Page 41 of To the Moon
Sebastian came around the back of the car, but I was too fast for him in my wolf form. I darted into the frozen comfort of the thick forest.
The shadows grew darker as I ran. Some of them smelled wrong, but I didn't have time to investigate. I had to get out of there, to clear my head, to speak to my wolf, who still seemed so far away.
"Run. Run. Not safe,"Sebastian's wolf called to me. Did he know of Sebastian's sinister plans to lock me up and experiment on me? The thought bristled every hair along my spine and stiffened my tail.
I was still new to this wolf thing, though. I tripped over a fallen log buried under the soft snow and tumbled into a shallow depression.
A giant man-smelling spider descended from the tree above me, hanging from a black cable. I freaked the fuck out. I thrashed in the snow, trying to regain my footing. Finally, my claws snagged on the frozen earth and I tore out of there, snow flying behind me as I dove into a thicket.
Pushing through the underbrush, I found a game trail we'd followed earlier in the week. It still smelled like Sebastian, but it also had that same putrid scent of wrongness. Who were these men in the woods?
"Run,"my wolf answered Sebastian's.
"Trapped."I sensed his panic through our bond. Something had happened back at the car. If I hadn't bolted, maybe I could have helped him and Bettina, or maybe I would have been captured, too.
I scampered up the side of the mountain, my clawsscraping along the exposed outcroppings where they jutted above the snow.
"Must protect pups,"my wolf said."Then rescue mate."
The matter-of-fact statement startled me so much, I slid sideways down the next rock. I jumped wrong and landed on my back in deep, fluffy snow. I thrashed, trying to get my feet beneath me to run again, but it was too late. More of the wrong-smelling men in black tactical gear approached from above. Soon, the ones behind me caught up, surrounding me. One tapped me with a stun gun, and another wrapped a thick collar around my neck. When it snapped into place, something sharp pierced between my vertebrae, and I collapsed.
As the world faded around me, Sebastian's wolf howled.
I wokein a bundle of netting inside a gray tube-shaped room, surrounded by the men in black gear and face masks. From the way the netting rocked from side to side and the deep rumble of an engine filled the compartment, I assumed we were on a cargo plane. My consciousness lasted only long enough for the nearest captor to tap the tablet beside him. I felt the sharp prick at my nape again. This time, I tried to fight the drowsiness, but it was no use. That was all my mind registered before my vision faded to the inside of my eyelids and everything went dark.
"Where are you taking us?"
Sebastian's voice was overloud in my muzzy head. Icouldn't open my eyes yet, but I was no longer swaying in the netting. When I tried to stand, metal bars knocked against my spine, and I fell back to the wooden platform, stirring up sawdust. I sneezed, knocking my snout against the board beneath me. My teeth ached from the impact, and the taste of coppery blood filled my mouth.
Sebastian shouted inside my head again, and his wolf whined nearby. My eyelids refused to work. I sank into the darkness again.
The next time I came to, the world had brightened to white, much like the snowy landscape we'd left. The air was almost as cold, but sterile with the scent of bleach.
When I opened my eyes, the white intensified, thanks to the overhead fluorescents and the walls shining like I'd ascended to heaven. In my wolf form, the padded floor felt spongy beneath my feet. When I tried to stand, I sank against the wall and found it only possible to lean. I was so tired. The heavy collar weighed my head down. After what felt like minutes, but was probably less than one, I dropped to the floor, resting my head on my front paws.
"Gunnar!"
I felt rather than heard Sebastian's call. Frantic desperation came through our bond.
"Sebastian."
"Where are you?"
"In a padded room."
Fright ebbed from our bond, replaced with frustration."So am I."Through our bond, I sensed him a fewfeet outside my cell. Close, but he might as well have been a continent away.
"Can you shift?"he asked.
"Too tired."Bone-deep exhaustion threatened to pull me under once again.
"I don't think we can,"he said."Something's up with these collars."
His words spurred me to action. Being unable to shift to my human form was unthinkable. I tried to shove my wolf back into his place in my mind, to will the shift to happen. I clenched my jaw so tight that something popped, but it was no use.
"I can't,"I confirmed.
"Thank you for trying,"he said."Go back to sleep. We need to conserve our strength."
