Shaping Destiny (6 page)

“Did you see anything
before you got here?” I asked.

“No, what do you
mean?”

“There were a lot of men
here, and then a giant wolf came and scared everyone
away.”

“Nobody was out there, but
if I had seen them I would have torn them apart.”

After Max crumpled up the
tape from my arms, I grabbed the two sides of my shirt and wrapped
it around my front. He then moved to my ankles.

“I am not leaving you
again. I know you want a normal life without a bodyguard, but I am
calling my employer and telling him that I’m not leaving your side.
I am sorry if I’ll be intruding into your life, but you’re not
going to get hurt like this again.”

I didn’t say anything. I
just stared at him and admired his kind and gentle nature. Once
finished with my ankles, he scooted even closer to evaluate my
injuries. He locked eyes with me to gauge my reaction while he
slowly and gently placed my arm in his hands. His touch sent fire
through my whole being, a feeling I only felt with Max’s touch.
Every time I saw Max his touches were more intense and the feeling
of never wanting to lose him consumed me. How could I feel such an
extreme connection with this man? A man I knew so little
about.

My breathing started to
increase, and the more he moved up my arm the more I felt blushed.
I physically shuddered and then pulled way.

“I . . . I think I’m
OK.”

He noticed my reaction,
and I hated how transparent I was.

He smiled and looked down
to shake his head. “Come, I have antibiotic wipes in the truck. Let
me get the dirt out.”

We got to his truck, and
he helped me in. He had a black Chevy Avalanche, which he turned on
right away to blast the heat. The gloved compartment was packed
with first aid equipment.

“Wow, do you get hurt a
lot?” I asked.

“You can never be too
prepared.” He ripped open an antibiotic wipe and again glanced at
me in case I was against his touching me. My hands remained on my
lap, but he scooted over and turned the truck light on.

“It’s OK, I know you have
been through a lot, but I am just trying to help you.”

“I know. But I’m fine.
Really! In fact, I have no more pain with it.”

“I can see that. Leah,
your skin is perfect.” He gently moved my hair away and noticed the
scratches were gone from there too. “Do you heal fast?”

“Heal fast? No, I . . . ”
Looking down, I saw my skin was healed. There was no sign of abuse
anywhere on my body. “This is impossible.” I continued to turn my
arms every direction in amazement.

“You have never seen this
before?” he asked.

“No, this has never
happened to me. What’s going on?” I didn’t know whether to be
scared or grateful. “Do you know what’s going on?”

“No, but whatever it is we
need to be extra cautious of how you feel. While you were captured,
did they give you anything?”

“I feel great, normal. I
feel no pain, and no, they didn’t give me anything. Max, this isn’t
right. I’ve had cuts and bruises before; they would take days or
weeks to heal.”

“Okay, let’s not get ahead
of ourselves. Most likely this is a good thing and you have nothing
to worry about. I have seen weird things before, but they always
works out.”

“I guess if I feel OK
there is nothing more we can do right now. But this isn’t normal .
. . I didn’t want to go the hospital anyway.”

“Me either.” He smiled at
me and shifted his truck to drive to start our travels back. “So
tell me everything. While they had you, what did they say? The more
we can learn about them the better.”

Understanding, I started
to replay the night. I told him that they thought I was a monster.
They told me a one-hundred-year-old story about a woman who was
supposedly a shifter and killed and destroyed everything and
everyone in the boss’s family. They were going to get rid of me so
I couldn’t hurt anyone else.

“According to them I am
the devil. They even wanted me to prove it to them by shifting into
something else. Of course I couldn’t, because they are absolutely
crazy!”

“Yeah, crazy . . . so what
do you know about your family? Did you ever hear of anything close
to what they said?”

“No, of course not. For
one thing, my family has no history of murder, and second, I think
I would remember if I inherited a shifting ability.”

“You’re right, stupid
question. I’m just trying to get all the facts.”

“And Max, there was a
giant black wolf that came and rescued me. He was strong enough to
get though that metal garage and frighten all the men away. Did you
see him before you came in? He left just before. I’ve never seen
anything like it.”

“No, but it sounds like I
owe this wolf a thank-you.”

The lights of campus
started to come into view. It read 4:00 a.m. on the truck radio.
What was I going to say to Melissa and the girls? I left them high
and dry at the dance; they probably thought I ditched them. Plus,
it was so late. How would I explain getting back at this time? We
pulled up to the dorms and parked.

“Now Leah . . .” Max
placed his hand upon my knee. “You’re safe, and from now on I’ll be
close. I’ll be with you as much as possible without interfering
with your life.”

His touch made the truck
feel smaller as butterflies filled me. “You’re not
interfering.”

He smiled uncontrollably.
“I’ll be around, OK? Now, get some sleep.”

“Thank you.” I stared at
him for a moment longer, then nodded and slowly got out of the
truck, not knowing when I would see him again.

***

“Girl! Where did you go
last night? The dance was off the hook!” Melissa started bouncing
the bed to wake me up. “Aren’t you supposed to be in that group
thingy this morning?”

“Oh shoot!” I jumped up
and looked at the clock; it was almost lunchtime.

“What happened last night?
When we got back well past midnight, you still weren’t
here.”

Frantically, I started
pulling clothes out of the closet. “Jared called.”

“Yes? Wait, you stayed
with him all night?”

“No! I mean . . . I’m late
for the study group. Sorry I left girls night. Something came up.
But we’ll do it again.” Making it to the bathroom and leaving my
lame excuses behind, I showered and got ready. I grabbed a granola
bar and my bag and darted to the door.

“Every month there’s a
dance!” Melissa yelled from the kitchen.

