Page 5 of Finding Embers and Stars (Twin Flames Duet #1)
Chapter five
I jerk awake as I’m gently laid in the grass. The first thing I see is a black wolf with the most beautiful light blue eyes. They glow with power and love as the moonlight reflects in them. Glancing around, all I see are trees. We’re at the edge of the forest behind my house.
As the brain fog recedes, I clue into a few things. I appear to be rather small and my back and shoulder fucking hurt. When I try to move, I scream in pain, but the sound comes out as a loud caw. Looks like I unlocked my raven form after all, and there is something very wrong with my wing.
The giant wolf belly crawls towards me and starts licking my wound. What happened at the ceremony floods my mind. The silver wolf bit my shoulder and tried to claim me. My injuries and new form suddenly take a backseat to the fact that Piper is the biggest wolf I’ve ever seen.
Blood smears across my beak when I nuzzle into Piper. The cut on her leg is tiny, but I hate that those assholes harmed her. My beak and raven-sized tongue aren’t meant for licking, so I can’t return the favor of cleaning up her wounds, but if I can shift back, I can get us both healed. I cringe when I look at my shoulder. Hopefully, the damage to my wing isn't permanent.
My wound makes the shift back excruciating. What should be a smooth transition is slowed by grinding bones and torn ligaments as the injury transfers to my human form. Once I’m shifted, I need a minute to make sure I'm not about to pass out. Breathing deeply, I finally get a full look at Piper. I'm amazed at how stunning her wolf form is.
“Piper, you’re gorgeous. Your eyes glow in the moonlight and they’re the brightest blue I've ever seen.” She comes over and nuzzles into my neck, taking a deep inhale of my scent. She shifts back and just sits there in stunned silence for a minute.
“Sage, do you remember everything that happened once we shifted?”
I shake my head while trying to think back to everything that happened during the ceremony, but it's all a foggy, pain filled haze.
“You shifted into the most beautiful raven. The feathers along your back and wings are covered in silver runes. Once you shifted, Matt attacked you, biting your wing. My wolf lost it and got him off you, and then while I was standing guard over you, Doug and Jerry came at me. I flung Doug into Jerry to get them away.” She pauses for a moment, preparing herself for what she's about to tell me.
“Father started towards me. Yelling that I’m an abomination and need to die. When he pulled a knife, the elders stepped in front of him and waved us off. I grabbed you and ran.” She wraps her arms around her stomach, trying to hold herself together as I process the notion that her father was going to kill her.
The whole time she’s talking, I'm in denial. I’m struggling to wrap my head around the fact that my mom had to have seen all of this transpire in her visions. This is why she made us promise to run and not look back.
That thought snaps me into motion. I grab my necklace and place the trunk down on the forest floor in front of us.
Pulling out my grimoire, I reach over to Piper and whisper, “heal.” Reaching as far as I can over my shoulder, I do the same for myself. When I’m finished and can move my arm, I send a silent prayer to the Moon Goddess, begging that I will be able to use my wings one day.
“Okay, we need to get to my car and start driving. There’s an envelope in here that has brochures for taking the ferry to Seattle, along with a bunch of different flight options that would take us towards Arizona. Dad wrote a note saying we need to leave this somewhere for Alpha Dick to find, and it should help throw him off our trail. You need to get your passport, ID, and the money out of your trunk. It looks like the directions will take us into Canada for a good chunk of our drive from here to Skagway, then on to a town called Ranchester in Wyoming. It’s about a thirty-six-hour drive total. We can take it in shifts to get as much distance between us as possible.”
Piper clutches her necklace and places her trunk right next to mine, pulling out what she needs. I put our identification and money into my purse and then hide my trunk away again. These necklaces are the best gift I’ve ever received.
As soon as Piper is done, we run towards my car. I’m not sure if it was her or her wolf that chose where to bring me, but I’m so thankful we’re near where I parked. Getting in, she tosses the envelope with the misleading information out the window. Hopefully, it looks like it fell out of a bag.
I drive while Piper goes through the envelope she found labeled as instructions. “There’s another note in here telling us to erase our phones and toss them out the window. There are burner phones in here until we get settled. It says that as soon as we reach the shelter, someone will reach out to notify Mama Rose. Then she and Papa Rhett will make preparations to leave as well.”
I hand Piper my phone so she can erase it. At the edge of town, there is a lookout spot with parking for people to watch the sunset or make out. I swing in there for Piper to drop the broken pieces of our phones into the trash can.
“Can you put the address to this shelter into the GPS for me, please?” The adrenaline is starting to wear off and I'm beginning to shake.
Piper takes my hand, having already noticed the sign of my nerves. “Sage, I promise you we will be okay. I don’t know how this happened, but my wolf is different. I don't have a female wolf, I have a male wolf. He claimed you as his just as much as I have. We won’t let anything happen to you.”
I lean my head on her shoulder and do some deep breathing to help calm my racing heart.
“I know you won't, just like you know I’ll protect you, too. I may not have some badass wolf, but I will do anything to make sure we make it out of this alive and free to live our lives as we want. Now put those directions in. All of this heart-to-heart shit is going to make my eyes leak.” So much has happened in such a short amount of time. I’d be terrified right now if I didn’t have Piper here with me, but I know as long as we’re together, we can make it through anything. “I love you, Pip. Thank you for saving me tonight.”
Piper grins and bumps my shoulder with hers. “I love you too, Sagey. Let’s get the fuck out of here!”
I laugh at the nickname. She hasn't called me that since we were little. I pull out and head towards Klondike Highway. Flying would have been easier, but the route Dad figured out for us will take us well into Canada and then straight down through Montana and into Wyoming. I hope it's off the beaten path enough to confuse anyone the Alpha Dick sends after us. I grin at Piper, elated to finally be leaving such an abusive place behind us.
“So, what do we wanna be when we grow up?” Piper pauses for a moment as she contemplates a life that isn’t carried out under the alpha’s thumb. “Sage, it’s just sinking in that we can literally go anywhere and do anything now.”
I look over at her and she seems just as shell-shocked as I do. Reaching over, I grab her hand. “Let’s become ninjas, and then maybe belly dancers. I've always wanted to try my hand at being a CEO of a multimillion-dollar corporation.”
Piper laughs and relaxes into the seat. I grin at her. Mission accomplished. I can't even imagine the mind fuck she's going through finding out her wolf is male. I will do anything in my power to make this an easier burden to bear.
“Okay.” She sits up straighter, getting into my little fantasy game. “After that, let's try becoming pilots and then maybe we need to open a coffee shop.”
I look over at Piper with a raised eyebrow. “You hate coffee. Why would you want to open a coffee shop?”
She laughs and rolls her eyes. “For the baked, sugary goodness, obviously.” I shake my head at her, and we both grow quiet, absorbing the night's events. This much absorbing is going to take some time.
“Why don't you try to get some sleep? I’m going to grab a coffee from the next store or coffee place I see and then I’ll drive until I’m tired. You can take over in a few hours.”
Piper reaches back for a blanket, hesitating before she looks at me. “Unless you hit me with a sleep spell, I’m not sure I’ll be able to pass out. There is too much going on in my head.”
I grab my grimoire and lean over to lay my hand on her forehead and whisper, “sleep.” This will give her a solid 6 hours to rest peacefully. Something she's had very little of in her life.