Read Bound to the Pack (Bound to the Pack, #1) for Free Online Page B

a plea, she had just said a simple statement of fact.
    “And so you have. Any further would be far too dangerous though, in ways you cannot yet understand.” Stepping closer to her, close enough to feel the heat of her body, I leaned forward and inhaled the scent of her one more time. “I will bring Kristen back. Then we will talk, Jen.” I brushed my fingers against her cheek, needing to feel her just once, before turning away and beginning my walk up the path towards the high Appalachian hills. Towards sacred ground.
    Towards home.

Jen
    I couldn’t move. The electricity of his touch was still coursing through my body, the implications of his words echoing inside my head. Does he actually like me? It seemed clear that he did. God, I was wet.
    And getting rained on.
    Bringing myself back to reality I made one of the rashest decisions of my life. Opening the car door I grabbed the backpack of supplies, slung it over my shoulder, and began following after Liam.
    The light rain pelted my face as the wind pushed me back down the hill in soft gusts, nature telling me I was unwelcome here. I had no idea what I was doing, knew nothing of surviving in the wilderness, and had no intention of stopping.
    I followed the path that was carved between the hills where they met each other, hoping he hadn’t turned at some fork I had missed, or worse, he could have simply stepped off through the underbrush. At each intersection I took what seemed like the more traveled path.
    I was quickly lost.
    The passion of the earlier moment had now passed and the reality of my situation began to press in on me. My flashlight was pitiful in the darkness of a rainy night, I had no idea where I was, every noise set me on edge, and I was alone.
    Checking the time on my phone did nothing to help. In the rush to catch up to Liam I hadn’t seen what time it was when I left Kris’s apartment. It felt like it had been hours, but could just as easily been a fraction of one.
    “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Jen you’re an idiot.” Even my whisper felt out of place here.
    How could I have already forgotten how fast he moves? Fighting down the panic of not finding him yet, I pressed on and hoped for the best.
    The cold and dampness pressed down on me, causing my body to reply with an incessant shivering. I thought of using the blanket as warmth but decided against it, knowing it would just get soaked and become too heavy to be easily carried.
    I had to fight the urge to keep checking my phone, I was running low on power and had no signal here anyway. My last check had told me it was nearly eleven, hours past when I had first thought to look at the time.
    Smoke.
    I smelled smoke, faint but there.
    Heart beating in my ears, hoping I had caught up at last, or at the least found some friendly campers to help a lost hiker, I cautiously began trying to locate the fire. It was made far more difficult by the shifting winds. The rain wasn’t helping, either.
    A glint of light flickered between some trees up on the side of the hill to my right, well off the path. Taking care to be as quiet as possible, I began a slow climb up the hill. I stopped a good distance from the camp and settled in to see who the fire belonged to, thinking it unwise to just enter an unknown camp deep in the hills.

Chapter Ten
    Liam
    A fter stripping down and setting my damp clothes by the fire to dry, I stood and gazed at the world around me, taking in nature in all its raw beauty. It felt good to be back in the hills of home, away from the confusing allure of the human town. I was far enough away from their area that I was permitted to shift.
    I did so with relish.
    Soft pops and creaks sounded as my form compacted, lengthened, shifted. The noises sounded worse than they were, the act of shifting felt good, like stretching out sore muscles. A slight itching as my fur grew out was quickly over, leaving me covered in a thick coat of mottled black and grey fur. I exulted in my massive wolf form, I