Freedom For His Omega

3. Jesse

3

JESSE

I came to slowly. My leg burned and ached, but it didn't really hurt until I tried to move it. I let out a shriek of pain that echoed around me in the dark. Something moved, a heavy thump and swish sound coming closer to me. My human nose was a poor substitute for my wolf's, but even with it, I could smell the bear. I started to scramble before the pain and my memory of the bear mindspeaking to me made me pause.

I felt the bear stop near me, though I couldn't see him.

"Who are you?" I asked. Until now, my fear had been that someone was going to find me and stick me back in a psych ward. And in the woods, I was terrified I was going to get eaten by someone bigger than me. Granted, as a mountain lion, I wasn't entirely defenseless, but I hadn't been in the woods in years. All I had were untrained instincts, and I didn't trust those very far.

I had expected him to mindspeak to me again, but he didn't. As the silence stretched in the dark, I started to shiver. I was lying n***d on cold stone, my mind too distracted by pain to shift of my own volition.

I heard the stretch and pop of a shifter changing shape and then a quiet shuffle. I jumped as a hand brushed against my arm. A human hand. His hand burned against my cold flesh, and then it was gone. The man moved away, and I listened intently to the brush and clank of unknown things in the dark and then I was lifted, wrapped in a blanket, and deposited back on the ground.

The blanket was heavy, and heat returned to my limbs slowly. The man continued to move around the area—a cave, perhaps?—and before I drifted back to sleep, I saw the small flare of a flame. In its light, the other man's face was briefly lit, illuminating long, tangled hair and beard and those sharp silver eyes. The ragged scar still ran from through an eyebrow, across his nose and to his cheek. Our eyes met briefly before he stepped back into shadow. He continued to tend the fire, but kept his face hidden from me. The flickering light glinted off of jagged rock, casting harsh shadows. We were definitely in a cave—a small one. Between the body warmth captured by the blanket and the fire warming the air of the cave, I fell into a deep, restorative sleep, my exhausted body recognizing the opportunity to make up for too many restless nights.

The pain in my leg woke me again, but I felt better, overall. The fire was smoldering, but a dim light filtered into the cave from somewhere. I pushed myself carefully up, curling my unhurt leg beneath me for support.

Bear? I called out, hoping I was remembering how to do this right. I'd been trapped among humans for so long. Are you there?

Either he was too far, he didn't want to respond, or I had failed. The end result was the same. My stomach gurgled loudly. I needed food, and sooner rather than later. I looked down at my leg, remembering the crunch. With the swelling, I couldn't say for sure just from looking at it if it was swollen, but I could barely move it without gasping in pain. I feared it was broken. Movement would definitely be easier if I had three working legs instead of one, so I tried to shift. The pain of the attempt knocked the wind out of me, and I fell backward, trying to catch my breath.

Shifting was clearly out of the question. If only I had managed to stay in cat form instead of shifting to my more vulnerable human form.

My stomach growled again. Food. Regrets weren't going to help me now. As terrifying as it was to find myself injured and alone, I had no doubt the bear would come back. This was clearly his den. Supplies were nestled into spare corners, set upon natural rock shelves. And now that I was fully alert, I could tell the place just reeked of bear. There was the faint hint of a human. That must have been from when he shifted last night. From his scent, it didn't seem like he spent much time as a man. Not that I could judge. I'd spent little enough time as a human after my escape. But that was for my safety. What drove a man like him to choose his wild side over his humanity?

That was a question I wouldn't find the answer to soon, I suspected. And I had more urgent needs. I surveyed the room, looking for something to help me hobble along. There was a nook stacked full of wood; some logs, but mostly sticks and branches of varying thickness and length. I experimented a little, trying to roll over to my hands and knees, but that wasn't happening. The most comfortable position seemed to be to scoot backward, dragging my lame leg carefully behind me.

I picked a decently long stick as wide as both of my thumbs and leaned on it experimentally, using it to pull my butt up off the ground. It bent and then shattered, dropping me to the ground with a jarring ache. I took a few deep breaths before trying another stick. This one held, and I slowly pulled myself up, bearing through the pain, until I was standing. I leaned against the cool wall of the cave until the pain faded, and then limped my way toward the light.

Even though the stick helped, pain stabbed my leg with each swing and bump, but it was all worth it when I stepped out of the cave into a cool, sunny morning. A small creek lay before me, with just a ten-foot sloping rock shelf between me and it. The shelf curved around the rocks to the right. I hoped that lead to access to higher ground because I couldn't imagine making my way through the creek with my leg. Right now, however, all I wanted to do was drink. I ignored the fleeting worry about the sanity of the creek. Clean water or not, I needed a drink, and it wasn't like I had a lot of choices.

I hobbled over the rock, taking my time. The surface was dry, but the rock was crumbling, and it wouldn't take much for me to slip and slide right into the water. And without any clothes on, the stone could shred my skin. Once I reached the edge of the rock, I faced a dilemma: I had stood; now I needed to figure out how to get back down. I carefully dipped the bare toes of my injured leg into the water. It felt like ice on my skin, and I nearly jerked my foot out. But I knew that would do my leg more good than anything else at the moment. I looked around and found a straggly but stubborn tree that had buried its roots in a crevice in the rock and used its limbs to lower myself to the ground before carefully scooting to the edge. I lowered my injured leg into the water and hissed in pain and cold, but after a few minutes, both receded, leaving me with a blessed feeling of relief.

While I soaked my leg, I scooped up small handfuls of water and slurped it artlessly. The cold water chilled as it spilled down my chest, but it dried quickly. I was still hungry, but with the way the cold water was easing my pain, I had no urge to move anytime soon.