Page 1 of Fastlander Fallen

Chapter One

“Where are you?” Corey Gable murmured into her phone. “Call me back.”

She hung up, shaking her head. She scanned the café and checked the front door again, but her cousin, Hallie, still wasn’t here. Was she really standing her up for their weekly Wednesday breakfast date? Again?

There was no way. After last week’s edition of no-show-Hallie, she’d sworn she wouldn’t forget again.

Corey took a sip of her coffee and checked her phone for a return text, but there was still nothing. She’d texted Hallie three times before the call.

Dangit, she’d dressed up extra cute today. Why? Because her social life had been suffocated since Hallie had shacked up with her boyfriend, or mate, or whatever shifters preferred going by. Hallie wasn’t just her cousin. She was her best friend! Now who was she supposed to hang out with? She had work acquaintances, but they weren’t as fun and trustworthy as Hallie. She could tell Hallie anything, safe in the knowledge that she would never judge her.

Who was she supposed to talk to now? Debra the Rumor Spreader? Or Daisy the One-Upper? Ugh. She saw them enough at work, she didn’t want them to be a part of her after-work life. She only wanted to continue with Hallie, but her life had taken a different turn, and now Corey was being left behind.

That thought made her heart sag, because she felt the truth of it.

Hallie had found herself a hot-as-hell shifter from Damon’s Mountains, and even though they had moved one property over from Corey’s house, they might as well be a hundred miles away.

Hallie never made time for her anymore.

She had her new shifter friends.

Okay, what were her options? Go quiet and pout, and hope that someday Hallie would remember she existed? Get angry and ignore Hallie until she figured out she was hurting her feelings?

Or…did she listen to what her counselor said about communication, and tell Hallie exactly how she felt?

Yep. That option.

She pulled her phone up and began typing out a scathing text to Hallie for standing her up, but then stopped a few sentences in.

This wasn’t right. This wasn’t emotional growth.

She should do this in person, while throwing the bagel she’d ordered at her.

Yes. That felt right.

Corey stood so fast, her chair scooted noisily across the wood floor. She was hurt and angry and hadn’t really thought this through. She hadn’t time to get a to-go cup, so she chugged her room-temperature coffee like a stiff drink, then grabbed Hallie’s bagel with a napkin and marched out of the small café.

She strode right for her car, parked in the front row of the small lot, set the bagel-weapon on the passenger’s seat, and aimed for 1010 Winding Creek Way.

It was Hallie’s day off work, so she would probably be home, smooching her stupid boyfriend and forgetting she even existed!

This was against the rules. They’d had this discussion before. They weren’t supposed to ditch each other for boys, but what was even worse? Hallie had been hanging out with the women from Gunner’s old Crew. She was getting close with them, and leaving Corey in her dust.

It wasn’t fair. Corey hadn’t done anything to become invisible like this.

It was a twelve-minute drive back to the property next to hers, and that probably should’ve been plenty of time for her logic to kick in, but nope. She was still every bit as angry and stung as she pushed her whining car higher and higher up the winding dirt road to the single-wide trailer Hallie and Gunner lived in.

She’d been there for Hallie.

She’d given her a safe place to live while her crazy ex-boyfriend had been stalking her.

She’d made sure she was good, and put in a good word for a job, and was there for Hallie when she was falling apart. And as soon as her life took a different direction, Hallie forgets about her completely?

It hurt. It freaking hurt.

When Corey crested the final hill and her car nosed into the clearing in front of Hallie’s trailer, she slammed on the brakes in an effort to miss the crowd of men gathered there.

“Hey, watch where you’re going!” one of them yelled, his middle finger reaching for the sky on instinct.

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