You only have to wait one more day for Memories of Magic and Mates! I thought I’d get you started early with the first chapter, though. Enjoy!
Chapter 1
Rain poured down on a warm summer night, turning it muggy. The wolf’s vision was already fuzzy, but the garish lights that made the city shine like the sun reflected in pools of water made it worse. She wouldn’t have known what was up and down if not for her paws touching the ground.
Water sloshed with each step, and her fur clung to her skin. She was soaked and therefore no longer felt wet. Each splash sounded in time with the rhythm pounding in her head. The occasional drip drip of blood blended into the chorus of the rain.
The wolf’s eyes burned as lights sped toward her. She couldn’t think fast enough to react, and even if she could have, her body wouldn’t have moved fast enough. A car screeched, attempting to stop, but it hit her hard enough to throw her.
The wolf’s vision darkened and time stopped with the sound of the rain. Then it all came rushing back as air and water gushed into the wolf’s lungs. She lay on her side in a puddle, body throbbing. The liquid in her mouth was hot and cold. As she struggled to her feet, it was only hot. Drool foamed and dripped from her mouth as she formed a snarl.
Her vision flashed red, warning of danger, as a man exited the vehicle and approached her.
“Oh my God,” the man said under his breath, and then he heard the wolf growling. He screamed as the beast lunged for him, barely making it back into his vehicle before sharp teeth could embed themselves into his leg.
The wolf was hurting, slower than she should be. She still smelled the man, though, and scratched at the metal keeping him from her. The wheels screeched as they threw water into the wolf’s face. She backed away in time to avoid getting hit again, but that wasn’t her intention. She pawed at her face, but her vision was useless now; the grime had blinded her to only red.
Still, the wolf lumbered forward. Her nose worked, and it had caught a thread of nature, the fresh scent of trees somewhere beyond putrid exhaust. Her hackles rose as she moved, snarling and drooling, but nothing else got in her way. She heard engines, squeals, danger getting close but never close enough to harm her because she shied away from it.
Her senses weren’t working properly. One part of her wanted to bite anything that got near, while the other part of her just wanted to reach those trees. Her vision faded in and out with the bright lights, sometimes red and sometimes just white. Everything was too noisy, and the blood oozing from her head got hotter and hotter until it was like fire. She pressed her head into a cooling puddle as she continued forward. She couldn’t afford to slow down because she was in danger.
Danger.
Eventually, the unbearable lights faded into darkness. The awful odors faded too, but she still wasn’t safe. She limped and limped because even in the quiet of trees there was danger everywhere. The flapping of a bat’s wings, the swaying of a branch in the breeze, these were monsters stalking her.
The wolf’s consciousness flashed in and out, and yet she never stopped moving. The rain was a distant memory, and the sky was a light blue with the sun shining down on her. It burned her like her wounded head and bloodied paws. Then it was night once more. The moon brought a modicum of relief, but it wasn’t enough.
The wolf viciously chomped a cricket that was chirping too loud. In her mind, it was a creature ready to burrow itself into her head, to cause her wound to gush when it finally wasn’t bleeding so much. It itched now. The wolf stumbled as she tried to walk and scratch her head with her back paw at the same time. She was surrounded by trees, so she pressed her head into the rough bark of a pine and heard something clink against a rock.
The sound startled her, and she growled as she located the offender with her nose. It smelled like her blood, but it also smelled metallic. It was a crinkled mess of a thing. She had no recollection of it, and since it was dead, her attention was snatched by other things. A harmless squirrel dashed down a tree, but in the wolf’s mind, it was a beast with fangs. She crashed into the little thing, stunning it before she tore through it. She devoured it quickly, an easy feat when it was but a morsel, and yet it was like a rock in her stomach, cumbersome. She scratched at her belly and heaved as if to vomit, but then the moon found her. Most of its light was obstructed by the leafy canopy, but a single moonbeam shone on the wolf’s forehead. It wasn’t a physical thing, and yet it was peaceful.
For a moment, the poor creature was able to stop. She stared up at the moon, the only clear object in her vision, and was free from the shadows and monsters tormenting her mind. Until a bird hindered her view and blocked the moonbeam.
The wolf’s instinct screamed danger. She growled and snapped her jaws when the winged beast descended and swooped by her as if to cut her with its razor-sharp talons. It rose before she could snatch it and landed on a branch. The leaves whispered evil things as they shook, and the wolf snapped her jaws some more. She tore bark from the enemy tree and clawed at it as if to climb it, but she couldn’t, and so the bird stared down at her, mocking. It spread its wings and screamed, causing her ears to ring and her aggression to grow.
Then she detected its—his—scent. It was crisp like apples, like fall, when every other scent was infused with summer. It cooled the burning and brought familiar peace like the moon.
Familiar. His impressive wings, the undersides white and speckled with brown, were almost pretty. But his tail was red, and red was danger.
But he didn’t feel dangerous.
The wolf couldn’t process this, but she stopped trying to attack the bird. She was surrounded by darkness and needed to keep moving. Her paws were raw, but they wouldn’t let her stop. The hawk screamed again, more of a cry this time; it was plaintive.
She was vaguely aware of the bird landing, of grass rustling, but she didn’t look back. Not even as a man’s voice pierced the night.
“Paige!”
The wolf moved faster. Each time her paws landed on the ground, they shot pain through her body, and her lungs protested, but she needed to get away. As her mind faded, the pain faded with it.
And yet the name stuck with her.
Paige was her name.
