Wolf Bonded (Wolfish 1)

“What happened at the river?” I ask, ignoring Kaleb’s offer and getting straight to the point. I surprise myself with how blunt I sound. “Who was that girl … what was she?”

“We can’t explain that to you here,” Rory says. “Not now. Not without explaining a whole lot of other things first.”

I take a second to take a step away from the Jeep, and mime looking around the empty forest. When I look back at them, Rory is sucking on the inside of his cheek in agitation … but unless I’m mistaken, there’s a little spark in his eye that wasn’t there before.

“I’ve got time,” I say adamantly.

I refuse to back down this time. I want answers.

“What about school? Marlowe asks from the other seat.

“To hell with school,” I say, swinging my backpack over my shoulder and tossing it at a very surprised-looking Marlowe. “Take me somewhere we can talk. Really talk.”

The three of them exchange a look.

“I guess it’s as good a time as any,” Marlowe says.

A huge grin spreads across Kaleb’s face, and he reaches his hand down to me from the back seat. I take it, and he pulls me up with one swing of his arm. He’s amazingly strong. Of course he is.

“Hop in, then,” Kaleb says. “And we’ll do our best to give you what you’re asking for.”

Rory grabs a pair of sunglasses from the glove box and slides them up the bridge of his nose. “Even,” he says, “if it isn’t what you want.”

23

Sabrina

When the car slows to a stop, I look around and see that we’re in a dense thicket in the woods. I’m not even sure how Rory managed to squeeze the car between some of the trees to get back to this place.

The only answer I was given when I asked where we were headed was that it’s one of their favorite spots … whatever that means. Kaleb made sure I was practically swaddled in blankets so I wouldn’t catch cold again, then made sure to slowly inch me closer to him with each bump in the road until I just resigned to leaning back against his chest for the duration of the ride.

It was surprisingly nice. Even I can’t deny that.

Now that we’ve supposedly arrived, I hesitate to get up right away. Not eager to let my attention be monopolized by his brother, Marlowe is quick to appear outside the back windows with a hand outstretched to help me down.

The four of us walk a bit through the forest until the Jeep is entirely out of sight. I don’t ask where we’re going again because strangely, after everything I saw a couple days ago, I suddenly find that I trust these three. If they wanted to hurt me, they would have done so by now. And besides, I want answers, and this seems like the best way to get them.

The forest here is particularly lush and green for this time of year. This would be the perfect place for a wicked queen’s castle to hide, or a dragon’s cave, or even for Red Riding Hood to meet up with the wolf.

The wolf, I think to myself, and shudder at the memory of the wolf-girl.

I know I saw it, and I know I didn’t make it up … but I still can’t believe it was real.

How could it be?

I try to prepare myself for what the boys are about to tell me. I’m imaging one of two scenarios. Either I was drugged and hallucinating or … or …

I’m still struggling to wrap my head around the alternative. Because the alternative is so outrageous, so unbelievable, that if I hadn’t seen that wolf-girl with my own eyes, I’d already be preparing myself to punch one of the boys in the face for slipping me drugs.

We finally stop at a little clearing nestled deep inside the trees, about a ten-minute walk from Rory’s Jeep.

There’s a few giant, fallen tree trunks that look like they had been struck by lightning and toppled over sideways so that they now lay against the ground. They’re massive and wide enough to sit on, which is exactly what all three of the boys do. I follow.

“So …”

Marlowe silences me with a gentle look. “Please, Sabrina. Let us do this the right way.”

It isn’t until I glance at the other two, Rory and Kaleb, that I realize what he means. Kaleb looks anxious, his hands fiddling with the fabric piled at the ends of his knees. Rory, on the other hand, looks determined … though for what, I’m not certain.