“Just drive!” I snapped.
For a while, all I could hear was the hum of the engine, the rasp of my lungs as I tried to catch my breath and Buddy’s panting. We peeled out of the Sanctuary complex and headed out onto the highway, back the way I’d originally come. I watched the trees and scrub flick by, until my heart rate slowed down to normal. Brandon turned to look at me, as if sensing the immediate crisis was over, and smiled tentatively.
“You’re one of the them too, aren’t you?” I said flatly.
“Yep, everyone you’ve met is in some degree a wolf.”
“So that’s what that is, a werewolf?”
“Not what we called it in the old country, but it will do for now.”
“And the thing that attacked me?”
“Yep.”
“Your parents, Shaun, Slade…”
“Yep, all of them. Some, like Nerida, are genetic hybrids. It can be hard to do, most humans are instinctively repelled by us, but when we live in human communities and raise our kids there, that repulsion seems to lessen. There have been instances of humans having children with us. You are the result of that.”
“I’m going to turn into that…thing.”
“That’s why we wanted to wait for the full moon. You either would or wouldn’t, and then we’d know where you fit in the community, what your strengths and weaknesses are.”
“So what, if I didn’t turn, I’d be given my marching orders?”
“No, but like Nerida, you wouldn’t do any of the frontline jobs. The stronger wolves keep the weaker members safe at the Sanctuary.”
“Obviously not, or I wouldn’t have these lovely scars to show for it,” I said, thrusting my wrists at him.
“If you turn, you’ll lose those scars. But that wolf, it wasn’t one of ours. It attacked you because of your value to us. An unattached female is worth more than her weight in gold. He would have taken you through the gate, to his community. I can’t tell you how you’d be treated there, but based on the reports from the others, not well.”
“So, I’m a scrap of meat to be fought over.”
“No one thinks of you like that. If we did, you’d be caged and raped repeatedly, like in some of the fucked up communities. But part of the urgency for us guys in finding you mates comes from a protective urge. Mated wolves emit the same kind of repellent vibe to other wolves as we do to humans. It certainly can be overcome, some sick individuals relish pushing past it and assaulting women, but they are few and far between.”
“So if I’d decided I wanted a relationship with Shaun or Slade, that’s it, everyone else would find me a turn off?”
“For as long as the affection and commitment lasts. That’s part of Phyllis’s paranoia, that at some point one of her pack will start becoming attractive to others. If that happens, she’ll know that the love has died.”
“I don’t want this,” I said, almost in a whisper. I’d thought my words had been drowned out by the sound of the engine, but Brandon’s hand snaked over and took one of mine, giving it a squeeze.
“I know,” he said, and on we drove.
We pulled over at the first petrol station we saw and got some food and drinks and some clothes for me. My stomach was just about turning itself inside out from hunger. Then I remembered Doc’s words, I was supposed to take antibiotics to keep my wounds from getting infected. I looked over the rows of stitches raking down my body in the toilet mirror, and they all appeared healthy and pink. If Brandon knew about the medication, he would turn the car around, no matter what I said. I yanked on the clothes and stuffed the hospital gown in the bin. Feeling better now with a belly full of food and drink, we drove away and kept on driving, further and further from the Sanctuary.
The next major town was five hours away, but there were a few smaller places that had a pub, a petrol station and a shop a little closer. We stopped at one, Gordonvale, three hours later. “Feel like a beer?” Brandon asked, pointing to the pub. I nodded, glad for anything that might make me feel a bit calmer about today. We stepped inside, Buddy at my heels. I worried that they might not let him in, but saw other people’s cattle dogs lazing under tables or under their owner’s feet.
“What’ll it be, love?” the barmaid said on automatic, looking up at us and then flinching slightly before recovering her professional smile.
“Two beers thanks,” Brandon said.
She poured the beers and expertly started chatting to us, obviously pushing herself to be polite. “So, you out here seeing the sights?” I thought back to the endless plains of scrub and wondered what she was talking about.
“No, we’ve come from the mine down the road,” I said.
She frowned at this, “The mine? There’s no such place, not for 200k of here.”
“Yeah, there is,” I insisted. “It’s about five hours away, northwest.”