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Chapter 22

Jamie pressed the other speed dial button. Her heart was hammering a mile a minute and nothing she did seemed to quiet it. She pressed the phone to her ear and took a deep breath. The fact that Mrs. Carlyle was acting hysterical in the background wasn't helping any. Jamie paced nervously until a cool voice answered the phone.

She gritted her teeth, trying not to scream. It would have been nice to get a release, but not with the Colonel's base no more than a mile from here. She was rattling too many nerves and everything was turning out wrong. All her perfectly laid out plans were falling to pieces.

"Hello?" Amber asked in a bored and irritated tone.

Jamie was glad Amber was the one to answer the phone. She didn't know why. The thought was rather absurd. Amber was the most likely to fall into hysterics—seeing as her father was the one who had just been shot.

"Where are you at?" Autumn leaves whispered beneath her black hiking boots as she paced.

"Is that my daughter?" Mrs. Carlyle was demanding heatedly. "Don't you tell me you brought her into this? First Bella, then my husband, and now her?"

Jamie tried to tune the woman out guiltily.

"Climbing up this stupid slope," Amber complained. "Jamie? Is that my mother?"

Sure is, Jamie thought, feeling touchy and worn. She would have liked to have thrown something right then, but she had to keep her cool. But her cool was running bare and she doubted it would last much longer.

What Jamie said was: "How close are you to the top?"

"Not even half way."

"Is there anyway you can climb faster?"

"If we turn wolf," a contemplative voice answered. It was Leigh. She must have been listening over Amber's shoulder. "We could be there in a couple minutes."

"Then that's what I want you to do," Jamie replied, trying not to sound too impatient. "Get up there and start causing problems."

Jamie turned to the parents, especially to the livid Mrs. Carlyle, speaking over top of the phone. "You too! If you want this to work then get up there and wreak havoc!"

Surprisingly, the adults obeyed her. Even the frantic Mrs. Carlyle was beginning to sprout hair across her clear face. Maybe it was because she was the only one speaking authoritatively in all this chaos. Or maybe it was because no one else had any better ideas. It didn't really matter.

Jamie had to concentrate on getting down to the Henderson home in time.

"What are you going to do?" Amber's voice crackled in her ear.

For a second, Jamie almost forgot that she still had the phone. "I'm going down there to get Bella. If I can. But if you guys can't distract the enemy, I won't make it."

I probably won't make it anyway, Jamie thought grimly. But she had to try.

"What about my dad?" Amber asked. "I thought…"

"I—he was hit," Jamie answered truthfully. "I don't think he's doing so hot."

"I'm coming with you!" Amber said suddenly.

"No!" Jamie realized she was speaking harshly and softened her tone. "No. The others will need as much help as they can get."

"Why don't you go—" Amber began.

"I can't!" Jamie's voice cracked as she cut the other girl off. Her eyes were filling with tears, giving her only a blurry picture of the adults. No, wolves. They were wolves now. And not the half-human half-wolf creatures that she saw in movies. Real, gloriously beautiful wolves, with thick and shiny coats. One turned to her with feral yellow eyes and an abrupt nod of his muzzle, and instinctively she knew it was the doctor. Even as she was speaking they were rushing off into the thicket. "Don't you see? I'll ruin everything!"

"You won't betray us, Jamie," Amber said firmly. It hadn't even taken her a moment to realize what Jamie was trying to say. "You won't!"

Jamie took a deep shuddering breath. She didn't understand how Amber could be so sure. Amber, who had never taken her at face value. Jamie could feel the uncertainty reverberating through her own soul. "I can't trust myself. I can't. Amber, I'm scared of what I'll do if I go up there. Please! Go in my place."

"Jamie—"

"I know I can save Bella!" Jamie continued. "I know it's something I can do without betraying you. I want to see her safe."

Amber sighed in resignation. "Bring my sister back safely, you hear? And keep yourself safe too. If you die then I won't have anyone to drag on shopping trips with me."

"What about Leigh?" Jamie asked with a groan.

"I've given up on her. She's hopeless."

"Good luck," Jamie replied, hurrying through the trees in the direction of the Henderson house.

After a short pause, Amber replied. "You too."

Jamie took one backward glance as she hung up the phone. The only soul left behind her was trussed tightly to a tree. His eyes seared her with a look of wounded betrayal. All of their childhood, they had stuck together, protecting each other from the brunt of the Colonel's hatred. When he had become so angry that he had tried to take it out on them. Doug had always been there to protect her from a sound slap, and she had also been there to comfort him.

And now she had betrayed him.

The confusion in his eyes hurt so much that she felt her chest seize.

Jamie hurried away quickly, before the guilt could drown her. She moved at a steady gait through the trees. Then she began to change. It was a conscious decision. She could feel the fur itching along her arms. It was all she could do to keep walking. She wished she could stop and scratch.

It was the only way. She had to become a wolf or she would never get down there fast enough. And if she lost herself in the process, at least the wolf would have enough instinct to save her own kind. She would save Bella no matter what. As the wolf nose protruded from her face, her heightened senses double significantly. Yes, she could smell Bella. Even from here.

Her clothes were beginning to rip as her body twisted, her joints changing and reversing. She was out of the trees now. She could only hope the others had arrived in time.

For the first few moments, no one seemed to notice her. Then the shooting started. Jamie took off, landing on her hands hard. Her fingers were shriveling to paws. She shot across the ground at an astronomical pace. The wolf in her didn't like the loud noises. It was disconcerting; terrifying. She turned her head back to bare her teeth at the men on the hill, still only half wolf.

A bullet whistled by her ear. A near miss.

She snapped out of it suddenly. The wolf was going to kill her if she let it. She took off at a run toward the Henderson home, her legs screaming. They were oddly deformed. She wasn't wolf yet, but she wasn't human either. It hurt to run.

Something slammed into the back of her leg with a dull thunk. She flew, head over heals for a few paces before flopping to the ground. Her face fell into hard packed dirt, her stomach felt as though it would slam into her face. The ground was no longer mud, she realized distantly. She'd been hit. That much she knew. So why didn't it hurt?