Avenging Autumn (20 page)

Her shoes squeaked on the linoleum floor, the stink of bleach and an underlying layer of vomit filling her nose and the back of her throat. She couldn’t wait to see who had bailed her out. She assumed it would have been Blake—Chogan or Mia didn’t have the sort of cash that would be enough to post bail—though she suspected Chogan would be the one who’d been sent to pick her up, especially considering Mia hadn’t been feeling well.

She’d not been arrested with any possessions, with the exception of the gun, which they wouldn’t exactly be returning to her, and so they hadn’t taken anything from her when she’d been booked. The sheriff stopped behind his desk and pulled out a number of sheaves of paper. “Just got some forms for you to sign, and then you can be on your way.” He looked up at her, his eyes hard. “But don’t be going anywhere, Dr. Anderson, not unless you want the gentleman who’s bailed you out to lose a whole heap of money.”

“I won’t,” she mumbled, and picked up a pen, scrawling her signature beside the X marks on the forms.

He picked them back up and banged them on the table to get the sheets together. “You’re free to go then, Dr. Anderson. For the time being.”

Autumn didn’t intend on pushing her luck any further. She turned from the desk and hurried to the exit. The light was bright as she stepped outside, and she lifted her hand to protect her eyes from the glare, squinting. As her eyes grew used to the light, she trotted down the steps leading down to the sidewalk, and paused.

“Autumn Anderson?” a male voice called.

Chogan wasn’t waiting for her, neither was Blake or Mia for that matter. Instead, an older man, in his late fifties, she’d guess, with dark grey hair and wearing a suit waited for her beside an expensive sedan. The car door stood open.

She stopped and glanced around, hoping for Chogan or one of the others to suddenly appear, but no one else was there.

She frowned. “Who wants to know?” she asked.

“My name is Robert Carter. I’m a friend of your mother’s.”

The frown deepened. “You’re a friend of my mother’s? Don’t you mean you
were
a friend?”

“It’s best we don’t discuss that here.”

“Are you the one who bailed me out?”

“Yes, I’m sorry you ended up being arrested. It wasn’t meant to go that far. We should have made contact with you before now, but everything appeared to be going well, and we didn’t want to endanger anything.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “Going well? I’ve been abducted, tortured, held prisoner. I’ve witnessed people I love being killed and hurt. I have no job to go to, and I’m now being charged with a crime. What part of that is going well?”

“You still have a job,” he said. “Only now it’s far more important than the one you were doing. And you have been doing well. I’m sorry for everything you’ve been through, but what you’ve done for shifters over the last month has been nothing but extraordinary.”

“Are you a shifter?”

“No, I’m not, but I am a friend of shifters.”

“And you knew my mother?”

He didn’t answer, but stepped back, rounded the car, and opened the passenger door for her. “Please, Autumn. Come with me, and I’ll explain.”

Autumn glanced around her again. She was in a strange town, with no money or phone, and it didn’t look like her friends were going to show up any time soon. This guy didn’t appear threatening, and he’d paid an awful lot of money to get her out. If he intended her harm, wouldn’t he have just left her there? Plus, his comments about having known her mother intrigued her.

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll come with you, but don’t make me regret it.”

And she got into the car.

––––––––

A
NAKED CHOGAN dropped to a crouch to bring himself eye-level with his wolf.

“What the hell am I supposed to do now?” he asked the animal, without expecting to get an answer. That was the best thing about animals, it wouldn’t matter what he said, his wolf wouldn’t be able to answer back.

His wolf left his side, and trotted over to where Chogan’s body lay on the ground. Lakota’s singing still filled the air, though it sounded distant, and Chogan couldn’t smell the smoke from the candles or the herbs his uncle burned in their flames. The beast sat at the head of Chogan’s body and stared down at him.

The spirit world version of Chogan frowned and walked over to stand beside the wolf. “What are you trying to tell me? That you can watch my body? I’m not sure that’s part of the rules.”

The wolf took Chogan’s wrist between his jaws with a light pressure, the teeth digging in but not piercing the skin. It led him away from his body, and then pulled him back again.

