My Second Chance Mate

6

When I left my pack, my dad tried to keep it under wraps. He didn’t want word to get out that I could be so impulsive, so stupid. Werewolves lived together, hidden away in packs, for a reason. Rogues were disliked and considered dangerous, and there was reason for that, too.

But I wasn’t a rogue. There had been other wolves, albeit only a few, that had left home to live among the humans. Living in human cities was not common, but visiting and working among humans was. My situation was entirely different from any other that I knew of. I was the daughter of a well-respected Alpha.

Once word of my departure inevitably did get out, though, it spread like wildfire, and it wasn’t well received. My father was shamed. My whole pack was. Eventually, the gossip about me leaving lost its appeal, as I became old news, and it became clear that this wasn’t just some childish stunt when I didn’t come back. Rumors were still tossed around to that day, but I wasn’t a hot topic anymore. My father, my family, and my pack recovered from the shame I brought upon all of them, but I’d heard that sometimes, at gatherings or meetings or various events, sometimes audacious wolves would whisper and snicker when my father walked into the room.

I still felt guilty. I always would, and my relationship with my father would, unfortunately, never be the same. I believed he was personally offended when I really didn’t come home—he thought I’d be back within a month, at most.

My head felt heavy with thoughts of my pack, and of calling home and hearing the ever-present undertones of disappointment in Dad’s voice when we spoke. I walked for quite a while, till my feet started to hurt and my belly rumbled with hunger. Somehow, I walked so far and for so long that by the time fatigue really started to wear me down, Madison Square Garden was closer than Central Park, so that’s where I went.

A text message pinged on my phone just as I passed under the arch. It was from Mom. My brow furrowed as I read it: “Natalie, if you’re safe and able, please call me.”

I did as she requested and called her. She answered after just one ring.

“Natalie, where are you?” There was panic in her tone.

Confused, I replied, “Madison Square Garden. Still in New York. What’s going on?”

“I saw something,” she explained, “and I need you to promise me you’ll stay on your toes. Stay alert. Do not let your guard down for a second.”

I maintained my composure as I walked leisurely around the fountain in the center of the park, but uneasiness reared its ugly head again, creeping up my spine and setting me on edge.

So much for decompressing, my Wolf grumbled.

“That’s pretty ominous, Mom,” I said, with a nervous chuckle. “What’s going on?”

“I saw something, Natalie. I don’t know what it was, but somebody had you. You were tied up somewhere and I think you were unconscious.”

I spotted an empty bench and sat down, glancing around. I had managed to avoid any drama relating to my past for years, but now here I sat, sizing up humans after human as they strolled past me, as if one may lunge at me with a syringe full of wolfsbane if I wasn’t paying close enough attention. I couldn’t detect the scent of any other supernaturals. Which one of these humans could possibly pose a threat?

“Are you wearing a bracelet?” Mom asked.

“What?” I tore my gaze away from the crowd of people before me and looked down at my bare wrists.

“A friendship bracelet…like, the ones you and Kate used to make as kids. Are you wearing one?”

“No, any of them that I still have, I didn’t even bring with me. They’re all still back home, in the jewelry box that belonged to Grandma.”

“I don’t think it’s one you girls made. This one is,” she paused, “pink. It’s woven with gold beads and has a charm on it. It’s hard to see the charm…” She trailed off.

“I don’t have any like that back home.”

“That’s the only detail I can vividly remember that could possibly indicate a timeline.”

“Well, I don’t own any bracelets like that.” I hesitated, but then I cleared my throat and said, “I don’t mean to change the subject, but I was going to call Dad later.” Might as well just have Mom relay my message.

“What for?”

“I’m in public now, so bear with me,” I began, and lowered my voice, just in case. “I witnessed an attack, just a couple hours ago.”

“Supernatural?”

“Yeah. Not one of ours.”

“A vampire attack? In midday?” My mom sounded surprised. She knew that it was bizarre.

“Mm-hm. Midday, in an alleyway. One gone, one turned.”

“How is that possible?”

“We were wondering the same thing. Not sure.” My Wolf huffed in agreement.

“Did the vampire escape?” Mom asked.

“No, I took care of it. Weak one. Didn’t put up much of a fight.” I cleared my throat again. “I imagine Dad probably has some phone calls to make himself.”

“Indeed, he does.”

When I left Augusta and relocated to New York, I might as well have outright told my dad that I didn’t want updates on the pack anymore. I decided that pack business was no longer mine, so I stopped asking. He stopped offering when I stopped pretending to be interested. But now, under these unusual circumstances, I was curious.

“Mom, what…groups are in my area these days? Same ones as when I first came here?” I asked carefully.

