Pack Gems by Kuro Kusai, WhiteWolf Aura (free ereaders TXT) 📖

form complete with a black stripe running from his mane to back left leg. They shut the doors as Mason eased her into the passengers seat.He shooed her to the middle as Daren took the wheel on her left and Mason took up the window on her right.

She was still naked.The thought dawned on her sheepishly.

"I'm gonna change." she stated, though already drained.

"Nonsense. Here."

A shirt landed on top of her head.

She tore it off and tossed a glare in his direction,

"Thanks."She forced out.

He shrugged it off and turned to look out the window, giving Taylor a peek at his well toned chest.

Hm.

She gave it it's own appreciative nod then proceeded to put on his navy cotton shirt. It pooled around her waist and hung loosely off her shoulders…but it was comfy. And it served it's purpose, hiding all the essentials from prying male eyes.Now if only she could do something about it's smell.

"By the way," Daren's voice sounded far away, she was exhausted but she tried to fight it, "Where are we headed?"

"MY den." Axel growled from the back as if it was Mason's fault all this had went down.

Well...Actually it was theirs.

Taylor and Kaden had been nothing but a burden.

Oh well, they tried to warn them.It's what they get.

With that last thought, she closed her eyes, adding a, "Wake me when we get there."

.::. Kaden's POV .::.

****Her heart raced as she ran through the dark woods……this was not going as planned.

They were supposed be having a moonlit picnic.

But then he'd disappeared, leaving her alone.

And now she was being hunted by who knew what.

The wind seemed to carry her name…'Raaachelll'

She was scared shitless.There could be many dangerous things out in the wood.Why had she agreed to this?She kept running as she entered a clearing.

It was then she noticed the constant nagging at the back of her head.

Someone was watching her.

She heard whimpering, but couldn't locate where it came from;Followed by two yellow orbs staring at her, reflecting in the moonlight.A great beast emerged from the shrubbery—Like a dog, but it contained too much muscle to be one.And it was much larger.

The giant wolf crept up to her, mouth salivating.Out of nowhere it sprung…****

"Kaden. Wake up."

Someone was shaking her. She grumbled as she opened her eyes to find Axel staring down at her.

His eyes clear as ice.

She sat up with help from Axel.

His back was against the van, one leg was bent at the knee while the other was laid straight out where Kaden had been resting her head.

Akira lay sleeping as a wolf on the other side of the van.

"Where are we?" Her voice was raspy.

"On our way to my house," Axel replied, his voice soft in contrast to the overwhelming smell of rage and fear he was emitting.

She looked down at herself. She was wearing Taylor's clothes.

Kaden turned to the front of the car to find Taylor sleeping and Mason looking at her like he'd never seen anything more amazing than her.

She laughed to herself, but regretted it immediately as it made her ache. She grabbed the hem of her shirt and lifted it to reveal a gash that was healing at a painfully slow rate. Kaden poked it lightly and out flowed silver tinged blood.

She would have thought this was cool if she hadn't been in mortal danger.

"How long can my body stand being a silver fountain?" She asked Axel while wiping her finger off on the shirt.

"We'll get the silver pumped out of you by our Pack doctor as soon as we're in Topeka, though you've sweated out most of it."

She nodded. Her whole body ached, she felt like one giant bruise. And she was very tired dealing with the California pack; trying to stay conscious while around them had taken a lot of willpower.

Axel crossed his legs, grabbed her by the waist and laid her across them, her head resting in the small of his arm.

Kaden started to protest, but he growled, and she conceded.

He was warmth and safety.

She could deal with this.

It didn't take long for her to fall asleep to the constant stroking of her hair.

~Taylor's POV~

Okay. As it turns out.

You can't sleep for a 1,643 mile car ride.

Well, at least Taylor couldn't.

She'd slept a good six, leaving 17 hours left of driving--

Or so the boys told her.

They were in some place called Barstow.

Apparently, Barstow was only two hours or so out from Las Vegas.

Taylor had been there a time or two before she had met Kaden.She wondered if Kaden had ever been there.

It had been too risky to go there after Kaden had escaped from a place so close.

…besides, they would've gotten thrown out eventually anyway.What could she say? They liked to have a good time.A good, loud, rowdy, obnoxious time.

Kaden had been in and out of consciousness, just enough to tell Axel to stop breathing down her back.The poor guy was a wreck, constantly fretting if she was in too much pain etc, etc.

Taylor took a back seat to that one, or rather front seat because that's where she was stashed, never saying one sarcastic utterance.But that's because Taylor felt for him.

He must really like Kaden…Poor bastard.

Mason on the other hand, wasn't as preoccupied and proceeded to nag and complain to deaf ears.

Taylor busied herself with the radio dial which only picked up AM frequencies, which covered sports, politics, religious preaching…but no music.At least nothing remotely acceptable.

With a frustrated grumble Taylor switched the off knob.

Turning her eyes to the horizon, she observed the desert, sun beaten landscape.Sand, sand, sand, sand--oh look sage brush.Red clay, red clay mountain, red clay hill, dirt hill--

Mason waved a hand in front of her face.

"Hey! You interrupted my admiration-ing of the land."

