Chapter 183

Chapter 183: Chapter 183

Heather

I blinked as I tried find a way to answer Claudia’s question that wouldn’t upset her more. "I think they were burned at the compound."

"No. I mean of Elsa. And Yvonne. Tiffany. They weren’t at the compound."

"I—" I wasn’t sure. We’d run off so quickly. "I don’t know." I turned to Brent, who was leaning against his kitchen counter.

"I think Dr. Gonzales has them. I don’t think she’s done anything yet."

"I want to see them."

Shane nodded. "Me, too."

"We should all go," Raphael said as he stepped toward the door.

"I should warn you. They don’t... They look..."

"How bad?" Lucas said.

"I couldn’t really look at them." I squeeze my eyes closed for a second as the image of Elsa on the floor of the library came to mind.

"Adrian?" Brent said.

"Yeah." He stood up from where he was sitting—at the foot of Brent’s bed.

"Can you take them to see Dr. Gonzales?"

"Sure. Of course." Even he seemed a little pale. He moved slower than normal as he opened the door.

Claudia pulled me into a hug. "I’m sorry, too. This had to be so hard for you."

I huffed. "Me? No. I really am so sorry. If I knew—if there was something I could’ve done—I would’ve."

"I know. Me, too. I feel like this is my fault. I didn’t do enough. If I’d moved against her sooner..." She stepped back. "But we can’t know that. We could’ve done everything right and still gotten to this same place. So we have to keep moving forward. I’m going to see to my friends’ bodies, and then we can look at what I brought back from Peru."

I nodded. "Whatever you need. I’m here."

"I’ll call you," she said. Lucas followed her out of the room, giving us a small nod, before closing the door behind them.

I melted down to the couch. They’d only been here for a couple hours, but it felt like years. It was like I’d been hit by an emotional eighteen-wheeler.

Even if Shane and Claudia said it wasn’t my fault that this had happened, it felt like at least some of the blame fell to me. If I hadn’t ended up with the pack, if I had been with the coven, maybe I could’ve prevented all this.

My head rested on Brent’s chest, and I let his steady heartbeat soothe me. He knew he was probably listening in to my thoughts, but I didn’t care.

What the hell were we going to do now? Everything was such a mess.

After a while, he pulled me out of the chair. "Come on."

"Where are we going?"

"You can play ’what if’ all day long, thinking up all kinds of scenarios to torture yourself, but it’s not going to do any good. Do you trust me?"

"Always," I said as I looked into his amber eyes. It was the truth. I trusted him with everything that I was.

"Then come with on." He pulled me up. "Let’s shift. We’re going for a run."

It’d been days since I’d had time to shift. My wolf was aching to get free. "Okay. Where are we going?"

"You’ll see. Just shift, and follow me."

In a blink of eye, his form changed. He stuck his wolfy tongue out at me, and I shook my head. I circled my finger in the air. "Turn around."

The sound he made might’ve been a laugh, but I couldn’t be sure.

As I traded my skin for fur, all my worries melted away.

This was a fantastic idea.

Wind whipped against my fur as I ran through the forest. There were so many scents to chase. So many things to see. Brent herded me where he wanted to go, with a nip here and a chase there. Finally, the forest opened up and we were standing in the middle of a clearing.

Our land. He’d taken us to our land.

Wolf-Brent ran off behind a tree and appeared a minute later dressed in a pair of sweats. "There are clothes for you back there."

I followed where he pointed. A plastic crate sat half hidden in the bushes behind a patch of trees. Supplies were stashed everywhere around campus—generic sweat pants, T-shirts, water, and granola bars—but I didn’t know Brent had stashed some here.

Ever since I’d stopped fighting my shift, it had quit hurting. Now it was a sweet release. My muscles rippled, bones moving so quickly, that one moment I was wolf and the next, human.

I flipped open the top of the crate. Inside were a bunch of clothes and some swimsuits. Although if Brent thought I was ever swimming in that pond, he was going to be sorely disappointed. I found a pair of smaller sweatpants and a T-shirt and slipped them on.

Brent waited by the pond. "I thought we weren’t allowed to leave campus."

He shrugged. "Eh. Who needs rules anyhow?"

I shook my head. We were so getting our asses reamed for leaving, but he was right. I needed a break from it all. Ever since my birthday, it was like the hits just hadn’t stopped coming. There hadn’t been any room to relax.

If I didn’t take a little time for myself, I might crack. I rubbed my temples as a headache pounded. It was only just after lunchtime, and I was already exhausted. I could’ve gone back to bed right then and slept for another million years.

It wasn’t just the physical exhaustion of the fight yesterday, but the emotional drain. Telling Claudia that her whole coven had been murdered by Luciana had been worse than I thought. The only good thing was that at least she had someone to lean on. Lucas seemed like a good guy. And if he was anything like Brent and Donovan, he’d treat her like his queen.

I leaned into Brent as he wrapped his arms around me. Being here—standing next to the pond with him—made me nervous. What I’d seen in my vision wasn’t going to happen. We hadn’t talked about it and I wasn’t wearing a white dress... But still, nerves creeped in.

"Are you okay?"

It was probably stupid to mention, but I couldn’t help it. "In my vision, we—"

"No. Don’t worry about the vision. I haven’t had an Orangina in days, no matter how much I want one." He tickled my side, and I squirmed away, laughing. "That proves we can change what you saw."

He moved to the ground, pulling me down with him. The grass dampened the back of my sweatpants as we sat cross-legged, knees touching. The tension in his shoulders told me he wanted to talk about something serious. I was worried I couldn’t take much more today, but he wouldn’t have brought me all the way here if it wasn’t important.

"I thought we both needed a moment. It’s been one thing after another, and it’s overwhelming, you know?"

"I was thinking the same." It was nice when we were in sync. It made me feel safe. "I just feel so terrible for my cousins. I can’t imagine what they’re going through."

"They’ll get through it. And so will you."

I huffed a laugh. "You don’t know that. Especially not now." My fear of what I’d seen clung so thick it was like I was wrapped in a blanket of it.

Brent tilted his head to stare out over the pond. He searched the calm surface like the answers to all our problems were in the murky depths. I could feel his anxiety, like he was building up to something, but I didn’t want to pry. He was always patient with me, so I’d do my best to be patient with him.