New Beginnings: Hollow Crest Wolf Pack Book 1 Read online

  Deep down, I knew that I should run. I knew that she was gone. I knew that she would want me to get away. But I couldn’t make my body move. I wanted to howl my grief and rage. I wanted to turn back time and reverse every terrible decision that we had made tonight.

  A howl echoed through the night in the far distance. That must be one of my cousins, sounding the alarm for the rest of the pack. I licked the blood and tears from my mother’s face, begging her to just start breathing again. But the blank look in her glassy eyes told me everything that I needed to know. I realized that she wasn’t ever going to look at me again. Despair overcame me and I felt the urge to curl up beside her. Instead, I forced myself to stand on my shaking legs.

  She had made the ultimate sacrifice for me. I couldn’t save her and I couldn’t bring her back, but I could honor her final wishes. A part of me wanted to just wait here for the rest of my pack. They would take one look at the carnage here and execute me so I could join my mother in death. The thought of going on without her was almost too much to bear, but I couldn’t let her down.

  Run.

  Her final word echoed through my mind. She had done everything she could to make sure that I had a chance. I owed it to her to try.

  Somehow, the backpack that she had placed on me earlier was still in place, but hers wasn’t. Her bag was lying next to her, open and empty. Was the gun the only thing she had packed for herself?

  I took one last look at her crumpled body before stumbling in the opposite direction. I was still in shock and numb to the world around me. I clumsily thrashed through the brush that surrounded the little clearing where I had lost the only person that had ever truly loved me.

  Tears were blinding my vision and I struggled to make my body keep moving. I heard more howls in the distance. My pack was gathering and soon they would be after me. The pack master and his second-in-command were lying dead in the clearing next to my mother. There would be chaos in the pack at first, there might even be a few fights until the males established who would be leading the hunt for me. That gave me a little bit of time to get ahead.

  Determination took root inside of me and I felt a surge of strength with my newfound purpose. I needed to get ahead of the pack hunt that would be following me. I felt dread trickle through my thoughts. If my pack caught up to me, I wouldn’t get an easy death; I would regret the day that I was born.

  I pumped my legs faster and focused on moving efficiently through the forest. They would be able to easily follow my scent through here, so my only option was to try and head for the highway. I darted between trees, leapt over rocks and shrubs, and focused on the sounds of the highway that were growing closer as I ran.

  When I finally reached the edge of the forest and saw the headlights of vehicles, I was both relieved and unsure. I had made it this far, but now what?

  I saw a gap in the traffic and quickly darted across two lanes, huddling in the traffic median. The sky was starting to get lighter with the first rays of dawn, so I needed to get out of sight quickly. I waited for another gap before darting across the last two lanes of the road. I was now completely on the other side, but that wouldn’t stop my pack for long.

  The ground sloped down from the highway and the grass was long where the clearing met the trees, so I felt safe running along the edge of the forest. It was still dark enough that the drivers wouldn’t be able to see too much outside of the beams of their headlights and the long grass should hide most of my movement. Even if someone did catch a glance of me out of the corner of their eye, hopefully their tired brains would think ‘dog’ not ‘werewolf.’ In my experience, most humans tended to brush off any hints of the supernatural and assign reasonable explanations to everything. It helped that I was on the smaller side, a huge wolf like Robert would never be able to pass for a normal dog.

  I ran for miles, adrenaline fueling my panicked escape. I kept running until I saw a sign for a rest stop ahead. Perfect. If I could get into a vehicle, the pack wouldn’t be able to track me by scent.

  I slowed down and my aching muscles thanked me. I had been running as fast as I could for what seemed like an eternity. I stuck to the shadows and crept closer, trying to get a feel for what was here. There were a dozen trucks parked all in a row, dark and quietly looming in the parking lot. Those were probably truckers who stopped to get a few hours of sleep while they were on the road. I walked along the back of the trucks but was dismayed to see that they were all locked up tight. There was no way that I would be able to sneak a ride inside one of them.

  The rest stop itself was brightly lit, so I avoided going too close to it. There were signs for restrooms and vending machines, but no restaurants like the major rest stops. This seemed like a place people would want to get in and out of quickly, not hang around. I laid down on the ground to think for a minute and stay out of sight.

  I could change back to my human form, but could I trust anyone to help me? I was covered in blood so chances were they would just call the police. How would I explain being naked and bloody? I watched the area quietly. There was a sign for a payphone, but who would I call?

  Everyone that I knew was in the pack and would be out for my blood. I knew humans from school, but not well enough to know their phone numbers or to be able to trust them with my secrets. I couldn’t call a cab. I didn’t have any money and a cab could be easily traced by the pack.

  The more I thought about it, the more I realized that if I couldn’t somehow sneak a ride then I was going to have to stay on foot. I forced my tired muscles to stand so that they wouldn’t lock up. I needed to stay on the move, I couldn’t allow myself to get stiff.

  I finally saw my chance when a pickup truck pulled into the parking lot. A middle-aged man with a beer belly stepped out of the cab and hiked up his pants before waddling towards the men’s restroom. I looked around to make sure no one else was around before darting into the parking lot towards the truck. The bed of the truck had a cover on it, but the man had left the gate down because a long piece of wood was sticking out of the back.

