Rick reached the parking lot at Ernie’s more slowly than he would have liked, but there was no help for it. The wound Dillon had given him had bled enough to make him feel physically weak, even a little faint at times. Still, he had charged through the forest at as fast a pace as he could maintain, his huge paws battering aside dead trees rather than going around them.

He paused before reaching the edge of the parking lot, staying in the shadows a moment longer. His breath wheezed in and out as he shifted, his massive bear bulk shrinking down to a still huge human form. His eyes swept over the parking lot, hoping it was still as empty as it had been before.

He was out of luck, however, as two cars full of twenty-somethings were just emptying, excited conversation drifting his way. They were parked fairly close to his truck, so there was no sneaking by them, and he didn’t dare wait for them to set off on their hike. He just didn’t have enough time.

Ah well.

He jogged out of the trees towards his truck, well aware of what he looked like at the moment. A big, physically imposing man, naked, covered in blood and dirt, running out of the forest. A sight, to be sure.

A girl was the first to notice him, letting out a little shriek as he approached. The rest of her group reacted in about as many ways as were possible, some of them diving back into cars, a couple shouting in shock, and a few just standing there with their mouths hanging open.

“Sorry folks,” he called with as much good natured cheer as he could muster. “Got attacked by wolves. Bit cut up.”

He heard the disbelief in the frenzied murmuring that followed his greeting, but there was no point in stopping to try to smooth things over. He went straight to his truck and bent down by the front drivers side tire. He reached in and pulled out a spare key from a small compartment he had personally cut into the wheel well. An important lesson every shifter learned upon reaching adulthood was to always have spares around, whether it be clothes or keys, since in an emergency situation you may have to shift to get out of a sticky spot. Barring a backpack like Gerald’s, that meant not having keys or clothes on you. Best to be prepared.

He unlocked the door to his truck and reached under the seat, pulling out a duffel bag with a spare set of clothes and shoes. He threw them on as quickly as he was able, a simple outfit of jeans and a button up flannel shirt with hiking boots. A quick swipe of a towel across his face and neck to remove as much of the dirt and blood as he could, then he was in the truck and backing out of the parking lot.

It was a big no-no in the shifter community to do what he had just done, drawing so much attention to himself in a way that might point to their secret. Right now Rick didn’t care, and he barely spared a glance for the flabbergasted group of hikers he had interrupted. Laura came first, and he would deal with any other problems he had to at another time.

He opened the glove box as he set off and pulled out his phone. It hadn’t seemed wise to bring it along when he knew he would be ditching his clothes in the forest. He flicked it on and glanced at the screen, seeing that there had been a missed call. It was from a number he didn’t recognize with an out of state area code.

His stomach sank. Vascenti, or one of his goons? He didn’t want to imagine what reason they could have to call him, but none of the ones that sprang to mind were good. He hit redial anyways, though.

The phone rang for a few seconds before it was picked up, and Laura’s voice flooded through the speaker. “Rick!”

The sound of her voice almost brought tears to his eyes, and he pulled off to the side of the road lest his inattention while driving end with him upside down in a ditch. “Laura? Where are you? How did you get a phone?”

Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I got them to stop the car on the highway, then brained one of them with a tire iron,” she said. “I took his phone and ran into the woods, but they’re both looking for me now.”

“I’m on my way Laura. Just stay hidden until I can get there,” Rick said back, already putting the truck back on the road. The acceleration pushed him back in his seat.

“Gotta go. I love you,” she said back, still whispering. He thought he could hear other voices faintly through the speaker.

“I love you too,” he started to say, but the line clicked. She was gone.

He was rocketing down the street by this point, going much faster than was safe. He still had time. He could still help her. He slowed sharply for a turn, the tires screeching against the pavement in protest. He had been foolish to think they could just hide here as long as they wanted, but he wouldn’t let Laura pay for his mistake.

Before too much longer Rick had turned onto the interstate, his foot to the floor. The speed was making the frame of the old truck shake a bit, but he didn’t let up. His mate needed him.

 

Laura hung up the phone before Rick could answer. The voices of the two men were drawing nearer little by little. She wasn’t quite sure how they had found her, as she had sprinted straight into the forest for a full minute before finally turning. She debated whether to wait it out and hope that she could continue hiding behind this bush or to take off again. While she fretted over the decision, the two voices drew near enough to make out.

“…telling you, she went this way!” came a voice that she recognized as the one she had struck. He had come to way more quickly than she had expected. The tire iron had clocked him good.

Must have a pretty thick skull.

The other man responded in frustration. “I think you’re full of shit Jim. I don’t see anything. She could be anywhere out here.”

“I know what I’m doing. See this branch here? How it’s broken? Something came through here recently. The way that grass is pushed down over there? She stepped there hard, she was running.” The voice sounded entirely confident in which he was saying, as well he should from the sound of things.

