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1
KINLEY
Iwrapped my arms around myself and ducked my head against the chilly breeze that came from the mountain. I sniffed the air—the weather was changing. The promise of snow was still far off, but gone were the summer days where heat clung to the city even after the sun set.
I’d grown up in Portland. I’d always loved it here, so close to the mountains. I’d gone on holiday to the coast with friends once when I was younger, and everyone I knew liked being at the beach and always dreamed of living there.
As much as I liked the ocean, I didn’t want to be near it. I preferred to be in the forest, between the trees.
Maybe it was because I was a rabbit shifter, and being in the forest was where I felt most at home. No one else would understand that—I was the only one of my kind. Or at least, that is what I believed to be true.
I turned down the alleyway that I followed to get to my small house. I glanced over my shoulder, making sure I wasn’t followed. This part of town was on the outskirts of the city, and it wasn’t very safe, but it was affordable for someone with a minimum-wage job like me.
It was the best I could do for now.
One day, my dream was to live somewhere else, somewhere removed from the hustle and bustle of the city. I dreamed of living in a small hunting cabin somewhere in the woods, far away from people so that I could just be who I was without having to hide.
It had been three years since the first time I’d shifted. I’d been twenty-one then and just finished with college. I’d found my own place to live, although the rent was crazy steep, and I’d started a life of my own… only to realize that I was a freak.
For a while, I’d had this strange feeling that I was meant for something bigger than this simple life, something thatmattered.
That feeling passed after a while.
I blamed superhero movies, where the people who found out they were different always did something spectacular and became bigger than the sum of their parts. It turned out that there was nothing bigger out there for me. A rabbit couldn’t exactly save the world, right?
And what would I even save the world from?
I’d fallen into a new routine where I’d found solace in going into the forest as often as I could. I’d started going on camping trips over the weekend, I’d withdrawn from my friends who were all talking about dating and settling down, and all I did in the human world I suddenly wasn’t a part of anymore was work hard to be able to keep living, keep surviving in this weird, screwed up life that belonged to me.
“Hey, pretty lady,” a deep voice said in front of me, and I stopped in my tracks, nearly running into a burly brute.
I hadn’t paid attention, too lost in my thoughts, and I hadn’t checked my surroundings.
Shit.
“What’s a girl like you doing in a shitty neighborhood like this?” He was tall and broad with yellow teeth when he grinned at me. The stubble on his chin had to be a couple of days old, and his eyes were filled with menace.
“I’m just on my way home,” I said.
“Why don’t we hang out for a while, you and me?” he asked and put a large, meaty hand on my shoulder.
“No, thank you,” I said. “They’re expecting me home any minute.”
That was a lie, but maybe if he thought someone would come looking for me, he’d leave me alone.
“I’m sure they’ll understand,” he said, and something slid behind his eyes, something that shouldn’t have been present in the eyes of a man.
“Too good for us, eh?” another voice sounded behind me.
I looked over my shoulder. Another man came toward me, about as tall as the first, but not as wide. He was just as menacing, and I tasted my heart in my throat.
I was in trouble.
“I’m not interested,” I said firmly, hoping that I didn’t sound as terrified as I felt.
I was outnumbered, and a quick glance along the street told me I was alone. The streetlights made yellow pools of light underneath them with stretches of darkness in between, and the only cars around were parked and without their owners.
I willed a car to come down the road and see us, but this time of night, most people were tucked safely into bed.
