Page 7 of Fated to the Wolf Cowboy
Chapter 3
I sniffed the air.
Shit!
I had somehow stumbled into Pack territory, only I had no clue which Pack. Hell, I didn’t even know where I was at this point.
It had been days at least, maybe even weeks since I left my home in the city seeking sanctuary in Westin Pack.
I had run and didn’t look back.
The quiet surrounding me was creeping me out and the sun was setting. Until yesterday I’d been traveling in my skin and staying in hotels mostly in populated areas. The further west I went, the quieter things seemed to become. I hadn’t passed a true city in several days.
I knew it was best to stay in my skin. I’d be harder to track that way. But I was running out of money quickly and knew I was going to have to spend at least a few nights in my fur if I was going to make it all the way to California. I just prayed I was far enough away from the trackers by the time I finally shifted.
Really, would they even venture this far away from the city in search of just me?
I didn’t think so, but a small part of me was still too paranoid not to fear it.
Westin Pack was rumored to be a sanctuary for my kind. I hoped that if I could just make it there everything would befine. I had to believe that. It was the only thing keeping me from falling apart or giving up at any second.
I knew there were other Packs all over the world. I just hadn’t considered running into any of them.
I sniffed the air again.
Yup, definitely wolves.
Protocol made me want to find the Alpha and present myself to him, but that could be dangerous. What if it was a feral pack? I was in the middle of nowhere.
Even as I strained my eyes in every direction, there was nothing but endless land. It was quite daunting—no skyscrapers, no lights, no human sounds whatsoever.
I shivered.
How was I going to survive migrating through this area?
Sheer, stubborn, determination was all I really had going for me at the moment.
Still, there was comfort in knowing there were shifters like me nearby. Even though it wasn’t the same smell as my own Pack, it was still better than nothing but humans.
Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against humans. Hell, I’d been raised among them. There wasn’t much chance of avoiding human encounters being born and raised in New York City. The Big Apple was all I knew, but it wasn’t safe for me there any longer.
Years earlier a group called the Raglan had started rounding us up and experimenting on shifters. They’d been dealt with, but the aftermath had been hard on everyone.
People feared the experiments they had run and the people they had run them on. Babies had been born, some withodd powers, or multiple animals. People I personally knew had somehow been changed on a genetic level. The Pack dubbed their kind Experiments, Frankensteins, or simply abominations.
I wasn’t like them. I hadn’t been created in a lab. I had always been this way—a natural born witch.
But that fear of the unknown, of being something else, had spread beyond the initial concerns of those whom they had captured. It now includes anyone different, or special. Anyone with extra abilities. Anyone like me.
I could hide my powers better than most because they weren’t as obvious as some. But there were plenty in the Pack that knew me as a witch, plus it was documented. But I couldn’t risk being hunted down and slaughtered for something I couldn’t control.
My mind drifted to Aleah. She’d been a good friend to me, but she hadn’t taken the threat seriously. Her death had been a wakeup call to me and I vowed I would not end up dead in a dumpster like that.
I knew what I had to do. Packing up my entire life and life savings into one backpack I could easily carry in either form and leaving the only home I’d ever known had either been the bravest or the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.
A cool breeze brushed across my skin, and I shivered.
It was too quiet, too dark. Looking up towards the sky I could see millions of twinkling stars. Were there always so many of them? It was rare if you ever caught a true glimpse of the night sky in the city. Sure, you could still see some stars, but not like this.
