Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Two hours had flown by as Skylar and Cheyenne continued to talk and it was time for her to go to work.

As Skylar drove out of the woods and turned onto the back roads, he frowned coming to a realization that Cheyenne hadn’t eaten.

“You didn’t eat.”

“I’ll pick something up on break.”

“What time is that?”

Cheyenne thought.

“Maybe like nine or ten.”

“You’re going to go two to three hours without food? With only this mornings breakfast on your stomach?”

“Sky, I’ll be find.”

Skylar frowned at her and continued to drive.

“We will stop somewhere.”

“Skylar—!”

“No, we’re stopping somewhere, you’re going to eat and you will go to work.”

It was quiet.

“Where do you want to eat? And I swear if you don’t pick, I will pick for you.”

Cheyenne frowned and opened her mouth to speak but Skylar cut her off.

“And if you ask me one more time why I care, you aren’t going to work.”

She gapped at him.

“W-what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It means I will take you back to the house and show you just how much I care.”

Cheyenne stared at him.

If she was being honest, she wouldn’t mind him showing her just how much he cared.

“I will ask one more time, what do you want to eat?”

Cheyenne still only stared at him wondering exactly how he’d show he cared.

Skylar looked her up and down and grunted, looking back at the road causing Cheyenne to zone back into the car.

“Stop thinking thoughts like that or I will have to pull the car over and fulfill your fantasies.”

“What?” Cheyenne asked, flustered, looking away from him.

“Werewolf sense of smell is way better than humans.” Skylar said, hinting.

It of course went right over her head.

“Princess, I can smell your arousal.” He said, tightening his grip on the stirring wheel.

Cheyenne blushed and tightened her legs shut, looking out the window.

“Taco Bell is fine.”She said quickly.

“What?”

“Taco Bell. You asked what I wanted to eat. Taco Bell.”

Skylar nodded as they continued driving on the long windy roads.

“I’ll be here at eleven forty-five.”

“That’s early. I don’t get off until twelve. You’d be sitting here for fifteen minutes.”

Skylar nodded.

“And I will be here. In this spot. In this car.”

Cheyenne sighed picking up her bag of Taco Bell and opening the car door.

“Then I’ll see you at twelve.”

“I’ll be here.”

Cheyenne got out the car and began walking in but was stopped by the sound of a horn.

She turned to look at Skylar like he was crazy.

“I love you!” He yelled out of the rolled down window of his car with a smile on his face.

Cheyenne was shocked and simply nodded, walking into the building.

She walked to the front desk and sighed, clocking in at seven forty one.

Greta wasn’t there, it was some other woman, young enough to be about the same age as her. She had her blonde hair pulled up in a ponytail and green eyes staring at the computer screen in front of her.

“Hey, Cheyenne. It’s been a while since we’ve had the same shift, huh?”

Cheyenne smiles at the blonde.

“Hey, Theresa. It’s definitely been a while.”

“We’ve got to catch up.”

“We do. How’s it been? With the kids? And Jimmy?”

“Jimmy is being his usual loving self and the kids are being their usual rough selves. Avery and Connor have been fighting a lot, lately. But boys will be boys.”

“I guess so. Hey, is James or Stacy here?”

Theresa curled her lips to her nose, clearly disgusted.

“No and thank Greta for that.”

Cheyenne chuckled.

“You too?”

“Right in the next room. No modesty at all.”

Cheyenne shrugged, laughing.

“Oh, what time are you going on break?” Theresa asked.

“Nine. You?”

“Already went. I get off at nine thirty. So you’ll be here all by yourself.”

Cheyenne nodded.

“Fantastic.” Cheyenne said, sarcastically.

“You’ll be fine.” Theresa laughed.

“Well, I’ll be in the back setting up for nothing. Most are sleep around this time.”

“It doesn’t hurt to be prepared.” Theresa smiled.

Cheyenne smiled and went to the back to her clinic room.

She opened her door and turned the light on, shutting the door behind her. She put her jacket on the chair and her food in the fridge in a cabinet.

She looked around to see if there was anything she could do but all she could think of was nothing. She had organized all the medications and she didn’t have to take over for Theresa until she got off.

Cheyenne decided she would go ask Theresa for something to do.

She left her room and went back to the front desk but Theresa wasn’t there.

Cheyenne simply sighed and waited for her to come back. She sat at the front desk and twisted back and forth on the seat.

Cheyenne checked the time and it was almost nine fifteen and Theresa still hasn’t come back yet.

Maybe she had an appointment but it’s kind of late for that. It could have been some emergency or something.

Cheyenne shrugged it off and decided to just wait there a little longer.

Surely Theresa would come back eventually, she had to get her bag before she left. She gets off in fifteen minutes and she’s got to go out the front door.

“Where is that woman?”

Cheyenne has fallen into a light sleep when the phone rang, jolting her awake. She looked at the time. It was eleven ten. Skylar would be here soon.

