Filed to story: Cara Nelson The Guardian: Werewolf Book PDF Free
I run to her, nipping at her to move. She seems to understand what I mean, she takes off toward her apartment. We’re running full out for probably 15 minutes before the howls go up.
When we get to our clothes, we both shift quickly and get dressed.
“We have to leave here.”
“I can’t just leave. Where will I go?” and
“We’ll head toward Rik and Liam’s packs. They will protect you, but we need to leave now. They will come for you, and not just because you are a Guardian. You killed one of their pack members.”
“I don’t have a car. How will we leave and what about Benny?”
“You can call Benny. Do you need to get anything from your apartment?”
“Yes, everything I have left from my mother is there.” I nod.
“You go to your apartment and get what you want to take, and I’ll go get us bus tickets. Do NOT leave your apartment until I come to get you.”
I take her face in my hands. “Do you understand?”
“Yes”
I reach down and kiss her quickly. “Go, I’ll be there in less than 30 minutes, bet ready to leave.”
I run to my hotel, grab my backpack then head to the bus station, looking for the next scheduled bus. The next one won’t leave for an hour, but that gives me enough time to get Grace and get back. I buy two tickets and run back to her apartment.
I can hear the wolves in the forest. They have found her and are surrounding her apartment. I run up to her door and knock. “It’s me, we have to go now.”
She opens the door, a bag over her shoulder. “I need to stop and tell Benny.”
“There’s no time, you can call him from the bus. They’re here. We can’t fight an entire pack.”
I watch as her eyes go wide. But she closes the door and we begin to jog back to the bus station. When we get there, I see the bus is mostly loaded.
“Get on. If we’re lucky, the bus is full, and they won’t be able to get a ticket. If we’re not lucky, we’ll have to be ready to fight as soon as we stop somewhere.”
We get on the bus and find seats together. “What if they follow us?”
“I’m pretty good at evading capture. If they follow us, I’ll get us out.”
When the bus starts to pull away, I see several pack members pulling up in cars. I watch as they wave their hands around, pointing to the bus. As we pull out, I see a man standing hands on his hips. His eyes meet mine and I know he’s the Alpha. Shit! This is worst case scenario.
As we start to move, I grab my phone. “I need to call Rik and after that you can. call Benny.” I look at Grace. She’s looking at her bag, plucking at the seam.
“Hey.” I reach over and cover her hands, waiting until she looks at me. “We’ll be okay, I won’t let anything happen to you and I won’t let them have you. You’re mine.” The last is a low, quiet growl, Louis pushing forward.
She nods but I can see she’s scared. “When mom and I ran, we switched buses every one to two stops until we finally ended up in that little town. Maybe we should do that. I have money, mom kept it hidden away in case something like this ever happened.”
I take her chin and turn her head toward me. “Will that make you feel safer?”
She nods.
“Then that’s what we’ll do. If there is a bus leaving within 30 minutes of our stop, we’ll take it. Deal?”
“Deal.”
I call Rik. He’s willing to send some pack members to get us, but I let him know we’re being pursued, and I’ll call him when we can ditch the tail. Then I have Grace call Benny. He’s understandably concerned and worried that I’ve kidnapped Grace. She seems to convince him that I’m helping her. When she tells him to call if anyone comes to the diner asking about her, I think he finally believes her.
When she’s done, I wrap my arm around her. She lays her head on my shoulder, but it’s several hours before she falls asleep. It’s the middle of the night when we make our first stop. I hop off the bus, checking to see if anyone has arrived yet before going into the bus station and seeing that another bus is leaving soon, heading west. I buy two tickets and go back to get Grace.
When I get onto the bus, she’s awake, looking around concerned. When she sees me, her face relaxes. I go to her, I quietly let her know our plans. “Come on, I got us tickets on another bus, let’s go.”
We grab our things and head out to yet another bus. Over the next week, we travel in every direction. We were tailed for the first three days, but after that, I think we finally lost them.
It’s exhausting constantly running, riding on bus after bus. We haven’t had a decent meal or shower in a week. Benny called the day after we left and let me know two ‘shady looking men’ were in the diner asking about a young woman. When Eli finally feels like we can stop overnight, we get a hotel room. At first, 1 was concerned about only having one room, but I’m too tired to argue. When we get to our room, I see that there are two beds.
“Get a shower. I’ll be back in a bit.”
“Where are you going?” I ask him.
‘I’m going to look around and make sure we aren’t being followed and then I’m going to get us something decent to eat. Do not open the door for anyone.”
He comes over taking my face in his hands and kisses my forehead. He pulls back and looks in my eyes. “You’ll be safe. I won’t be gone long.”
After he leaves, I grab my things and head to the bathroom. I turn on the water, letting it get warm before stripping off my clothes and getting under the stream of hot water. I lift my face, letting the water relax me.
Over the past week, we’d gone west to Arkansas, north to Iowa then west again until we got to Wyoming. Once we got to the Rocky Mountains, we started heading south. We went through Colorado, New Mexico and finally started heading east through Texas. I wasn’t sure if Eli had a plan to get us back to Alpha Rik and Alpha Liam’s packs, but he’d been in constant contact with Alpha Rik. He was very concerned about me and wanted to hear from Eli at least twice a day to know where we were and ensure we hadn’t entered into any pack territories or been captured.
That was harder while we were in the Rockies. Much like the Appalachian Mountains back home, the Rockies are a great place for wolf packs to live without too much interaction with humans. But we pretty much stayed on the buses and kept to ourselves. Now we’re in the middle of Texas, headed back home. At least I hope we are.
I have to admit, while Eli took my advice about changing buses, he’s a master at evasion. I guess twenty years on the run will do that. He’s stealthy, quick and quiet when checking to see if we’re being followed. When we were, he was able to guide us onto buses that didn’t have any wolves and get us out of the bus station undetected.
I finish washing off the residue of a long journey, before getting out and dressing In clean clothes. I take my dirty clothes and put them in the sink to soak until after Eli has showered, then I’ll put them I there with his and wash them so they can dry overnight before we head out again.
I’m just finishing up when I hear our door open. “It’s just me.” He says just before the smell of food hits my nose and my stomach grumbles.
I come out of the bathroom and see that he’s managed to get us steaks, potatoes and salads. I’m so hungry I could kiss him.
He sets the food out on the small table in the room. “Go ahead and eat, I’m going to get a quick shower, then I’ll join you.” He says before heading to the bathroom. I hear the shower turn on just as I dig into my food. I can’t help the moan that leaves my lips. We haven’t had real food in over a week and this tastes delicious. I’m in my own world, enjoying the taste of the salty juiciness of the steak, my eyes closed, as I savor each bite when I hear a chuckle.
My eyes snap open and I see Eli standing there watching me in nothing but a towel. My eyes travel down his body, and I was right about his physique. He is solid muscle. His broad shoulders slide into a narrow waist giving him a deep V, before branching out to his muscular thighs.
I unconsciously lick my lips and when my eyes return to his, I see his have darkened. “You need to stop looking at me like that Grace.”
