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IRIS
Best Value Inn
Buttcrack Nowhere, Iowa
Once you turn ten, you’re allowed to join the rest of the Aurora Pack at the clan gatherings; my best friend had turned ten six months before me, and I had been dying for my chance to sit with the adults as well. My chance didn’t come until a year later, but that didn’t matter. The day had finally come. I was finally going to sit with Mama and Papa. My mom only hushed me once while I danced on my little white paws until the alpha called us all to sit.
I raced over to join my parents, flashing a wolfish grin to Alice as she trotted across the circle to do the same. My friend was totally trying to play it cool, I could see it in the way she tried to be casual as she strolled — after all, she’d gotten to sit at the meeting last year — but I could see the excitement in her amber eyes.
Not wanting to be the last one standing, I stopped wasting time and sat neatly, folding my tail primly over my front feet. Our alpha, a massive white wolf, stepped towards the center of the ring. A crack rang out.
Thunder?
To my horror, the alpha crumpled to the ground, red seeping from his bright green eyes staring forward sightlessly. I sucked in a sharp breath, glancing up at my father, but the expression on his face made my blood run cold. His ears pinned until they almost disappeared into his thick white fur. Before I could blink, he was on his paws, nipping at me and Mama as he whined. His urgency was lost on me, but three more cracks rang out and panic exploded across the gathering like wildfire across a dry prairie.
I blinked and suddenly I was running, my heart galloping, my blood roaring in my ears like the river after the spring melt. There were men after us. A few of them burst into the clearing as we took off back into the forest. I had a thousand questions but I couldn’t process a single one; Alice had fallen when the strangers had jumped us. When I glanced over my shoulder, I realized I couldn’t see my parents anymore.
My heart skipped several beats and I tripped over my own paws, my jaw hitting the dirt as I scrambled. As I got up, I realized I had almost run square into one of the masked men. A horrified yelp escaped as I tried to propel myself away, stumbling in panic.
My father appeared out of nowhere, a large white wolf slamming into the man’s legs. I heard the sickening pop of tendons as his knee buckled — I could hear him howling for someone or something, but I couldn’t make out the words. My mother had appeared, grabbing me by the scruff as she tried to drag me away from the men in ski masks.
We hadn’t gotten more than five strides away when a loud crack sounded behind us, and my mother let out the most heart-wrenching wail. My ears flattened against my skull as my entire body shook with the sound. I turned, realizing she’d stopped running, but the men were right there. One of them grabbed me as I flailed, still lanky and awkward. I screamed and yelped, my voice high and frantic as I tried to bite, scratch, kick — anything.
There was another crack, and red blossomed from my mother’s shoulders. My vision went blurry as I shrieked, not even fighting as the man threw me hard against the earth. Another crack was deafeningly close, and pain erupted from my chest. A hand stretched out as the man leaned down, peeling open one of my eyes. All I could see was the silhouette of a blackbird.
A crow?
He snorted, and everything went black.
I jerked forward,my eyes flashing open as I startled myself awake, my heart fluttering as if I had just been running for my life. I threw back the scratchy sheet; I was sweating all over.That damn dream again. Why is it always that one?
Rolling onto my back, I stared blankly at the ceiling, trying to steady my breathing as I watched dim red lights flicker in time with the swinging of the crappy blinds. The forced air vent was right below the window. The blinds clinked together as they shifted and let more light shine through — went dark again — and then the red from the twenty-four-hour diner sign appeared once more.
How did I get here?
I knew how I’d gotten to Iowa and this particular “America’s Best” motel, but… Sometimes I wondered exactly how I’d made it from foster fuck-up to private detective. Not exactly the most obvious progression, but then again, college wasn’t for me. I’d learned more from the school of hard knocks by the age of eleven than most police did by thirty — and they all had to go through a professional academy first.
And I was good at it. Good enough that clients sometimes came to me. Good enough that I could feed myself and keep shoes on my feet. Good enough that I didn’t have a single unsolved case to my name.
Still, though. Sometimes I wondered — what if the Aurora Pack was still here? What if I’d been able to spend my entire childhood in the Yukon Delta? What if—
I felt something wet on my lip and sat up; the steady drip from my nose told me exactly what that was — another nosebleed. Groaning, I swung my legs off the side of the bed and pressed against my nostril, hurrying across the dirty carpet towards the tiny bathroom. The harsh lights made me squint, even as I wadded up a piece of toilet paper to stop the bleeding, holding the bit of tissue against my nose as I moved to sit in the chair.
Even the freaking toilet paper here is cheap,I thought miserably, trying to think of anything that wasn’t the nightmare I’d just relived.What did they do, steal it from the Army supply? Steal it from the local jailhouse?
I sniffed gently, testing to see if I’d managed to stifle the blood flow, when my phone started to vibrate on the nightstand. Surprised, I leaned over, squinting as my screen lit up with a familiar number.
‘Demi,’the screen informed me cheerfully.
Demi?I hadn’t spoken to her in a few months — she was a former client. One of my first, actually. We’d kept in touch even after her case was closed because Demi was a genuinely cool person. She’d come to me when she suspected someone was blackmailing her; she was right, of course. A woman’s gut instinct often was. It was some shitty ex-boyfriend threatening to publish a sex tape he’d taken of them online if she didn’t get back together with him.What kind of asshole thinks a woman wants to be with him if he pulls a stunt like that?
I sneered at the thought as the phone buzzed again, and I swiped my thumb over the screen, picking up before it could go to voicemail. “Hello?” My voice was still a bit thick with sleep; I half-wished I’d gotten something to drink while I was in the bathroom, but the water here tasted like drinking from a pool through a straw.
“Iris? Is that you?”
“Uh-huh,” I replied, grinning wryly. “Everything okay?” I didn’t know what time it was, but given that I hadn’t seen a single car drive by since I’d woken up, I’d be willing to bet it was an early hour.
“I’m sorry, I woke you, didn’t I?” Demi sounded worked up, and the tension in her voice rid me of any last tendrils of sleepiness.
