“She’s perfect the way she is,” he answered vaguely and looked out the window.

Clay laughed.  Gabby looked as confused as I felt, but then understanding lit her eyes.

“Have you felt the other part of my ability?  The attraction I have on men?”  I nodded recalling the dreams from this life.  “I transfer that, too.  When I transferred it to Clay,” she smiled and her eyes drifted to him.  He gave a tiny shake of his head as his teeth made a brilliant appearance.  “Well, I Claimed him on the spot,” she said.

Ah.  So Luke wouldn’t be able to resist me?  Sign me up!

Gabby and I shared a look, but Clay kept too close of an eye on Gabby.

“I’d guessed about there being another race,” Gabby said quietly.  She looked at Clay sadly.  “We came up here a day early because they tried challenging Clay.  The men had a different color spark.  While one had Clay distracted, another came in from the back.  Clay heard and got there in time.  But not before I saw the man.”  She turned and looked at me, clearly upset.  “I felt it.  The pull.  But it felt so wrong,” she whispered.

“Because for you, it was,” I said.  Then I looked at Clay.  “To the death?”

He gave the barest shake of his head.  That was a problem.  But I didn’t say anything more.

Chapter Eighteen

A week later we reached Georgia. We’d driven through a wicked storm and ended up a little further south than where we wanted to be.  With Gabby’s watchful eye, we’d avoided detection, though we’d experienced a few close calls.  We’d woken one morning to a knock on our door and a quick “pack up.”  We’d left that hotel minutes before the Urbat reached town.  They were only scouting Gabby assured us, but no one wanted to take the chance.  She said their net was still spread wide.  They were still trying to find us.

They had managed to catch a lone werewolf the fourth day after our departure from the Compound.  The Elders immediately reached out to the man and remained mute for several hours.  I shivered watching their faces and imagined the poor werewolf begging for information to give his captors as they tortured him.

Luke wrapped his arm around my shoulders and whispered words I couldn’t remember afterward.  He understood that I relived my own tortured pasts while the man remained in the Urbat’s hands.  When the Elders started speaking again, I knew his torture was over.  I struggled to pull myself out of my dark memories.  Luke was my anchor.  He held my hand through it all, worry etched on his face.

He continued to fuss over what I ate, too.  Under his care, I put on a few needed pounds and finally got more than two consecutive nights of good sleep.  He started sleeping with a bag of chips next to the bed until I woke with crumbs in my hair and put a stop to his snacking.

We trudged into the lobby of yet another hotel, dripping and tired of being on the road.  I was beginning to wonder if anywhere would ever feel like home again.  Nana came up to me and pulled me away from Luke.

“I’d like to take out the stitches today.  It was a shallow enough cut that it should be fine, but you’ll need to take it easy.”

I eagerly agreed.  They were itching like crazy and uncomfortable.  Once we had our rooms, she knocked on our door.  Luke held my hand as she cut the first loop.  It didn’t hurt.  Then she tugged.  I suffered a sharp sting on the surface as the stitch broke free from the healing skin.  My stomach turned over at the queer feeling of something sliding under my skin.

“That was the easy one,” Nana said.  “A small one I did as a test to make sure you’d sleep through it.  The next few are longer running stitches.”

I didn’t like the sound of that.  More tugging, a little bleeding, and a lot of that under the skin crawling occurred over the next few minutes, but then she was done.  I looked down at my stomach unimpressed with the new decoration on my skin.  I sighed and moved to tug my shirt down.

“Not yet,” she said reaching down for a bottle.  “It needs to be cleaned again.”  She passed the small bottle of rubbing alcohol to Luke.  “I think you can take it from here.”

I did not want the alcohol on all the new holes in my skin.  Most of them bled like little pinpricks.  Luke watched me with a smile when I slowly tugged my shirt down.

“You heard her,” he said.  “Let’s do this quick and then we can grab dinner.”

“I’m too sick for dinner.  Let’s skip it,” I said referring to the cleaning.

“Bethi, you’re tougher than this,” Luke said.

His gentle words made me feel like a coward.  So, I made a face at him and exposed the cut.  “Go on, you sadist.  Inflict some more pain on your poor little human.”  I closed my eyes waiting for the pain, but felt nothing.  Then, something brushed my forehead.  A soft kiss.  I smiled.  He did that when he wanted to comfort me.  It always worked.

A light touch of something cold on my almost healed cut elicited a gasp from me.  Immediately, the antiseptic sting followed.  He methodically touched each spot.  I knew he had finished when he placed another kiss on my forehead.

Opening my eyes, I caught his tender look as he apologized.  “I’m sorry I hurt you.”

I gave a little laugh.  “You didn’t hurt me.  I did.  I’m good at that.”

He helped me sit up.  “But not anymore.  Never again.”  He placed gentle fingers under my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze until I nodded.

Satisfied, he moved away from the bed and cleaned up the tissues he’d used.  I stood slowly, testing my capabilities.  It felt weird.  It was probably in my head, but I worried the wound would pop right back open. So, though I stood straight, my movements were slow and easy like Nana recommended.

“Since we’re eating at the hotel’s restaurant, it might be better if you leave that here,” he commented nodding toward the knife strapped to my thigh.

After leaving the compound, I’d taken to wearing my knife strapped to my leg.  Nana had loaned me a cute peacoat to replace Luke’s shredded jacket.  The new coat covered the knife whenever we stopped.

Sighing, I bent and released the clasp.  I handed the bundle to Luke and watched him tuck it into our bag.  When he joined me at the door, he placed another gentle kiss on my forehead.  “We’ll all be there,” he murmured.  “You won’t need it.”

I gave the bag a long wistful glance and left with Luke.

Down in the lobby, the others waited.  The boys were being entertained by Grey and Jim doing “up-downs”.  The term wasn’t something I associated with what they did.  Each boy held the thumbs of one of the men.  The men closed their hands over the boy’s wrist and then started lifting and lowering them.  It caused fits of giggles, but I didn’t see how it could be much fun.  To me, it looked like their arms would get sore.  The boys, not the werewolves.  I knew the werewolves could lift like that forever.

“All set?” Nana asked.

I wrinkled my nose.  “Yes.  He got each one.”

She smiled.  “We’ll get you a dessert for putting up with that.”

Aden immediately begged to be let down and scampered over to my side.  “Can I sit by you?” he asked sweetly.  I’d watched how Jim often stole food from Aden’s plate, and Aden in turn robbed whoever else sat closest to him.  No doubt, he wanted my dessert.  Still, I agreed.

The wait staff had already prepared a table for our large party and sat us as soon as we entered the hotel’s dining room.  Luke sat on one side of me with Aden on the other.  Michelle sat on Aden’s other side, close to Emmitt.  Jim was quick to sit across from Aden. Liam was on his other side.

Gabby claimed the spot directly across from me.  Since driving together, she often took every opportunity to talk to me about her gift, trying to figure out all of its possibilities.  We even found a moment free of our men where she’d offered to pass her gift to me.  I’d been so tempted but knew we couldn’t risk her losing her ability to see the sparks and guide our route.  So, I’d regretfully declined the offer.