Relaxation was a distant memory. Jess had decided that we now needed a day of shopping, and when she said a day she meant a full day. We'd been wandering around the mall for the last three hours and from the way Jess was talking there were at least another two nearby we had yet to visit. I wasn't generally a shopper, but Jess had been so excited I didn't have the heart to put a damper on her day.
The man beside me was too slow, he meandered through the airport as though he had all the time in the world. Maybe he did, butIdidn't. Landing back at the tiny Haven Falls airport all I wanted to do was find Max, but the nice wolf Jonathan sent back with me wouldn't be rushed and I was too polite to say anything.
The diner had always been like a second home to me. I'd worked there for years, both before and since I was bitten that night. It had provided a constant in my life when I'd needed it, it was my daily dose of normal. I valued working alongside people who simply knew me as Maggie, not as a werewolf, certainly not as a rare female wolf. At the diner I was just me, with no other identities attached.
"Not the most romantic date night." I took a sip of wine, watching Max over the rim of the glass.
Running was freedom. In my wolf form all the threats and worry faded away and animal instinct took over. It was bliss to feel the damp soil beneath my paws and to have the fresh wind ruffle my fur. This was simple and easy and didn't require complicated thoughts or feelings of guilt.
"I'm going, Max. It's important." I was well prepared for this argument; I'd known it was unavoidable.
What did one wear to a good friend's birthday party when also planning to keep an appointment with a murderous stalker? This was the question running through my head as I stood in front of my closet examining the contents. I'd managed to put on my underwear and that was as far as I'd managed to get. My usual solution of asking Nate was out as I knew he'd try and get me into a dress, and that wasn't going to happen tonight. I wanted to be covered up and comfortable, with the ability to make a run for it.
The silence in the car pressed down like a weight. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to make the effort to talk or not. It was a choice of uncomfortable silence or disturbing conversation.After we’d left the park it was a short walk to a nondescript, dark car. The perfect, forgettable, getaway vehicle. Zachary knew how to plan an effective kidnapping, but then he seemed like an organised guy. Organised and determined; a dangerous combination.
Two long days and endless nights later and nothing had changed. Time passed and still I lay curled in a corner of the cabin, unwilling to talk to Zachary. This hadn't stopped him from talking to me, or rather at me, it seemed I wasn't a necessary participant. Zachary, I was learning, was not interested in much beyond himself and his life, everyone else were simply a means to an end.
6 months later Life with Max was...interesting. Good interesting, but never predictable. And I loved every second of it. Who knew that one of the missing pieces in my life was an arrogant, cocky, hot as sin werewolf? Letting down my guard and letting Max, and everything that came with him, in was a decision that I had never regretted. "I still can't believe Jonas has a guest house and I never knew about it." Huffing, I dropped the heavy box to the floor, glad it was one of te last. Unpacking was going to be a nightmare. "Not sure he thought you'd be interested, babe." Max waltzed in, a box under each muscled arm, not an ounce of strain on his face. "It works out well for us though." He was right. After month of long conversations and beggin on Max's part, altough he'd deny it, I'd agreed to move in together. I'd actually been ready a
Zachary was dead and I truthfully had no idea how I felt about that. In accordance with Pack law he had been executed for his crimes, with Max as his executioner. As a victim of his, and man I hated that word, I'd had the right to watch him die. I'd declined. I had no desire to see a man killed, and I really didn't want to see my boyfriend in the role of killer.
Tension was thick in the air, so heavy I was sure that even the unwitting humans could sense it. We were all in a state if high alert; watching, waiting. Zachary still hovered in the reception area, enjoying the results of his handiwork. Meanwhile I remained out of sight in the waiting room, praying that the others didn't lose track of him.
Chaos. That was the only word that got even close to describing the scene at the hospital. How many people had the psycho attacked? Worried relatives crowded the waiting room as my guards and I pushed our way through. The weight of panic pressed down on me.
The sun was sinking beneath the horizon casting a beautiful warm light across the clearing. It was an idyllic scene, one that would inspire poets and painters alike, there was no sign of the violence that was to come. This place of seeming peace and calm had been selected as the location for the fight, soon the serenity would be lost.
He would be fine. He would be absolutely fine.
I was back in the woods, a place I'd been hoping to take a break from after my last trip through them. This time though I wasn't running for my life, and I was with a Pack of wolves I'd trust with my life.
Another rock bit into the sole of my foot, causing me to stumble, but I refused to slow down. Running through the woods in wolf form would have been so much easier, but I wasn't able to shift back again so quickly, it took too much energy. Instead I had to rely on my less than brilliant human senses to help guide me through the wall of trees.
Escape. The single word that ran through my head every hour since Zachary had announced his 'distraction' plan. All I could now think of was that I needed to get out of here and tell the Pack about it, so that they could prevent the impending disaster.