Free Run: Beginnings by Michaela Adams Page B

promise. But—”
                  Eric grabbed her arm, squeezing tightly. “I mean it. I want you to promise that under no circumstances will you be going into the woods by yourself.”
                  Natalie slowly nodded. “I promise.”
                  Eric gave a quick jerk of the head in acknowledgment. Giving her a quick kiss, he turned around to leave.
                  “Wait!” Natalie cried out. “Where are you going?”
                  But Eric didn’t turn around. She only heard his voice call back out. “No woods! You promised! Stay in the house!”
     

Chapter Eight
     
                  “What time will you be landing?” Amber asked for the third time.
                  “Eight o’clock,” Natalie answered patiently.
                  “Okay. I should be able to pick you up but if not, Danielle for sure can,” Amber said.
                  Natalie gave a small laugh. “And if Danielle gets struck by lightening or eats a poisoned apple and can’t make it, Alice for sure, for sure can,” she said, finishing her friend’s thought for her.
                  Amber’s rueful chuckle crackled through Natalie’s cellphone. “God, I must sound like a babbling idiot. I swear, this pregnancy is making me dumber every week.”
                  Natalie shook her head in understanding. “It’s all perfectly understandable, Am. It’s normal.”
                  “I just want to make sure you’ll make it,” Amber said anxiously. “I don’t think we’ve ever been apart this long before.”
                  Amber’s baby shower was this weekend. Natalie had booked her ticket weeks in advance thanks to Amber’s insistence that she would forget to purchase it otherwise. When she had initially bought the ticket, she had been excited to go back home and see her friends and family after the long separation. But then she had met Eric and suddenly she felt less eager at the idea of being away from him for several days. She had already told him about her trip but a week ago Natalie had had the idea of perhaps asking him to come along. It was probably too early in their relationship to be asking him to meet her family but she didn’t see the harm in just asking.
                  But that was before he had begun to act so oddly. She had tossed and turned in bed all last night trying to figure out what Eric had meant by having her promise to not go into the woods. Since that first fateful night when she had seen Eric as a wolf, she hadn’t gone back in. He knew she had never been a much of an outdoorsman so why have her promise?
                  “Are you sure you have to go back so soon? You’re stay is so short,” Amber said.
                  “The sick people of Canada can’t do without their only doctor within a hundred miles, I’m afraid,” Natalie replied. She would only be back in LA for four days. Although that had seem like a fraction of a visit before, now it seemed like ages. She did not want to leave with things the way they were. Not for four whole days.
                  “Hey, Am, let me call you back. I need to finish packing and wrapping stuff up at the clinic,” Natalie said, already grabbing her car keys. The nurses had already been notified and the clinic would be doing a half-day on Thursday then closing for all of Friday.
                  Throwing on her coat, Natalie slid into her car and started the engine. It was Mr. Big Bad Wolf who had talked about total honesty to her in the woods that first night. Well it was time he took his own medicine and learned to be more honest about his own feelings. And Natalie was just the doctor to make sure he got his proper dose.
    ***
                  As she drove into the quiet town, she noticed the outer trees looking…fuller.