The Willow Creek Wolves

Chapter One

I feel him in the waking hours. When the sun is just beginning to rise, casting the world in palest orange light. Birds are just starting to sing outside.

I'm standing in a gnarled wood on two strong legs, naked as the day I was born and covered in a sheen of morning dew. Goose flesh breaks out across my skin as my heart leaps in my chest. All at once, I feel as if I'm being stalked by the devil himself.

He's here. A flash of grey fur and golden eyes in the brush. I can only get glimpses as he darts from one place to the next. It's as if he's circling me like a shark, like a predator toying with its prey.

I try to run, but my feet are rooted to the ground. I'm stuck. He'll come for me, and I'll never escape him.

"Lora!"

I sit bolt upright, gasping and clutching at my racing heart. A pair of wide, tawny brown eyes stare back at me, worry evident.

"Lora, what's wrong?"  Brielle jostles my shoulders gently, trying to bring me out of it.

Brielle is my best friend and roommate. I gave her a room in my home when she was in a really bad spot and we've been connected at the hip ever since. Ours is a strange relationship. One not often found in the shifter community because she's a bear living in wolf territory.

My eyes are focused out the window of my second-story bedroom where I have a clear view of the tree line. Our small town sits clear on the other side of those woods, and everyone in it will be rising soon for the expected arrival of the Blood Moon Pack. It's an exciting time. We haven't had visitors since I was a little girl.

I try to calm my racing heart by taking a few deep breaths. There's nothing to be scared of. It was just a dream.

"Lora? You're scaring me."

Finally, I look at her and try for a small, albeit wobbly smile.

"Nightmare," I work one of my hands through my sweat-dampened hair. "There was this wolf in the woods and I... It doesn't matter."

Brielle stares at me and sits on the edge of the bed. "It's just anxiety because of the new pack coming in today, right?"

Brielle is as strong as they come. When she showed up in our small town of Willow Creek three years ago looking for work from a bunch of wolf shifters, she'd looked brutally abused. It had taken her months to stop flinching when anyone in the pack made a move toward her too suddenly. Even something as small as offering a hand to shake used to make her wince, but I was always able to smell the bear just beneath the surface, ready to fight for her if it needed to. She never spoke about what she'd been through, and I didn't pry. If she ever wanted to tell me, I'd be all ears.

The way Brielle is staring at me now, I can see the bear rising in her again, pacing back and forth, ready to protect her friend. It warms something inside me and sooths my anxiety.

"I'm sure you're right. All the new wolves being here will be an adjustment."

It's been rumored that the Blood Moon Pack will be petitioning to merge with the Willow Creek Pack due to loss of territory because of wildfires in the west. I'm not exactly opposed to it, but I'm not overly fond of the idea either. Life here is simple, and I have the feeling that a merger will really shake our way of life up.

"Mama K said there'll be a pack dinner tonight so everyone has the chance to mingle with the newcomers." She worries her lip. "I wonder how they'll take having a bear as company. Maybe I should just stay here."

I smack her arm. "Oh no you don't, Brielle Woods. If I have to go to this thing, then so do you. You're just as much a part of this pack as I am."

She scowls at me, but her eyes remain soft. Sometimes Brielle needs a little extra reminder that our pack isn't prejudiced against other shifters. Unfortunately, not all packs feel the same way.

I watch my friend as she pats my leg and then leaves the room so that I can get dressed and ready for the big day ahead. As soon as she's gone, my eyes turn to the woods again. Gooseflesh rises up on my skin, reminding me of my dream. I'm not sure why it makes me so scared. I'm a wolf. Wolves don't scare me. But that wolf with the golden eyes... Something about him made me feel like I was being chased and couldn't escape.

I don't want to find out what he'd do if he caught me.