Chogan baffled, shook his head. “I’m not sure what ...”

He got a sudden flash, as his mind had somehow jumped in time, or perhaps space, and he suddenly saw his body from lower down. His vision expanded, his hearing sharpening. He only ever felt this way when he’d shifted, and the explanation for what had happened hit him, jolting him back into his usual viewpoint.

He stared down at his wolf. The animal sat back on its haunches and grinned, tongue hanging out as though pleased with itself.

“Holy shit,” said Chogan. “Did you just do what I think you did?”

The wolf panted, its canine grin widening.

“Do it again.”

His head swam, and he blinked, only to open his eyes again with the viewpoint of the wolf. This time, instead of focusing on the body lying before him, he turned to see himself still standing there, the human form of whose consciousness he’d inhabited only moments before. His wolf’s breath panted loud, his claws against the dirt floor. It was surreal to not only look at himself, at two of himself, neither of which was currently him—at least not in the mental sense. He wondered how his wolf was coping with being on two legs. Chogan was used to being in the body of a wolf, but his wolf never occupied the body of a man.

As if in response, the wolf in man’s clothing took a couple of wobbly steps, and then sank to the ground beside his and Blake’s bodies. The wolf man opened his mouth as though to speak, but only a couple of long vowel sounds came out. It seemed it needed more than the ability to speak to actually be able to form any words. Instead, it pointed at its eyes, and then at Chogan’s body.

He knew what it was trying to say, that it would watch the body, while Chogan, in wolf form, could hunt for Blake.

Would it work?

It was a risk, but it just might.

He wished he could speak, to tell his spirit guide thank you, and that he’d be as quick as possible. But all he had were whines, growls, and body language, so he placed his nose into his human guide’s hand, getting the strange scent of himself, mixed with something different, and licked his thanks.

Then he turned tail and bounded away.

––––––––

B
LAKE HAD LONG ago given up trying to find his way back to his body, and to his father, and instead sat with his back propped against a tree trunk, his wolf guide lying at his feet. He didn’t want to give up, but he’d reached the point where everything he’d tried to do had amounted to nothing. He’d come to this place to try to become a shifter again, and instead he’d only made matters worse—ignoring his father’s warnings, thinking he knew better. Now, not only was he paralyzed in the real world, he was lying in a type of coma. Though he hated that he’d let his father down so badly, his main thought was with Autumn. She deserved so much better than this—better than him. He was terrified she’d feel some kind of warped obligation to stand by him in the real world, to reduce herself to living some kind of frozen life waiting for him, purely because of his own stupidity and vanity. At least when he’d been back in the real world, he’d been able to touch her, they’d been able to communicate. What he’d left her with was no better than a corpse—hell, a corpse would have been better. At least then she’d have been able to bury him and move on with her life.

Furious with himself, he’d have caused himself physical pain if he’d been able to, but in this empty place, pain didn’t even mean anything. He’d expected his wolf to abandon him again, and this time he wouldn’t have blamed the creature—he wouldn’t have been around himself if he could have helped it—but the beast remained docile and morose at his feet.

Suddenly, the animal’s ears pricked up, and it lifted its head.

Blake glanced around. Had the wolf heard something? Surely not. This place was as empty of sound as it was of everything else. They’d not seen another living soul since they’d been here—not so much as an insect buzzing around their heads. But a glance back at his wolf confirmed that the animal had heard something. It got to its feet and whined, one paw lifted like a hunting dog, muzzle pointed in the direction Blake assumed it had heard a noise from.

“What is it?” he asked. “What’s going on?”

He had no idea what to expect. Could something dangerous exist in this place? He figured nothing much worse could happen to him than already had, but he’d been wrong about that before.

But another glance at his wolf didn’t make him think anything hostile was approaching. The wolf’s hackles weren’t raised, and while it appeared alert and curious, it wasn’t growling.

Blake pushed himself to his feet. Even now, he still found the sensation of standing to be amazing. Though he wanted to return to the real world, he dreaded the thought of being trapped in a paralyzed body again. But he would work out how to live with it. One thing this experience had taught him was that he needed to appreciate what he
did
have. He might not be able to walk, but he was still strong, and alive, and he had a woman who loved him and who would be there for him. He’d been stupid and selfish taking the risks he had.

