She thought about Malcolm again. As much as she didn’t want to tell him about this, she might have to. If she couldn’t find proper care, she’d have to ask him to help her find someone that could help her. She had felt brave when she had left home, but now, she felt scared. She didn’t feel like someone capable of giving birth alone. How would she even manage such a feat if she had more than one cub?
Leyla took her back to her car, commiserating during their drive, and they parted ways. Autumn had a lot to think about. She stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things that she needed for the cabin and some extra food and drove home, her thoughts weighing heavily upon her.CHAPTER TWENTY-SIXMalcolm-11
It felt somehow weird to be back in his bed again. After weeks of being with Autumn in the cabin, his bed felt huge and empty with just him to fill one side of it. He tossed and turned, trying to get to sleep. It had been almost morning when he had gotten home and he felt tired down to his soul. Sleep had come easily, but he had not woken until mid-day, and now that it was bedtime again, he felt neither sleepy nor content. All he could think about was her, what she was doing, thinking. Did she hate him, or had it been a relief to be on her own and focused on her goals?
His phone ringing forced him out of his trance. It was nearly four a.m. Had he really been thrashing around in his bed for the last five hours? He reached for it and accidentally pushed it off the bedside table. It clattered across the floor and stopped ringing.
“Fuck it,” he said, rolling over and pulling the pillow around his head.
Finally, he dozed off, getting a few hours’ sleep before waking up with a start and jumping out of bed to retrieve his phone. How could he have ignored it? What if she had been stranded somewhere in the car on the way home from work and needed his help? He knew he wasn’t thinking clearly. She was a bear. She could take care of herself. She didn’t need him to protect her anymore, if he had ever been able to do so in the first place.
Picking up the phone, he looked at the caller ID and sighed. It had been David, probably out having too many drinks at the Dirty Dugout and wanting a lift home. Hopefully, he found someone else to get him. Nonetheless, he decided to call and check on him. He was about to hang up when he heard the click on the other end and David’s voice.
“There you are. I tried to call you last night.”
“Four in the morning is not last night.”
“Right. Sorry, man. I was out with the boys at the Dirty Dugout.”
“I figured as much. I take it you found another ride home.”
“What? Oh. No. I wasn’t calling for a ride. I was calling about the bears.”
“The bears?” Malcolm replied, suddenly feeling tense.
“Yeah. There were some bears at the bar. They were asking questions about some girl that went rogue. You told me to let you know if I heard about any sniffing around. You told me not to wait.”
Malcolm’s blood ran cold.
“Did anyone know anything about her?”
“No, and they wouldn’t have told them if they did. The humans might not know any better, but the wolves could smell them a mile away, the stinking fuckers.”
“Fuck. I gotta go. Thanks, man.”
“Sure. Let me know when you get back home.”
Malcolm didn’t respond. He was already stuffing himself in his clothes, hitting the speed dial for Autumn’s number as he pulled on his shoes. He dialed three times, but there was no answer. She might just be angry with him and not answering, at least that is what he told himself. He’d have to find out face to face.
He was out of the house in a matter of minutes and on his bike, not even noticing when his phone dropped onto the grass behind him. He opened the bike up full throttle, roaring down the highway toward the cabin. He had a sinking feeling and decided it might be best not to announce his presence. Instead, he crept onto the smaller path he normally took with his bike rather than the larger road he used with the car, killing the bike about halfway down and parking it.
Nearly on the edge of the woods that opened up into the yard around the cabin, he froze in his tracks, momentarily paralyzed by the sound of screams—her screams. Then he was shifting, shredding his clothes as his powerful muscles ripped through the material and left them flayed on the ground behind him.