The Wild Moon by Riley Storm

Chapter Fourteen

I adjusted the bag’s strap on my shoulder once more as it slipped free, its weight pulling it down.

“Stupid thing,” I growled as I slipped my left arm through the strap as well, so it rested on both shoulders, digging into my skin.

I’d been planning to travel light, but once I’d reached my parents' place, I had a hard time choosing what to take and what to leave. At this point, I knew full well not to expect the house to survive Lars’ wrath. I’d escaped his prison, and on top of that, I’d assaulted his wife.

He was going to burn the place to the ground, I was sure. So, I took what I felt was important and what I could haul, then left as fast as I could. After all, it was the first place they would look for me.

This was the second, though, so I had to be quick.

Bending over, I picked up a few bits of gravel from the driveway, shaking them in my hand as I walked to the side of the farmhouse. I switched all but one of the pebbles to my left hand. That one was launched in the air, clattering noisily against the window.

I cringed at the sound, but I couldn’t risk going inside. If any of the pack enforcers arrived, I needed to see them coming so that I could run before they located me. But I couldn’t leave just yet. Not without saying goodbye to the one person I had left. The one person who had never doubted me for a moment.

I chucked the second pebble, glancing around as it bounced off the glass. I didn’t hear, nor smell, signs of anyone else, but that could change instantly. I launched the third pebble, my eyes already looking around the property.

“Ow,” a voice hissed from the window. “What the hell was that for?”

I swung my gaze back around to see Jo sticking her head out the window and rubbing her forehead.

“Shit, sorry. Jo,” I said, keeping my voice low. I strode up to the side of the house, so we could be as close as possible, thus keeping our voices down.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. “Why are you…You’re leaving, aren’t you?”

I quickly nodded. “I had to come and see you. I had to say goodbye.”

“Goodbye?” Jo repeated, frowning at me as she shook herself awake.

“I’m not coming back this time, Jo,” I said quietly.

I looked around as I talked, watching for anyone approaching the house. Thankfully, like most shifters in Seguin, the Alustria family lived on an old farm. They had no neighbors nearby, and I could see all around me. Anyone who was sneaking up on me would be forced to reveal themselves long before they got close enough to catch me.

“What about the Wild Moon?” Jo asked nervously, looking up at the sky, where the moon was now waning. “What will you do?”

“Survive,” I said. “If I stay here, if they force me to mate with Johnathan, I will be as good as dead. On the inside, at least. I’ll find some way to be safe while I’m out there. To not harm any humans during the Wild Moon.”

“I don’t understand,” Jo said. “Why? What happened? What did Lars want with you?”

I sighed. “You had some bum luck, not shifting,” I said. “It’ll happen, and I can at least assure you that when you do, you won’t end up with the bad luck of being mated to Lars’ son.”

Jo rolled her eyes. “That would be nice. At least one worry off my plate. Why can you guarantee that to—Oh.”

I nodded.

“Oh, no,” she said. “You’re serious? John is your Soulbound mate?”

I nodded again, gritting my teeth. “Yeah. And then I kinda sorta rejected him in front of the entire pack. Including Daddy.”

Jo gasped. I quickly filled her in on the rest of the night's activities, watching her horror grow as she listened to the way the pack Alpha had treated me.

“What are you going to do?” Jo asked eventually.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, feeling my fears rise. I had no real plan, no idea of what to do. I would run.

And then what? Keep running for the rest of my life? With the Soulbond, Johnathan could find me anywhere if he wanted to. I would never be safe from him. Or his father.

“But you’re Soulbound,” Jo said. “You can’t just escape that.”

“I have to try,” I said fiercely.

Jo disappeared from the window and seconds later came flying out the front door, wrapping me up in one of her customary hugs. Her head only came to my shoulders, but I accepted it anyway, giving her a hard squeeze.

“I’m going to miss you,” she said quietly.

“I’ll miss you, too, Jo.” I meant it.

“Call me when you can, okay?”

