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Chapter 1
Isaiah
Aloud crack sounds in the forest and my head snaps toward the direction of the sound. A flash of white disappears into the foliage and searing pain rips through my side.
“Oh God,” my hand clutches my stomach and a warm viscous liquid spread between my fingers.
Dappled light pulses through the trees and the forest starts closing in around me, my breath is caught in my throat. My heart races faster than a Formula 1 racer.
Staggering backward my heel catches on a rock and I fall backward landing in the stream with a splash. Blood orange coloring flows down the stream from where I sit frozen.
My mind races and the pieces begin to come together,I’ve been shot.Through my blurred vision, I peer over the shoreline and into the woods.Is anyone coming to finish the job?
Whoever shot me didn’t stick around. Did I scare him off with my size? Too big for one person to handle alone?
Clumsily, I make my way out of the stream and collapse onto a rock nearby.Oof.
The damaged tissues and cells in my side and abdomen buzz as their unnatural super healing get to work to regenerate. Butthe bullet is still lodged in me, possibly in one of my organs. I need to get it out, quickly. Taking a deep breath, I pull my wet shirt off over my head and wring it out wincing as my stomach muscles contract.
I shove the shirt into my mouth to make sure I have something I can bite into to avoid fracturing my teeth. Taking a deep breath, I hold my breath for a moment as I position two fingers near the entry wound, one on each side of the gash.
Exhaling, I spread my fingers, opening the gash as wide as I can get it. Then I take my other hand and use my smallest finger to dig into the opening I’ve created, finding the bullet. I bite down hard on my shirt as sickening pain washes over me. I can only focus and dig long enough to fish the bullet out of my side before the world falls into darkness around me and I pass out.
Hours later, I awaken, my head bent at an unusual angle, my forehead set against a rock. Picking myself up slowly, the world comes back into focus around me.
My hand claps down on my side, the bullet wound is healed. Still holding onto the bullet I retrieved, I slip the bullet into the front pocket of my jeans. Then I gather my belongings, find my way to my dirt bike, and jump on it to leave the forest.
On my way back home, I drive by and check out the location from where I think the bullet came, where the flash of white I saw only a moment after the crack of the gun went off. Sniffing the air around me, I turn my head toward the stream where I was shot,someone was here earlier.The scent is unfamiliar.
Probably a hunter who missed their shot, got scared, and ran off, maybe.It’s not completely unheard of, especially because it’s off-season.Poachers.There’s no need to tell anyone in the pack about this, they’ll only worry over nothing.
I runmy fingers over the hand-painted sign, ‘Catch of the Day’. My stomach flutters as I look at the cerulean blue letters on the wooden sign cut into the shape of a walleye.
“What do you think?” Drew, a panther shifter in our pack, asks cocking his head to the side.
“I had no idea you had this level of artistic talent. It’s perfect. The town folks are going to eat this up.” I say admiringly.
“Hopefully, literally! We’ve got to make a return on this investment,” Chase, our pack Alpha, says with a wink in my direction.
“We will, Pinehaven doesn’t have much in the way of small businesses. I’ve already caught wind of the buzz about town. People are excited to have a new bar on the river, it’s much better than that dive over near the mechanics shop with no windows.” I offer.
I might appear confident to the untrained eye but I’m not fooling anyone here. My heart races a million miles a minute every time I think about this business endeavor.
We’ve put a lot of money into getting my fish and chips-focused bar up and running between buying the land, building the bar, liquor licenses, and stocking up on products... It hasn’t been cheap.
The last thing I want to do is fail my pack by having an unsuccessful bar.
“In a place where most of the accessible food comes frozen, I’m pretty sure we’ll be fine,” Madison enters the room and plops onto Chase’s lap. “Who doesn’t love freshly caught fish? Don’t plant doubts in Isaiah, come on now Chase!” She teases.
He plants a kiss on her and grins my way. “I am only joking. You’ll do great and we will be bringing in money in no time. Did you find yourself a line cook?”
“I sure did,” I say sitting up straighter, “His name is Allen and he’s come back to town after dropping out of culinary school so he can be here to help take care of his parents. He’s great.”
“That’s lucky timing,” Madison says wide-eyed. “I like to think fate itself wants us to succeed. Did you see that the corner shop at the end of this block finally was leased out?”
“No, I wonder what is opening,” I answer silently praying that it won’t be another food-related business.
“Guess we will have to wait and find out,” Drew sighs. He liked that spot and had his not-so-secret ambition of opening an art studio there.
