Mara's scent was strong, and in one spot it branched into multiple directions. Damien knew the trick, knew that it would take him time to figure out which track doubled back and which led forward. He trotted along, nose to the ground, trying not to get too frustrated when the ground dropped out from under his feet and he had to scramble backwards. It was rocky here, with gaps in the forest floor that led down who knows how far into chasms and canyons. Damien had stopped yipping to avoid giving himself away, although if Mara were near she would likely be able to scent him in the general area. The darkness around him was complete without being able to hear anything or sense by landmark the shape of the forest. Each step for him, then, was a step into the unknown.
Then the wind changed for a split second, and the air in front of him resolved into scent so strong it raised the fur on his spine. Mara.
Before he had the time to tense, Mara bowled into him from the side. Damien expected claws to tear down his stomach, but instead she rolled away after knocking him down.
"Got you," she growled, teasing him with her tone.
Damien backed up from the sound, his every sense focused on Mara and when she would move forward again. If she tensed, he would know she meant to jump at him—
"No!" Mara's cry came just a split second before her leap, and Damien shifted his weight back on his hind legs before realizing where he was. In darkness, he felt himself lose his balance and fall backward into empty space.
In a split second he realized his mistake. His paws slipped down rock face too smooth to hold onto. His claws scratched at the dirt in front of him. Damien yipped, frantic to sense his surroundings, to measure the depth of the fall before he hit ground. The rocks around him echoed his yips back everywhere, disorienting him even more. Then the ground fell out from underneath him and his stomach rose into his throat.
The last image that came into his mind before he slipped off of the edge was Julia's face; the last emotion, sorrow. He hadn't told her that he loved her.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Julia
Julia fumed as she headed back into the house, not sure if she was more angry at Damien or at herself for letting him go. Katherine met her at the doorway.
"Julia, don't worry. They'll be fine."
Julia pulled on her jacket and grabbed the car keys. Katherine watched her movements without comment until Julia stopped at the front door and turned to look at her.
"Didn't Damien say we should stay here?" Katherine asked.
"No," Julia said matter-of-factly. "He said I wasn't allowed to go with him. But I'm not planning on sitting here worrying." She tugged on one sleeve. She was already worried about Damien. If she stayed in the house she would go insane, she was sure of it.
"Where are you going, then?" Katherine asked.
"The college bookstore," Julia said, deciding right then that it was just the thing to take her mind off of Damien. "I've got to get some books for my classes. Coming with me?"
On the way to the bookstore, Julia inhaled fresh air and tried not to think about Damien going off after Mara.
"So," she asked Katherine, "did you decide on what courses you're going to take?"
"Just botany," Katherine said. She leaned back in the car seat, her arm casually slung outside of the window. "See how I like it."
"It'll take you a while to get a degree at that pace," Julia said, laughing.
"What do I need a degree for?"
Julia turned into the bookstore parking lot and looked over at Katherine, who was being utterly serious.
"Well, to get most jobs you need one," she said.
"Yeah, but we don't need jobs," Katherine said.
"How ... why?"
"Most shifters have plenty of money saved up, just because we never really need it," Katherine said. "I mean, it's useful if you want to interact with humans. But day-to-day living? You don't need anything. We have food and shelter naturally."
"I mean, why do you want to go to college then?" Julia asked.
"To learn things," Katherine said. "Isn't that why you go to college?"
Julia laughed as they walked into the bookstore. She'd assumed that she would have to get a degree to get a job so she could take care of Dee. Now, she realized, she didn't need to. It was a strangely liberating perspective.
"I guess so," she said. "I don't think most people see it that way."
As they browsed the piles of books, searching for Katherine's botany textbook, Julia considered what they'd been talking about. She'd always wanted to go to college and study for her degree, but was that just because that's what everyone expected a smart student to do. Sure, it would be fun to take a bunch of literature classes, but she didn't need to pressure herself to do well or heck, even to graduate. Julia wasn't sure how she felt about that yet.
Ten books piled into her arms later, she was much more confident about her choice. Since she was a kid she'd loved reading books and talking about them. She'd read half of the books on her list already, but the rest looked intriguing. Driving home with Katherine, she chatted about her favorite authors and listened to Katherine's story about how she'd learned to read as a pup.
"Do you have to learn how to shift?" Julia asked. "When you're a kid, I mean."
"Sure," Katherine said.
"What's that like?"
Katherine shrugged.
"I don't remember," she said. "It's like learning how to talk. I don't remember it, it just came to me. It's like I've always been doing it."
"It's strange, to think that I used to know how to do that and now I don't," Julia said.
"You had a different life back then," Katherine said. She looked older for a moment, and then snapped back to her young, lively self. "That's the same for all of us."
