“Lucy, order’s up!”
It had taken me a couple of weeks, but I was finally answering to my fake name: Lucy Jones. Leaving Torma was the best decision I’d ever made; the second-best was heading for a town without any pack, deciding I was going to risk it on my own.
The freedom of waking up without fear was everything, and my only negative thoughts these days were about how many years I’d wasted in Torma when I could have been free.
Hurrying over to the counter, I grabbed the heavy tray with three burgers and about fifty tons of fries. In these parts, truck drivers all but fell into the diner, starving after being on the road for many hours. This tray of food would be gone in no time.
“Here you go,” I said with a smile, lowering the tray to dish out the three plates, with the shared fries in the center. “Need me to top up your drinks?” I asked, noticing they were halfway empty.
“Nah, all good, love,” the burliest man said, his salt-and-pepper moustache quivering as he bit into the burger. The other two were shoveling the food in, too, so I let out a chuckle.
“Alrighty. I’ll check back in a few minutes.”
I rounded out a few more tables, filled drinks, dropped orders off, and all the while, I had a genuine smile on my face. Sure, life wasn’t perfect. I missed Simone and Dannie and knew they’d be upset at my sudden disappearance. Not to mention the stress over my first shift next week—I hadn’t really figured out what to do about that yet. But I’d take these small, dark moments over the lifetime I’d been living before.
“How long have you been in Hood River?” salt-and-pepper moustache asked when I popped back to refill his soda. “I’ve been stopping here on my route for twenty-odd years, and I’ve never seen your pretty face before.”
He was a harmless flirt. I enjoyed those the best.
“Not very long. I was passing through and this place won my heart over, so I decided to stay.”
It was the abundance of greenery here, a veritable sanctuary for my wolf, who would want nothing more than to get lost in the forest. Even better: no official pack for a hundred miles in all directions.
Hood River had a lot going for it.
“You’re too young to be stuck in a boring-ass town like this.” One of the others scoffed. He was younger than moustache, and he clearly enjoyed more of a nightlife than was available in this small town.
I shrugged. “Boring is kinda nice these days.” Lifting their empty plates, I shot them all another bright smile. “Can I get you gentlemen anything else?”
Moustache shook his head. “Just the check. Thanks, sweetheart.”
I nodded, turning to leave. Just as I took a step, the front door slammed open, and the resounding bang echoed across the diner. In that moment, I lost my sense of happiness, as the fear I’d lived with for most of my life flooded back in, and I all but hit the floor.
“Sorry,” an older, grey-haired man said, stepping farther inside. “Wind caught it.”
I couldn’t really explain the way my body reacted to unexpected situations. I’d been preyed upon and hurt so many times that I was conditioned now to expect pain. Usually, I hid it better, but judging by the way the three truck drivers were looking at me, this time, I’d failed at that. Averting my gaze, feeling the heat in my cheeks, I hurried off to get their check.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. Get it together, Mera!
In my head, I berated myself for drawing attention like this. For falling back into the same old patterns. The few weeks away from the pack clearly wasn’t enough time for me to change, not really. But I was going to keep moving forward, forcing myself to deal with this new life. I refused to let those bastards win.
Ringing up the full order for the trucker’s table, I hurried by and dropped the check off. The three of them watched me silently, and I prayed they wouldn’t ask any questions. Thankfully, by the time I got around to a few more tables, they had left, and I picked up the money, noting that they’d covered their bill and left a very nice tip for me. Pity money no doubt, but whatever. I’d take it at this point.
Beggars couldn’t be choosers, and I was stuck in a rundown old cabin in the woods that needed a few updates. This money wouldn’t go to waste.
The rest of the night passed in a blur of trays, spilled sodas, and shitty tips. Making me even more thankful for the truck drivers. When it was finally time for my shift to end, I heaved a sigh of relief, rubbing at the back of my neck to loosen the muscles there.
I’d been tense for the past few days, feeling the stirring of the beast inside. This wasn’t the first time, but she was much closer to the surface now.
