Claimed by Her Alpha (8 page)

Saki watched as Lane filled the tank again. The numbers on the pump just kept increasing. It finally stopped at $236.24. It wasn’t quite as expensive as in the Bahamas, but it was still high. As before, Lane took out his wallet and paid.

“Do you need anything from the store before we leave?” He asked, breaking the silence.

Saki opened the ice chest and counted the water bottles. They still had four left. Considering they had only drank one each on the way, Saki was sure that they had more than enough.

“No, I think were good.”

“Oh,” Lane said looking at his phone.

“What’s the matter?”

“I left my phone on.”

“Is it dead?” She asked, a little concerned.

“No, it’s fine,” he assured her with his eyebrow still furrowed.

Lane pulled away from the dock, setting an angle perpendicular to the waves. Saki wasn’t sure why, but the waves seemed bigger. Perhaps it was now high tide or perhaps the wind had shifted. Whatever it was, the front of the boat kept shooting into the air and slamming onto the water below. Lane slowed down, trying to reduce the impact.

“Why is it suddenly so rough?” Saki asked, holding on as the boat rocked.

“It’s the angle of the waves. Before we were kind of surfing them. Now we have to ride into them, and the waves have picked up.”

“Can we go around?” Saki asked, unsure what else to do.

“No, unless we go all the way around Andros Island. We don’t have the gas for that. Once we get back into the Bahama Bank, the waves should drop a little. We just have to get there.”

Saki tightly gripped the steering pedestal as the slow-moving boat kept slamming itself into the ocean below. A couple of times, the propeller on the outboard engine made a noise like it was leaving the water. It was a frightening sound. It sounded like the engine was struggling to stay running. So far everything about their trip home unnerved Saki.

“Okay, I’m going to try something else,” Lane said with a more-than-worried look on his face.

“What are you gonna do?”

“I’m gonna tact. Instead of hitting the waves perpendicularly, I’m going to tact to the right and then tact back to the left, kind of zigzagging back into the Bahama Bank.”

“Do we have enough gas for that?” Saki asked, concerned.

“We should,” he said, unconvinced. “But we have to do something. I don’t like the sound of the engine.”

Saki didn’t like Lane’s reply. She thought the engine was making an unusual noise, and he just confirmed it. Saki felt her chest clench as she considered what it would be to be stranded in the middle of the ocean. She didn’t want to go out that way.

As described, Lane took the boat right for about 10 minutes, picking up speed. For the next 10 minutes, he drove the boat in the opposite direction. It felt like they were just moving left and right, but she trusted Lane.

When Saki heard to the engine make the same gurgling noise without it leaving the water, she became concerned. “Should it be doing that?”

“No,” he said, glancing back.

“Should I be worried?”

Lane took a moment to answer. “Yes.”

A cold sweat covered Saki’s forehead. Her mouth dropped open as it got harder for her to breathe. “Can I do anything?”

Again, he was slow to answer. “No.”

The farther they went, the worse the engine sounded. It now seemed to be sputtering. At times, it struggled to keep up the speed, though other times it chugged along fine, giving Saki a false sense of hope. As the length of the sputtering increased, she could no longer remain quiet.

“Do you think we should head back to Florida?” She said, trying to be as helpful as possible.

Lane pulled his phone out of his pocket. Turning it on, he calculated the time back to the Keys.

“If we go anywhere, it should be to Andros. We’re closer. But I think we should keep trying. It could just be water in the gasoline. If it is, then it will just work itself out.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

“Then we hope we hit Andros.”

Saki could not sit easily after that pronouncement. She stared back at the engine as much as she could. Once she began to feel ill, she turned her head into the breeze.

The sound was not getting better, however. With each minutes, it only got worse. When Lane abandoned his tact strategy, Saki got an idea of what was about to happen. With Lane pushing the boat full throttle, the engine sputtered one more time and then quit completely.

Saki‘s heart pounded in her chest. She looked up at Lane for reassurance and found only a frantic look on his face. Quickly leaving the wheel, he removed the cushion over the gas tank and squeezed a black ball connected to the engine.

“Try to start it,” he ordered, pointing at the key.

With her heart in her throat, she turned the engine over. It’s made the sputtering sound again.

“Okay, hold on,” he said, giving the ball three squeezes. “Okay, now.”

Still nothing.

Lane stopped squeezing and lowered his head.

“What do we do?” She asked, trying to mask her terror.

