I toss my bag inside and tumble in after it, landing on the wooden floorboards with a “thud.” I stand and close the window, locking it this time, and look around the room.
“Who’s been sleeping in my bed?” I whisper. I grab an electric lantern from next to the door and flick it on, then hang it from a hook in the center ceiling. This gives the whole room a warm, soft glow.
It also reveals that yes, someone has been living at the cabin. The person who took the hide-a-key, perhaps? Only maybe they’ve been gone for awhile. Maybe they aren’t coming back. Maybe, just maybe, this person sought refuge in the cabin and then forgot to leave the key when they continued on.
Yes, that must be it.
I kick off my shoes and sigh. I’m exhausted. I’m much too tired to worry about them coming back. I have no doubt that the food pantry has been rifled through or that most of the bottled water is gone, but I don’t think anyone would have checked Grandma’s secret hiding place for Grandma’s secret weapon.
The third floorboard from the side of the wall, just next to a tiny table with a fake potted flower, holds a .38 special and enough bullets to keep me safe – a little safe, anyway – until I can figure out my next move.
Suddenly, coming to the cabin doesn’t seem like such a great idea.
Suddenly, all I want is Grammy.
3.
Nash
Sleep has evaded me for months. No matter how hard I try, I can’t get the image of Elise’s body out of my head. She would have done anything for the Alpha. Anything.
And he killed her in cold blood.
And now I’m alone in the woods and I need a plan.
Only I’m too distraught to actually come up with anything decent.
The only thing I do these days is hunt and sit around the cabin, trying to sleep. What else is there? The Silent Canines had been my life for years. Now? Now I’m a lone wolf who can’t even sleep without the help of alcohol.
Lots and lots of alcohol.
When I return home after hunting for the day, I’m ready to collapse. I’m ready to sleep. I’m ready to hit the bottle hard. It’s just another day without Elise.
It’s just another day without my cousin.
She was more than a cousin. Elise was my best friend. She was like a sister to me and I don’t know what I’m going to do now that she’s gone. I warned her that the Alpha was bad news, but she didn’t listen. She didn’t want to.
She saw a hot guy who offered her a lot of attention and she took it. She took all of it. Everything he had to offer, she took.
And then he took everything she had, offering or not.
Fuck.
I shift back, quickly and lazily, and I step onto the porch. And then I stop.
Human.
There’s a human in the cabin. A female one, judging by the scent. There’s an aroused female in my cabin and I was so distracted that I didn’t notice until I was about to walk in the door.
I’m losing my edge.
I take a deep whiff of her scent and pause, confused. This cabin had been abandoned for years, judging by the dust buildup, without so much as a hunter or camper stopping by. Why now?
Who is she and why is she here? There has never been another person at this cabin, not in the three months I’ve lived here. It was why I chose this cabin to make my residence. It was abandoned, empty, and full of booze. Seriously, why would one person need so much alcohol in a cabin they never visit?
I have no idea.
But now my home is not-so-empty and I’m not sure what to do. My first instinct is to run inside and rip the human to shreds, but I can’t. Not after losing Elise. I don’t know if I can be that wolf anymore.