Page 1 of Cursed Wolf

Chapter 1

Emmaline

Iwas in no shape to drive home in the state I was in. Tears blurred my vision as I sat in my silent, motionless car, and my chest felt like it was going to cave in on itself.

The veterinary clinic had just closed and darkness blanketed the winding mountain road ahead. No street lights could be found out here. Those were only dotted sparsely throughout Fulsburg’s single, tiny residential neighborhood and the downtown strip that covered all of two blocks. The rest of this remote mountain town only had their cars’ headlights and the starry sky to see at night.

When I first moved here, I found it eerie how dark it could really get without lights from a city. How quiet it could be when you lived near the mountains in a population of under a thousand and your neighbors were retirees that went to bed by eight pm.

It was a clear night and the stars were out in full force, along with the moon in a bright silver crescent. The stars and moon felt like an audience, even though I was finally alone in my car.

I swiped angrily at my tears to clear my vision, but my eyes just welled up again. The day had been going so well too. I got to bottle-feed the cutest black bear cub while his mother was in surgery. She had been injured in one of those inhumane bear traps and her cub never left her side, so when a Fish and Wildlife officer found them, they were both brought to us.

Working in the wildlife division of the vet clinic was my absolute favorite. Not that I didn’t love pets too, and was happy to treat the town’s dogs and cats when they were brought in, but there was something extra awe-inspiring when working with wild animals. I never knew if I’d be treating a ground squirrel or a gray wolf. A raccoon or a moose. There was never a dull moment in the wildlife division, and I had the privilege of working with animals that most people never got to see up close.

I loved this job. I thought that after years of vet school and disappointing my parents with my life choices, I’d finally found a place I could settle in for a long, fulfilling career.

But all that came crashing down tonight.

I continued to sit in my car, willing my tears to stop so I could drive home somewhat safely.

My phone buzzed from somewhere inside my purse, which was still in my lap. I tossed the whole thing in the footwell of the passenger seat with a defeated sob. It was most likely my mother texting me, and I was in no state to break the news to her now. Not when her smug ‘I told you so’ would flash loud and clear through the phone screen, even if she didn’t use those exact words.

“God, fuck this.” I wiped my eyes for a final time before sticking my key in the ignition.

My decade-old hatchback sputtered to life, headlights lighting up the empty vet clinic parking lot. I didn’t have to look up to know that the night staff were probably staring out the window and talking about what’d just happened. And now I looked like a weirdo just sitting in my car, doing nothing.

I blinked and wiped more tears as I pulled out onto the narrow road. Because we worked with Fish and Wildlife and various wildlife rescue groups, the clinic was situated within the boundaries of Plumas National Forest, ten miles outside of Fulsburg. But it was a straight shot into town, so I’d be home to wallow soon. All I had to do was keep my shit together and not run off the road.

My headlights showed the narrow two-lane road in front of me and not much else.

Wilderness still ruled here, and humans were merely guests. When people thought about California, they didn’t think about towns like these. Fulsburg was founded as one of many gold rush settlements in the 1850s. When the gold ran dry and most people left to find work in the cities, the wilderness reclaimed the town as its own.

Now, there was no rush of any kind. People chose to live up here because the mountains were beautiful and peaceful. Some, like me, came here to escape.

I also wanted to prove myself. To show that not every choice I made was a colossal fuck-up, that I could make a living doing what I loved and be independent of my parents’ expectations. For the last year, up until this evening, I still believed it was possible.

And yet, all I could hear were my parents’ voices in my head.

“I’m very sorry to hear it didn’t work out like you hoped,” came my father’s voice, accented by the pouring of his favorite single-malt whiskey into a crystal tumbler. “But a successful life isn’t built on hope and lofty dreams, Emmaline. You need to be pragmatic. We’ve told you this.”

“You’re only twenty-six,” my mother would add, fingering her pearl necklace. “It’s not too late to get a real medical degree. Or go to law school, perhaps.”

The road in front of me turned into wavy, wobbly shapes, and I swiped at my eyes again. Fuck. This meant I’d have to keep my waitressing job at Buck’s Peak Bar & Grill. I had been so looking forward to putting in my two weeks’ notice tomorrow.

I breathed out a long, shaky breath. “It’s not like you got fired,” I said aloud in a lame attempt at optimism.

No, I was just staying at my two-day a week schedule, despite being all but promised I’d become a full-time veterinary resident after a year-long internship. I had said yes to the internship offer so fast, easily willing to work a second job if it meant I’d have my dream career in a year.

So stupid.

“If you had taken a single law class, you would have known to have gotten a conditional offer in writing,” said my mother’s voice in my head. “You see what happens when you go against our advice? Those little hick towns are so backwards in everything they do. You should have stayed in a proper city.”

I wiped my eyes again just as a huge shape darted in front of my headlights.

“Fuck!” I slammed on the brakes and swerved, but the impact was unavoidable. My bumper’s front left corner hit the animal with a solid thud, and my car went spinning.

As quickly as it happened, it was over.

---