Change For Me (Werewolf Romance) (The Alpha's Kiss) by Lynn Red

ignition, the old warhorse Bronco kind of whined and coughed then shut off with a jerk. Nothing out of the ordinary, though it never failed to churn my stomach a little when it made all the noises and I was out in the middle of nowhere.
    All right, one more mile .
    Taking a big breath, I turned away from the car and took that first step. I don’t know why but it felt momentous, like I was making some kind of dramatic stride toward fate or, or maybe destiny. Whatever it was, there was a sense of tension and tightness in the back of my mind, the sort I used to only get right before opening an essay exam test booklet.
    The second step was easier, and by the third I was jogging. Looking up, I made a note of exactly where the sun was, and stopped for a second to jot a note in the book that I always had with me... except I’d left it in the car.
    Briefly I turned back to the old car, but the urgency of Damon’s message, and that one part of it where he said he needed to see me one last time, stuck in my mind like a thorn in the side of my wrist. I didn’t have time. No time to turn back, no time to do anything but go forward in a straight line and hope he wasn’t crazy, or leading me off into some trap or a prank or a joke.
    “Lily?”
    The voice I heard was weak, almost shattered sounding, but with a certain strength behind it.
    “Damon? Is that you?”
    I’d lost track of how far I’d come. The cave he had marked loomed in front of me, but there was at least a hundred feet between where it opened and where Damon sat, leaning against a tree. The first thing I noticed about him was the trickle of blood running down the side of his face from a wound I could barely see where it matted his hair.
    He shifted his weight and hacked a ragged, syrupy cough that made my skin crawl. “Y – yeah, it’s me. Good to see you again.”
    In spite of his obvious agony, he had one of those huge damn grins plastered on his face. “Really, I didn’t think you’d come, but I hoped.”
    “Jesus Christ, Damon!” When I got closer, it was easy to see just how much of a mess he actually was. The side of his head was bloody, one of his lips had a big, cherry-red split down the middle, his clothes were torn to shreds – and he was still wearing the same ones I saw him in a week ago – and it looked like someone punched him straight in the eye about forty times.
    “Are you, no wait, that’s just about the dumbest question anyone’s ever asked. Of course you’re not okay. What the hell happened to you? How are you still alive after being... Jesus Christ.”
    A huge gash opened across his chest, like a claw or a knife tore through his shirt and the flesh underneath.
    “I’m fine,” he said, his eyes twinkling and reflecting the sky. “Just fine now that you’re here. How you doing? Things okay at home?”
    I just stared at him, my mouth hanging open and going dry. Damon put his hands on the ground and started straining like he was going to get up. “Uh, no you don’t,” I said, gently pushing him back to the ground. “You’ve lost a lot of blood.”
    When he crouched again, I followed a tear in his jeans down his huge, muscled thigh to his knee. Something was missing.
    “Where’s that cut? That big, gross cut on your knee, what happened to it?”
    He shrugged. “First you’re worried then you bring the inquisition back. You said it wasn’t really that bad last time I talked to you. Must’ve healed, I guess.”
    I squinted. “Uh yeah, no, Damon, I told you it wasn’t that bad the same way a doctor tells a person who comes in with a piece of rebar through their chest that it isn’t that bad. You had a cut so bad it had flaps Damon! Flaps!”
    He put his hands up in an ‘okay, okay’ gesture. Afterward he glanced down at his knee and ran his finger over where the cut was. “I suppose that did vanish a little more quickly than you’d expect.”
    “What’s going on here, Damon? This has been the weirdest day and