One of them could track. That changed things entirely. She couldn’t just hide unless she could find a way to not leave a trail while doing it, but short of finding a river out here Laura didn’t know how to do that. The voices were close now, she was sure that she would be able to see them through the trees soon enough.

Decision made for her, she stood up and took off through the woods again, angling a little to the left from the way she had been running before. If this guy could follow her through the forest, the best she could do was to make his job harder by changing directions more often. She knew Rick was on the way, so she just had to hold out until he got here.

She heard an exclamation from behind her. Apparently the men had heard her start running, though she couldn’t make out what they were saying over the sound of her footsteps and the thrumming of her heart. She wouldn’t be caught.

After a solid thirty seconds of running she turned a hard left, then angled right after a short distance.

Let’s see just how well you can follow me.

 

After about five minutes on the highway, Rick had downgraded some shuddering from the trucks frame to a B tier problem. The acrid stench of burnt motor oil now permeated the cabin. While Rick had always tried to make sure his truck was in good shape, it was 30 years old if it was a day and was no longer up to a ninety mile an hour race down the interstate. If it could just hold on a little longer…

His biggest hope was that he could find the blue Toyota before he found a police officer camped out looking for speeders. Trying to bullshit his way through a conversation like that while still mostly covered in blood and dirt would be almost impossible. And seeing how Laura was a fugitive, he couldn’t come clean.

It didn’t matter though. His foot was still on the floor, the truck was still shaking like it was going to fall apart, and there was probably more oil in the air of the cabin than there was left in the motor at this point. This was his last chance to get to her.

 

Laura had lost the sound of the two men behind her a few minutes before. She had been zigging and zagging to throw off the tracker, but had maintained what she thought was a gradual loop to the left, taking her back toward the highway. That’s the direction Rick would be coming from, so it made sense to not go too deep into the forest.

She pulled up at a tree, leaning on it to catch her breath. Her whole body was covered in sweat, the cool shade of the trees doing little to cool down a body that had been running for what felt like an hour. Felt like, but she was sure that it hadn’t been any more than twenty or thirty minutes. Thus far she had been able to stay well ahead of her pursuers, their need to track her many changes of direction slowing them considerably.

She stood straight again and strained her ears, listening for the sounds of cracking twigs that would announce their approach. The forest was silent, however, other than the odd bird chirp or the sound of the leaves rustling in the wind.

Maybe she had actually lost them at some point. The canopy above made the light here pretty dim, and she had done her best to make her turns in places that wouldn’t give her away, pivoting off a large rock here or turning on a patch of hard-packed dirt there. Maybe she was home free already.

She spent another few minutes resting, still listening intently for any indication of pursuit. There was none, however, so she set off back towards the highway, walking slowly, head swiveling constantly. She may have lost them, but they may also have missed a turn and ended up cutting her off.

Feeling more and more confident, she picked up her pace. Rick should be here soon enough, and as long as she was somewhat close to the highway he would be able to find her without too much trouble. She just needed to find a hidden place to wait for him.

She stepped past a small cluster of trees, then heard it. Footsteps rushing her from behind. Close. She tried to turn to see but something hit her in the side of the head, knocking her to her knees.

Laura tried to stand, but her legs failed her. The force of the blow had made everything spin, and she felt sick to her stomach. The best she could do was place her hands on the ground for balance and look up.

Both of the men were there, the one she had struck showing a nasty lump on the side of his head to match the angry sneer on his face. The other man was thinner and more bookish looking than the first, but he had the same cast to his features, an expression that spoke of violence to come.

A boot struck her in the chest, knocking her to the ground. She wheezed, trying desperately to draw air into her lungs, but they didn’t seem to want to respond.

“I take it back Jim, you’re a veritable bloodhound,” the driver said, sounding at least a bit grudging.

“I told you, she was angling back towards the highway,” the one named Jim answered, his voice gloating. “Way easier to just turn sharper and wait her out.”

“Get her up, let’s get her back to the car,” the first one said, replacing the pistol that had struck her in the waist of his pants.

The other man shook his head. “No way. She almost killed me with that tire iron, she isn’t walking out of these woods.”

“Boss said to bring her back alive, wants to talk to her for some reason.”

“I don’t care what the boss said. We’ll tell them we had to shoot her or let her get away, we can make it work.”

The first man sounded reluctant, but like he was coming around. “I don’t know man, the big guy might not accept that for an answer.”

“What choice will he have? If we get our story straight before we get back nobody will have anything on us.”

“Alright, whatever. If I get shit for this you’re gonna be right in it with me buddy.”

The other man smiled, a murderous glint coming into his eyes. “Don’t you worry about a thing,” he said, drawing a gun and pointing it at her.

