Page 24 of The Wild Moon
“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.
Chapter Fifteen
