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1
Natural selection is a bitch. Our world is built on the survival of the fittest, and that’s a fact whether we like it or not. No matter how hard we try, we can’t change it, it just keeps happening. We’re all animals when it comes down to it. I learned that the hard way when my father was killed, and then again when I was told to leave town and never return.
But that was years ago. I’m smarter now than I was then. At least, I thought I was. While I was fighting for my own survival, I forgot about something vital. Family. My father was dead and my mother absentee, but I wasn’t without family.
That was the only thing that could’ve led me to park outside The Neon Bar again.
When I’d left, hitchhiking my way down the east coast and over to New Orleans, I never imagined I’d be back here. I didn’t want to come back, but here I was. Dressed in black. Home to say goodbye to the one person who meant the world to me. My grandmother, Annabelle Corwin.
I wanted to lie and say I thought she could protect herself, that I couldn’t have stopped the drunk driver that sent my world into a tailspin, but deep down I knew that was a lie. The indomitable Annie was the best of us. She was the best wolf, the best mother, the best friend. When my mother was too concerned with her own troubles to take care of me, Annie raised me. She taught me everything about what it meant to be a wolf, she taught me how our family operated, and how to survive a male dominated pack.
It was because of her that I’d gone to New Orleans, and because of her that I was back. There was so much history in this town that I’d have preferred to stay away from, but I had to—
Someone knocked sharply on the window, inches from my head, and I jumped with a loud yelp. I pressed a hand to my heart and looked up into the amused face of my older brother. He’d filled out in the years that I’d been away, and grown his beard, but his smirk still carried that same smug attitude that made me want to rip his face off.
Gesturing for him to move out of the way, I got out of the car, and stood to my full height, glaring at him. It only made me angrier that that height was still a foot and a half shorter than his. “Dammit Zach, you scared the bejezus out of me. What were you thinking?”
“That you, Evie Corwin, looked like you’d fallen asleep in the parking lot, and you’re already twenty minutes late for this thing,” he said, barely suppressing his laughter.
“Why are you even out here?” I sighed, pulling the tie from my hair, to shake it out. Parts were still wet from the last-minute shower I’d taken before I left the motel in Delaware.
He brandished a cigarette carton. “Came out to smoke.”
“I thought you quit?” I said, arching an eyebrow at him. Zach was the only one who’d kept in touch over the years. We weren’t close by any means. He’d proven himself to be the type of guy who’d sell his own sister out to the cops many times. Whether it was because we were only half siblings, or because he just cared more about himself, I’d never stopped to ask. But he was family just like Annie. Family I cared about , and family who’d cared enough to check up on me from time to time.
“I did.” He chuckled. “If you’d let me finish, I said I came out to smoke. Didn’t say that I had.”
I rolled my eyes and glanced past him to the door. “Is everyone inside?”
“Pretty much. A few of the cousins couldn’t make it in from Montana and Colorado, but the usual suspects are here. Annie was well loved,” he said.
“That she was.” I sighed again. This was going to be a long hard night. I could already feel the tears threatening to fall, burning as they rested at the corners of my vision.
“Awe, buck up, darling,” he said. “I don’t think they’re even expecting you. So just slip in real quiet. Pay your respects and you’re home free.”
I laughed. “You think a room full of Cape wolves are gonna ignore a new scent walking through the door?”
“You’re not new,” he scoffed.
I gave him a deadpan glare. “I’ve been gone for ten years, Zach.”
“Scents don’t change,” he shrugged. “But whatever. I’m going in. Ma will tan my hide if I miss the service.”
He turned to walk away from me, and I hesitated. His Ma was my mother. Veronica “Ronnie” Bishop-Corwin. Ex-princess of the defunct Bishop clan. Failed recovering alcoholic bartender, and mother of the year eighteen years running. She wasn’t going to be happy I’d come back, and it would be even worse when she found out I was sticking around for the reading of the will.
“Hey, Space Cadet,” Zach called out with his hand on the door. “You coming?”
I jumped. “Yeah, I’m comin.”
Crossing the parking lot to the door, I tensed my shoulders and tugged my black tee-shirt straight beneath my leather jacket. I knew I’d get some looks for wearing something so informal, but Annie would understand. To face these people, I was going to need all the armor I could get.
Slipping inside, behind Zach, I took a deep breath. Faint strains of the Celtic Sisters rang through the speakers, and there were layers upon layers of voices around every corner of the room. There were at least twenty to thirty werewolves standing along the bar that took up most of the right wall, and spread-out playing pool beyond that, while the rest sat at the tables to the left.
All of them were in the middle of something, a conversation, a game, a drink, but the moment Zach stepped to the side, leaving me alone at the entrance, every single one of them turned to stare at me. All bathed in the light of about a hundred neon signs lining the walls.
I felt my cheeks burn and ducked my head intent on darting for the bar, but a loud shriek erupted from the crowd. A small brunette popped out from behind a large man I vaguely recognized and in the blink of an eye I was enveloped in a bone crushing hug.
“Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, Evie! I didn’t know you were coming back. It’s so good to see you,” the girl screeched.