Lane struggled for words. “I think, maybe, there might be some, I don’t know, dirt in the engine or something.” Lane‘s fear was evident. It looked like he was putting everything he had into not panicking. Saki found herself silently crying.

“It’s okay,” Lane said, trying to reassure her. “I have some tools. I can, ahh, I think I can fix it.”

Lane stood, unsteady on his feet. He pulled out his phone and turned it on.

“What does it say?” Saki asked, scared to move.

“We’re drifting… In the wrong direction.” He turned off his phone and returned it to his pocket.

Saki‘s heart pounded furiously. Her helplessness was the source of her tears, and looking out at nothing but water, the feeling intensified. “What can I do?”

“Ahhh, I don’t know yet. Hold on. I need a moment to think.”

Lane was quiet as Saki wept silently. No birds or other boats filled the silence. The only noise she could hear was the slapping of the boat’s hull against the waves and the wind whipping in her ears. After the first 30 minutes, the quiet almost calmed her. Lane had taken the top of the engine off. After a few more unsuccessful attempts at starting the engine, he had started fiddling with the gears inside.

As the hours passed, Saki made several trips to the back of the boat to see what Lane was doing. He just seemed anxious, though, so she never stayed long. Instead, she chose to lay on the front of the boat.

“Do you think you’re gonna fix it today?” She asked, as the sun began to set.

“Ahh,” he whispered, smearing more of the engine grease across his perspiring forehead.

“Maybe we should eat something? I mean, just a little, to keep your strength up?”

Lane looked up at Saki with a defeated look on his face. His look scared her more than anything else. She looked away, trying to block the image from her mind. Moving to the ice chest, she unsealed one of the sandwiches, handing half of it to Lane.

The nutrients hit her brain like a euphoric wave. Her slowly building headache quickly dissipated, and for the first time in hours, her mind was beginning to clear.

“It’s gonna be dark soon. How much do you think you can do once it gets dark?”

The sandwich seemed to do the same for Lane. The pale look on his face quickly vanished, and in moments, he looked like a slightly more frazzled version of his normal self.

“The problem is, the current is taking us in the wrong direction. So if we don’t get the engine started soon, we won’t have enough gas to get back.”

Saki‘s chest clenched again. She wasn’t sure about what was going on, but she did understand that. They had a window to get this fixed, and outside of that window, they were pretty much dead.

“Okay. Is there anything at all that I can do?”

“Unless you have a phone with internet that you haven’t told me about, then no, there isn’t.”

“How long do we have?”

“I don’t know. Depends on the waves, the current. We have as long as the sea will give us,” he said, before exhaling deeply and turning back toward the engine.

As darkness fell, Lane called her over. “I need you to hold my phone,” he said, turning on his flashlight app.

Saki worked her way to the back of the boat, feeling the weight of the moment on her shoulders.

“Shine it here,” he pointed.

Looking over his shoulder, the combination of grease and gears confounded her. “What are you trying to do?”

“There’s a filter in here, I think. If I can get to it, maybe I can clean it out, and maybe it will start working.”

“Do you need me to do anything else?”

“No. I just don’t know where it is, ya know?”

Saki continued to watch as Lane tinkered with futility. It was now clear to her that he did not know what he was doing. When she flipped the phone, she saw the battery symbol on red.

“The phone is almost dead,” she said resigned.

Lane dropped his wary arms onto his knees and lowered his head. “Shut it off.”

“We probably have a few more minutes,” Saki added.

“But if the phone is dead, it wouldn’t matter if we get the engine working. We wouldn’t know where to go. Shut it off.”

Lane returned the hood of the engine and snapped it into place. Saki then turned the phone off, leaving the two of them in absolute darkness.

It wasn’t dark for long, though. With the phone off, their eyes slowly adjusted. To their surprise, the moon appeared, surrounded by a galaxy full of stars. With the gentle tone of the ocean on the fiberglass hull, the sky seemed peaceful. Still seated next to the engine, both were compelled to look up, small compared to the vastness of space. Suddenly, the fact that they were wolves and that someone else controlled the island felt inconsequential.

After allowing the peacefulness of the night sky wash over them, Saki spoke.

“Could you have done it? Killed them, I mean. I’m not sure if I could’ve done it.”

“You don’t know what all Dax has done. He’s hurt a lot of people. He turned you, and that’s the least of it. If he’s not stopped, more people are going to die, and whose fault would that be?”

