Read Wolf on the Road for Free Online

fainted? Passed out? Are those the same thing?
    When she moved her dream hands, they went in slow patterns with tracers behind that reminded her of uncomfortable years in college. She sighed, and sat. The feeling of a soft leather saddle, or perhaps a seat of some sort, surprised her, but any comfort was welcome.
    “You’re fine,” she heard in a whisper. “It’ll pass, it always does, but it’s gonna be hell for about a day and a half.”
    “Jake?” she heard herself asking. “Is that you?”
    No answer came, but she knew it was. She felt it in her bones. And with his voice came an inexplicable feeling of safety. That really didn’t make any sense. It wasn’t like she disliked the guy, but hell, she’d been through a lot in the past day. Anything familiar was better than something not.
    She let her breath out slowly, and it rattled at the very end of her exhalation. Another shiver crept through Mali, but this one felt more physical, more real. Was she coming out of whatever stupor she’d fallen into?
    A smell hit her nose, but it wasn’t the dusty desert air she was used to. No, it was something entirely different; heavy and earthy, she imagined it was the scent of forest, but that wouldn’t make any sense.
    The next time she shivered, she realized it wasn’t a shiver at all, but a shake. Someone, or something, was trying to wake her. And just like that, her strange dream-like fugue, began to fade. Slowly at first, and then with increasingly alarming quickness, she felt herself being forced back into reality like a locomotive blasting through a tunnel with the horn blaring. She felt the physical sensation of her eyelids opening and shutting, and a split second later, saw flashes of green.
    Just like in the dream, the world was whizzing by Mali’s face with incredible speed, but unlike the imaginary world, her wrists were apparently bound, and her arms were around Jake’s waist.
    He felt her stir. “Sorry,” he said as he turned his head to the side momentarily. “You’re not trapped or anything, I just had to get you on the bike somehow.”
    Mali tried to respond, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was garbled and unintelligible. She felt her lips moving, but could also hear the mess coming out of them. In her head, the words were clear, but something was making her body react all wrong to the commands from her brain.
    “Oh yeah, that,” Jake said. “Listen, that’s part of the transformation. It won’t last long, but it’ll come and go. You’ll feel like you’re falling to pieces, but I promise you’re not. At least, I don’t think you are.”
    “What did you do to me?” Mali finally managed to ask. It wasn’t entirely clear, but it was good enough for Jake to understand. “What’s wrong with me?”
    Jake ducked lower and gunned the engine. The feeling of power between her legs, and the soft leather underneath her gave Mali another feeling of security, even if she was tied around this guy she hardly knew, and even if her brain was currently full of something between marmalade and glue. She hugged him tighter, and it felt good.
    “You’re all right,” Jake said with a sort of gentleness Mali hadn’t figured him for. “We got a long trip, and I’d like it if you weren’t pissed at me. I know I haven’t exactly been the best date in the world, but I hope you understand.”
    “Date?” Mali said, with an involuntary laugh. “Don’t know if I’ve ever had a date that involved being nearly killed. Unless you count the time I got food poisoning from Wendy’s.” She laughed again, and then laughed harder when she heard herself. If her words were slightly garbled, her laughter sounded like she’d been drinking a whole lot , all day long and it was getting really late. So, of course, when she heard that laughter, she went on and on until she was gasping for breath.
    Werewolves might be immune to illness and might be immune to bad hair days, but they are absolutely not