Prologue: Stella
Dawn broke silently over Glacier National Park. Stella sighed as the sun peeked through the mountains. Closing her sketchbook over a drawing of the shadowed mountain peaks, she pushed herself to her feet. It was time to to leave her little forest getaway and go to work.
Stella and her daughter Eva had been living by Glacier Park for just over a month now, back in Stella’s childhood home. Stella’s sister Lynn had—
—well, Lynn hadn’t taken them in, exactly. Stella had inherited half of the house from their grandmother. She had as much right to live there as Lynn did.
But Lynn had been the one to get Stella and Eva from her ex-boyfriend Todd’s house. Lynn had brought them back home, and Lynn and her mate and her friends had scared Todd’s wolf pack away.
Lynn had been the big sister, like she always was.
Stella, meanwhile, was doing her best to be as responsible as Lynn was, and part of that was having a regular job waiting tables at Oliver’s, the local diner.
Back when Eva was a baby, Stella had tried waitressing at Oliver’s for a while. But she’d been too flighty, back in her twenties, to work long hours on her feet and come home to a wailing child. Resentment had built up in her, and she’d missed too much work. Eventually, she’d found an out-of-town boyfriend and left without a backward glance, bringing Eva with her.
Of course, the boyfriend had been no-good, and the opportunities he’d promised had dried up. But it had taken her a long, long time to learn that men’s promises were like the sunrise: bewitching, endlessly repeating, but gone in an instant.
Now, in her forties, she still chafed at being told what to do, still got frustrated with tedious jobs. But she was older. She couldn’t justify shirking responsibilities just by saying, oh, I’m a free spirit, I can’t be tied down!
As much as she still sometimes wanted to.
So she worked at Oliver’s, she showed up on time, she did as she was told. She tried to enjoy it—making friends with her coworkers, chatting with the customers, getting to know tourists, sighing wistfully over all the exotic places they’d come from.
Well, that last one was somewhat bittersweet.
But she managed it, partly by keeping her daughter firmly in first priority. Eva was about to start her senior year in high school, and she was thinking about college. Stella was so proud she could burst—Eva would be the first one in their family to go to college.
Of course, Stella didn’t have the money to pay for an expensive school, and probably never would. But maybe if she worked her butt off at the diner, and lived at home with Lynn and Lynn’s mate Ken, she could get enough saved up to pay for something local. Part of something local.
Eva was a brilliant student, so she’d probably get financial aid.
And meanwhile, Stella would kick herself for not thinking about this earlier. She was terrible at planning ahead, always had been.
She shifted into her lynx form to run back down through the forest. That was something that was nice about living at home again—not every town was like where Stella and Lynn had grown up. Shifters were an open secret around here. Especially out in the forest, you never had to worry about being caught.
The run felt good, exertion burning through her lynx’s limbs. She pretended just for a second that she was running off to the horizon, seeking out unknown lands, and that she wouldn’t stop until she found happiness.
Then she came back to herself. Stop it. You’re happy.
She had a good job, a comfortable home, and family all around her. Her daughter was excited to start school. Her sister loved and supported her. She lived practically on top of one of the most beautiful parks in the world, for crying out loud! Every time she sat down to draw the landscape, it was like breathing in pure magic.
If all of that wasn’t happiness, what was?
She didn’t know. All of her life, she’d been looking for something, unable to stay in one place, and she’d never figured out what it was.
Stella shifted back to human in the forest just beyond the house, and sighed. If this wasn’t happiness, it was close enough.
And it was bringing Eva what she needed, and that was the most important thing.
Stella got herself ready for work in the silent house. Lynn was probably already gone; her wilderness guide business went from before dawn until after dusk in these summer months. Ken, Lynn’s mate, was out for several days doing some kind of environmental survey for his job. Eva was a teenager: still asleep.
Eva had a summer job at the local coffee shop, and Stella was struck, as always, by how different they were: Eva was always on time, never seemed to have a problem with the hours. Her least favorite part of the job was having to talk to all of the customers. Stella thought that if she didn’t have customers to chat with, she’d probably go crazy.
She got into her old clunker of a car, said a brief prayer, and turned the key. It started, thank God, and off she went to another day at work.
She parked in her usual spot, and took a deep breath. This is normal, she reminded herself. A normal job that normal people have. If you don’t like it, too bad for you.
She got out of the car—
“Stella!”
—and nearly jumped out of her skin.
Todd came forward from where he’d been standing behind his pickup. She hadn’t noticed it at all when she pulled in, too occupied with her thoughts.
“Todd,” she said nervously. “What are you doing here?” She’d seen her ex-boyfriend here and there since Lynn and Ken and their friends had helped drive him and his pack off of their property. He always had an excuse for being in town, though. Going to the Park for the day, had to pick up something they didn’t sell in his teeny tiny town, some kind of reason.
Now, though, he just took another step forward, his eyes fixed on her. “I had to see you.”
Stella took a step back. “We broke up, Todd, remember? We don’t see each other anymore.”
Todd shook his head. “I can’t stand being apart from you, Stella.”
Well, that was—a problem. “I’m sorry, Todd.” Stella got it. She’d felt it—that clawing desire, that need to be with a man all the time, always near him, always with his attention on her. “It’ll fade with time, I promise.” It always did.
“No, it won’t,” Todd said. “It’s been a month, and I still feel it. I need you. Come back home, Stella.”
It was funny. Usually Stella would be tempted by an offer like that. She’d fallen for this sort of thing before. Seeing so much emotion, so much passion, all directed at her...it was a weakness of hers.
But maybe she was getting too old for it, because this time, she wasn’t tempted. Or maybe Todd had crossed too many lines when they’d broken up. Taken the bad boy image too far, frightened Stella too much.
She’d been scared for Eva’s safety, in that house, with Todd’s pack. And Todd hadn’t done anything to keep his buddies in line.
“I’m not putting my daughter in danger again,
” she told him. “You couldn’t keep her safe, so I have to do it myself. Go home, Todd.”
“I won’t let them in anymore,” he promised.
Men’s promises. So bright, so brief. “No, Todd,” she said firmly, and started walking towards the diner.