“Does it have to be ours?”

“If we know and do nothing, how is that different from doing it ourselves?”

Saki sat in silence staring at the stars. Perhaps Lane was right. Maybe he did have to take responsibility for some of what Dax had done. And by the same logic, now she did as well.

“Could you have killed his pack? Maybe it isn’t 50, but there’s still a lot of them. And we know some of them. I’ve gotten to know Gully and Frank and Mark. They’re not like I expected. They just kids.”

“Dax is the same age. We’re the same age. The law will put you in jail just as fast if you’re a kid or if you’re not.”

“I just feel like there could have been another way.”

“There still could be. We’re not done yet. I haven’t given up.”

Saki wanted to be enthusiastic but she didn’t have it in her. She appreciated his optimism, though. They couldn’t both feel like she felt. Because she was starting to feel like this was the end.

“Lane?”

“Yeah?”

“I want you to know that I love you. I don’t know how you feel about me, but I love you. I love everything about you. I’ve never met anyone like you, and as long as I live, I will never meet anyone like you again.”

“I love you too, Saki,” he said calmly. “But this isn’t the end.”

“Why do you love me?” She asked wanting desperately to know. “Is it just because of the way I smell?”

Lane paused. “I’m not as good with words as you are, Saki.” He paused again. “You’re so smart, ya know? I’ve never met anyone as smart as you. And, you aren’t all depressed. You know what I mean? Like, you don’t let the fact that you’re a wolf stop you. Like, when I found out, I almost did really bad things to myself. I almost didn’t make it. And sometimes I think that I shouldn’t have. Even Dax and Torque were the same way.

“Not you, though. You’re this amazing person who doesn’t let things stop you. All you do is look around and adjust. That’s amazing to me. You’re, like, the coolest person I know.”

The two sat in silence until Saki got up, extended her hand toward Lane, and led him to the front of the boat. Finding space on the floor, both laid down. Kissing him once, she rolled over and snuggled into his arms. In his grasp, she fell asleep.

Chapter 8

When Saki woke up, she was starved. Reaching back for Lane, she found him gone. She spotted him at the back of the boat with his phone in hand. The first of the morning light glowed behind him like an aura, and the light from his phone lit his face like he was in a painting.

“Where are we?” Saki asked in a scratchy morning voice.

“Not too far from the southern tip of Andros. We could still make it.”

Saki wanted to be excited, but she couldn’t escape the hunger pangs she felt. When her stomach growled loudly, Lane looked back.

“Let’s get something to eat. It’s going to be a long day. We need to keep our strength up.”

She wasn’t sure why she had to keep up her strength, but certainly, he needed to keep up his. The only chance they had of survival was him fixing the engine, and he couldn’t do that if his eyes blurred with hunger.

The half of corned beef sandwich that they both enjoyed wasn’t much. It almost made them hungrier than before they ate it. But it did clear their minds. So once the sun provided enough light for Lane to look down into the engine, he began again.

Today, he asked for her help more often. Parts of the engine took two people to lift, and by midday, the engine head was completely torn apart.

“Okay, I think I see it. The filter I was talking about is in there,” he said, pointing to a metal box with tubes running from it. Lane hesitated.

“So, what are you looking to find?”

“Well, if I’m right then when I open that, there will be dirt in there blocking the gas.”

“And if there isn’t?”

“Then…” The expression on Lane‘s face drooped. He swallowed with nervousness and instead of answering, reached for the metal box.

Saki felt like crying again. She had an awful feeling in her chest, and she was beginning to find it hard to breathe.

Lane reached into the engine and retrieved the metal box. Four screws held it together. He quickly released them, removing the lid.

Saki wasn’t sure what she was looking at. It held two things that bounced around like tonsils. She couldn’t see anything that looked like a filter at all. Lane rotated it in search of the same. It wasn’t there. Saki‘s heart dropped.

“I… I was sure it was here. I don’t understand.”

Saki fell onto her knees next to Lane. She stared at the box that he still twirled in his hand. Wilting under the midday tropical sun, her head drooped. Almost by instinct, she picked up the lid of the metal box and flipped it over.

“Wait, is that it?” She said, pointing to netting on the inside top of the metal lid.

Lane quickly took it from her and held it up to his face for a better look.

“I think so,” he said with mounting excitement. “I think that’s the filter.”

