Chapter One
Josie
“Josie!” I heard the whisper-scream but thought I was in the middle of a dream. A hand clutched my arm and shook me. I sat straight up and saw my aunt at my bedside. Her face was red. Her eyes bloodshot. The veins in her neck protruding. Her shift was near, and so was her urgency.
Fear laced the air, sour, burning the inside of my nose.
My clock showed almost two in the morning.
“What?” I asked, voice raspy from sleep.
“Shhh.” She clapped her other hand over my lips. “You have to go, my girl. Run for your life. Don’t look back.”
My wolf picked up on the desperation in her tone. The terror scent came directly from her.
“Why—” I started, cut off by loud banging on the front door.
“Josie. Now!”
I shoved my window open and, with one last look at the woman who raised me, I bolted outside and fell into a shift, my favorite penguin pajamas falling in shreds around me. Racing through the forest, I could still hear the angry voices and my aunt matching each one with her own anger. My wolf meandered around trees and over streams and rocks, letting the chaos fade into the background while we ran for our lives.
They would never have me. Never trade me to another pack like money or cattle. I would rather die after making them hunt me down than to submit to some man twice my age and be his chosen mate.
No fucking way.
I sprinted away until my chest twinged. We’d crossed the pack boundaries.
Officially or not, I was rogue. No alpha. No pack. No rules. No being treated like an outsider.
We were on our own.
I forced the yearning for the comfort of my aunt aside and pushed forward. The moon hung low in the sky, and the sun would soon rise. To the east, cars. My wolf turned in that direction.
Fuck! I’d flown the coop with nothing. No bag. No money. Not even my favorite sneakers.
I had nothing.
Still better than a life of being locked in a cage of a forced mating.
The smells of food cooking drew me near. I approached the building up ahead. Eighteen wheelers parked in rows and bright lights near the gas pumps. A truck stop.
Maybe I could stowaway in the back of one? Steal some clothes from a truck? Not things I would’ve ever considered before tonight but when I shifted, I would be naked.
A naked woman, alone, at the crack of dawn, at a truck stop. Sounded like the worst horror movie ever.
A booming truck horn stilled my wolf form as my paws hit the asphalt of the parking area, followed by the hiss of brakes. Headlights blinded me. I stumbled back.
“What the fuck?” A woman barreled out of the truck and stomped over to me. “You’re…” She scanned the area and I lifted my muzzle. Oh, she was a shifter too. A bear shifter. “Are you alone? Do you have clothes? Are you in trouble?” She crouched to my eye level as she spoke. Her eyes were kind, and my wolf picked up nothing but truth in her voice.
I turned my head, scoping out the area. There was no one else near, and I had to speak to her. Maybe she could help me out of here. Thinking the coast was clear, I shifted to two legs. No reason to feign modesty with another shifter. We were usedto nudity. “I’m alone,” I said, clearing my throat. “I ran from my pack. I have nothing.”
She nodded as though my words were the catalyst she needed to take action. “I have some clothes for you. I have about four hundred more miles until I have to drop this load and go back home. There are some stops along the way, but you can ride with me.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I…can’t repay you.”
“No need. We girls have to stick together. Here.” She lifted her hand and opened her truck door. “Get in. I’ll get you the clothes then fill up and get us some breakfast. Deal?”
I nodded. “Deal. Thank you so much.”
