The One He Claimed by Cooper

Chapter 7: The Legend Sophie

The thing about buses is they stop a lot. I had about four solid hours before the first stop around 4:30 AM. It had taken me a long time to be able to relax enough to fall asleep. So, I only slept an hour, two at the most before we reached the first bus

stop.

I hadn't seen the Alpha wolves following me, but that doesn't mean that they wouldn't have been able to figure out where this bus was going if they realized I was on it. So, I hop off at the first stop. Because of the early hour, there is nobody selling bus tickets. Instead, I ask the bus driver where the next nearest bus stop is. He gives me a funny look, reminding me that my ticket took me past this stop.

"I got a message from my family. I need to get back home," I tell him, making up an excuse on the fly.

"The nearest bus station is going to be about an hour east of here. I'm not headed that direction, otherwise I'd drop you off," he says kindly.

"That's okay," I tell him. "Do you know what time the bus station opens?"

"It usually opens around 6:00 AM. You could find an all-night diner, grab some breakfast and be back here in time to grab the next bus, or if you're in that much of a hurry, about 20 miles from here, there's a train station.

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"They have passenger trains here?" I ask.

He looks around to make sure no one's watching us. "I didn't say it was a passenger train. But the trains go in all directions. You could hop a train, get off in a city somewhere, and grab a bus to your destination. I'm not saying that's what you should do, I'm just saying that I know people who do it, especially if you're in a hurry. But be careful, they do periodic checks for stowaways." Thank you," I say, and he points me in the direction of the train station.

I carefully make my way from the bus station, sniffing the air to make sure there are no werewolves nearby. As soon as I'm far enough away, I strip down, put my things in my bag, and shift. Hedda runs the 20 miles quickly and easily. Before long, we can hear the sounds of the train tracks, the whistles of the trains, and the sounds of large cargo being loaded onto the train beds.

Hedda carefully slinks closer to the train tracks, keeping her body low to the ground. When we're close enough, I can see that all of these trains are cargo trains and my bus driver was correct, they're heading in all different directions. I had been heading east and if the Alphas figured that out, that's where they'll be going to look for me. So instead, I find a train that's going west, and I wait until the cargo is loaded. Hedda carefully begins making her way west outside of the train. station. We'll have to jump into a train car, hopefully a train going this way will have a covered car that can provide us some protection from the sun or rain, and hopefully that train car isn't filled with animals going to slaughter.

Once we're far enough away, she begins jogging more quickly, Chapter 7 The Legend

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our right. We hear the sound of a whistle behind us, and she turns, seeing that there is a train heading in our direction. She finds a place where she can hide in the tall grass, and we wait to see

Soon it will be too light out for us to try and jump on the train without someone seeing us. So,

it for a while and then I can jump off and we can wait

careful. We don't want to inadvertently stop in the middle of

train begins

up to speed. While

see that there are several covered cars coming our way. She begins running alongside the train, easily maintaining a pace so that we can allow the covered cars to catch up to us. When we do, I can see that there are

train as she moves closer, gauging the distance between herself and the open door. As the train picks up speed, so does Hedda, but I know that we're running out of time. She's going to

Chapter 7 The Legend

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it,"

as always,' I

put my life in her hands, and I do that now. I feel. the muscles in her legs and

sliding into

moment to realize we're not alone in this car. The moment she does, her hackles go up and she takes a defensive stance, ready to

a girl huddled in the corner, pleading with me. "Please just let

stands up out of her defensive stance. 'She's running too,' she says, sniffing the air. 'Ga**a,' she says,

either

towards her. The moment she does, the girl

jump, given the speed that the train is going, without breaking multiple bones in her body. Hedda, instinctively wanting to protect her, leaps and pins

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a pup. I'm still

herself between the open door and the girl.

to hurt you," I

one of the Alpha's or other ranked wolves hunting us. Your wolf is so big, I thought...