Using his flathead screwdriver, he pried the filter from its housing. When he did, the thumb-sized instrument fell into his palm. Flipping it over, he found sand-sized granules clogging the metal grating.

“Here. See! It must have been in the gas. Or maybe it was in the tank and all of the shaking from the waves loosened it and sent it into the engine.”

“So, what does that mean? Can you fix it?”

“Yeah. I just have to clean it off and then put it back together.”

Saki‘s head got lightheaded from his words. Hope was returning to her. Falling back onto her palms, she tilted her reddened face toward the sun. No moment in her life had ever felt better than this. She knew that they would survive. She could do anything with Lane by her side.

Lane showed Saki the filter once the dirt was removed. She knew nothing about mechanics, but even she could see the difference.

It took all of the sunlight for Lane to put the engine back together, and in the end, it still wasn’t complete. Switching on his phone as night fell, they saw that their boat was actually drifting closer to Nassau, having been whipped into the Great Bahama Bank. With any luck, they would be closer still in the morning. Hopefully, Saki could get back to school before Dax‘s pack realized they both were missing. If they figured out the two of them were together, that would end their chance of overthrowing Dax. But if everything went perfectly, they would still get that chance.

As soon as light broke, Lane was back at work. When it came time to flip the engine switch, they were both tense. With the first turn, the engine didn’t start, but Lane shouted “yes” in delight.

“What?”

“That means I put it together right. Try it again,” he said, squeezing the black plastic bubble that ran from the engine.

This time the engine turned over. It made a noise like it wanted to start.

“Try it again,” Lane commanded.

The sound of the engine starting up was an overwhelming sound. It brought tears to Saki’s eyes. And in a flash, Lane was on his feet and throwing his arms around her. Both laughed drunkenly and Lane took hold of the wheel.

“Show me the phone. Let’s get us home.”

Saki collected the phone from her bag. She turned it on as she joined Lane behind the wheel. The app turned on immediately and Nassau looked directly north of their position. Lane reoriented the boat and as the dot representing them on the phone blipped toward Nassau, the phone shut off.

“What happened?” Lane demanded.

“It’s dead,” Saki explained looking up at him.

After sharing an extended gaze, Lane‘s demeanor changed. “That’s okay. We know which way were going. We just have to keep the boat pointed due north,” he said, pointing at the compass in front of him, “and we’ll be okay. That’s how sailors did it for hundreds of years. We got this,” he emphasized with a smile.

Hours passed before anything happened. Miles of water was replaced by more water. Saki wasn’t sure what time it was, but she was sure the first school bell had already rung. It was now a matter of how late she would be for school and how much her mother would overreact to her being missing.

The sight of land on the horizon was an overwhelming experience. It was still possible that it was the wrong island, but wherever it was, they now knew they would live. Rounding the island brought Paradise Island Bridge into view, and Saki jumped a little with excitement.

With the celebration aside, they knew what they had to do next, after kissing the ground. They had to call her mother and get to school. They couldn’t arrive at the same time. At some point, Dax‘s pack had to see that both of them were there. Although Saki looked burnt to a crisp, Lane‘s dark complexion simply glowed a little. It was impossible to tell that he had spent two days in the sun even if it was obvious that she had.

“I was staying at a friend’s house, Mom,” she said, offering a horrible excuse. “I’m sorry, I forgot to call… I can’t, I have to get to school… Yes, I’ll be there… Yes…. I said I’m sorry… Yes Mom, I’ll be there… Bye.”

Saki hung up Lane‘s phone, which was plugged into the car charger, and turned to Lane as they sat, parked in front of her house. “Yeah, she completely flipped out. This isn’t gonna be good.”

“You ready for this?”

“Yeah. Let’s get this over with,” Saki concluded.

On the drive to school, the two compared class schedules. Saki still had time to make it to the beginning of English class where Patrick would see her. If Lane showed up at lunch, Gully and Frank would definitely be there. In this scenario, their appearances would be staggered and with any luck, they could get away with it.

Saki stepped into English class seconds after the bell. Patrick looked up at her with a distorted look on his face. She took the seat next to him and took out her books.

“What happened to your face? You are completely burnt,” Patrick inquired.

Her reply came to her like a revelation. “My family went to the beach on Sunday, and I fell asleep in the sun. I was throwing up from sun poisoning last night so my mom took me to the doctor this morning to get something for it.”

Saki did her best to hold back her self-satisfaction. It was some quick on-her-feet thinking, and she knew it. Barring the twins leaking that she had been missing all weekend, no one had reason to believe anything else.

