Hitchhikers (25 page)

I’m surrounded.

I could try to fight them, and my wolf wants
that. I could rip them to shred. Surrounded like I am, I won’t get
too far fighting them all at once. This isn’t like the attack
outside Zeke’s barn, where only a couple could come at me at once.
This isn’t even like when I killed my father and uncles – there
were only three of them. Ten against one. I might fight better than
most of them, but it will be hard to fight with so many wolves on
my back. And I can’t assume I can fight better than most of them.
They know something I don’t, this invisibility stuff.

There’s only one other option.

I hesitate, not knowing which way to run. I
want to run back the way they came, however they got here, but
without a scent to go by, it’s impossible to know.

Well, it’s probably not down the road, the
way I came.

I dart at the wolves at my left shoulder.
They’ve been waiting for this, and gather their haunches to leap at
me, but as soon as they jump I slide, stiff-legged and belly on the
ground, beneath them. They thought I was going to fight. Now the
chase is on.

Darting through the snow, narrowing avoiding
trees, branches whipping my face and making my eyes tear, I can
hear them panting, leap, racing after me. Now I know how those
rabbits and squirrels felt as I chased them. Blindly running away,
unable to stop and think of a way to outsmart the predator behind
them. I can’t look for a scent.

trees branch duck jump dodge bush jump faster
faster faster

Their scent grows closer, hot and heavy on my
heels. The adrenaline of panic has worn off and pain stabs my lungs
with each breath, my muscles burning with each step.

And then for a split second I get a whiff of
lilacs, and I nearly stop short.

Teeth cutting into my leg forces me to buck
off my pursuer and keep running. Behind me, however, I hear noises
other than those of pursuit. Short growls followed by sharp
whimpers that cut off so fast they leave an echo in the cold air of
the forest. I smell more wolves now, though I can’t see them.

I dig into the snow and run as fast as my
tiring muscles will allow, and finally I feel the wolves behind me
backing off. I’m outrunning them!

Daniel

Her voice, so clear in my head, stops me. I
pivot on my front legs, whipping around into a crouch, ready in
case that black wolf is behind me, somehow tricking me with Kayla’s
voice and scent.

Instead of the enemy pack behind me, racing
to catch up, a different set of wolves – three of them - stand
panting at intervals along the way I came. Their sides heave, and
blood streaks their fur. A couple of wolf carcasses lay cut open,
their glistening red innards steaming into the cool air. I’m not
sure how I know these are different wolves, and not enemy wolves,
but I do. Something about their scent is
pack
. They smell as
familiar as Sunday dinner.

Kayla?
I send out, looking for her
toffee-colored fur.

The wolves move toward me, but one makes her
way to the front of the pack. I yell, “Kayla!” which comes out as a
yelp because I’ve forgotten that I’m not human, and run to her, my
wolf fur melting off along the way until my bare limbs are
floundering in the snow. I throw my arms around the ruff of her
neck and hug her until her pelt fades away and we’re grasping one
another, skin to skin.

“What just happened?” I ask. “Did you kill
all of them?” There are only four wolves including Kayla, against
all those other wolves. Against ten other wolves.

“We managed to ambush them while they were
chasing you,” Kayla explains, smiling and breathing hard. “We knew
they were setting a trap for you, so we got here first. It worked
out perfectly. They never knew we were here. We were able to start
at the back of the pack and pick them off, one by one. Some got
away, but we killed two and injured at least five others.”

“The black one?”

She shakes her head. “He was the leader of
this attack, the most powerful one of this group. He sensed our
presence, and took off before we even got close.”

“I couldn’t smell them,” I tell her. “They
didn’t have a scent at all until I turned wolf.”

Kayla nods. “Pack magic.”

Finally I turn my attention from Kayla to the
other wolves surrounding us, keeping a respectful distance. “This
is our pack?”

“All that’s left.” Kayla gazes at the others,
and they take this as a signal to reveal their human forms.

“Mom!” I cry. “Aunt Julie!” As for the third,
I don’t recognize him. He doesn’t look like my dad, or my uncles.
He looks to be a few years older than me, maybe in his early
twenties, with curly blond hair and eyes of such a pale blue that
at first glance I wonder if he’s blind. But he’s looking directly
at me, not in a challenging way. More like he’s waiting for me.
Finally, when it becomes apparent that he will not be the first to
speak, I ask, “Who are you?”

“My name is Remy Loupe,” he states. And again
waits.

Loupe was my grandmother’s maiden name. I
recall what Kayla had told me, about my great-grandfather, Fallon
Loupe, and the four children who managed to escape his killing
spree. Remy must be the son or grandson of one of the other
survivors.

I nod, and Remy drops his eyes. Tension I
hadn’t been aware of dissolves from the air. I sense that he was
not the leader, even among three women. It’s strange to me that he
is willing to allow me, someone much younger and less experienced,
to have a higher place in the pack.

Daniel

Kayla has returned to wolf form, and quickly
the others follow suit. I’m still sitting on my bare ass in the
snow. I look into her deep brown eyes.

You don’t need me to be your leader, do
you?

I made a mistake, putting this all on your
shoulders. You are strong – but together we can be stronger.

For some reason, this makes my shoulders
droop with relief. I melt into wolf.

Together… I like that idea.

It’s hard to tell if she’s smiling, but I can
feel her happiness radiating into me. I don’t have to be some
impossible superhero responsible for saving the world. I don’t have
to protect Kayla, and she doesn’t have to protect me. We can look
out for each other.

We head off toward home, Kayla and I,
shoulder to shoulder, surrounded by our family.

###

Kate Spofford lives in New Hampshire and
works as a young adult librarian. In her spare time she writes
novels and trains for the circus. For more information, visit her
online at
http://www.katespofford.wordpress.com
.