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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a train heading in our direction. She finds a place where she can hide in the tall grass, and we

to rise. Soon it will be too light out for us to try and jump on the train without someone seeing us. So, I'm hopeful there's

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

to be careful. We don't want to inadvertently

the train begins to make its

and it's taking a while for it to get up to speed. While we

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 some that have sliding doors that are open. The cars themselves are empty and that's where Hedda

and the open door. As the train picks up speed, so does Hedda,

Chapter 7 The Legend

288 Wouter

it," she

as always,' I

intelligent. I know that I can put my life in her hands, and I do that now. I feel. the muscles in her legs and her body tighten as she begins to run even faster, closing the gap between us and the open car

she won't make it, she leaps, sliding into the car and slamming into

feet. It takes us a moment to realize we're not alone in this car. The

the corner, pleading with me. "Please

stance. 'She's running too,' she says, sniffing

Ga**a, either that or

step towards her. The moment she does, the girl begins running for the

the 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 her down.

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she screams. "I'm still a pup. I'm

and the girl.

not going to hurt you,"

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