“I think I’m going to take a swing where you didn’t,” Mary said, rising from the booth. “Let’s see if she plays for both teams.”
“That’s my girl,” Levi said, slamming his fist onto the table.
While Mary went over to talk to the redheaded woman, Levi returned to his team. They went back to talking about Lincoln and his various exploits, along with the positive results the attention was going to get for their organization.
Levi was satisfied to see Mary and the redhead hitting it off. Mary was a good woman who also deserved a good lay. Maybe it would help her relax a little.
Overall, the night was fun and relaxing. They stayed out late, getting more and more drunk as the bar began to empty for closing time. He even looked around for Mary, who he hoped had gone home with the sexy redheaded woman.
Just before they were set to get a cab, Levi ran to the restroom for a final release. He stood at the urinal, pleasantly intoxicated, when he heard the footsteps of someone behind him.
“Take a picture, man,” Levi said. “It’ll last longer!”
Levi began laughing as he emptied his bladder, but when he finished, he felt something thin and sharp pierce his neck. He had barely zipped up his pants when he felt it shoot through from his left side, penetrating the skin and into his main artery.
A few seconds later, everything became blurry. Not blurry in the sense of his drunkenness, but blurry like he had been drugged. He was keenly aware of what was happening as he haphazardly tried to spin around and fight the perpetrator but found himself crashing onto the dirty linoleum floors.
Whoever had drugged him grabbed him by his shirt collar and wrapped his head in a dark hood. Levi instantly fell into darkness, screaming somewhere in the ether of his mind.
1
HANNAH
Hannah kept telling herself to run faster, run harder. She would keep going until she reached the edge of her land and the neighbor’s. Only then would she stop. She knew she couldn’t outrun her problems, but she was going to try. She forced herself forward, feeling the dirt against her paws and the wind rushing through her fur.
She took deep breaths in, looking at the river that ran across her property. She looked down at herself in wolf form in the reflecting water.
With light brown fur and deep brown eyes, she could be mistaken for any ordinary wolf, and she liked that. It gave her a way to ignore her life’s problems, although today seemed to be exponentially hard.
She knew better than to even glance at the calendar when she woke up this morning. She knew what day it was, and she didn’t need the visual aid to add to her problems. In her heart, she knew it was her mother’s birthday.
A normal person would be overjoyed about the occasion but not Hannah. Instead, it haunted her, forcing her to remember her past that she would rather leave behind. So, she ran.
Her heart was pounding, and her legs burned. The woods were silent, and she hated it. She went out to run to get her mind off the situation, but it did the opposite. She kept thinking back to leaving the pack and losing everything.
She turned around and ran all the way back home. She tried hard to put the day behind her. After all, it’d been years since she’d had any contact with that life. She changed hers, and it was for the best. But she had a challenging time telling her heart to harden up.
Hannah got back to her house, taking in her little slice of heaven away from people. Her cabin sat in the middle of nowhere with about ten acres of land surrounding her home that she used every day. She liked the solitude, and honestly, she preferred it. But today, it seemed like it just wanted to remind her she wouldn’t ever have what she had before.
She froze when her eyes landed on a truck next to her car. She knew that make and model and internally groaned. Her boss, Nick, was paying her a visit. Hannah stood there for a moment. If she waited long enough, would he leave?
No, she knew he wouldn’t. He would just continue to loiter in her house. She reminded herself to move the spare key from the gnome by her door.
Hannah shifted back into her human form and grabbed the clothes she had thrown into her car. She stood behind the door, giving herself a little privacy. Not that it mattered. Nick had seen her naked several times.
She heard the front door open, and Nick walked out. He was a muscular man for his age, with gray hair blending in with his mahogany brown. He had to be around forty years old and a pain in Hannah’s ass. She noticed the mug in his hand.
“Are you kidding me?” she snapped. “That’s my favorite mug.”
Nick gave her a smirk, taking a sip out of it. “I know.”
She scowled. “You’re an ass.”
He chuckled. “Well, if you had been back earlier, you would be using it.”
Hannah rolled her eyes, pulling her bra on. “Why did you break into my house, Nick?”
“You have a spare key.”