Free Alpha Initiation (Alpha Blood #1) (Werewolf Romance) by Mac Flynn Page B

chuckled. "A fitting analogy, but thank you."
    Luke stood and went over to the pockets of people along the hillside. He updated them on the coming train and made sure there were no serious injuries. A few of the train crew managed to salvage food from the wreck and that was passed around to everyone. I got a plate of biscuits speckled with gravel, but after the scare I was famished and ate them without complaint.
    Time crept by for the passengers, but the crew and Luke took the risk of rummaging through the wreck to retrieve belongings. Alistair finished his perusal of the tracks and helped with the game of hide-and-seek. Luke rejoined me at my rock, and dumped an armful of luggage and himself on the ground beside me. He looked as tired as I felt, and I had some pity on him. "You eat anything?" I asked him. He shook his head and ran a hand through his messy hair. I held out what remained of my meal. "Here. No sense having you survive the wreck just to starve to death."
    Luke smiled and took a gravel-seasoned biscuit. He'd just bitten down on the crunchy goodness when a cry went up from one of the people beside us, and we glanced to where they pointed. A new train chugged up to us from the direction of our destination, and it stopped a few dozen yards down the track. A half dozen people with leather bags and stretchers in hand jumped out. They paused at the engineer, spoke to him for a few moments, and one remained to patch up the engineer while the others hurried over to us. From the stethoscopes around a few of their necks I guessed they were doctors and nurses. "Is anyone seriously injured?" the lead man asked us.
    Luke handed back the biscuit and stood. Many of the other passengers gathered around us. "Nothing serious. Most of us are just shaken."
    "So there weren't any humans aboard?" the head medic wondered.
    Luke shook his head. "None, thankfully, or you would have work."
    The medic and his team visibly relaxed, and a few of them even smiled. "That's a relief." He turned to the engine. The fire was out, but the machine was totaled. "What exactly happened?"
    "We're not sure, but we'd like to get away from here as soon as possible," Luke replied.
    "Oh, of course. This train can take you all the way to Wolverton," the man told us.
    A cheer went up from the crowd, and we carried ourselves and our luggage over to the new train. The train crew hopped out and helped us inside to soft, comfortable seats and warm food. There were two rows of two seats with an aisle between them, and Luke guided me to the center of the car. He took the seat beside me and gave me the window view, and Alistair took a position in front of us. Abby waved wildly to me from the front of the car until her mother made her sit down. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I shut my eyes for a quick rest that stretched out into most of the day.

Chapter 11
     
    The jostle of the train woke me up, and I glanced outside to see we had left the woods and entered a bustling town. The buildings here were taller and more packed together, and many of them were built in a more modern, blocky fashion. One in particular stood above the rest for its ten floors and extreme gaudiness. The builders tried to imitate the old-fashioned clapboard look, but with fake materials that made the whole thing look tacky.
    Behind the buildings, silhouetted against the sky, were some of the tallest mountains I'd ever seen. They towered above the valley in which was settled the small town, and they cast their long shadows over the buildings. Their peaks were capped with white snow and the sides were heavily forested, with only a hint here and there of civilization in the form of selective logging. The trees crept up behind the buildings that stood on the extreme edges of the town and stood there as though waiting for everything to come to ruin and they would take over the land.
    The sun and my watch told me it was late afternoon, and I glanced over to find Luke staring at me. "Sleep