our stuff.  It’s two blocks away and we’re in the middle of town,” I arched a brow at him and patted the bag I still had slung over my shoulder.  “I have protection and can carry everything with this.  Two burgers?”

“Three,” he grumped reaching into his wallet and giving me a twenty.  We’d used all the money he’d given me for rooms along the way.

I plucked it from his fingers with a smile.  “Probably a good idea,” I agreed.  “You may not have fries by the time I walk back.”

He smiled at me as he sat down to watch the machine.

I strode out the door, turned right, and didn’t look back.  Not far away, I flagged down a ride and asked them if they could take me north.  Staring out the window, trying to ignore the ache growing in my chest, I watched the mile markers go by.

*    *    *    *

My jaw popped on my third yawn.  The couple had taken me over an hour north.  They dropped me off and wished me luck.  I smiled and waved as they pulled away.  My stomach grumbled, and I thought of the twenty in my pocket.  I still had a long way to go; and with no Luke, I needed to save the cash for when I really needed it.

Going into the gas station, I used the restroom and drank from the water fountain.  The clerk watched me in the convenience mirror.  Apparently my days of looking like a runaway weren’t over.  I ignored him and headed out the door to begin my long trek—the gas station hadn’t had anyone who’d looked willing enough to give me a ride.  Plus, the clerk would have probably called it in.

I trudged north for an hour, lost in my thoughts of this life and past lives.  Why had the Taupe Lady directed my dreams to Gabby and Michelle’s pasts?  Why in order?  And why couldn’t I recall all the details like I could with other past lives?  Because they weren’t dead yet?  It made sense.  How could I remember everything when everything hadn’t yet occurred?  Why direct my dreams at all, though?  She claimed she couldn’t interfere, but then did just that, hadn’t she?

Something had me lifting my head instead of watching my feet.  The trees around me had lost their leaves, and I could once again see my breath in the air.  I huddled in Luke’s jacket and wondered if he’d figured it out yet.

A twig snapped, and a group of three men stepped from the woods onto the shoulder in front of me.  Steam rose from their skin.  Shorts provided their only covering.  Their smiles froze my insides.  My feet stopped moving, but my mind whirred with possibilities.  Distract and run!

“He went that way,” I called pointing to my left.  They all turned, and I sprinted to the right, crashing into the trees ignoring the bite of the branches as they whipped my face.

Chapter Eleven

I ran.  They toyed with me.  With their speed, I knew they could catch me at any moment. But what fun would that be, I thought bitterly.  The echoes of past lives hit me.  Same game, same chase.  My anger grew, fueling my legs.  I pushed past the pain and kept moving.  Just like my dreams, I sought something.  A place to jump. A way to die cleanly.  They couldn’t have me. The price for the world was too high.

A coughing laugh from behind me signaled their full transformation.  I dodged around trees gasping for air, not slowing.  Was it too much to ask for a random cliff in the woods every now and again?

Fear pooled in my stomach as my leg failed with a cramp.  I fell hard but didn’t lay in a pathetic heap for more than a heartbeat.  Getting my knees under me, my hand darted into my bag still slung across my body as I sprang up and leaned against a sapling.  My quick moves didn’t matter.  They were already upon me, their panting louder than my own as they laughed.

Pulling my hand from the bag, I surprised them with my knife.  My gift from Luke.  I felt a pang thinking of him.  Leaving hadn’t kept me any safer.

One of the men shifted back enough to speak, but his mouth was still too long for the words to come out clearly.  “What do you think to do with that?”

Around us the trees remained quiet. Only the distant chirping of birds reminded me I wasn’t alone.

“What did you hope to accomplish by chasing me?” I countered.

“Blake told us you would know.  You’re the dreamer,” he said further shifting into a man.

“Your new leader?” I asked willing myself to breathe deeply, shoring my determination and trying to quell my fear.