She was knocked out of her daze by the phone ring again and went to pick it up.

“This is the animal hospital my name is Cheyenne, who do I have the pleasure of speaking with tonight?”

It was quiet.

“Hello?”

“I found you...” A sing song voice came.

Cheyenne’s heart sank and the line cut out. The lights flickered before shutting off completely and the emergency lights came on.

Cheyenne stood up abruptly as her heart started picking up speed. She felt panic rising.

He found her.

If he got the number, he was close. She had to find Theresa and get out of there.

“Theresa!”

She ran around the desk and down the hall to Theresa’s office, hoping to find her in there but all she saw was an open window blowing in cool night air.

“Theresa?”

Cheyenne creeped inside the office, watching her step given she couldn’t see in the dark and patted herself for her phone.

She silently cursed herself for leaving it in her bag, in her clinic room across the building.

“Theresa?” Cheyenne called out and tripped over something on the floor and fell flat on her stomach.

Grunting, Cheyenne pulled herself up and felt around on the floor to see what she had tripped over. Her fingers finally ran over the scrubbing fabric of a scrubs shirt and soon felt a body and slight moisture. She felt around it more, slowly loosing her breath when she couldn’t find a pulse on the body.

“Oh my gosh.”

In the little light provided by the street lamps outside, she made out the womanly figure of Theresa. Cheyenne jumped back, realizing the moisture was the blood coming from Theresa and started to panic.

She had to get out of there.

She had to get out.

Cheyenne scrambled out of Theresa’s clinic office, breathing hard with tears stinging her eyes. She fell out of the room, stood up and shut it behind her, running to the other end of the building to get her phone.

She had to call the police.

Realizing how stupid she was, she stopped at the front desk instead and used the phone there. She picked it up, dialing the number.

Before the operator had a chance to pick it up, the phone was snatched from her hands and she was shoved back against the wall.

Her breath hitched remembering this position she was once in before her entire life changed.

“I wouldn’t if I were you, sweetheart.”

Cheyenne trembled under his touch and closed her eyes hoping it was just another nightmare.

“Awe, no words? Is that anyway to treat an old friend?” He teased, pressing against her back more, pushing her closer against the wall.

Cheyenne whimpered, heart beating fast enough that she thought it might burst.

“I didn’t appreciate waking up in the morning to find that you were gone to the wind.” He whispered venomously in her ear, his hot breath making the hair on the back of her neck stand.

Cheyenne stayed quiet, knowing anything she said would be used against her.

“Say something. Tell me you missed me.”

Cheyenne closed her eyes, feeling dizzy. Maybe when she opened them, Oliver would be gone. He just might be gone.

When she opened her eyes, he was gone. The weight against her back was gone, his hot breath was away from her ear. It was as if he was never even there.

But he was. And she knew it.

Oliver had finally found her.

Cheyenne slid down the wall, hyperventilating, hot and sweaty. Her vision blurred as she cried and lost oxygen.

She didn’t think this panic attack would ever stop.

Bump

Bump

Bump

Bump

Skylar furrowed his eyebrows at the empty car lot and the darkness of the vet clinic.

He looked at the time and it was five minutes until twelve thirty.

Cheyenne should have been out by now.

Skylar frowned and got out the car, hearing a fast heart beat but it’s so far away he doesn’t know if he actually hears it.

Once he’s at the door of the clinic he is sure that he’s hearing someone’s erratic heart beat.

He went inside and frowned at how dark it was but followed the heart beat to the front desk and saw the top of Cheyenne’s head.

He nearly jumped over it to get to her.

“Cheyenne!”

She was hyperventilating and crying, lying on her side, clutching her chest.

She wasn’t looking at him, but around him, like she couldn’t see clearly. She smelled different. She smelled like another man.

Skylar growled at the thought of another man touching his woman. But had to calm himself down for now and would ask questions later.

“Cheyenne? Can you hear me?”

She, of course didn’t answer.

He took her hand in his and gently rubbed her knuckles.

“Squeeze my hand if you can hear me, Princess.”

It wasn’t much but he felt it. She squeezed his hand and he smiled a bit.

“It’s going to be okay. Can you copy my breathing? I need you to breathe with me. Okay?”

Skylar started breathing in and out for Cheyenne to copy and smelled blood, he frowned but realized that it wasn’t hers. Someone else was badly hurt.

Cheyenne tried but couldn’t get the rhythm of his breathing which caused her to fall deeper into her panic attack.

Her lungs burned and she felt like she was going to die.

“It’s okay, you can do it. Just breathe with me.”

He tried again and she started to get the rhythm a bit.

“That’s it Princess, that’s it. Come back to me.”

He pulled her hand to his chest and held it over his heart.

“Breathe with me. Match your rhythm to mine.”

Cheyenne felt his heart beat against her sweaty palm and blushed a bit, feeling him.

“That’s it, Princess. Breathe.”