  I couldn’t believe my luck when I jumped onto the open gate and wiggled under the cover. There was more than enough room back there for me amongst some lumber that was tied down to the left side. I waited anxiously for the man to come back and my heart pounded nervously. There was no reason for him to check in the back, right? Everything looked tied down well, so hopefully he would get back in his truck and be on his way.

  Minutes ticked by until finally I heard his distinctive footsteps in the parking lot heading towards the truck. The locking mechanism beeped and the truck dipped slightly as he climbed in. I held my breath until I heard the engine start.

  My body was tense while he slowly taxied back towards the highway. We started to pick up speed once he reached the entrance ramp and then we were on our way. The steady sounds of the engine and the wind rushing over the cover soothed me and I gradually relaxed the longer we were on the road. Exhaustion and grief settled into my bones as I laid there. I had no idea where I was going and had no idea what I was going to do when I got there. The only thing that I knew was that I was completely alone.

  Chapter 2

  Lori

  My body jerked in surprise as the truck started to slow and then took an abrupt turn. I blinked sleepily and realized that I must have fallen asleep. How could I have possibly done that? I did my best to try and stretch my stiff and sore muscles but the area was too tight for me to be able to move much.

  I tensed up when I saw that we had left the highway and were driving on smaller roads. I could see light through the gate opening and realized that dawn had come and gone without me realizing it. We had to have been driving for a couple hours or more, but I couldn’t be sure just how long. I kicked myself for being so lazy and stupid.

  I slowly crept closer to the opening of the gate so I could peek out without anyone being able to see me. It looked like we were in a backcountry area because I didn’t see any cars behind us and the road was taking us
through a wooded area. I was going to have to get out of this truck sometime soon because I did not want to still be in here when we reached this guy’s destination.

  I also didn’t want to still be in here if he drove into a city or a town. Those were not places where a wolf could hide - I needed the cover of the forest to make a clean escape. I slowly inched to the edge of the gate and waited for my chance. We eventually slowed down and he briefly hit the brakes for what I was guessing was a stop sign. He made more of a rolling stop then a full stop, but I took the chance and jumped.

  I had a second of panic when I thought that my bag had caught on the top of the cover, but it broke free and I landed on the road a little less gracefully than I would have liked. I quickly ran for the woods and prayed that no one was paying attention.

  I didn’t hear any angry shouts, and the truck never stopped, so I must have made it out unseen. I slunk into the forest before taking a cautious look behind me. There were no signs to tell me where I was or what was nearby, so I just kept going. I was far enough away from my pack now that I could be relatively sure that they wouldn’t be able to find me from my scent. They would probably guess that I had hitched a ride somehow, but I was hoping that it would take them a while to figure out how far I had gone.

  Once I got deep enough into the woods I stopped. My mother had packed something into the backpack that she had strapped onto me. Now would be a good time to shift back into my human form and figure out if there was anything in there that I could use.

  I was so exhausted that I wasn’t sure I would be able to shift back but I kept trying. Eventually I reached the tiny spark inside of myself that would trigger the change. Once I was human again, I hurriedly opened the pack and dumped it on the ground. There was a simple t-shirt and shorts, so I quickly got dressed. My nudity was covered up and I was confident that I wouldn’t get arrested if anyone happened to catch a glimpse of me, so I sat back down to investigate the rest.

  There were a pair of cheap flipflops that would count as shoes in case I needed to go out into public. I tossed those aside for now. The rest of whatever was in there was carefully wrapped in airtight plastic. I gently opened it so that I’d be able to seal it back up after I had taken a look. I couldn’t be sure that I wouldn’t get caught in the rain, so I needed to be careful with what I had.

  The first thing that fell out was a folded piece of paper with my name written on it. Tears filled my eyes when I recognized my mother’s handwriting. I hastily wiped them away and put the note aside for now and looked at what else was in there. Inside of a black plastic bag was money, two IDs, and a business card with a name and phone number scribbled on the back. I looked at that closely.

  I didn’t recognize the name Austin; my mother had certainly never mentioned him. The business card was crumpled and faded, but the name Seaside Lawn Care was still clearly printed. Was that where Mom was going to bring us? I had heard of Seaside, Virginia and I had always wanted to see the ocean, but why did she have a business card for lawncare there? And when had she ever been to Seaside? As far as I knew she had never left our little town in Kentucky.

  I picked up the IDs next. There was one for me and one for my mom. I smiled because our last names on them were… Gilmore. I wiped away my tears as I looked at my mom’s photo on the ID; this was the only picture I had of her. She had a nervous smile on her face in the photo, but when had she had this made? My mom wasn’t the type of person who could just call someone up for a fake ID. I’d never seen her speak with anyone outside of our pack.