“By groups, do you mean packs?”

“Yeah.”

“Just Waning Moon and Black Summit.”

“Wasn’t there one more?” My brows knit together in confusion.

“Silver Lake, yes, but Black Summit absorbed them about a year ago.”

“So, they’re still the same? Have they at least left us alone?”

“They’re still the same,” Mom confirmed. “I won’t sugarcoat this; I have no reason to. We’ve proposed a peace treaty twice since their Alpha denied the first one. He isn’t interested. He still wants more of our land, but your dad won’t budge. It’s reached a point where I have urged him to surrender something, anything, just to keep their Alpha at bay. Not a lot of land. Just a little. We can’t afford to go to war, and I haven’t had any premonitions yet, but I know it’s coming.”

I frowned deeply, reminded of my dislike and disgust with the Black Summit pack. “If Dad contacts them regarding what has happened here, will anything negative come of it?”

“I doubt it. Don’t tell your dad I’m saying this, but I think their Alpha seems to have a method to his madness. I don’t think he does anything blind. This isn’t related to the problems our pack has with his.”

“Okay,” I said, unconvinced. “I’m sorry, Mom, I really didn’t mean to change the subject. I promise I’ll stay safe.”

“Just hearing your voice has calmed me down quite a bit.” She laughed and added, “Watch out for any pink woven bracelets, I suppose.”

I smiled. “I sure will.”

“I’m going to go find your father. I love you, my Natalie. I miss you.”

Tears stung my eyes, and I fought them back hard. “I love you, too, Mom. I miss you more.” I disconnected the call before she could speak again and squeezed my eyes shut. Anytime I spoke to my mother, I wanted nothing more than to go home. I knew that if I heard her say another word, I’d cry, and I didn’t want to cry in the middle of Madison Square Garden, surrounded by people.

I took a few deep breaths, clutching my phone in my lap with my eyes still shut, and steadied myself. When I opened my eyes again, my vision was no longer cloudy. I didn’t get up from the bench. I was unsure of what to do—I hadn’t had a day anything like this since before I left my pack. I was drained.

We’re already here. People-watching wouldn’t hurt, my Wolf chimed in.

She was right.

I observed two women pushing baby strollers side-by-side. They were both wearing leggings, and they both wore their hair in messy buns on top of their heads. They were chatting and laughing and seemed so happy. I frowned, as I couldn’t help but imagine Kate and I pushing baby strollers around the trails in the woods on our territory, chatting and laughing like that.

Maybe in another life.

I watched a teenage girl for a moment, sitting on the steps by the fountain. She had what looked like a sketchbook in her lap, and she was hard at work, glancing up at the arch every so often. She wore massive headphones and had lime green streaks in her dark hair. I focused hard, and zeroed in on the music she was listening to—it was some whiny, angsty song I didn’t recognize.

I heard a phone ring, and a balding man wearing an expensive-looking business suit took up quickly from a nearby bench. He put his phone to his ear and answered the phone angrily. He scurried away, as a young couple holding hands caught my attention. They weren’t speaking, just walking with clasped hands and smiles on their faces. The sight of them warmed my heart, and also made me sad.

I watched children play in the fountain, while their parents sat nearby. People were dotted along the fountain steps—it was a popular place to be. People were reading or just sitting alone, some were sitting in groups or pairs. I noticed another young couple. The girl had fiery red hair that was chopped just above her shoulders. The two were cuddling, and the boyfriend whispered something in her ear. She giggled, and I looked away as they leaned in for a kiss.

Another text message pinged on my phone. It was Mom again. It read, “PLEASE stay safe, my Natalie.”

•••

In West Milford, New Jersey, about an hour from where I lived, give or take, there was a nature preserve. I knew that there were plenty of places between Manhattan and West Milford that were perfectly acceptable, and offered ample, secluded space to let my Wolf out to run. I knew this because in the time that I’d lived in New York, I’d found them all. The Apshawa Preserve was my favorite, though, and it was my Wolf’s, too.

Apshawa was beautiful, and it was sprawling and expansive, and beyond the boundaries of the preserve, there was just more woods. Mountains. It was perfect.

Anytime I ventured out intending to Shift, I went at night. In my experience, no humans ventured of the trails after the sun slipped below the horizon.

I was itching to let my Wolf out I realized, after people-watching for a while, that I needed to let her out. I had a thousand different emotions swirling around inside my head—stress, exhaustion, annoyance, anxiety, and I was overwhelmed, to name a few.

