Page 1 of Wolf's Mark

CHAPTER 1

Sedona

“We’re doing what?” I demanded as I stumbled from the rough way my best friend Mattie was jerking me onto the sidewalk.

Great. It would be a perfect birthday if I fell flat on my face. That would be two for two. Two birthdays in a row I spent mostly in the hospital.

“Come on. It’s going to be fun. An experience. You need to live a little.”

“Live a little? I’ve been dragged around to several places today. All your ideas.” I jerked my wrist from her death grip and winced. She had sharp yet perfectly shaped nails, scarlet in color to match her personality. I had poor excuses for uneven nails and chunky cuticles, according to the girl who’d given us a manicure.

A birthday present.

I wasn’t into girls’ days out, but Mattie had basically kidnapped me.

“You call having your palm read fun?” I huffed and brushed my hands down my dress. That was new too. So was my way too fluffy hairstyle. Both compliments of my bestie who was a wild child at heart.

A responsible pediatrician by day. A crazy girl by night.

“You’re not having your palm read, goofy. It’s tarot card reading.”

“Same difference. And why today of all days?”

Her tall heels clipped on the broken sidewalk. I had trouble keeping up with her given her long legs. Her stilettos didn’t bother her, while I was still pretty certain I was going to have a slip and fall accident.

“Because it’s your birthday, sweetie. Don’t you want to know your fortune?”

“If we hadn’t just experienced eating an entire cow for lunch, I’d recommend getting Chinese food. That way I could get that happy little fortune.”

“As long as you add between the sheets to the end.” She laughed in her subtle yet provocative tone. It was the very one that attracted every red-blooded male this side of the Mississippi. She was the resident bad girl that had managed to attach herself to me shortly after my arrival in Cartersville. I was the good girl who kept to herself and liked it that way.

What was wrong with sobbing over old movies?

“What?”

“Yep. You’re supposed to end every fortune with between the sheets afterwards. It would do you some good since you haven’t gotten laid for half your life.”

“You’re such a bitch.”

“I know,” Mattie cooed. “Which is why you love me.”

She was outgoing. I was a wallflower. She was beautiful. I was plain. Although I had to admit today, I’d gotten a few looks from passing men. I chalked it up to the ridiculously tight dress she’d made me buy. The fruffy—her favorite word—material probably made me look like a water buffalo.

“Not today. Likely never again. I don’t like the occult.”

“It’s all fun and nothing else. You know that. You keep telling me you’re a scientist and don’t believe in the paranormal.”

She had a point like she always did, but my grandmother had read the cards much to the chagrin of my mother. I’d begged the woman to read mine when I was ten years old. She hadn’t wanted to, but I was an excellent beggar. She’d stopped midway through, refusing to finish or tell me what she’d seen.

But I’d seen the card. As a kid, it had terrified me even if I hadn’t known what it meant.

A wolf.

I noticed the sign up ahead and groaned. “I don’t like this.”

“You don’t like anything outside of your comfort zone, which consists of dead bodies, slimy internal organs, draining blood, and cartons of chocolate ice cream topped with hot fudge.”

For most people, describing the work of a medical examiner wouldn’t be done alongside remarking on a frozen treat. But Mattie wasn’t most people.

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