Page 31 of Lost Wolf (Exiled Omegas #2)
Thirty-One
Luke
Either I’m developing a resistance to being drugged, or whatever the woman injected me with wasn’t very strong because I wake up much earlier than I think they intended. My situation hasn’t exactly improved, but at least I’m alert.
The uneven road jostles the whole vehicle and has me slamming back and forth between the sides of the cage, sending painful jolts through my shoulders as they ram into the metal. I grit my teeth and curl into a ball, trying to get my center of balance—as useless as it currently is—low enough that I can minimize the number of impacts I have to suffer.
There’s no way to tell where we are since I can’t see anything from back here, but the jerky, lurching movement of the truck and the dust filtering in through the gaps in the canvas leads me to believe we’re on a dirt road. Could it be the fire road Smith and Yang mentioned?
I can only hope, right?
If we’re on the fire road, then Smith and Yang will be somewhere along its length, hopefully in a position to intercept my captors and get me free.
Unfortunately, I can’t depend on that. Yes, there’s a very good chance Smith and Yang are somewhere up ahead, but I can’t just sit here and wait for them. I don’t know for sure what’s going on, and Ollie’s in danger, so I’m going to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
Not that I have any idea what I can do while collared and locked in a cage. Ollie spent years in a cage like this and the only reason he got out is because one of the humans was stupid enough to leave the cage door open. As much as I hate to admit it, the humans have probably learned from their mistakes.
A particularly jarring bump pulls a yelp from my mouth, and the truck jolts to a stop. After a brief discussion in the cab, someone hops out and walks around the back of the vehicle. The canvas flap jerks back, allowing a shaft of light into the back and searing into my eyes.
“Everything’s still secure,” the male human glancing in at me calls out. “But the animal is awake already.”
Another human from the cab grumbles and gets out to walk around the back and peer in at me. The woman from Doc’s house makes an annoyed noise and shakes her head.
“The sedative effect should have lasted much longer.” She presses her lips together, eyes narrowing on my face. “I guess it doesn’t matter, though. It’s not much further to the highway and once we’re out of this territory, no one’s going to bother us.”
The man beside her nods. “Sound good, then. Should we get going?”
“Yes, and it might not hurt to speed up a bit.”
When the vehicle begins moving again, the rattling and shaking is ten times worse, the road obviously not meant to be driven at this kind of speed—or any kind of speed really. The only thing saving me from being thrown all over the back of the truck is the fact that the cage is tied down to the bed. The ties do nothing to stop me from being tossed around inside the cage though.
I brace myself as best I can and try to move with the jolts and bumps. The last thing I need is to get injured back here. If a chance to escape comes up, I need to be able to take it.
The noisy, jarring hell continues for another ten minutes or so before a sudden deceleration slams me into the side of the side of the cage. Again .
Now what? They already know I’m awake, so they aren’t stopping because of me this time.
No one gets out of the cab, but I can hear the humans debating about something blocking the road.
“Just ram it,” says the woman’s voice. “Push it out of the way.”
“Er, ma'am? The space is too narrow,” replies one of the men. “There’s no place for it to go.”
“Well, it wasn’t here when we came in, so there’s got to be something we can do,” she snaps back. “Fucking figure it out.”
The man mutters something that sounds uncomplimentary under his breath, but the truck’s engine revs and the vehicle jerks forward, smashing into something with the sound of crumpling metal.
“Try again,” says the woman.
“All that’s happening is the damn thing’s getting wedged between those trees,” argues the second man.
But the driver backs up and rams the obstacle again anyway, a loud screeching sound making me wince.
“This isn’t working,” says the first man, his voice strained. “We’re going to have to back up and see if we can find a way around.”
“Go see if the keys are in it,” says the woman. “Then we can just drive the damn car out of our way.”
The obstacle is a vehicle ? Maybe even a certain dark blue SUV crossover Yang was driving?
I perk up, lifting my nose to scent the air. The dust makes it difficult, but I catch a faint smell hidden underneath—shifters. Two of them. The scent is too muddled for me to definitively identify them as Smith and Yang, but if I were human right now, I’d be grinning.
A twig cracks somewhere next to the truck and from the other side, there’s a sharp bark.
“Go see what that was,” says the woman in the cab.
“Given where we are, it’s probably a fucking wolf,” says the second man.
“Yes, and…?”
“And you aren’t paying me enough to deal with this bullshit,” he mutters.
“It’s probably our captive’s little friend. He’s no threat,” she says. “We already grabbed him once when we took his brother and it was almost too easy. Just grab one of the dart guns from the back and get in position.”
What they don’t know, is that wasn’t Ollie’s bark. Not only would I have recognized it if it were, the connection between Ollie and I still stretches into the distance behind us.
But the man does as he’s told, jumping out of the cab, and coming around to the back of the truck to grab a slim rectangular case. He opens it up and removes a thin rifle, then positions himself with his back to me, the tip of the rifle peeking around the side of the truck.
The woman jumps down from the cab. “Hello? We’ve got your friend. Why don’t you come out and we can talk?”
There’s another bark, a little nearer this time, and my ears pick up a scraping and scuffling sound under the truck. The barking continues, the sound growing closer while the noise under me moves toward the man standing at the back of the truck.
Another bark, this time right outside. The sound lowers into a growl.
“And who are you?” the woman asks.
She must give some sort of signal because the man with the rifle tenses and starts to inch around the edge of the truck, rifle pointed out in front of him. He makes it less than a foot before a snarl comes from under the truck and the man is yanked downward. His screams cut off with a wet, cracking noise.
Frantic noises come from inside the cab, and the other human jumps out, the sound of him crashing through leaves as he runs away quickly following.
The wolf outside lets out another sharp bark, and I can hear the woman slowly backing up until she has her back against the side of the truck. She’s muttering under hear breath, but I don’t bother trying to decipher her words as the black wolf leaping into the bed of the truck snags all my attention.
The wolf shifts into a naked Smith. “Alpha Anderson,” he says, dipping his chin. “Let’s get you out of here.”
He unlatches the cage door and flings it open. I step out shaking out my fur and stretching my legs. Catching Smith’s attention by nosing at his leg, I tilt my head and bang the collar against the side of the cage. This thing needs to come off.
Smith frowns and crouches down in front of me, his hands moving over the collar. His fingers pause on a section near my nape. “It needs a key to come off.” He glances around the truck bed, brows pulling together. “One of the humans must have it. We’ll find it.”
He jumps off the back of the truck, and I follow, sneezing at the dust kicked up by my paws hitting the ground. The wolf I assume is Yang has the human woman cornered against the side of the truck.
“Where’s the key for the collar?” asks Smith.
The woman glances at him, a contemptuous twist to her lips. She lets out a laugh. “We don’t need keys. The collars get put on before we make the pick-up and we have no reason to take them off before the animals are delivered.”
She could be lying, but do I want to waste time trying to figure that out? Not really . Not when my mate’s in danger.
I debate for half a second, then catch Yang’s eye and jerk my head back toward Rockcastle where my connection to Ollie leads. She dips her head, and I take off at a run.
My wolf is fast, but tonight I’m practically flying, my paws barely touching the ground as I speed through the trees with single-minded focus. My breaths time with the rhythm of my stride, my mate’s name a constant chant in my head, matching the beat of my heart.
I’m coming Ollie.