The One He Claimed by Cooper

Chapter 11: Injured 288 Mouchers

Chapter 11: Injured Sophie

Penny woke me up in the middle of the night and I took my shift, watching and making sure that we stayed safe while she slept. About an hour before sunrise, I woke her. I could see a train station coming ahead and we needed to get off this train before anyone spotted us.

As the train starts to slow, I strip out of my clothes and put them in my bag, shifting back into my wolf. I make sure that Penny is doing the same, then I grab my bag in my mouth and wait until the train slows as much as I feel I can let it before I need to jump. I find a spot with grass, and I leap, quickly turning to watch and make sure that Penny joins me and lands safely.

Her landing isn't as graceful as mine and it looks as though she might have twisted her ankle. I race over to her, sniffing her leg. I nudge her with my nose and wait. She puts weight on her leg and almost instantly, she lifts it again, a painful yelp escaping her lips.

I look around. We are very exposed here and as soon as the sun. comes up, anyone close by will be able to see us. We need to get to the forest, and we need to do it quickly.

I shift and quickly take Penny's paw in my hand. I gently move my hand up to the knee joint where she flinched, whimpering as I touch it.

"I'm going to have to carry you Penny. We can't stay here, we

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have to move."

She shakes her head, pushing me with her nose, telling me to leave her.

"I'm not leaving you. I know it's going hurt to shift, but I need you to shift, and then you can climb on my back. I'll carry you. We've got to get to the forest before the sun comes up," I tell her urgently. When she doesn't instantly shift, take her face in my hands. "We don't have much time. It's going to be hard enough for me to travel carrying you. We have to go, Penny. You have to shift."

She nods, and I release her face. She whimpers as she begins to shift and when her leg shifts back, she cries out before slapping her hand over her mouth. Her knee looks terrible. It's swollen and already bruising an ugly purple color.

"That's going to take some time to heal. Come on, we need to get going."

I help her up into a standing position, grabbing both of our bags and handing them to her. Once she has them over her shoulders, I turn, crouching down in front of her and I help her

the good leg around my waist, and get onto my back. She wraps I carefully wrap my arm underneath the thigh of her bad leg. She whimpers softly as she bends her knee and lets it hang. "I'm going to have to run Penny, so just hang on."

"Okay, just hurry," she says and I can hear the pain in her voice.

can. I run in the opposite direction of

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what it is. I hope it's a thick forest, where we can hide and maybe find a place to let Penny rest and heal. When I get to the tree line, the sun is just starting to rise and I can see

I can hear her whimpering periodically, but she keeps the sounds as quiet as she possibly can. I frequently stop listening to make sure that no one is following us, that no one has caught

the ground. I need to catch my breath and she needs to stretch out her legs. Thankfully the trees have gotten thicker as I've run. I'm still moving in the general direction of my parents' pack, hoping that it's them leaving the food out. I know we'll need to be more

the cool lake coming back and handing one to Penny as I sit beside her. I drink the water quickly, thirsty after my long run. Then Llook down at her knee. "How does

at it and see that it's turned into a yellow and green brdise from the ugly black and purple that it was earlier today.

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walking on it?" I

and if nothing else, maybe I can walk for a while. The forest has

can find a place for us to hide tonight. I pull out two

least let you rest until your knee is healed. It looks like it should

should just go without me,"

at risk at being captured. I'm not

nods and surprises me by reaching

"That's what friend's do."

kind of friends who could stay together and not

someday. We

and wrap her arm around my shoulder before we begin making our way slowly around the lake. We both listen intently for the sounds of footfalls, running paws, growls,

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much weight on her bad knee. Once we're around the Lake, I look around and see that away from the lake, the forest becomes thicker

Penny? The lake or the forest for tonight?" She looks around, then looks back

like anyone in the area will come here to

you to climb back on my back. I'd like to make some good time and get away from this lake. As soon as someone catches our scent,

our scent will be lost, and it will take a long time for them to find our scent again. If we swim

about her ability to swim. It's why I hadn't already suggested that

rather take longer to heal than

it. We'll swim together. I'll carry our bags and keep

cold and my body is covered in goosebumps almost immediately. Once we're submerged in the

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Chapter 11: Injured