I shook my head. “Can’t. They’ll probably monitor it and trace the call. I’ll try to send word I’m okay from time to time. Letters, probably. Frannie will help me. Maybe email if I can learn how to do so without being tracked.”

Jo smiled. We both knew my old boss at the Seguin Post Office wasn’t a big fan of Lars. She would ensure my messages got to Jo.

“I’m sorry,” I added, knowing I was pushing my luck, but this might be the last time I had a chance to talk with her. I had to get everything out. “I wish I could stay here, be here for you when you Soulshift. But I have to leave. I need to get away from John, and I need to find my parents.”

I could see it in Jo’s eyes. She didn’t think they were alive. I couldn’t blame her. It seemed impossible that after eight months they would still be alive wherever they were. But I had to try.

“Go get the world,” Jo whispered in my ear, giving me one last squeeze. “You’re gonna do great.”

Blinking back tears, I patted Jo on the shoulder and headed to my father’s old pickup, which was still parked in the driveway. That was why I’d come here. I opened the door and tossed the bag into the seat. This was it. I was leaving Seguin and never coming back. A new chapter of my life.

“Dan!”

I reacted instantly at Jo’s cry. Pushing away from the truck, I let myself fall into a backward roll, tucking tight and coming up into a crouch.

A wolf landed where I had been standing. If I hadn’t rolled away, they would have pounced on my back, claws ripping me to shreds as they bore me down into the seat of the truck.

I didn’t recognize the gray and black mottled beast, but they sure as hell knew me. Most likely, it was one of the clans’ enforcers sent out through Seguin to try and track me down.

“Get inside. Jo. This isn’t your fight,” I snapped. “Go!”

My last barked command snapped Jo into action, and she retreated inside, closing the thick door behind her. Once she was safe, I rose from my crouch, keeping my legs bent, arms out slightly to the sides.

I didn’t want to give away much, but I was no longer the naïve country shifter who had left Seguin eight months ago. Nobody seemed to realize that my time in the city had changed me, and I was banking on that surprise to help me out of this jam.

I’d learned a lot in the city. Much of which I’d never even told Jo about. All of which was to say that I was much more confident in my chances against this wolf than I would have been when I first shifted.

The beast pawed at the ground, snarling at me. It wanted me to submit, to do as it wished.

“Not happening,” I growled. “Like, at all. So let’s get this over with. Come and get me!”

The taunting was something I had learned. It made people act without thinking before they were ready, and it was no different with this asshole. He launched himself at me in a head-on charge, intending to bowl me over and get his jaws around my neck.

Which is exactly what I’d expected. But as he came at me, his jaw met my knee in a flying kick. His teeth snapped together, and I swore one of them snapped, but I didn’t have time to check. Though my attack had hurt my opponent, I still had to contend with another problem.

The wolf still massed more than me, and its nearly limp form slammed into me a second later, dropping us both to the gravel driveway. I grunted as thousands of tiny pebbles abraded the skin on my arms and legs, sending tiny shoots of pain across my body.

I rolled to my feet just as the wolf shook off my hit and started to rise. I dropped an elbow into its midsection, putting my entire bodyweight behind it. Ribs gave way, and the wolf yelped. Loudly.

“Shut up,” I hissed, poking it in the eye.

It howled in agony. Claws ripped at my clothing, and I grunted as one of them tore the flesh on my shoulder blade open.

I ignored it, grabbing one of its front paws and, with a sharp cry, yanking it as hard as I could. Bone broke, and the noise that came out of the wolf’s mouth sent shivers down my spine.

“I’m sorry,” I said, getting to my feet and putting some distance between us. “I don’t know you. I didn’t want to hurt you. But I’m not going back there. I can’t.”

In the distance, the howl of other wolves foretold the coming of reinforcements. I had mere seconds to get out of there.

“I’m sorry,” I repeated, meeting the enforcer's eyes for a moment before turning and racing to my father’s truck. I fired up the engine, spun it around, and headed down the driveway, spewing gravel behind me. I left the wounded wolf, Jo, and everything I’d ever known in my rearview mirror.

I didn’t look back.