Was this it? Her life wasn’t flashing before her eyes, which was something of a disappointment. The only strong emotion she felt was sadness at not getting to see Rick one last time. Not getting to say goodbye, to kiss him just once more.

But then a roar resounded through the forest, a roar she recognized. A smile split her face as both men spun to face the sound. They both shouted in alarm, the combined yells little more than a ripple as compared to the tidal wave that was the roar. Laura thought she could already feel the heavy footsteps, though she knew that was impossible.

“What the hell man, are there bears out here?” shouted the driver, his head swiveling to scan the trees around them. He seemed panicked, almost on the verge of flight, though she had no idea which way he would run. The roar had echoed off the trees and hills around them, making it hard to tell which way it had come from.

His partner seemed less visibly scared, though he was shooting glances in all directions, pistol up and pointing. The last few weeks had provided Laura a crash course on guns, and she recognized that the small pistol the man was holding probably wouldn’t be dangerous to a bear.

She heard it then, the steady thump thump of Rick’s paws hurling him through the forest. The two men turned to face the sound, the one named Jim firing his gun in that direction.

What an idiot. If it was a real bear chasing prey and you shot it the bear might just drop its pursuit and chase you instead. If it hadn’t noticed you then you had just alerted it to your presence. Though she was sure that this particular bear would have found them regardless.

She saw him then, a huge brown streak flying across the ground. The gun fired a few more times, though it didn’t look like any of the bullets came anywhere near Rick. The two men were stumbling backwards past Laura, their faces white, inarticulate cries coming from their mouths.

Rick was on them in a flash, barreling past her to shoulder check the armed man at full speed. He flew into a tree, landing in a heap at the bottom. He turned on the other man then, rearing to his full towering height above him. The man tried to back away but tripped. He scrabbled across the ground away from the bestial form, his mouth working but no sounds that she could hear coming out. Rick’s angry growling drowned it all out.

Laura stood up and calmly walked over to the unconscious man, scooping up his gun from the ground next to him. She spoke in a normal conversational voice, knowing that Rick’s growling would stop the scrambling man from hearing any of it. “I’ve got the gun, go wait nearby. I need to ask this guy some questions, and we don’t need him knowing any more about you than he already does.”

Rick’s head cocked towards her when she spoke, though he continued his slow advance on the man. She thought she detected a note of frustration enter his growl as she spoke, a sudden tonal change that conveyed disappointment at not getting to hurt this one. That was unlike him, though she understood the sentiment. She just hoped that Rick didn’t lose some piece of the goodness in his heart because of her fight.

The massive furry form advanced on the man for another second or two, then bounded off into the trees, disappearing after just a few seconds of running.

Laura walked towards the man, raising the gun in front of her. “How did you find me?”

“What? I… We…” the man stammered, clearly not fully understanding her question. He was shaking uncontrollably, and she noticed that he had pissed himself.

Gross.

She needed to focus him. A quick motion to turn the gun away, then she squeezed the trigger. The report resounded through the forest, seeming to bounce back to them from multiple directions. The thug started at the shot, then looked at her for the first time, finally seeming to realize the turnaround that had happened.

“How did you find me?” she asked again, tone as steely as she could manage. Inside she was practically shaking, the adrenaline of her close brush with death still flooding through her body. It took all of her willpower to maintain any kind of calm.

“What? Where did that damn bear go? And your question, how could we not find you?” he asked, clearly not understanding how she could be asking. “You drove out of New York city in a big old red truck. You got caught on like thirty traffic cameras before you were out of the city. Hard thing wasn’t finding you, it was arranging it so the cops didn’t. Took a lot of bribes to get those videos deleted.”

“But why? Even if I could pay back everything my brother owed, you’ve probably spent more than that already just tracking me down!” She was practically shouting by the end, feeling just like a rat being chased by a cat. Could she ever get away from this?

“I don’t know, the boss seems curious about you and your boy toy. Rick, is it?” She snarled, finger tightening on the trigger of the gun. He held up his arms in front of him, beseeching her not to shoot. “Hey hey hey! I really don’t know why we’ve put so much effort into this! I’m not high enough in the organization to really ask questions, you know? I go where they tell me to do what they tell me.”

“So I should just let it slide, huh? You kept me in the trunk of a car, and you were going to let that other idiot kill me. Tell me right now why I shouldn’t just pull the trigger.” She was practically quivering by the time she stopped talking, all the frustration at her predicament threatening to overwhelm what little control she had.

A roar shot through the trees around her, its sound reminding her of who she was. She wasn’t a murderer, even of those who might deserve it. If she let herself sink that low she would no longer know the person staring back in the mirror. She herself would be dead.