“Great, I’ll be there. See
ya!” I exhaled.

Skipping anything for
school wasn’t like me. I’ve always gotten straight A’s and been
very faithful to my studies. But telling my study group I was late
because I was kidnapped and almost killed wouldn’t be believable or
smart.

The afternoon air smelled
fresh, as if rain resided just over the mountains. The sky brightly
shone clear. When I smelled hotdogs, my attention switched
entirely. Instantly, I looked through campus in the direction of
the student center. The smell came from there. Images of sizzling
hotdogs on the grill filled my senses. As if the delicious meat lay
just under my nose, I breathed in deeply.

Within a second, my
attention was whisked away again. A spicy, musky, male scent took
over my brain. I knew where it was coming from. Max stood at the
end of the block next to his black truck, casually leaning up
against it. My sharp look shocked him, but he smiled. I smiled back
and shyly looked away. How could I smell him or everything else
that crisply? Strange things were happening, and for the most part
I knew how to stay calm. But when my throat started to tighten, I
knew the confusion of the last month was finally started to creep
under my skin.

“What’s wrong?” Max
asked.

I didn’t see him move, but
my brain was in pity mode. “Oh! Wow! How did you get over here so
fast?”

“Are you answering a
question with a question?”

“Very funny. Umm . . .
nothing’s wrong. I’m fine.”

“Yeah, and I got over here
so fast because I’m Superman,” he sarcastically said. “Both of our
answers are a lie, so should we start over?” He stopped walking,
which made me turn to him.

“I grew up a hard worker.
I can handle a lot, and my father made sure he taught me that life
is not easy. I may not be street smart, but I know what it means to
be strong. It’s just that . . . this month has been emotionally and
physically demanding. And this morning . . . oh, never mind. I’m
fine. It’s nothing I can’t handle.” I turned again to start walking
away.

He reached to grab my
biceps, which only made me tingle down to my fingertips. “This
morning? I have seen you all day from the time you left your
room.”

The thought of him
watching thrilled me. “You wouldn’t believe me even if I told
you.”

“There are a lot of things
I believe in. Try me.”

I thought about how well
he had handled our strange event last night with my skin healing on
its own. He was the ideal person to talk to about this, so with a
small inhale I told him.

“I can smell everything.
It’s not normal. Not only can I smell with much more intensity, but
I can pinpoint where each smell is coming from without a doubt.” I
looked away. “I can even smell you.” Silence occupied the space
between us. “OK, you can tell me I’m crazy.”

“You’re not crazy.” He
gently moved my chin so I could look into his eyes. “If anything
else happens out of the ordinary will you tell me? Every little
piece we find out about you or the enemy is very important. I’ve
told you before, I’ve seen strange. Whatever happens, we’ll work on
this together.”

“Thank you.” I wanted to
say more than that but didn’t know how to show my appreciation.
Just then, both Max and I looked through campus.

“Jared,” we said in
unison.

Max darted his head back
at me. We were now only inches apart.

“You could smell him,” I
whispered.

Max’s sign of stress was
when he ran his hand through his hair, and this time wasn’t an
exception. Slowly, he backed up, keeping his eyes on me. Our stare
conveyed confusion and yearning. I could feel our connection trying
to will us to stay together, but with Jared closing in, now was not
the time. As Max quickened his exit, Jared’s voice hit my
ears.

“Leah! Hey!” He waved.
“Over here!”

I turned, pulling together
the best smile I could. “Long time no see.”

He wrapped his arms around
me, picked me up, and spun. “No kidding, I’m so used to seeing you
constantly. Did you have fun last night?”

“You mean at the
dance?”

“Yeah, of course. Did you
do something else besides that?”

An instant fast-forward of
last night flashed in my head. “No, just the dance. It was a lot of
fun.”

“Good. So where are you
headed? It’s Saturday.”

We started to walk again.
“To a study group for bio. Group projects were assigned last
week.”

“It’s Saturday! You can
take a break. Which reminds me, I think your phone is shut off. It
goes right to voicemail.”

“It’s not off; it’s
broken. I dropped it last night, and it shattered.”

“Really? Man. OK, let me
know when you get another one. I’ll stop by your room later,
OK?”

“Sounds good. Where are
you going?

“Just to Steve’s. He has a
new game.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “So, see you tonight?” He
placed his hand on my arm.

I nodded, holding back a
laugh. “Tonight.”

Saturday nights, Melissa
cooks lasagna. It’s her famous meal and no one complains. It tastes
amazing. But this time dinner filled the apartment with much more
flavor. It wasn’t just sauce; it was tomatoes, basil, onions, and
garlic. The noodles were flour, eggs, and oil. I smelled every
individual ingredient as if twenty different meals were cooking at
the same time.

The oven painfully
announced the food was done. I covered my ears, trying to keep the
excruciating beeping from hitting my eardrums.

“Leah, you OK?” someone
mumbled in the distance. “Leah?” I felt a hand on my
back.

Melissa got to the oven to
shut off the timer and pull out the food.

“Leah, you were yelling.
What’s going on?” Jared said.

I looked at him in
confusion. “Yelling? The oven was so loud it was killing my ears.”
He looked at me in the same way I looked at him. “I didn’t even
know you got here.”

“I heard you yelling from
down the hall. I just barged in.” He knelt in front of me, looking
very concerned. Melissa and the other girls stood behind Jared,
just watching.

“You guys,” I said,
standing up, “I am totally fine. Sorry I scared you all; to me the
oven sounded so loud it hurt my ears. Maybe I’m just coming down
with an ear infection or something.” I placed my hands to my ears
and started into the kitchen. “This food smells wonderful, though,
do you mind if I have some?”