Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 70338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Lincoln gives a non-committal grunt.
I should jump at the opportunity not to go to a Wolf Ridge High event. It’s not like I care about dressing up and being seen by anyone there.
The twist in my solar plexus says otherwise, though.
I remember Abe’s jealousy about my Homecoming date. The thought fills me with a spreading heat, like when you take a shot of whiskey and choke on the fire.
And even though I owe him nothing, I do feel guilty about being with Luke right now. Like I’m cheating on Abe, a guy I’ve never even kissed. A guy who acts like he hates me at school because of my very species.
What a dick.
Except now I can’t stop thinking about Abe. He occupies my thoughts the entire ride home while Luke drones on about our old friends back home, filling Lincoln in on the gossip he’s already shared at least three times with me. The longer he talks, the more disconnected I feel from my old life. The names are familiar. Luke’s voice and stories are familiar, but I was a different person when I was a part of that life. I may hate everything about Arizona, but nothing about my old life resonates anymore.
We wind our way up through Wolf Ridge to the top of Moongaze Hill. I can’t help but scan the darkness that surrounds our driveway for a flash of fur.
The hairs on the back of my neck prickle, but I don’t see anything. Still, I feel certain Abe is out there watching. I’ve seen him every night this week.
It’s what took the bite out of Abe being such a prick at school. I love knowing he’s this obsessed with me that he prowls around my house every night after bedtime.
Lincoln parks in the three-car garage that sits underneath the house, and the three of us head up the stairs.
“Hey, Joe. Long time, no see.” Luke adopts a dopey jocular tone as he shakes my dad’s hand.
I cringe at what he must see. My dad, once a powerful hedge fund manager now looks like an old, underemployed man. He’s unshaven, greeting a house guest in his pajamas and a bathrobe–something he never would have done before Mom died. His once proud shoulders are now stooped and rounded, and his hair has turned salt and pepper. There’s an air of defeat and depression that surrounds him.
Luke knows our dad attempted suicide after our mom died, and the move to Arizona was our attempt to keep him alive. I shouldn’t be embarrassed.
It’s just that I can already hear him relaying the news back to everyone at Landhower. How sad it is that our dad is barely functional now. How pathetic our lives are in hot, dusty Wolf Ridge.
To escape the scene, I walk to one of the giant picture windows that surround the main floor of the house and look out toward the tree line. I’m numb again like I’m trapped inside of a snow globe and can’t get out.
Abe is the only one who ever cracks it open for me.
There.
I catch the reflection of a pair of ice-blue eyes. My heart rate speeds up. The snow globe breaks, and the plasma oozes out. I’m awake again.
Alive.
The corners of my mouth turn up.
“What is it, Lauren?” My dad’s voice is sharp. “Do you see that wolf again?” He’s obsessed about the wolf situation, which is a problem now that I know it’s Abe.
“What wolf?” Luke asks. “The one that tried to come through your window?”
Dammit. Now I wish I’d never told anyone about that. Wish I hadn’t screamed and woken up the whole house when it happened.
Lincoln comes to stand beside me at the window.
“No, there’s nothing here.” I reach for the remote that controls all the drapes in the living room.
“Yes, there is–I saw something move!” Lincoln says. “Is it a grey?”
Fuck.
“Get the rifle there behind the door!” my dad instructs, and Luke lunges for it. “The Fish and Game Department hasn’t done a damn thing about putting that rabid beast down. I’m going to kill it myself.”
Apparently, Luke wants to be the hero, though. He throws the door open, rifle in hand. I don’t know if he even knows how to shoot the thing.
“No, wait!” I try to scoot out the door first, but the two of us get caught in the doorframe together, the long rifle between us.
A snarl sounds from the shadows.
“Wait!” I cry again, running down the steps and out to the landscaped path.
“Stay back, Lauren.” Luke is living out some kind of hero fantasy right now.
Over my shoulder, I see him running behind me, pointing the rifle wildly in my direction.
This time, the snarl sounds right in my ears. No–over my head. Because the wolf–Abe–soars through the air and tackles Luke to the ground with two massive paws on his shoulders.