"I'm just glad you found me," Julia said.
"Damien found you," Katherine corrected. "Well, and Kyle did too, I guess. He's sorry about ... about everything." She looked away, out the window.
"He's told me," Julia said. "I'm just trying to forget it happened." She rubbed the birthmark on the back of her left hand. The small red marks had always looked to her like claw marks. That they meant something to Kyle, and to the rest of Trax's pack, made her self-conscious about the mark whenever she was out in public. What if someone else from that pack came into town and recognized her as a purebred shifter?
"So what's in your botany textbook?" Julia asked, changing the subject.
Katherine quickly brightened up as she flipped through the chapters and listed off all of their names: "Phycology, Mycology, Bryology—that's mosses, I know that—"
"That's a lot of -ologies," Julia said, laughing.
They pulled into Julia's driveway talking about weeds and plants and what the difference was between the two. Julia's arms were full of books as she pushed her way into the front door chattering gaily, but the look on Katherine's face made her turn quickly to see what was going on in the kitchen. Her arms went limp and the books fell to her feet as she stepped forward to where Damien lay limp on the kitchen table, the rest of the pack surrounding him. Blood streaked the table and the floor.
"He's okay," Granny Dee said, quickly coming around the table to take Julia into her arms. Julia couldn't stop staring at Damien. His chest rose and fell shallowly. It reminded her of the wolf that had attacked them, just before he died. And now it was Damien.
Damien.
"Is he— is he—" Julia couldn't make herself say the words.
"He's just got a broken leg," Jordan said, taking out the bandage that he'd been holding between his teeth. "Plus some scrapes and bumps."
"But he's not moving," Julia said, her eyes fixed on Damien's face. His eyes were open. Even when he looked at her, though, she could see something in his eyes. A glow, a spark, even if he could not see the world around him. Now, though, his eyes were blank and expressionless. She could not tear her gaze away.
"It's okay, dear," Dee said, squeezing Julia.
"I gave him a shot to put him under. He was shifting back and forth, trying to get rid of the pain, and it was making things hard for me to set the bone." Jordan looked up at Julia from under dark brows. "Really, it's not as bad as it looks. If it was, I wouldn't have let him shift back into human form."
"What happened?" Katherine asked. "Mara, what happened? He was looking for you."
Julia looked up to see Mara standing back against the wall, her muscled arms wrapped across her chest.
"He fell," she said.
"Fell? How?" Katherine asked.
"He fell," Mara said, turning away.
Katherine strode across the room and spun Mara back, shoving her against the wall. Mara didn't fight back. Her head hit the wall with a loud thump but she did not even raise her hands to keep Katherine away.
"What happened?" Katherine was irate, her chin thrust forward. It was strange to see her, such a slight young woman, facing off against Mara, who was built as strongly as any of the men there. "I swear, if you did this to him—"
"Katherine, don't," Kyle said, coming forward to pull her away from the confrontation.
"He fell," Mara said. "Like I said."
Ignoring the fight, Julia walked forward and knelt next to Damien, taking his hand. His eyes were a hazy yellow, his head bent to one side. She pressed her forehead against his, willing him to be alright. Being close to him made her breathe a bit easier.
"Will he be okay?" she asked softly.
"He'll be up and awake within the hour," Jordan said. "He'll have to keep off of the leg for a few weeks, but that's not too bad."
"Thank you," Julia said.
"We can take him up to your room," Jordan said. "I just needed a clear place to set the bone."
"Thank you," Julia repeated. She followed as Jordan carried Damien up the stairs and lay him in bed. Dee stayed downstairs. Although Mara and Katherine had moved their fight outside, Julia could still hear their angry words floating up through the bedroom window.
"He's not just a wolf," Katherine was saying. "He's the leader of this pack."
"So? He can't defend himself from a little tussle?" Mara asked pointedly.
"You led him outside the territory! Of course he didn't know the terrain!"
"He fell, I brought him back. That's all."
"That's not all—"
Jordan shut the window, and the voices below were cut off.
"I'm sorry," he said to Julia. "I'm sorry this had to happen."
"What's going to happen?" Julia said. "With Mara?"
Jordan shook his head.
"That's for Damien to decide," he said.
"What did he say about her?"
"He agreed with me before. That she'll come around. Or if she won't, that she's free to go as long as he knows she won't open her mouth about you to anyone else. I don't know if he'll trust her as much now, though."
"Do you trust her?"
Jordan scratched his beard with one hand.
"I'm not sure," he said. "At first I thought she just needed some time to get used to the pack. But now ... she seems like more trouble than she's worth. There's a reason wolves don't leave survivors in a fight."