CHAPTER b29 /b

Elias and I were lying together in bed. I could feel his hands moving softly over me, and although he was being very gentle, I could also sense how excited he was bing. That made me feel nervous and a little scared, so I stopped him from going any further.

I quickly sat up and couldn’t bring myself to look at him. I kept saying sorry again and again. I just wasn’t

ready for things to go that far between us. But he sat up behind me, rested his chin on my shoulder, and

told me not to apologize.

He told me there was nothing for me to feel sorry about. He admitted that he shouldn’t have assumed I was ready. He said he wouldn’t assume again and would let me decide when I was ready ito /itake that step. I just nodded.

We stayed in the motel for the rest of that night, but the next morning, we checked out and headed to a

diner in town for some breakfast.

We chose a booth by the front window, and after we sat down, Elias went to use the bathroom. I was

reading the menu when I noticed two guys around my age with a rough looke in and sit at the booth

behind me.

“Hi there,” one of them said to me.

“Hello,” I replied over my shoulder, then quickly turned back to the menu.

“We haven’t seen you around before. Are you new around here?” he asked.

“Just passing through,” I answered.

“That’s a shame. There’s a party tonight. We’d love for you toe,” he said.

“Sorry. We’re leaving right after breakfast,” I told him.

B F F S 3 F S S 2 O S FEE bJ /b

“And who’s we?” the other guy asked.

“My boyfriend and I,” I said. I was a bit surprised at how naturally the word iboyfriend /icame out. I mean, he

basically was my boyfriend, but I’d never said it out loud before. It felt a little strange to use the title.

“Well, maybe he’ll want to stick around too,” the second guy added.

“He doesn’t,” Elias said from in front of me. The two guys looked up at him, taking in his size and the

strong muscles that marked him as a werewolf warrior. And with the re he gave them, they backed off immediately. They could tell he was ready to take them down just for speaking to me. So they said nothing else to me, turned around in their booth, and started talking to each other instead. Elias slid back into the

seat next to me.

I just smiled at him, and when the waitress came over, we gave our breakfast order. As we waited, I looked outside to see what was happening on the street.

CHAPTER 29

“How far is it to where we’re going?” I asked.

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“It’s still a bit of a hike. Sorry about that. We had to keep the locations pretty far apart to make sure ino /ione

could track them,” he exined. I nodded, understanding. fn102e Discover more novels at find~novel/fn102e

After we finished our breakfast, Elias paid the bill and we left the diner, walking through the rest of the

town. People were staring at us a lot, which made me feel a little ufortable. But Elias told me it was

just because we were strangers in a small town where everyone knows each other. They didn’t recognize

us, and Elias’s size probably didn’t help. It was hard for him to blend in.

Once we got out to the highway, we headed straight into the woods again so we wouldn’t be easily

spotted from the road. And if we got attacked, we’d have the upper hand. I was feeling more rested now

and had no trouble keeping up with Elias, though I didn’t know how long that wouldst.

I started to think of this as the start of my training. These long hikes through the forest. And when I told

Elias that, he actually thought it was a great idea. It was a form of training, and at the same time, we were

making our way to where we needed to go. I was getting a bit of physical activity, which I’d need for

training anyway.

Elias made sure to keep holding my hand the whole time. He didn’t want to let go in case we got

separated. And in these woods, that could happen easily–they were dense and tough to navigate.

We had been walking for close to three hours when I began to hear something in the distance. I came to a

stop, and Elias halted beside me. It felt strange to me, because I hadn’t had any werewolf abilities until I

turned sixteen–just a few days ago. But now, I was hearing everything. I had the enhanced senses, like

sharper hearing and better vision. I could tell I was stronger than I used to be, though still nowhere near as

powerful as Elias or the rest of his pack.

So when I suddenly stopped in the middle of the forest, Elias grew worried.

“I hear something,” I said.

“Crap,” he muttered under his breath.

“What is it?b” /bI asked.

“I’ve been hearing it too, for a little while now. I was hoping you hadn’t noticed,” he admitted.

“Someone’s following us, aren’t they?” I asked him.

“Yeah. But I have no idea who it is,” he replied. I stood there, staring toward the source of the sound, but

Elias kept nudging me to keep moving. He didn’t want us to stay in one ce and make ourselves easy

targets.

“Elias, if we keep going like this, we’ll end up leading them straight to the new location. We have to draw them away,” I said. He looked at me like what I’d said had just registered. He realized that I was right–it meant taking a different path and extending our trip, but we couldn’t risk bringing the followers to the safe

spot.

CHAPTER 29

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“Alright,” he said. Then he turned and began heading back toward the highway, and once we reached the road, we stayed on it for about thirty minutes before we found a dirt road and followed it instead.

We eventually came across a farmhouse and looked around to see if anyone was nearby, but it seemed

abandoned. I walked over to a faucet near the house and got a drink from it. I was incredibly thirsty, and

we didn’t have any supplies with us.

We were far from the forest now. Instead, we were surrounded by open farnd, which meant there

weren’t any good hiding spots for whoever might be tailing us. It made it harder for them to sneak up on

us, though it also left us exposed. They could spot us more easily–but at least we’d be able ito /isee them

As we kept going along the dirt path, I started to hear the sound of heavy paws hitting the ground. I wasn’t

the only one–Elias kept ncing behind and around us. The steps sounded heavy, like they belonged to

something huge, but we couldn’t see anything. We could hear it, but even in this open space, nothing was

visible. Elias held my hand tighter and we quickened our pace. He wanted to put more space between us

and whatever was behind us. But no matter how fast we walked, it didn’t help. So we broke into a run

down the dirt road.

We had already passed the farmhouse, and there weren’t any other buildings in sight where we could take

cover. Not that Elias would’ve gone into one anyway. He wouldn’t risk humans getting caught in a

werewolf conflict. One of the most important rules among werewolves was that humans were never to

find out about them. And we definitely weren’t allowed to involve them in anything unless a werewolf was

mated to a human, which was extremely rare.

Whatever was following us was getting closer–we could both tell. It was directly ahead, on the path. But

we still couldn’t see it. Elias turned to look at me, confusion and concern written all over his face. He was

scared I’d get hurt. He moved to shield me, pushing me behind him, though I could still see around his

body.

Then, all of a sudden, a witch’s cloak was pulled back–and we finally saw the creature charging at us. It

was only about ten feet away now, and it wasn’t a werewolf. It was bigger. A lot bigger. And far more

terrifying. Something I’d only ever read about in books. With one big difference–it was a shifter, just like

us, but definitely not a werewolf.

It was a freaking werebear.

b3 /b