Wild

Chapter 2

"They're out at the Merrick ranch."

My stomach drops.

"What? Why?" Tara demands from Skip. We had pulled up to their property only five minutes ago and realized immediately they weren't home. We spotted Skip by the stables not long after and called him over. Skip was one of the farmhands who worked for Tara's grandparents', Andrew and Ellis Smith. He was a skinny man who had one of those faces where you couldn't tell if he was thirty or sixty. And right now he smelled like horse manure. He had been working for the Smiths for nearly two years now; he wasn't very bright because he never even seemed to notice or ask about some of the weird goings-on in town.

"I don't know. They were pretty vague about it," he slowly drawled to us outside the car window. "They only left about a half hour ago."

"O.K.," said Tara, "Thanks, Skip." He nodded and headed off to do whatever was he was paid to do. Tara rolled her window back up.

"So much for saying goodbye," I said to Tara in dismay. I couldn't hide my disappointment. The Smiths were the closest thing to family I had here. I didn't want to just leave; but I couldn't stay either. I needed to get the hell away from this pack.

"We could wait," offered Tara. I nodded my head. I didn't have much choice. This morning was not going how I planned.

Then Tara's cell phone rang. "Speak of the devil! It's Gramps." She tapped her phone screen and answered, "Hey, Gramps, Val and I just got to your place." A pause. "Oh...," she glanced at me with a cringe, "That might be a little difficult right now..." She chewed on a nail. Another pause. "O.K., O.K. We'll be there." Tara hung up her phone, but didn't speak. I blinked at her, waiting for her to say something.

"Well?" I finally asked frustrated.

"There's a mandatory pack meeting at the Old Barn," she said very carefully. She wouldn't look me in the eye.

"Oh, no. Absolutely not. I'm not going.," I said, shaking my head. There was no way in heaven or on earth that I was stepping anywhere near that place. The Old Barn belonged to the Merrick family. Most pack meetings were held there.
    "Whether you want to go or not, you know I can't miss ... Merrick would see it as disrespect. I have to go, and we're in your car. You know I wouldn't ask this of you if I didn't have to."

"I'll take you back to your place, and... and you can get your car there!"

"The meeting already started," Tara argued. "I'm already late as it is. Please? You know he's already got his eye on me," Tara pled. She wasn't wrong. Merrick knew her relationship with me. It's been no secret he doesn't like me, and now Tara, especially when he seems to have it in his head that she might have some loyalty to me over him. As much as Tara loved me, she wasn't going to leave the pack. You don't just leave pack-life. Leaving was rare. Either way, I couldn't let Tara pay the price for Merrick's dislike for me.

I sighed, shifting the car into gear.

"Val, you're the greatest creature to walk the earth!"

I gave her a half-hearted smile as I began to drive toward the last place on earth I wanted to be. There's no way this could end well.

There it was. Hell. Or, as others often call it, the Merrick Ranch.

We drove down the main dirt road that took us past the grand, ranch home designed like an oversized log cabin with stone columns. I never could decide if it was beautiful or hideous. Within walking distance, about a quarter mile down the road, was the Old Barn. Cars were parked outside on the grass and lined the road. I parked at the end of the line of cars.

"This is the furthest place to park," Tara raised an eyebrow at me.

"No it's not. I could've parked at the house."