"I asked if you want to stop and grab a snack, or pee…or something,"He rested an elbow on the door, propping his head up while he stared at her.

"Oh how gentlemanly of you, sure. I'm imagining you'll pay too?"

"Daren take this next exit here." Mason ignored her.

Bet you wish I didn't changed back now, don't ya?

"How's she doing?" Taylor twisted to see the two passengers in back.

When they didn't answer, Taylor pursed her lips, "Anyone want to trade seats with me?"

"No."

Everyone who could answer, except Akira who was still in Wolf form, answered back.

This was going to be a long ride.

One she wished Kaden would be up for.That way they both could drive them crazy.

It seemed at this point they were ready to throw Taylor out and see how many times she bounced and rolled as they sped away.

But she couldn't help it, it was in her nature.Trapped in a metal box on wheels for hours on end made her restless.

"Mason?"

"Hm?" he was looking out the window again, but judging from his vacant stare he probably wasn't taking in any of the scenery.

"Will you play a game with me?"

Taylor tried her best puppy dog face.

"No."

It was wasted; Mason didn't even bother to look at her,

"Please?"She persisted.

"No."

Well, she knew a lost cause when she saw one.New tactic,

"Daren?"

"No."He mimicked Mason.

"Please??"

"No."

"Puh-lease???"She jiggled his shoulder.

"No. I'm driving."

"You can multitask."

It wasn't like there was a lot of traffic anyway.

"No. Bug Mason,"He gripped the steering wheel with resolve.

"I know he won't change his mind. Pleas--"

"Mason!" Daren cried.

"Fine!" Mason threw his hands in the air, "I'll play a game with you."

"Yes!"

Winnah winnah!

Chapter 18: Pimp Lair in the Air

~Taylor's POV ~

Thirty-two games of eye-spy later…

As it turned out, they couldn't take anymore of Taylor's insane babble and pooled together all the money they had on them to buy plane tickets in Phoenix, Arizona.

And according to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport they would take the red eye to Topeka.

They had no belongings, food, or cash cards.Everything had been left at their hotel rooms, ones that they assumed they would be back to.

But being that Fresno had a much larger pack base than they expected, they had to get out of dodge fast.

They took out one of the main den's Chase had but he had several more bases in the large city filled with plenty more able-bodied Weres at his disposal.

That was also the reason why they hadn't killed the bastard.

His whole pack would have felt the nearing of their alpha's death and come to the rescue, too late, of course, but they could still get revenge.Something Taylor mentally tacked up in her brain that he would get his later.

After buying a cheesy souvenir t-shirts for Kaden, Akira and Mason to hide tell-tale blood stains, they proceeded to rouse Kaden from her healing sleep.

Taylor donned her own, cheap cotton shorts while waiting for Kaden to get her bearings.

The guys had managed enough money to get two first-class tickets and the rest coach.

Not bad considering they had that kind of change in their pockets— although Taylor thought Daren had been wearing a nice Rolex before she went to sleep, so maybe it wasn't all in their pockets after all...

Kaden need the extra room…not to mention first boarding of the plane.

It would look pretty suspicious if a group of bruised men and one woman were hauling an unconscious woman on the plane.

Kaden managed to stay conscious but she wasn't making an elaborate conversations.

Taylor figured her body was pretty much on auto-pilot at this point; her brain down for the count.

After maneuvering through the terminal to locate gate D27 Taylor got the nerve wracking task of leading Kaden on the plane, seeing as how she was defaulted the other first-class ticket.

Here goes nothing.

Taylor grabbed Kaden's arm, which still made her tingle at the silver absorbed into her skin.

She approached the desk and handed the stewardess both tickets.

The stewardess scanned them, each making a beep sound but she never took her eyes off Taylor and Kaden."Is…she okay?"

Shit.

"Ah, yeah," Taylor thought on her feet "She's really nervous about flying-- to the point of nauseousness." The minute Taylor hinted about any chance of bodily fluids spilling had the woman hurrying to get them through.

"The plane is docked and ready, we won't be ready to take off for another good thirty minutes, would you still like to board now?"

"Yes, please, it would be better to take a load off. Maybe she can fall asleep before the take-off." Taylor regarded politely.

"Of course," she nodded, throwing Kaden a sympathetic look, "Here's your tickets back."

Taylor grabbed the tickets with their seat numbers on them and put an arm around Kaden, steering her down the walkway.

.::. Kaden's POV .::.

Kaden could hear the whispers as she was steered down the aisle.

Taylor had an arm around her waist, leading her towards their seats.

"....Taylor?"

"Yeah?"

"You're pressing my stomach gash, therefore releasing more silver-blood on my nifty new shirt."

"Oops."Taylor's hand moved to her shoulder.

The few passangers in first class who had boarded before them continued their gossip as they ambled past.

She couldn't focus on any particular face, so she turned her focus to walking the short distance left to her seat without stumbling.

She couldn't understand the whispers--to her it sounded like a violent wind nagging and scraping at her pounding head. In short, Kaden felt like crap, which most likely meant she looked worse.

Kaden looked around, the world seemed to be in slow motion but she still couldn't keep up with it.

The California pack had heavily sedated her, and she was still dizzy from it.

Her eyes finally caught on to where they were.