He stood behind his wolf, staring through the trees in the direction his wolf was looking, his ears straining for whatever sound had caught his spirit guide’s attention.

His wolf’s tail batted against Blake’s legs, and it leapt forward, running through the trees in great bounds.

“Hey, wait up!”

Blake took after it, running with the strength in his legs he didn’t have in real life. He broke through some trees and drew to a halt. His eyes widened. His wolf tumbled and rolled in a bundle of fur, but it wasn’t the only wolf. Another was there, a wolf he felt sure he recognized.

“Chogan?”

The two animals came to a halt, and the russet wolf that was Chogan’s spirit guide—the same wolf Chogan shifted into—stood before him. Then it broke into a run, and jumped at Blake, knocking him backward. The big animal licked at his face, and Blake laughed, ducking his head away to try to avoid the wet tongue.

“Hey, hey, quit it. It’s okay.  I’m pleased to see you, too. How the hell did you find me?”

The wolf backed off, sitting on its haunches. Blake’s wolf joined him so he had two wolves sitting before him.

He looked into Chogan’s wolf’s eyes and frowned. The creature staring back at him seemed exactly the same as the one he’d known his whole life, the intelligence—the humanity—behind its eyes was too ... human.

“Chogan?” he said, wonder in his voice.

The russet wolf stood and wagged its tail.

“Holy shit. How the hell did this happen? If you’re here, then you’re not within sight of your body. You might not find your way back again.”

The wolf turned to Blake’s wolf and nuzzled its muzzle, throwing licks all around its face.

His wolf, he was trying to tell him something about his wolf ...

Understanding dawned. “You left your wolf with your body?” The russet wolf thumped its tail. “And is that going to work? Can you find your way back?”

As if in response, Chogan got to his feet and trotted back the way he had come. He glanced back over his shoulder, as if to make sure they were coming.

Blake laughed. “I feel like I’ve just been transported into a
Lassie
movie.”

His wolf gave a yap of indignation, and he laughed again. “Okay, okay.
Dances with Wolves
then.”

His soul had lifted with the arrival of Chogan. Though he and his cousin hadn’t always seen eye to eye, to say the least, he was grateful to know Chogan had his back. He’d taken this step and come after him, despite everything Blake had thrown at him.

He had so many questions he wanted to ask Chogan, but there was little he could do while Chogan was in wolf form. He wanted to know if Autumn had made it back safely, but if she hadn’t, he didn’t think Chogan would be here for him. Chogan loved Autumn. He’d never put Blake first.

They moved quickly between the trees, Blake breaking into a jog to keep up with those on four legs. He didn’t want to risk losing sight of them either. Within moments, he’d already lost his sense of direction as to which way they’d come from. This place was completely disorienting. He could only imagine that Chogan still had some kind of connection with his own consciousness in order to find his way back again.

Finally, up ahead, Blake caught sight of the shape of bodies lying on the ground.

“Thank the gods,” he breathed, relief settling inside him like a sedative. Even if it meant going back to a broken body, he no longer cared. He would work his way through his disability and come out of it a stronger man. He’d learned his lesson not to chase more when he should have been grateful for what he had.

As they grew closer, he saw Chogan—in human form—sitting at the head of the body that had been left in the real world.

“Well, this is a total head fuck,” Blake managed to say.

Chogan, in wolf form, ran up to his human spirit form. The man version of Chogan reached out to him, lowered his head, and their noses touched. They stayed that way for a moment, both their bodies completely still, and then the man fell backward, sitting hard on the ground, while the wolf whined and spun away.

“Chogan?” Blake asked, looking between the man and wolf.

The man version of Chogan opened his mouth to speak, but only a strange sound came out. His hand went to his mouth, and then he coughed, and tried again. “Yeah, it’s me, Cuz. Jesus, that was the weirdest fucking thing I’ve ever done, and I’ve done some weird things in my time.”