My Hockey Alpha novel Chapter 155

Nina

I was jostled awake by a bump and a swaying sensation, followed by the feeling of a searing pain shooting through my leg and the sound of a car engine. I groaned as my eyes flickered open.

“Oh! Honey, she’s awake.”

“Hold on. I’m pullin’ over. Coast clear out there?”

“Hmm… Mhm. I don’t see anything.”

As my eyes adjusted, I saw the forms of two people sitting in front of me. Judging from the long leather seat beneath me and the two seats in front, I was in the back of a car. A truck, too, I surmised from the hollow and tinny sound of the engine as it sputtered to a stop.

I groaned again. The man in the driver’s seat got out of the car while the woman in the passenger seat turned around to face me. I blinked a few times, and as her face came into focus, I saw that she was an older woman with graying brown hair and a round, soft face.

“You sure woke up quick,” she said with a smile, reaching out and squeezing my hand. Her hand was warm and soft in a motherly sort of way, and it eased some of my anxieties.

“Wh-Where…”

The door by my feet opened. I looked up to see an older man standing there. He was wearing a flannel shirt tucked into a pair of jeans, which emphasized his slight beer belly. He had a baseball cap on and had a gray mustache on his upper lip.

“Howdy, young lady,” he said with a grin. “Let me see that leg. That okay?”

I felt myself stiffen, and instinctively looked up at the woman. “It’s okay, hon’,” she said softly. “Dan’s real good at this sort of thing. Aren’t you, honey?”

“Yup. Decades huntin’ and trappin’ll do that to ya. You get real good at pickin’ out bullets so it don’t spoil the meat.” My stomach turned at the thought, but Dan only chuckled. “Don’t worry. I don’t eat human.”

He reached out and peeled back the white bandage around my leg a little bit, and I let him, although it made me wince and grit my teeth. He eyed my wound for a second before nodding to himself.

“How’s your head feel, sweetheart?” the woman asked. “I’m Laura, by the way. That’s my husband, Dan, although I guess I already told you his name, didn’t I? Anyway, we found you last night in real rough shape.”

“Um… Water?” I croaked. Laura smiled and nodded. Dan held out his hand for me and helped me sit up, and once I’d chugged an entire bottle of water in one go, he pointed at my leg with a confused expression on his face.

“Your leg’s lookin’ mighty healed already for someone who was shot less than twelve hours ago,” he said.

My eyes widened. I couldn’t tell these people about my healing abilities.

But, it seemed that they weren’t looking for answers. “Well, either way,” he continued, “you’re lucky we found ya out there.”

“Mhm,” Laura chimed in. “You were nothin’ more than a hop ‘n a skip away from meeting the big old man in the sky,” she said, pointing upwards with a grin.

I swallowed, leaning my head back on the headrest. The pain in my leg was still unbearable, and when I searched for my wolf’s presence, it was nothing more than a flicker. She must have used up any strength she had left to help me fight off James.

“Thanks,” I said quietly, then peered out the window. It was just barely morning; the sun still hadn’t come up yet, but it was bright enough to see everything through the slight tinge of blue. “Where are we?”

Dan sighed, then looked around. “Just a few miles north of town,” he said. “We’re headin’ out that way where there ain’t any of them… What are we callin’ em, honey?”

“Prowlers,” Laura said proudly. Then, whispering: “I came up with that one myself.”

I couldn’t help but smile a little bit at the older couple’s good humor, but at the same time, I knew I needed to get home. I couldn’t leave town, not with my friends still there.

“Anyhoo,” Dan continued, “I heard there’s a safe zone just a little ways further north. This… disease, or whatever it is, spreads like wildfire. Just before the news stations went out, I saw that all of the towns in the nearest fifty-mile radius are crawlin’ with the Prowlers. I dunno if the rest of the world even knows, if I’m bein’ honest. We’ve always been sorta remote out here, and well… You know how the folks ‘round here are. They rather take things into their own hands.”

“Help is on the way,” I replied. “I can tell you that much.”