Instead she popped the magazine out and pulled the slide back to eject the last bullet. She had become reasonably adept with handguns over the last few weeks. Rick had no qualms with her wanting to be able to defend herself, but without at least some training a gun could be as dangerous to the user as it was to those it was pointed at. They had spent afternoons in wooded clearings much like this one, practicing changing magazines, shooting, and general gun safety all with the small black pistol she had acquired their first day together.

“Guess it’s your lucky day,” Laura told the cowering man. “Don’t count on that luck holding.” With that, she turned and walked away, heading the opposite direction Rick had run. He’d find her before five minutes had passed, and the last thing she wanted to do was reinforce the idea that she had a pet bear. If Vascenti was curious about him, that would only deepen it.

As she had predicted, Rick’s still furry form was walking next to her before too much longer. She threw her arms around his great big neck, tears threatening to spill down her face.

“I thought I’d never see you again!” she murmured into his fur. One of his bulky forelegs pressed against her back, the closest thing a bear could do to a hug without rearing up.

She squeezed him one last time, but noticed that the pressure seemed to cause him pain. She drew back, really looking at him for the first time.

Rick was a mess. His fur was snarled and matted with what looked like blood and fur, and there was a fist sized chunk missing where his neck met his shoulder. He even smelled bad, and Rick never smelled bad.

“What happened? Are you okay? You’ve got to let me bandage this up!”

A sound came from his throat, one that she had come to take as a chuckle. He motioned his head at her, a gesture that meant ‘follow me’ even when coming from an animal’s form. She fell into step beside him, well aware that they couldn’t just stand around in the forest for long. Those two men might come to and decide to give chase, or a state trooper might see the vehicles parked on the side of the highway and come into the forest to investigate.

She held her questions for a few minutes as they walked. Soon enough Rick slowed, then stopped, his form shifting in front of her eyes. The sound of popping bones still sent a little shiver down her spine, but soon it was a man in front of her, the man she had come to love.

He looked even more beat up in this form, however. His fur had done much to hide the blood and grime that covered him, but no longer. He looked like he had been through a warzone. The wound near his neck looked terrible.

“Are you okay Rick? What happened?” she blurted out. She flung herself into his arms before thinking better of it, but he hardly winced at all.

“Me and a couple friends tangled with Dillon’s pack. They won’t be bothering you anymore,” he said into her hair, arms squeezing her close. It felt unbelievably good to feel him again. “I’m sorry I didn’t stop this sooner.”

“Shut up, you did the best you could, and I’d be dead already if it wasn’t for you,” she responded. She knew they had to move, but she needed just a few minutes to press herself into his chest, to hear his heart beating next to her.

They stayed like that for a few moments before he pulled back. “I heard what that guy said, how much trouble they went to finding us.”

“This is bad, way worse than I thought,” she conceded, mind whirling at what she had learned. “Everything we thought about Vascenti turned out to be true. Police in his pocket, long reach. But what’s really troubling is the why. He’s curious about us, which means he’s at least a little curious about you. We can’t let him find out about your secret!”

It was one thing to have a crime boss angry at you. Anger burned itself out pretty quickly in most people, especially if the target of that anger wasn’t around to remind the person. Curiosity was way worse. Curiosity had made men sail across oceans not knowing if they could possibly reach the other side. Curiosity didn’t fizzle out, it only grew, and Laura was worried that their encounter in the woods today would only inflame Vascenti’s obsession. What would he think to learn that a bear had come to her rescue then run off? It certainly wasn’t the kind of thing that would make him less curious.

Rick seemed to be thinking along the same lines that she was. He looked into her eyes, seemingly afraid of how she would respond to what he was about to say. “I think we need to leave here Laura. They know too much about us for me to feel comfortable staying anywhere near here.”

“I know, you’re right. But where can we go?”

He seemed surprised at her easy acceptance, and she quickly understood why. “I know where we can go, but I need you to understand what this means. We need to go and leave this behind us. We’ll have to give up trying to bring Vascenti to justice, at least for now. We can’t do anything to attract his attention.”

Laura’s heart sank, but she knew he was right. As hard as it was to admit, she knew that they never really had any chance of succeeding, not against someone with the power and influence Vascenti had. It had been beyond a longshot right from the start.

She had realized something today though. She wasn’t ready to die, nor did she want to spend the rest of her life in jail. Rick had given her something more to live for, something that made her excited to wake up each day. Being bounced around that trunk, thinking she was going to die, it had all made her realize what was really important. She wanted to bring Craig’s killers to justice, but she wouldn’t throw her life away to do it. Craig wouldn’t have wanted her to.

“You’re right,” she said simply. “We give up on it, at least for now.”

Rick’s eyes widened. Apparently he had expected some sort of fight about this, but all the fight had gone out of her, at least for now. She just wanted to feel safe for a while.

“So where are we going to go?” she asked, mind already moving on to what was next.

“I’ll tell you on the way back to Blackendale,” he said with a smile. “Let’s get out of here.”