Page 47 of Hungry Like the Wolf

“You gonna make it, bud?” Rose asked, and he blinked his eyes open with a groan.

“Nope.”

He tossed the wet paper towel in the trash and grabbed a dry one, dabbing his eyes and drying his hands before skirting wide around the prep table. Now that his eyes weren’t burning like hellfire, he remembered Rose’s question.

“She drove away?”

“Yep. About ten minutes ago. She didn’t look too good, though, and I wondered if she was trying to get to a doctor or something. The closest one is an hour away, and she wasn’t in any shape to drive that far.”

“Jesus Christ, Nadja,” he muttered under his breath, getting to the exit in two long strides before remembering the onions. “I?—”

“I’ll finish them. They might have killed you anyway,” Rose said. “Only one way off the property. Take a right at the main road. I doubt she got far.”

JJ had explained to Robbie that all the vehicles at the commune were for pack use, and so the keys always stayed in the cupholder. Robbie was never so grateful for a community guideline as he was just then, sliding into the driver’s seat of a thirty-year-old sedan that smelled like fast food hamburgers and cigarettes. He wrinkled his nose.

He didn’t have time to be picky, though. Nadja was out there on the road, and Rose had said she didn’t look well, which could only mean one thing: she was running.

He wasn’t offended by the thought of her running away from him and ruining his newfound status with the pack as much as he was absolutely sick with worry about her passing out behind the wheel and driving into a tree.

He cursed the remoteness of the pack, the nearly three miles of gravel road that separated the commune from the main road, the way the car creaked and rattled as it trundled along. He wanted to put the pedal flat on the floorboard but frankly feared the engine falling right out and him having to Flintstone his way to Nadja.

Finally, he reached the main road. Robbie turned right, as Rose had said, and accelerated as much as the little four-cylinder car could, muttering prayers under his breath all the while. To whom, he wasn’t sure. When he found her, when he found her safe, he was going to give her a piece of his mind. A thick, seven-layer frosted slice of his mind.

He couldn’t remember the last time he was this furious. He would have driven her. And besides, hadn’t she been insisting for days that a doctor wouldn’t help her? Why now? Why alone? Why without him?

In the distance, he saw his black SUV on the shoulder, stopped. He whipped the sedan onto the shoulder behind it and threw open his door, getting choked in his seatbelt before releasing the latch and practically falling out in his hurry to get to her.

She was slumped over the steering wheel. She hadn’t wrecked, so he felt safe enough gently lifting her up and back, reclining the front seat a bit. Her face was pale and drawn.

“Nadja,” he said quietly, stroking a trembling finger down her cheek.

She didn’t stir.

“Nadja,” he said louder, resting a hand on her shoulder and squeezing.

Nothing.

“Damnit, Nadja,” he shouted around a sob. “Wake up, baby. Wake up for me.”

Her eyelids fluttered before she slowly blinked them open halfway.

“Robbie?”

“Oh, thank god, baby. I’m here. You’re gonna be okay.”

“I’m not. I’m?—”

“Shh. I know. Why didn’t you feed yesterday? That was the whole point, Nadja. Why didn’t you feed?” His voice cracked. She looked as if she might disappear right in front of him. And he knew his eyes were playing tricks on himself. He knew she wasn’t going hazy around her edges. That would be impossible.

She sucked in a long, slow, shaky breath before whispering, “I didn’t have your permission.”

“I started it!”

“To… help… me,” she said, her eyes rolling back. “You… only… wanted… to help.”

Robbie scrubbed a frustrated hand down his face before leaning into the car, putting his forehead against hers, their noses touching. Her eyes opened a fraction, and she gasped.

“This is my permission. You’re hungry? You come to me. You feed from me. You take what you need from me. As much as you need. Bleed me dry.”