53. Kate

Beta Glenn was right to warn me about getting away before the pain kicked in. Well actually he’s just plain old Glenn to me, now he’s no longer my Beta, entitled to my immediate respect and obedience. Raya took us far into the baking shrubland, well out of sight of anyone else before the first stabbing pains began.

With a whimper she had to stop, we weren’t following the roads but rather the sun, ensuring we kept going south-west. Scrabbling behind a set of boulders for shade we stayed in wolf form, to ride out the pain.

It wasn’t in my heart, not like what I felt when I realised Dex was nowhere to be seen. It was a guttural, deep burning pain. It felt more like a bereavement, a piece of me missing, taken back by its owner because I did not deserve it. Whimpering, Raya curled up and tried to endure the waves of agony.

By the time she felt fit to walk again the sun was low and the air began to finally cool. It had been wise to avoid the ferocity of the sun given the distance we had