No Remorse (6 page)

Hiking through the trees, they headed for the cave they had found a couple months earlier. Blake and Amber had explored and talked for hours before realizing how late it had become. Laughing, they rushed back to the s
chool before anyone missed them. The cave was their secret hiding place where they could go and get away from the world.

Blake agreed to return at midnight and rushed back to the school. Amber spent the evening pacing, watching the entrance, waiting anxiously for Blake to arrive, and then jumped in startled surprise when he silently and suddenly appeared.

A smile lit Blake’s face when Amber ran happily towards him. Getting into her room had been the easy part, packing her stuff was another story. Once inside the room, Blake quickly realized that her small pack wasn’t big enough. So he had taken his backpack and filled it instead.

“I know you don't have much and thought you might want it all and since mine is bigger…” he explained with a shrug as he held the pack out for her to inspect.

When Amber stretched her arm out to take his pack, Blake dropped it. He grabbed her hand and pulled her into his arms and kissed her. It was a long deep kiss that had their blood running hot. Lifting his head, they stared into each other’s glazed eyes, speechless. This was the first kiss they had shared, Ambers’ first kiss ever.

Blake pulled her back into his arms, holding her close against his warm chest. His ragged breathing matched hers. They held onto one another tightly.

Amber was nearly eighteen years old and it was the first time she had really felt the presence of her wolf when it slammed against her insides wanting out, responding to his wolf’s closeness. Amber wanted to keep his arms wrapped around her, wanted him inside her body.

Blake didn’t want to let her go, but was forced to release her when Amber reluctantly stepped back, breaking his hold on her. With a shimmer of tears in her eyes, she picked up the green backpack and turned away. Blake caught up to her and pulled her hand into his.

Walking out of the cave hand in hand, they trekked through the trees to where the highway crossed into the forest. As Blake had told her, he had a car there, its engines running quietly, waiting patiently for Amber.

They stopped, staring at the car until Blake pulled Amber into his arms, kissing her again. This time, the kiss was so tender she couldn’t stop the tear from slipping down her cheeks. He held her close to his pounding heart, drawing a deep breath, breathing her scent into his lungs, while she did the same.

“I can come with you,” Blake suggested, voice husky with emotion. When Amber quietly shook her head no, he reluctantly released her. Without looking back or saying another word to him, Amber climbed into the back seat of the car.

The sedan eased out onto the road. Amber knew if she had looked at Blake before getting in, she would’ve relented and allowed him to come. Wanting one last look, she turned in the seat to peer out the rear window. The last thing she saw was Blake standing with his hands in the pockets of his jeans staring sadly at the back of the car that took her away.

∞∞∞

Shortly after leaving the school, Amber still hadn’t shifted yet, but her senses were becoming stronger; she could see better at night and farther than ever before. Things were sharper and more colorful. Amber could hear people whispering from across
the street and hear their heartbeats when she got closer to them. It amazed and scared her at the same time.

Staying on the run Amber found that being a werewolf came in handy, but was also somewhat of a hindrance. Graced with a full-blooded werewolf’s genetics, not aging and not looking old enough to work became a problem at first. Then the surprising handy ability to alter her appearance emerged. Amber was not aware that this was a werewolf’s ability, but was happy that she had figured it out. Even though she was still unable to change, this ability came in handy; she could get jobs working in the roadside bars during her travels.

By working in the bars, which tended to be dark, there was less of a chance of being recognized. With her enhanced senses, Amber could smell when a werewolf entered the bar, allowing enough time to swiftly disappear out the back. Amber’s looks made it easy to find employment while traversing the countryside. It was in the werewolf’s nature to eat humans, so working the bars was the perfect way and the best place to scope out potential prey. The job was far from glamorous and Amber knew first-hand the reason for the high turnover rate of employees. The men couldn’t keep their hands off the girls, but it paid well. So Amber moved from bar to bar, earning enough money for food and shelter, eventually saving enough to buy a vehicle.

It wasn’t much of a car, but it kept her from walking or running everywhere she wanted to go. Over the next couple of years, Amber continued the training he
r mother had taught her by tracking and stalking what would soon be her prey, once she finally turned.

∞∞∞

Years later, by the time Amber finally turned, she had become a highly trained and skilled predator. Adept at staying hidden, she knew how to track
her prey. Amber knew early on that she would not prey on an innocent human. The person would be a threat to other humans, like Andrew Small.

Back in her motel room, Amber had dug up dirt on Andrew. His name was all over the local news. The small town’s newspaper’s website proudly showed off their small town’s gossip.

The Internet is an amazing tool. It didn’t take much an effort to get information on Andrew’s past. He was on his third marriage and he apparently cheated, a lot! The latest report on him is what caught Amber’s attention. Andrew had been released from jail for attacking a woman. In fact, over the past ten years, he had been charged with attacking half a dozen women, but somehow the charges had always been dropped. Amber wondered how many women he had attacked who hadn’t reported him.

Choosing Andrew as her second victim had been a good choice. Amber’s first had been the child molester who had
captured young girls
, then bragged about his conquests to his l
owlife friends at the bar when she overhe
ard their conversation
. His camping trip had not ended too well for him.

∞∞∞

With so much time on her hands, Amber couldn't stop thinking about what little her mother had taught her, wondering if she would learn to control the beast that resided inside h
er. Her mother had told her it would be hard and she would have regrets after a kill, but there were choices. Humans were not the only thing they could feed on. Amber continued to worry. Her mother was a typical werewolf, but Amber was not.

