Page 52 of Runaway Wolf
“Caitlin—”
“I have nowhere to go, Dad. I don’t fit in anywhere. Not with humans. Not with my sister’s pack. So, in this case, this law ruinedmylife. You can keep my bank account. My clothes. My cards. Everything you have of mine, but please don’t take mysister. I’ll start fresh, I’ll get a job somewhere. Start over, just like Penny. She was the strong one in the family, not me. I just got lucky and didn’t die.” She took a deep breath. “I’m here to beg you. Beg you, beg the lawmakers, beg the people who side with this. Stop killing humans. Stop forcing them to get turned. A forced change is horrific. It’s painful, it’s debilitating. And when it’s done? It’s still not over. It’ll never be over. I was bitten, not born. I don’t fit on either side. I’m standing before you, broken. I don’t care for me. What’s done is done. I’m just begging you to stop doing this to others. I’m begging you not to kill my sister. You’re supposed to protect the public. Your own child. You failed.”
And with that, Caitlin turned, ignored the cameras and the questions being shouted out at her, and walked out of the building.
Penny and Misty were sobbing. His wolves were somber.
“Fuck. She felt like that the whole time?” Joaquin asked.
“How did we miss that?” Amos asked.
“Are we going to get her?” Noah growled.
“No. I’m going to get her. I need to make her understand that she does belong. I failed her if she doesn’t get it. I was trying so hard not to be my dad—taking her choices away and forcing her to stay with me—but I failed her. I should have listened to what she wanted, what she needed.”
He raised his hand at Noah’s protest.
“I’m not doing this without you all. I just need the rest of you for something else. I have a plan and you all need to carry out part of it while I go get our runaway wolf.”
Well, this was about as low as she could go. She’d stolen money from Isaac. Oh, he didn’t consider it stealing. He’d put pre-paid Visa cards in the kitchen junk drawer for her to use for gas after she’d refused to allow him to add her to his bank account. She’d refused to touch them. But she had nothing, so she took the cards.
Now she sat in the parking lot of a closed diner, on the outskirts of town, wondering which direction to go. She had to start over, but she didn’t have enough funds to rent an apartment. And while she’d managed to be in a room full of humans, could she guarantee that she wouldn’t flip out if she was around them constantly? She had to find a job, but that took time, and what would she do in the meantime? Driving west toward the mountains meant more snow, especially the week before Christmas, and she could get stuck anywhere. Alone.
Dilemmas.
A soft rap sounded on the frosted window. Gah, some super-wolf she’d turned out to be. She had no idea anyone was out here, despite the sensitive hearing.
When she rolled down the window, she had the shock of her life.
“I see you wanted nothing left from your Montgomery family. I guess that includes this car?” Isaac’s handsome face looked down at her.
Sonofabitch, she hadn’t thought of that. She didn’t even outright own this car.
“How did you find me?” she asked dumbly. He couldn’t have tracked her phone. She hadn’t turned it on since the day Penny’s broadcast aired. In fact, she didn’t even know where the damn thing was. Probably somewhere in his house?
“I learned a little tidbit from Rhett. He had a tracker on your car, that’s how he knew we were at the outlet mall the day he marked you. He must’ve been outside the cabin, tagged the only car he saw. I had Alex find the app that tracked it.”
“You never removed it?” her voice was shrill. She was so appalled she’d been tracked all this time.
“Nah. He’s dead. So, what do you say we leave this old Montgomery car behind and I get you somewhere warm and safe?”
That was when she realized how cold she’d let her car grow. How she was shivering, even with the wolf, her inner furnace, her teeth were clacking.
“I have my clothes,” she said, motioning to her bag in the back.
“I got it. Anything else you need in here?”
“N-no. But I don’t know where I’m going.”
“I do. Trust me?”
And while she nodded, she was full of questions. She just needed to warm up a little, first.
He’d left his car running. The heat was almost too warm as they sank into the seats, and he turned the fan down. Then he put the car in drive, and left the parking lot.
“You were wrong about one thing in your confrontation with your father.”
She was too numb to speak so she lifted one eyebrow.
