Page 76 of Wind with a Chance of Wolfsbane

I begged to differ.

She’d not experienced it. She didn’t understand how real it felt. It wasn’t a hallucination. It was a warning. One I was taking very seriously.

I’d talked until I was blue in the face, but she’d still refused to budge or believe there was any real danger. It’s why I’d done something I could only hope I wouldn’t regret. I’d waited until Mina had left the hotel room to let me rest for the evening to grab my purse and the keys to the car. I’d left New Haven and driven straight through the night to South Carolina, my stomach churning the entire way.

My cell phone rang again, and I glanced at it as it sat propped in the cup holder of my SUV. I had a pretty good idea of who was calling. My very pissed-off sister.

She’d been calling regularly for the past few hours. Since she’d woken up only to realize I wasn’t in my hotel room. I’d been refusing to answer just as long, choosing instead to text her once that I was fine, on my way to Grimm Cove, and that I’d call if anything came of the vision.

That text had only sent her into a dither. Since then, she’d been blowing up my phone with texts and calls—which was the extent of her tech knowledge when it came to being able to work her phone. She had yet to learn to check her voicemail. Around the same time that Mina had started the endless barrage of texts, someone else had begun texting me as well. Someone I didn’t know.

The name Marcy continued to appear with each message, and the person kept texting me as if we were longtime friends, getting ready to meet up. At first, I’d dismissed the texts as spam. Then I’d tried ignoring them. When that didn’t work, I texted the person back, informing them they had the wrong number. That was when they’d proceeded to text back, asking if I was Willa.

I still wasn’t sure who Marcy was or how she’d gotten my number, but she seemed pretty positive that we not only knew one another but were fast on our way to becoming besties for life. For a brief spell, I considered giving her Mina’s number and telling her it was who she was trying to reach. That way, they could blow each other’s phones up and leave me out of it.

I resisted, but it was very, very tempting. Plus, Marcy seemed like a nice person from her messages. She didn’t need Mina’s personality unleashed on her.

I glanced at my phone as it stopped ringing. A second later, it rang again. When I saw the name on the screen, I quirked a brow, curiosity getting the better of me. It was Marcy—again.

I answered. “Hello?”

“How long are you planning to sit in your car?” asked a woman with a sing-song voice.

Her words left me jerking around to see anyone who might be watching me. There was no one. I let my wolf up slightly and rolled down the window a little before taking a deep breath. I didn’t catch the scent of anyone or anything that would indicate someone was close.

“Hello? Willa?” she asked. “Are you there?”

“Uh, yes,” I said. “Who are you?”

“Marcy,” she replied. “You didn’t answer me. Are you going to sit there all day, parked on the side of the road, or are you planning to enter the town?”

“H-how do you know I’m parked on the side of the road?” I demanded, goose-necking around, trying to see where she might be. At this point, I wouldn’t put it out of reason for her to leap out of the bushes at me, trying to sell me an extended car warranty or something.

She laughed softly. “Burgess, stop. Jonathan doesn’t like it when you do that. Yes, he’s more understanding than Daddy, but only a little. Why don’t you find Elis or Austin? I’m going on a car ride with Jonathan but I will be back soon. Be a good little boy for Austin, okay?” She chuckled again. “Squirrels love getting into mischief. Don’t you agree, Willa?”

I pulled the phone from my ear and stared at the screen as if that might make the lady seem less off her rocker. It didn’t help. “I think you have me mistaken for someone else.”

I still wasn’t sure how she knew my name or my number.

“No,” she said, sounding as if she might actually burst into song at any moment. “I’m so excited to get to see you today. And I know Jonathan is looking forward to it too.”

“I don’t know anyone named Jonathan,” I said.

“Sure you do. He’s your soul mate,” she said matter-of-factly.

I couldn’t help but laugh. This lady was seriously too much. “As lovely as that sounds, I don’t have one of those.”

As the words left my mouth, flashes of the man-wolf I’d spent a night with eighteen years ago came to mind. They alternated from the man being in a state of partial shifting to him being fully shifted into a wolf. What my memory didn’t include was anything that showed him as human. The memories instantly blurred with my recollection of the attack in Detroit and the man who had come to my rescue—White-Shirt Guy.

I tensed but didn’t tell my new friend Marcy about it all. Seemed like a bit much to unload on a random stranger who may or may not be insane. Besides, what would I tell her? I hooked up with a wolf-shifter while in wolf form and did the dirty eighteen years ago, but I don’t remember much from it.

“Don’t be silly,” she said. “Your soul mate is looking over at me right now. He made me promise to stay in his line of sight because he says I get into mischief when I’m on my own.”

“Just like a squirrel?” I asked, playing along with the woman.

“Exactly!” she squealed so loudly it hurt my ear. “You totally get it. I knew you would.”

I laughed softly, thankful for the comic relief the woman was providing.

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