Theron made it to the tall grass beyond the neighborhood just as the rain started. He ducked down in the darkness and emerged a black feral dog, clutching the bag in his mouth like waterfowl he had pulled from a pond. The wolf glanced back in the direction he came and his heart shuddered at the sudden sense of loss. He would have sat there, staring and dwelling if he could, but he needed to find somewhere dry to cache his things.
Step one: establish a base. Theron never had to endure the wilderness like this before, but he learned enough about his family's ancestral pilgrimage to Winnipeg from Quebec to know what he needed to survive long periods on the lam. Unfortunately, settling down anywhere inside the Tyndall Park boundaries would make him accessible to everybody looking for him. Sadie's scents were strongest near the northern edge of the suburbs, so Theron headed south, past the railway and around the outside of the airfield of the airport, ducking every time a titanic airplane rumbled skyward. Their massive engines shook him to his bones.
Theron found a secluded spot among the trees west of the airport. It was hidden between highways and far enough from his pack territory that he hoped the rain would mask his scent before they caught his trail. He was a little closer than comfortable to the territory of another Dire clan occupying the Assiniboine neighborhood, but with careful planning he could dodge them, or at least throw the hunters off his path by adding more Dire to the mix.
Best of all, Theron picked this spot because of its proximity to an industrial park containing a coffee shop with free Wi-Fi.
By morning, the rain eased up and Theron turned human, popping into the coffee shop looking bedraggled and smelling like wet dog. He dropped a handful of change on the counter and ordered a double double, which never tasted so good as it did after being outside in the rain all night. Huddled up in his jacket in the corner, Theron plugged in his phone and watched the window. Once the screen flicked on, he updated his apps, then checked his messages.
One from Kitra. It was a screenshot from her phone of a QR code-reading app. The text it printed out was an email address: idav1997@hotmail.com. It was clearly planted by his mother years ago—nobody used Hotmail anymore.
Theron messaged back, I'll email her first.
He laid out the receipt on the table. Kitra had printed the following:
danger in wpg will spread
let me b clear rush looking 4 soltn overwhelmed
overpwr danger: stay still, awake, think
she?? come looking 4 u -> let her?? find u
3 of u??(??) 2 research statn won't be so bad
take fam photo albm dwnstars shiny grey cover
b4 she(??) finds u, u must find sadie
Team 4
The clue to the photos was obvious. Imogen would've known they'd seen them; they had to get past the photos to find the pen with the phone number. She stored clue inside clue: the pen with the phone number, the lock box in the photo, the code in the lock box, the email in the code, intending all this time to have to give somebody instructions on how to contact her. Was she on limited contact against her will? ...Had she even been given a choice to go up north?
The rest of the message, Theron couldn't decode. He worried there was some secret password Imogen had encrypted into the message; if he missed it and didn't include it in his email, would he never hear back from her? He could only try, he supposed.
Theron registered a new email address and composed his first email to idav1997@hotmail.com.
Hey, this is T.d.L. I'm staying still & awake.
In spite of the thousands of subjects he wanted to reach out with, Theron could only extend a pinky-finger, afraid of what might latch on.
He sat in the coffee shop for another hour, studying the receipt and checking his emails. Rush stood out to him in reference to Officer Rush, since Kitra told him Castor & Holloway had a connection to the police. 3 of u made no sense, unless his mother was referring to himself, Sadie, and Kitra. Or maybe Rush. And who was the mysterious she that his mother referred to? Was it Kitra?
He didn't know and he couldn't stay here forever waiting for Imogen's reply. Especially not since the latest two visitors to enter the building stunk strongly of animal. They looked right at him and Theron wasted no time vacating his spot, fleeing out the other door.
They ended up following him for two hours. The only way to avoid a violent confrontation was by going deeper into the city and eventually they fell away, content with Theron's distance. Okay, so he was back to step one. No base camp yet. It was only mid-afternoon. He had time.
Every place with free Wi-Fi saw Theron stepping in to check his emails, but there was only silence. He checked for messages from Kitra, but aside from her telling him (finally) that she and Liam were over, there were no updates there either. Theron crashed onto a bench with a realtor's face on it and closed his eyes, warm in the sunlight, cold when the shadow of a cloud passed overhead. He felt helpless out here. Like there was nowhere he could go that would be safe—everywhere, somebody was hiding, waiting to get him. Nobody cared about him. Nobody wanted him. His loneliness engulfed him, but he could only wallow for so many minutes before paranoia had him moving again.
Theron was relieved his sister broke it off with Liam. Maybe now he could tell her the truth and it would put him one step closer to recovery. But he couldn't until they were in person; she needed to know the depth and complexity of everything he felt about it coming from him. So he just thought about the allure of Kitra's forgiveness while he walked. He thought about it until he crossed a smell lacing the parking lot of a pharmacy in a strip mall. Blood smell. Sadie smell.
Theron was compelled to follow it in spite of himself. She was here. He was supposed to stay away from her. Or was he?
He stood between two cars, looking at another car parked in the row across from him. He saw her, blond hair loose around her shoulders as she sat in the passenger seat. Her hand cupped her arm protecting a dark red stain on her sweater sleeve.
She wasn't his anymore. She hated him. So why did he care so desperately that she was hurt? What happened?
Theron was struck just standing there, looking at Sadie until she glanced at the side mirror. Then the door opened and she stepped out, her eyes on him like golden arrows.
YOU ARE READING
BLOOD DREAM (Ongoing)
Paranormal24-year-old Theron was the spoiled brat son of a wolf shifter Alpha--until his fated mate, a puma shifter named Sadie, murdered his father. As the consequences of his abusive behavior, Theron lost his friends, girlfriend, and the respect of his pack...