I could taste her energy. The wildness that rode within her soul. She was ready to shift.
“Great work tonight, Lucy.”
I turned as Greg, my boss, jarred me from my thoughts. As bosses go, he was pretty great; his wife was nice as well, even though she rarely visited the diner.
“Thanks, Greg,” I said. “The hours really fly by when it’s busy like that.”
“My favorite kind of night,” he said with a booming laugh before he exited onto the main floor. I sat at the bench to cash out, separating my money from the tips before depositing the rest into the small safe near the cubbies.
I’d actually done better than I’d expected with tips and would be able to get that extra heater for when winter hit even harder. It was a slow chill this year, but the deep freeze was going to arrive soon. I wanted to be prepared.
“See you later,” I called to everyone as I exited.
It was near midnight and I had a couple of miles to walk home, so I didn’t waste time, kicking off with a medium-paced run. In a lot of ways, Hood River, Oregon reminded me of my pack home. Abundance of forests, cooler weather, but unlike in Torma, here there was a lot of passing-through traffic. And definitely a lot of humans.
It was odd that no shifters had made this a permanent pack ground yet, but with all the forest, it was only a matter of time. When that happened, I would be long gone.
When I was about halfway home, the tense feeling pressing into my spine increased, and as I slowed, tingles raced over my skin. I spent more than a few seconds looking around, trying to figure out what had my hackles up.
Very little light existed this far from the main town. The forest was thick and ominous around me, and even with my shifter senses, it was eerie. Not for the first time, I cursed my choice of isolated cabin, but with my non-existent rental history, and lack of stable income, this had been the only place I could get. I hadn’t worried too much, thinking when I changed it would be best to be out of town, but it did leave me vulnerable, with no one to call for help.
For now, all I could do was run and hope like fuck it wasn’t another shifter.
Pumping my arms and legs hard, I sprinted, focusing on breathing and not tripping over my own feet. Shifters were naturally graceful, and my night vision was fantastic, but mistakes were made in situations like these, and I refused to be the classic horror movie heroine falling over her feet.
The forest grew darker around me as the familiar path that led to my cabin came into sight. Thank fuck.
I hit the first step, leaping onto the porch while fumbling for the key to snap it into the lock. For once, I didn’t have any issue, getting it open in one twist before crashing through the door and slamming it behind me. My breath came out in harried gasps as I tried to calm my frantic nerves.
I didn’t drop my guard, though, hurrying into the kitchen to procure a weapon, my eyes locked on the front door as I waited for them to bust through it. After five minutes of standing in the dark, two large cleavers clutched in my sweaty palms, I crept toward the windows. Peeking out of each, I looked for movement, but there wasn’t a sign of anyone being out there.
Had my overactive imagination gotten the best of me?
I made my way through the rest of the cabin, switching on a single lamp in the living area. Two rooms made up the bulk of this rickety dwelling that had very little going for it—outside of its gorgeous old red-brick fireplace.
I was too tired to bother messing with it tonight, though, so I just slipped into the tiny bathroom and took a lukewarm shower before changing into a tank and clean underwear and crawling into bed. I kept the blades beside me just in case, but it didn’t seem like any attack was forthcoming. Not tonight anyway.
As I snuggled down, I started reading a new book on my phone. I had a crappy old smartphone, one of the earlier models, but it had the kindle app, which was my lifeline for paperbacks on the run.
The shifter series Dannie had gifted me was long finished, but that author had led me to other amazing indie writers, and I was currently in the middle of my new favorite series.
Dragon shifters, amirite?
I mean, I might have been a shifter myself, but the thought of a burly dragon dude was just freaking delicious. I hoped that they were out there, hidden, and the concept wasn’t as fantasy as most humans would expect. Maybe I could manipulate the fates somehow and score myself a dragon shifter as a mate. Weirder things had happened, and to be honest, I’d prefer any other shifter as a mate than a wolf. Those bastards had been making my life miserable for ten years, and I was ready for a change.
