The truck finally shuddered to a stop, her car impaled on its front.
She couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t feel.
Then, the wolf erupted in panic, fighting for freedom now, fiercely struggling to shed the human form. The flight instinct, the need for survival, overrode all else.
She wanted to live.
Jewel did, too. She fought the change, knowing she’d never survive if the wolf broke free.
Colton received the call on his way to the boathouse, just after stopping at the bait shop for a fresh crop of minnows. “There’s been a horrible accident on Harbor Road.” Sue Kearney, one of the police-department dispatchers, liked to keep him informed. “I thought you might like to know.”
Even a minor accident was news in a town like Anniversary. If the week had been especially slow, the paper might even put the story on the front page.
“Thanks, Sue. I’ll head over that way right now.” Clicking the phone shut, Colton pulled into the first driveway he came to and reversed the car. He’d hoped to get in a few hours of mid-afternoon fishing, but the minnows would keep. Duty called.
He made it to the accident scene in less than five minutes, coasting to a stop and parking on the side of the road. He grabbed his camera and, pushing past the yellow tape, waved at the sheriff as he made his way to view the wreckage. The jackknifed semi loomed like a giant, the shaken truck driver huddled by himself, talking on his cell phone. Groceries were scattered all over the highway and roadside.
After snapping several pictures, he took a look at the other vehicle. Colton’s heart stopped. Mangled and barely recognizable, it looked like Jewel’s—or Julie’s—car. The twisted and crumpled pieces of metal told him it would be a miracle if anyone had survived.
“No one could live through that.” He heard his own voice from a distance, as he forced his shaky legs to move. Circling the wreckage, he snapped photo after photo. He saw no sign of a body, though blood darkened the steering wheel and the remains of the front seat.
Sheriff Tucker came over. “Surprisingly, someone did, even though this car was too old to have an air bag.”
Colton could barely speak. “Where…” Clearing his throat, he tried again. “Where is she?”
“She’s been transported by ambulance into Athens. I’m thinking they may have to use Care Flight to send out to Parkland Hospital in Dallas.”
“Who…” Taking a deep breath, Colton swallowed. Though he suspected he knew the answer, he had to ask. “Who was it?”
“I can’t think of her name.” Tucker scratched the back of his neck. “Ah, hell. It was that new woman, you know, the one that lives out at the old Pryor place. Name starts with aJor anL,I believe. You know her, don’t you?”
Mouth dry, he nodded. “Jewel. Jewel Smith.”
Snapping his fingers, Tucker nodded. “That’s her. She was unconscious when the ambulance loaded her up. Her injuries are pretty severe.”
Jewel.
Surprised to realize his hands were shaking, Colton walked over to the trucker, who’d just closed his phone and looked lost. “What happened?”
Eyes wild, the other man was barely coherent. “I hope I didn’t kill her, man, but it wasn’t my fault. She had a stop sign, but she didn’t stop.” He pointed to a set of black skid marks on the pavement. “It looked like she tried to at the last minute.”
“I’m surprised she’s still alive.” Having followed Colton over, Sheriff Tucker clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Matter of fact, if you want to get more on the story for the paper, you’d better hurry to the hospital.”
As a reporter, he didn’t usually interview the accident victim until they were out of ICU. As a man, however…Heart pounding, Colton took off, starting his pickup and peeling out.
Athens was a good thirty minutes away, if one drove the speed limit. He made it there in twenty, blowing through the hospital doors at a dead run.
The plump nurse manning the admitting desk told him Ms. Smith was in intensive care. Since he wasn’t immediate family, he wasn’t allowed to visit. She pointed the way to the small waiting room.
Frustrated, he paced the halls instead. What had made her do such a thing? The truck driver had said she’d run the stop sign. Had she been using, or had she experienced another one of her seizures?
Until he talked to her, he wouldn’t know.
Ifhe talked to her.
For the first time since his daughter had died, Colton Reynolds found himself uttering a prayer.
She couldn’t let them take her blood. Fighting back to consciousness, she noted first the absence of her wolf-self. Stunned into retreat by injury and shock, that was one less thing she’d have to deal with.
