Twelve Acres in Ohio

Chapter 13

Two days later, I grudgingly met Sylvan back in the kitchen. He'd sent the rest of the pack out hunting. I think he was anticipating a big fight or something. Boy was he in for a surprise.

He had a sullen look on his face when I walked in, and his fingers were tangled in his hair. I frowned. I knew that look all too well. “What's wrong?”

He looked up at me, leaned back in the chair, and licked his lips. “You're not going to like it.”

“Just tell me, Sylvan. Just tell me.”

He took a deep breath and pushed a newspaper across the table toward me. “See for yourself.”

I looked down at the headline that I knew he was talking about. “Wild Dog Strikes Again,” I read. I looked back up at him. “Let me guess. Canton, Ohio?”

He nodded. “I'm sorry.”

I shook my head and sat down. “No. Don't be sorry. You were right.” I licked my lips and nodded. “Yep. I'll do it.”

His eyes widened. “What?”

“I'll go.”

“That was ... easy.”

I smiled humorlessly. “I had already pretty much decided to go. Now I'm convinced that it's necessary. You win. I'll go.”

“Oh. Well, are you sure? We could probably make something else work,” he suggested. Then he started babbling about other things that might work.

I smiled and shook my head, reaching forward to hold his hand in both of mine. He stopped talking and looked up at me, studying my face. “No, Sylvan. I'll go. I'll do this. It's fine.”

He nodded. “Okay then. That's that.”

I grinned. “So let's go do something.”

He coughed. “We should probably start planning your trip.”

I groaned. “Let's go do something. We can plan tonight.”

He grinned and pulled his lower lip between his teeth. “I can think of something that would cure that restlessness. It involves chocolate, whipped cream, and handcuffs.”

I blushed. “That's not quite what I had in mind. I was thinking we might go join the pack.”

He pouted. “All right. Let's go.”

I smiled. “For real?”

He nodded and stood to hold his arm out to me. “For real. Let's go.”

So we went outside, and he escorted me through the first few yards of forest like a gentleman taking his date to the prom. Once we could no longer see the house, he stopped and turned me to face him, running his hands down my arms. He leaned forward to kiss me briefly, then he proceeded to undress me, taking his sweet time and lingering over every curve.

I grinned up at him. “Quit teasing. I want to run.”

As soon as all my clothes were off, I shifted, barely giving him enough time to undress and do the same before I took off running through the trees and skipping over fallen branches and reaching vines as if they were nothing much.

This felt great, the feeling of freedom as the wind brushed by my face, my tongue hanging out as I rushed over, around, and under the impediments of the earth. Sylvan was right behind me, pushing me to go faster and faster. I couldn't let him pass me. This race was one that I had to win. All of a sudden he was in front of me, his lips curled back in a snarl.

I stopped immediately and thought about turning around. Then I changed my mind. I lowered my head slowly, then rolled onto my back, exposing my stomach and tilting my head back to reveal my neck. Sylvan paced over to me and opened his mouth, touching his teeth to my neck. He was my dominant, my alpha, and I would do anything for him. Anything.

Point made, he got up and invited me to follow him through the woods, to follow him on this run. I yipped and did as he asked. We raced through the trees together, happy and free, searching for the rest of our pack so we could join them.

The next day I made arrangements for a flight into North Canton, Ohio. I busied myself with deciding exactly what I would be taking. If I had too much on me, the boys would be suspicious. One didn't escape from one's captor with plenty of supplies. That meant maybe one change of clothes in a backpack, and a bit of money. I'd have to give up my cell phone for this, because someone escaping, if they had a cell phone to begin with, would have gotten rid of that right away.

Then I left. The boys all came to the airport to see me off, I gave Sylvan a goodbye kiss, then I turned my back on them all, not bothering to look back before I went through security.

The flight was boring, but it wasn't too long, thank goodness. If flying one state over had taken more than a couple of hours, I was going to be mad. When I got there, I had a brief moment to wonder how I was going to find my way back to Kyle's house. Then I realized that I had a very good sense of smell, and I new the smell of Kyle's pack well enough to track it back to the house.

I set out to do just that, weaving through the city streets until I found a scent of werewolf fresh enough to do me any good. Then I was on a roll.

It wasn't one of the wolves I knew, which meant Kyle had been gaining members too. I wondered if he had more than us now. Somehow I rather suspected he didn't. He seemed like the sort to be very picky about who was part of the pack and who wasn't.

I made it to the house quickly once I'd found a trail to follow, and soon I found myself knocking on the oh-so-familiar door.

“Just a minute!” someone called down, and I had to wonder if whoever it was counted on a human being able to hear that or not.

I waited a bit, and when I didn't hear footsteps from inside, I knocked again.

“One sec!” the voice called again.

And again, there was no sound of movement from inside.

I sighed and shouted up. “It's Jennifer! Will someone please let me in?”

That got movement. I heard the sound of at least three different people rushing down the stairs seconds before the door was flung open and I was standing face to face with Jeremy, Mike, and Kyle.