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

25:130

Chapter 115 Injured

1 288 Vouchers

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.

fast as I can. I run in the opposite direction of the train station and train tracks. It looks like there's a

Chapter 11 Injured

↑ 288 Vouchers

like a forest. I hope that's 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 very quickly that this is no thick forest. This is just a smattering of trees,

frequently stop listening to make sure that no one is following us, that

general direction of my parents' pack, hoping that it's them leaving the food out.

sit beside her. I drink the water quickly, thirsty after my long run. Then Llook down at her knee. "How does it

see that it's turned into a yellow and green brdise from the ugly black and purple that it was earlier today. That's a good sign that it's healing, but the fact that it's still bruised means it's not

21:13

1288 Vouchers

want to try walking

else, maybe I can walk

can look around, see if I can find a place for us to hide tonight. I pull out two more granola bars from my bag and hand her one before taking our

we can hide for the night, or at least let you rest

holding you back. You should

here. You're at risk at being captured. I'm not going to do that to

reaching out to hug me. "Thank

"That's what friend's do."

the kind of friends who could stay

too. Maybe someday. We

help her up 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, or howls of any kind. It's

288 Vouchers

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 with

the forest for tonight?" She looks around,

in the area will come here to get water, and then they

make some good time and get away from this lake. As soon as someone catches our scent,

get in the water, our scent will be lost, and it will take a long time for them to

can handle it?" I ask her, worried about her ability to swim. It's why I

take longer to heal than to get caught," she

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

and make our way into the water. It's cold and my body is covered in goosebumps almost immediately. Once we're submerged in the water, Penny looks at me. Her lips have already

211

Chapter 11: Injured