Throughout the past two months, Amber had changed at least a dozen times, but kept her human victims to a minimum; only the two scumbags. Each kill had been planned.

She rented a room where she could get in and out without being seen. The forest was a couple hundred yards away, allowing Amber to slip out of her room during her unexpected changes to run and pursue rabbits, squirrels, and other small animals that resided in the thicket. Deer were supposed to be good, but Amber didn’t know if she wanted to kill Bambi’s mother. The horns on the bucks were deadly to a
pup.
Amber ate whatever was available; as a werewolf, she couldn’t be too picky.

Her wolf learned really quick how to avoid the nasty smelling skunks. Rats were her least favorite, but had worked when hunger had almost overtaken rational thought, when nothing else had been available.

Amber often wondered what it was like to be part of a pack, to hunt and work as one cooperative group.

Having never been around people longer than what she suffered through at work, Amber didn’t know if she could be around anyone for an extended period of time. Yes, she was lonely, but she was in control of her time. It has been years since her stay at school and being separated from her mother, and Blake.

Since Blake, she had not allowed anyone to become close enough emotionally to become a hindrance. Because she wasn’t a typical werewolf, she couldn’t afford to let anyone get close enough to find out what she was. Amber occasionally thought of Trina and Toby and the few other females she had met along the way. When she met people, men, at work, she always kept them at arms-length, and they learned very quickly to keep their hands to themselves. So interaction with humans was doable. Her life was tolerable.

Some days, though, Amber allowed herself to think about Blake and the kisses they had shared. That felt like it had been a lifetime ago. Now, if she felt herself becoming attracted to a man physically, she got the hell outta Dodge. She was literally a lone wolf in the world. She had nowhere to go and nowhere to stay
.

CHAPTER SEVEN

B
lake drove along the deserted highway, the wind blowing wildly through his thick dark brown hair. The three days growth that shadowed his jaw line was rough. Blake had been driving for days and was tired. He was on the last stretch home, with only a few more miles to go. Head resting against the support for a moment, he stared at the endless road and trees. White lines zipping by, his foot held the gas steady at seventy miles per hour.

Blake barely registered the sound of gravel when the black truck moved off the road onto the narrow shoulder. The slight drop jerked the steering wheel sharply, startling him awake. But it was too late. The truck was already out of control. The last thing Blake saw was the ground flipping by a couple of times. The truck rolled over the steep embankment, bouncing off the large rocks and boulders on its way down towards the bottom of the ravine and the small stream that flowed swiftly through its base. Then everything went black.

∞∞∞

The black wolf stood and watched the vehicle slowly drift to the side of the road, then go out of control. Tires slid in the gravel losing traction, the truck slipped off the road and tumbled down the side of the embankment. There were no tire marks o
n the pavement since the driver never hit the brakes. On the far side of the ravine, from her vantage point high up on the hill, just inside the trees, Amber knew the truck would be there for days, weeks, or even months, before it would be discovered. Picking her way rapidly through the sprinkling of trees and boulders towards the ravine, the smell of blood was strong, urging the wolf forward.

The smell was powerful and Amber felt the eagerness of her wolf wanting to hurry and get there. Still learning her wolf’s needs, Amber wondered why she felt so impatient to get to the man in the truck. Her wolf had eaten earlier and didn’t feel hungry. Halfway down, her ears twitched; the fur on the back of her neck stood on end with the feeling of being watched. Amber stopped and glanced around. Seeing nothing, she cautiously surveyed her surroundings before continuing down the rocky embankment.

There was no movement from the truck, but the smell of the fresh blood called to her. The truck lay partially on its top and somewhat on the driver side door. She could see the shadowed form inside. The wolf tentatively inched her nose through the broken window. The dark red blood was strong and there was lots of it. This man was going to bleed to death, if she didn’t make a meal of him first.

The cut along his forehead was bleeding profusely, but that’s not where the bulk of the blood was coming from. Her yellow eyes took in the male form laying lifelessly, hanging in the seat belt that still restrained him. His arm dangled precariously where the bone had broken, ripping its way through flesh and material. Amber stopped dead in her tracks, peering at the strong facial features and the glazed eyes of man in front of her. Blake groaned slightly, his lids drooped, covering his unfocused stare. Amber felt her stomach give a lurch; she stepped back and stared. She didn’t understand why she had not recognized his scent. There were times that she felt that she was not part of her wolf, even though her wolf was always a part of her.

Amber quickly turned away and ran from the truck. Moments later, returning in human form, buttoning her shirt against the crisp evening air, half running-sliding down the slope, Amber barely avoided the obstacles along the path in her haste to get to Blake. She waded through the low swift moving water of the small gulch that stood between her and Blake.

The realization struck Amber that her wolf had probably recognized his scent long before she had grasped who was in the truck. Blake was never going to be her meal.

Amber raced to the truck, tearing the pale yellow shirt she carried into strips. It was one of her favorite shirts she wore under her button up, but she gave it little thought when falling to her knees beside the truck. Crawling through the passenger door, the broken glass scraped flesh. Amber barely noticed the pain when it sliced through her shirt and skin. Wiping the shattered glass out of the way, she scooted along the inside of the truck to Blake’s unconscious form.

Amber reached for the broken arm, tying strips of material at the elbow to block the steady flow of blood from the forearm. She used the remaining strips of material to form a makeshift sling to hold the arm steady. But she had no idea how she was going to release his seat belt and stop him from falling; possibly damaging his arm even more than it already appeared to be.