Chapter 1
Jewel Smith slipped from her dark rental house and padded across the dewy lawn. Dawn crept across the velvet sky, tinting the night with subtle trailers of rose and amethyst. Soon, the awakening sun would blaze over the horizon, shooting flashes of light off the unruffled surface of the lake.
Tranquil. Quiet. A perfect time for a new beginning. If she could manage to slow her heart rate and still the fine tremors that shook her.
Even though she’d escaped, even though she had her freedom, she was still trapped. Trapped inside a body being torn apart, a body where one half warred with the other.
Though her new life had begun the moment she’d fled, she wouldn’t consider herself truly living until she could once againchange.Her other self, residing inside her always, howled restlessly, insistently, for release. The wolf needed out. Shifting from human to wolf was such an integral part of her that she’d die if she couldn’t do it ever again.
She could no more stop trying than she could stop breathing.
Slipping through the trees, avoiding an intricate spiderweb glistening with morning dew, she came to the edge of the still water. Out on the main body of the lake, the bass boats were already gathering, the fishermen intent on their lines. None had entered her sheltered cove. Perhaps the fishing was bad in the water near her cabin.
To make certain she would have privacy, she’d spent the past two mornings out here, hiding in the trees, observing, watching for intruders. Paranoid, because Leo had made her that way. Alone, because she’d be dead if she trusted anyone from her old town. And damaged, knowing she had to get up the nerve to try to shift, to become her other self, the sleek and deadly ivory-coated wolf.
Fingering her long silver wolf necklace, she trembled, remembering. The last several times she’d attempted to change, the war raging within her body had become worse, as had the pain. So far, she’d survived, though the raging urges that shook her could find no release. She wasn’t sure how much longer this would hold true. Changing was absolutely vital to her continued survival.
Somehow, though she wasn’t sure what he’d done to her, or how, she knew Leo, her ex-husband, was responsible. Hadn’t he told her often enough he wished her dead?
But he’d taken such pleasure in her suffering; she’d known he’d keep her around until she went stark raving mad. And beyond.
At least now, she didn’t have to endure the violent rapes when she was too weak to defend herself.
Or the beatings. Or the…
She shuddered, stopping her thoughts. She was free now, finally clear of a man she recognized as inherently evil.
But his evil still tainted her, lingering on her skin, in her blood. She was a shifter who could not shift, a broken woman who refused to give up. Truthfully, she had no choice.
Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. The air’s heavy humidity promised the day would be a scorcher. Dipping her toe in the tepid lake water, Jewel squared her shoulders and lifted her face, letting the breeze caress her skin. She smelled nothing but lake water and fish, humidity and freshly mowed grass.
Now. Heart pounding, she took a deep, calming breath. Then, slipping back into the concealing thicket of the trees, she stepped out of her sundress, dropped to the ground on all fours and uttered a quick prayer.
Now, she would change. She began the process tentatively, hoping for the best.
Instead of the stretch and pull of her bones lengthening, sharp pain lanced through her. Awful hurt, killing damage, as though her entire body had been caught in a rusty bear trap. No!
Gasping, she attempted to stand, to reverse what she’d begun, but couldn’t make her own body obey. Desperate, she fought herself, jackknifing as agony knifed through her stomach. Where claws should have sprung from her fingers, bright red blood oozed instead.
Inside, she felt her body tearing, something deep within ripping her apart. The pain was a slow and vicious torture. She could only hope her death would be swift and soon.
She made a small cry, knowing no one could hear her. One last shuddering breath was all shemanaged before the edges of her vision grayed and blackness claimed her.
The quiet moments before dawn were Colton Reynolds’s favorite time of the day. The full heat of a July afternoon was still hours away, and in the faux cool, the hungry sand bass would be schooling, breaking the surface of the water in search of food. Ripe for the right lure, cast by an experienced fisherman.
A Thermos of hot coffee next to him, he eased his Skeeter bass boat from the slip of his boat dock, heading for his favorite cove at the north end of the lake.
Three days had passed since he’d been able to get out on the water; three long, miserable days spent down in Austin reporting on the latest political session.
But now, finally he was home again in Anniversary, and this was the perfect morning to catch a big, fat bass before heading off to work.
Fishing brought him the only peace he was able to find these days.
Rounding the turn to the secluded cove, he searched for the white whooping crane that had made the muddy shore its private fishing grounds. He found the bird on the other side of the bank, serene and motionless as the boat chugged toward it.
The scents and smells of the water teased his nose. He lifted his face to the breeze and took in a lungful of early morning air.
The point looked different. As he drew closer he realized the unkempt weeds and grass leading down to the lake had been freshly mowed the day before.
