Chapter 6

• The coffee pot gurgled and sputtered as it percolated. I tore my eyes away from the appliance to look at my mom. She was a mess and it hurt a little to see her like this. I’d gotten good at blocking it out and reminding myself about how badly she treated me the last few years. But there was something about knowing it was time to say goodbye that made you view things differently. I felt sorry for her. She’d been handed this life without choice. She wasn’t the one who fucked up, but I couldn’t stay here. Not even for her. There was nothing I could do.
• “I’ll leave as soon as the magic lets me out,” I said.
• “Good,” she said.
• “Will you be okay?” It was a question I’d wondered about a few times but always stopped myself from asking. She wouldn’t be okay and we both knew it. She’d have to start taking better care of herself and I wasn’t sure she could.
• “Don’t worry about me,” she said.
• “I’m not going to come back after I go.” I wasn’t sure why I told her that, but it seemed like she should know.
• “I hope you never do.” She forced a smile then turned to the cupboard and pulled down two coffee mugs. She set the mugs on the counter and then pulled the coffee pot off and filled each before handing me one of the cups.
• Just like her, I drank my coffee black. Probably because milk and sugar were luxuries that weren’t really necessary when you had a limited budget. It took a while for me to adjust to the bitter taste when I was younger, but now it was a staple in my life. One of the things we had in common.
• “You were never meant to be in this place,” she said. “You’re too good for all of these wolves. I’m sorry I got you stuck here.”
• My brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
• She let out a long breath. “Your father wasn’t from around here. I left, I had a life. A good one. But after I got pregnant, I was scared and I came back. When I arrived, my dad was a mess so I stayed to help. I never planned to stay but you came early, and the magic took hold of you. If I left, you’d have been stuck here.”
• “I don’t understand,” I said. “I thought you’d always been here.”
• “It doesn’t matter. The fact that I returned erased any good I had from my time away.”
• “You’ve never spoken about my father before,” I said.
• “He’s probably long gone. He didn’t even know I was pregnant with you.”
• “Was he a shifter?” I asked.
• She nodded. “He never knew our secret. I was scared he’d find out you couldn’t shift and he’d disown you.”
• “It couldn’t have been worse than growing up here, Ma,” I said.
• “Trust me, there are things worse than Wolf Creek and the suffering we had here.” She sipped her coffee. “You’re better off without him.”
• “That doesn’t make any sense. He wouldn’t have even known I couldn’t shift until I was nineteen. I’d have had a whole lifetime to feel loved and safe. How could you deprive me of that?” All the good feelings about my mom were gone now. Why would she do that to her unborn child and how had she kept this from me all these years?
• “He would have known far sooner and things would have ended badly for both of us,” she said. “Promise me, you will never go looking for your father. He’d bring you nothing but pain.”
• “How could I? I know nothing about him,” I said.
• “Good.” She walked out of the kitchen and paused in front of her bedroom door. “Be safe out there.”
• I was still standing in the kitchen with my untouched coffee when she closed the door behind her. “That’s it? No goodbye?”
• It wasn’t like I expected anything touching or memorable, but I expected something other than this. What was I supposed to do with this information? Why tell me about my dad now? And how the fuck could living with a father and mother outside of this shit hole be worse than having the crap beat out of me every week?
• Furious, I set the cup on the counter and stormed back into my room. It was time to go. I wasn’t sure when the magic barrier would let me pass but I wasn’t going to wait here. My guess was sometime after moonrise, I could walk right out of here but I could use any head start I could get.
• Quickly, I made myself a peanut butter sandwich and grabbed a bunch of snacks to get me through the next couple of days in case Wolf Creek was a longer walk from civilization than I knew.
• That was another shitty thing about this place. I had no idea where we were geographically. I knew we were in the United States and that we got mild winters with some snow and hot summers, but other than that, I was clueless. I could be days away from a hotel or I could walk right into a bustling metropolis. No matter how many adults I asked, nobody would tell me the details.
• I was done with the secrets. Done with the magic. I was going to find my way out of here and start living my normal, boring, human life.
• When I stepped out of my door, I was greeted by three familiar faces. Tyler, and his two best goons, Julian and Kyle, were waiting right out front of my trailer.
• “How am I supposed to avoid you when you show up at my house?” I demanded. “I’m not in the mood for any of your games, Tyler.”
• “I had a feeling you might do something like this. You're going to run,” Tyler said.
• “I told you I was going to run. That was always my plan. You knew that. You're the one who told me to do it.” I glared at Tyler, totally confused and super pissed about the way he was behaving.
• “But now I changed my mind, little wolf...”