Page 42 of Cold Foot Revenge
Dylan accepted the call. “I’m a little busy right n—”
“Why am I looking at news footage of you hitting a bear shifter with your truck in the middle of some unknown town?” Whooo the steel in Wreck’s voice said he was angry.
“It’s not an unknown town. It’s my hometown, and probably because that asshole deserved to be hit by a truck. I have to go.” He hung up, but Wreck called him right back.
“What?” Dylan snapped.
“Where. The fuck. Do I send the Crew?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Where are you?” Wreck bellowed.
“I’m coming back to Darby right now.” He glanced at the coyote. “I’m bringing a friend. She needs a safe place to land.”
Wreck hung up on him.
Good, he didn’t want to talk to the Alpha of the Cold Foot Crew anyway. Garret called next, and when he didn’t pick up, Raynah’s name came across the caller ID. And then Tawk. “I’m not even in your Crew!” he yelled, trying to disconnect his phone from Bluetooth so he could think. “You’re Roxy, right?” he demanded, remembering how close she’d been to biting his hand.
She didn’t answer, just panted and yipped at the end.
Her eyes were the same shade of glowing blue. She’d come from the direction of the Rabbit Hole.
It had to be her.
It had to be.
Chapter Eleven
Roxy couldn’t catch her breath. She couldn’t breathe!
Her body felt like it would explode, and her skin was still burning, and her paws were all ripped up from running for her life across cracked concrete!
Frantic, she crawled up into the seat and prepared to jump out the window. Dylan was yelling something, but she couldn’t understand the words he was saying. All she could make out clearly was the roaring in her ears. She bunched her muscles to jump, but the window started rolling up, and the truck jerked to the side and two of the wheels went up on the sidewalk of an empty lot. They were well past town, but Grave and Leech and Donnie could still catch up!
Terrified, she rounded on Dylan, but he was already vacating the truck, and left the door open for her, bless that man. She scrambled out of the truck and hit the ground hard, then bolted for the trees that lined the back of the empty lot.
Her body was doing something awful. It was imploding, and burning, and her bones felt like they were breaking!
It wasn’t until she as midway through the unintentional Change that she could make out his words.
He was telling her to, “Change back.”
And her body was doing it! Without her telling it to! Without her control!
The Change was awful, and she thought she would die of it as she lay there growing her skin back. Every blade of grass was a knife cutting into her body, and every leaf was shrapnel. She didn’t realize until the end that the groaning sound that filled her ears was her.
She lay there panting, looking up at the sky, tears streaming down the sides of her cheeks, waiting for a death that did not come.
“Roxy?” Dylan whispered, worry in his bright blue eyes.
“You made me do that,” she said, her voice still full of the coyote’s growl.
“I didn’t make you do anything.”
“You made me Change. That hurt. You hurt me.”
He stood and gave her space, utter confusion etched onto every facet of his face. “I was trying to help you.”
