Page 71 of Cold Foot Curse

“Well, him opening up tonight is a good sign.”

“Yeah. Hey, have you seen what Kade has been doing?”

“Kade?” Jess asked, distracted by a deer on the side of the road. How had it even gotten up here? It would have to travel down the road a ways to find a safe place to head down the mountain.

“Yeah. You know that tall guy. Kind of new. Really, I didn’t notice him much, but he’s been Challenging.”

“Really?” she said, snapping back to the conversation. “I’ve only seen him a few times. I don’t know much about him.”

“Yeah, well, maybe study up. He’s making a run at Third. He just Challenged Arthur. He nearly killed him.”

Jess’s eyebrows shot up. “Arthur lost a Challenge?” He was a freaking lion. “What’s Kade’s animal?”

“A mother freaking rhinoceros!”

“Holy shit!” Jess exclaimed, rounding another curve. A car passed, and the headlights were bright, so she winced against them and waited for the car to pass before she dug back into the conversation. “Aren’t those rare?”

“I’ve never known a rhino shifter,” Misty said.

Jess shook her head in disbelief. “I didn’t even pay attention or register him as dominant.”

“He has a quiet presence at the meetings for sure. Boy can fight though. Samuel sent me a video of the Challenge. He’s the size of a freaking house when he’s Changed. I wouldn’t tangle with him. Well, I mean maybe if I wasn’t with Samuel, I would tangle with him,” Misty said in a wicked tone.

“If he’s a rhino taking out lions, he could probably kick Samuel’s ass.” Sometimes she thought Samuel needed someone to put him in his place. She didn’t like how he treated Misty, or her, or the way he talked to anyone, really. He just had a mean streak in him that hadn’t been corrected in a long time. It got worse the older Samuel got.

Headlights ahead said another car was coming toward her, and she prepared mentally to take a face full of the high beams again. Out on these quiet roads, sometimes drivers forgot to dim their lights after a while of driving without seeing anyone else.

“Hey, Jess?” Misty said in a small voice.

“Yeah?”

“If I tell you something, will you promise me you won’t talk to anyone in the Crew about it?”

“Of course. You can tell me anything,” Jess said, confused.

The car’s brights were definitely on, and Jess flashed her lights at him to try and tell him to dim them.

“You know how Samuel and I haven’t been doing very well for a while?”

“Yeah,” Jess said, taking the curve carefully. There was a steep drop-off on her right-hand side, and barely any shoulder. Just the metal railing to keep her from falling into the abyss.

This dude had freaking UFO lights or something. She squinted, shielding her face to try and keep her eyes on the road. “Geez, my guy,” she muttered, her eyes watering as she focused on the outside line of the road.

The lights were getting so bright though, and something felt off, and when she forced her attention to the brights, they were aimed straight for her. “Shit!” she screamed, slamming on her brakes, but it was too late. The pickup truck slammed right into her. Time slowed as glass flew in front of her face, and her car blasted through the railing. She screamed as her stomach dipped with no ground below her. It was a three second hang-time before her car hit the trees below.

There was agonizing pain, and then everything went black…

Jess blinked her eyes open. Every cell in her body was on fire. The pain in her face was fading, and she didn’t understand what she was looking at. There were metal slats right in front of her face, and beyond, she could see the woods.

She lifted her hand to her cheek, where her face had been disfigured in that awful accident all those years ago, but it wasn’t bleeding. It had just been a dream. She wasn’t stuck in that car for hours. She wasn’t even alone. She could hear voices outside. Someone was yelling, “Stay with me!”

Chills rippled up her arms as she pushed up and looked around. She was in some kind of animal hauling trailer, but it was on its side. The slats she could see out of belonged to the roof of the trailer. What the hell?”

Jess’s limbs tingled with a strange half-numb sensation, and she pushed against the back door. It had been damaged and fell open without much effort.Slam!The metal sounded deafening as it hit the asphalt.

In shock, she climbed out onto the road. Her hands had been cut up, but as she looked at them, they were healing right before her eyes.

“He’s almost here. Stay with me!” The voice sounded familiar, but it was as if she was hearing him from underwater. The words slurred and distorted.

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