“Oh man, that sucks,” he whispered under the voice of the teacher.

“I’m feeling better though, thanks,” she said, turning her attention to class.

By homeroom, everyone had heard about her horrible case of sun poisoning and offered her sympathy. A few of the darker-skinned students had never even heard of sun poisoning before, and Saki enlightened them.

Saki’s story did more to introduce the other students to her than anything she had done all year. If she had entered school with sun poisoning, she wouldn’t have gotten involved with Dax and wouldn’t be a wolf today. She considered if that would have been better.

“Do you want to come over today?” Gully asked, sure what her answer would be.

“I shouldn’t. The doctor said I should rest. I should just go home and sleep.”

“Yeah, that’s probably best,” Gully replied peering closer at her reddened skin. “Man that’s bad,” he concluded, before turning around.

Saki knew that she shouldn’t, but she had to take a quick look back at Lane. His pack was looking unusually quiet. He returned her glance. That was all she could allow herself, though. She knew that especially now, she had to keep as much distance from him in public as possible.

“And where the hell have you been?” Her mother said, yelling at the top of her lungs as Saki entered their van. “Oh my God! Look at your face! What the hell have you been up to?”

Saki slid into the backseat as quickly as she could, closing the door behind her.

“Please, just drive. Drive!” She said, looking out the window to see who had heard.

“Don’t you tell me what to do, Missy. I am your mother. Don’t you disrespect me.”

“I’m sorry, Mother,” she replied hurriedly. “I’ll tell you everything. But please just drive,” Saki begged.

Saki‘s mother paused for a moment, then turned and drove away. Saki looked back at the students, trying to figure out if anyone heard the conversation. It was possible that her mother just blew it. But it wasn’t necessarily the case. Saki turned back around and looked up into the rearview mirror to find her mother’s eyes staring back at her. She looked for only a second before glancing up at Marnie who was in the front passenger seat. She, too, was looking back at Saki.

“Okay, we’re driving. Now where the hell have you been?”

Saki gave herself as much time to think as possible. Nothing was coming to mind until she considered the truth.

“I have a boyfriend,” she began.

“You what?” Her mother retorted.

“Don’t act surprised. I told you I had a boyfriend 2 months ago. You just didn’t believe me,” Saki said, feeling herself take the upper hand. “And he has a boat,” she continued.

“Like I told you, I went to the beach on Saturday. It was just Rose Island Beach,” she said, referring to the popular island a few miles off the coast of Nassau.

“And you didn’t think to add that?” her mother said.

“You didn’t even believe that I could have a boyfriend, so why would I tell you that?” Saki said, challengingly. Saki waited for a reply.

“Say what you’re gonna say,” her mother said, annoyed.

“Well, when we were leaving Rose Island, the boat broke down, and we were stranded. So for the last two days, we were floating in the boat in the middle of the ocean. He finally fixed it this morning, and we got home as soon as we could.”

Silence filled the car. No one spoke, and Saki wasn’t sure why.

“So you expect me to believe that for the last two days you and your boyfriend were floating out in the middle of the ocean?”

“You see how burnt I am? How do you think I got this? This is why I don’t tell you anything. I tell you that I was stranded out in a boat for two days, and you don’t believe me?” Saki was irate and sucked her teeth in disgust.

“Don’t you suck your teeth at me.”

“Ya see, that’s why I don’t tell you anything.”

“So you tell me that you were floating in the middle of the ocean for two days?”

“Isn’t that what I just said?”

Her mother paused as the realization settled in. “Of all of the ridiculous things that you’ve done. How could you be so stupid? You could be dead now, all over some boy. You are never seeing that boy again. Do you hear me?”

“I could have just lied to you, ya know? I fine. I didn’t have to tell you the truth,” she said, practically yelling.

“Don’t you talk to me like that in my car. I will stop this car right now, and you will walk your burnt ass home. But don’t you talk to me like that. And you will never see that boy again. As long as you live under my roof, you will follow my rules. And when you think you’re woman enough, then you cross me. See if I won’t throw you out quick. You understand me?”

Saki was frozen in shock.

“I said, do you understand me?”

Saki was boiling inside. It took everything in her to hold her wolf back. She focused on the trees and buildings whipping by outside the car. “Yes ma’am,” she said forcing the words through her teeth.

“I didn’t hear you.”