I stopped at a hot dog cart on my way back to my apartment, and munched on my hot dogs for the remainder of the trip. I changed my clothes, plopped down on the sofa in the living room, and hopped on the Uber app on my phone. The ride to Apshawa was expensive, but I didn’t mind. It was always difficult to find a ride back to Manhattan, but it was doable. Some Uber drivers would offer to stay in the area. There was a hotel 12 minutes away from the preserve, and I always made sure to slip it into our conversation on the way there.

I typed my destination into the app. My driver was just four minutes away. I went outside and sat on the front stoop and waited.

Before long, a black Kia pulled up to the curb and rolled to a smooth stop. The passenger side window opened, and the man sitting behind the wheel called out, “Are you Natalie?”

“Sure am,” I confirmed, as I got to my feet and headed for the car. I opened the door and slid into the passenger seat.

“I’m Shaun,” the man said with a smile, as he entered the address for Apshawa into the GPS on his dash. He cleared his throat as he shifted gears, and then the car lurched forward.

We sat in silence for a while, inching along in typical NYC traffic. I studied him out the corner of my eye. He looked to be around my age, somewhere in his mid-twenties, but his eyes were slightly sunken and his skin was sallow. He was wearing a blue baseball cap and a plain green T-shirt. He was very thin. I could see his collarbones jutting out underneath the collar of his shirt. He smelled human, but he also smelled sickly.

“So, what’s at Apshawa?” he asked suddenly, after not speaking a word for a solid 20 minutes.

“Trees, mostly,” I replied dryly.

Shaun snorted. “No s**t,” he said, and I smiled. “I meant, why am I taking you there after dark in 50-degree weather?”

“Hiking,” I said simply. “Night hiking.”

“Fair enough.” He shot me a strange, sideways glance. “Can I…stay in the area? Come get you when you’re ready to leave? I’m not being weird, I swear. Just can’t imagine that there are many Uber drivers readily available in bum-f**k-Egypt, New Jersey.”

That was quick. Didn’t even take any coercing on my part. I liked Shaun. “It’s not quite bum-f**k-Egypt. There’s a hotel about 10 minutes up the road, if you really don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind. Been driving since this morning.”

“You’ve earned a break, then.”

He laughed.

We chatted about nothing in particular for the entire drive. Shaun didn’t have a day job, so driving for Uber “killed time”. I didn’t know how Uber drivers were paid, but I assumed it wasn’t sustainable income. I didn’t ask how he survived in a place like the city. It wasn’t any of my business. He told me he was from Staten Island, but these days he was living in a shoe box in Harlem. He complained about his landlord, and about his neighbor, Edward.

I told him I was from Maine, and I told him I worked in an office. I didn’t offer anything else. It wasn’t any of his business. He didn’t seem to mind the lack of information—Shaun was a talker.

When we finally arrived at Apshawa, Shaun added himself as a new contact in my cell phone. He Googled the hotel I’d mentioned, entered the address into his GPS, and told me he’d see me soon. I gave him a generous tip, thanked him profusely, and watched his car roll out of the parking lot.

Shaun was a no-nonsense, very straightforward kind of guy. He had a dark sense of humor and he cursed like a sailor. He didn’t ask many questions. As I hopped the fence at the entrance of the preserve, I smiled to myself. I could see Shaun and I becoming friends.

I started walking. I stayed on the trail and breathed deeply. I couldn’t detect any humans in the area. With my heightened sense of sight, I could see through the black of night, thick like a weighted blanket, without a problem. I followed bends on the trail and stepped over fallen branches in my path.

The deeper into the preserve I went, the more confident I became that I was alone. I still smelled no humans. I heard no humans. The only sounds were those of the woods, and the sound of my own footfalls on the ground. I heard water rushing and splashing about in a nearby stream, somewhere within the dense forest.

I felt at peace. I finally relaxed, after the ridiculous day that I’d had. My tense muscles loosened as I broke into a light jog. I knew that Shifting would probably be uncomfortable, as it had been a while since the last time I’d done it, but I was excited. I would relish in the discomfort.

I began to run. A smile spread across my lips as I picked up speed. I veered off the trail and into the trees, laughing gleefully as tree branches whizzed past me and whipped at my skin. I stripped off my clothes, barely stopping long enough to tie them around my ankle, and then I kept going. I loosened the straps of my backpack, inside of which were my wallet, my house key, my cell phone, a pair of spare panties, and a pair of tennis shoes.

I felt freer than I had in a long time. Actually, since the last time I had let my Wolf out.

I let her take over. She pushed her way into the front of my mind, and I shrank into the back of hers. I welcomed the snapping and contorting of bones and joints, the skin stretching and pulling, the fur sprouting all over my body.

As soon as my Wolf’s paws hit the ground, she shook out her thick coat, and let out a powerful, earth-shaking howl.

And then, she bolted.