  I looked at my ID. It had my last school photo on it. She had changed my name on there from Lorelai Harris to Lorianna Marie, but having an ID that said my name was Lorelai Gilmore on it would be a red flag to anyone who remembered the show. I might as well put Ronald MacDonald on there. I glanced at the cash. A few hundred dollars was a huge amount for her to have. The females in our pack would never be allowed near that much money; the most I ever had was five or ten dollars that I had to hand into school for something. But I knew enough about the outside world to know that this much money wouldn’t go far.

  The last thing in the bag was a car key. I was guessing that mom’s original plan had involved us getting away somehow in a vehicle, but I was way past that now. She had probably packed more supplies in our getaway car but there was no way I was going back to find the car or the supplies. I tucked everything back into the plastic wrap but held on to the note. I couldn’t afford to have a complete emotional breakdown right now by reading my mom’s last words to me, but I also couldn’t risk not knowing what her plan for us had been.

  My hands shook as I carefully unfolded the note and my vision blurred before I could start reading. I took a deep breath and tilted my head back up to the sky, letting the tears fall from my eyes. After another couple shaky breaths, I had pulled myself together enough to be able to read what she had written.

  My sweet Lori,

  If you are reading this, then my plan didn’t fail completely. I might not have made it out, but you still can. Don’t give up! Remember that I love you more than words can ever say and that I am watching you from the heavens. All I ever wanted was to give you a good life. I’m sorry that I have failed you for this long, but I will be smiling down on you while you live your dreams. Call Austin and someone from his pack will come for you.

  I love you,

  Mom

  I hugged the note to my chest and broke down in sobs. I cried my eyes out until I had no tears left and there was only emptiness in my heart. I cleaned up the best I could after a prolonged ugly cry, but I wasn’t planning on seeing anyone soon. My red eyes, runny nose, and tear stained face were not even in the top ten of my biggest concerns right now.

  I carefully folded up the note and repacked the backpack completely. Once that was done, I just sat in the grass and stared at the bag. My mom wanted me to go off into the sunset with another pack and live a happy life.

  Emotions swirled tumultuously through my brain. How could she think that I could just go off and be happy after what had happened? She had to have suspected that things were going to go wrong if the only thing she had on her was a gun. She had probably stolen it from one of the males in anticipation of violence. It killed me that she had written me a note, anticipating that she wouldn’t make it out with me. She had left the house prepared to give her life for mine. Tears kept leaking from my eyes despite my best efforts to try to push my emotions away and think clearly.

  I curled up in the grass and used the backpack as a pillow. Now that I couldn’t hear wolves nipping at my heels, the panic that had driven me so far was fading and I was left feeling numb. I stared blankly but tried to force my brain to think rationally.

  What should I do? My mom wanted me to call the number on the card so that this ‘Austin’ and his pack could take care of me. I don’t think so. I had enough of being taken care of and I had enough of wolves. I never wanted to see another one of my kind ever again. I wasn’t about to put myself in the same situation with another pack to trade one prison for another.

  I sighed. With three hundred dollars and a fake ID what were my options? I needed a job, but I hadn’t even graduated from high school yet. And my dream of going to college? I needed to graduate from high school first, I couldn’t even apply to college without a high school transcript. I was supposed to be starting my senior year in two months, but there was no way I could go back there now. And if I tried to transfer my records my pack could easily follow me. I was screwed.

  The skies grew darker as I laid there alternating between thinking and crying. A small drop of rain hit me right on the nose and I realized that I was going to have to move. I couldn’t just stay here grieving. My stomach rumbled with hunger and I recognized that I was going to have to eat soon, I couldn’t just lie here forever. I had burned a lot of calories with my shift and my run so if I didn’t replace them I was going to be too weak to fight if my pack caught up to me.

  I slipped on the flip flops and got
to my feet. I would prefer to shift back into my wolf form, but I was too exhausted and run-down to have any hope of successfully changing. I started walking as the frequency of the rain drops increased. A part of me was glad that the weather was matching my mood, it would have felt wrong to have a beautiful sunny day.

  I trudged forward with my backpack full of everything that I owned through the rain, still hoping that I would wake up from this nightmare at any moment.

  Chapter 3

  Lori

  I walked and walked, bought some food from a tiny gas station, replaced my flipflops with shoes and socks, tried to sleep under the stars, and then walked some more. I kept walking through the forest until I decided that I was tired of being a human, then I shifted and ran through the woods. Days passed and I just kept going. I had no idea where I was headed; I just needed to keep moving so that I wouldn’t think. Thinking and feeling were bad.

  As long as I kept moving I was too exhausted to do anything but focus on putting one foot in front of the other. I stayed in my wolf form so I could hunt for my own food, but a rabbit or a squirrel a day wasn’t enough to keep me going. I was hungry and tired and running on fumes. I lost track of how much time had passed since I started my journey. But honestly, I didn’t care.

  My emotions were all over the place. I went from being paralyzed with depression and grief to frantically trying to run away from the past. Sometimes I just laid on the ground and stared at nothing, numb to everything that had happened. Other times I was so angry that I wanted to smash everything I saw to pieces. Occasionally, I was paranoid that my pack was right behind me, nipping at my heels and ready to tear me apart for my crimes. My crime of wanting to be free. My crime of wanting to have a good life with my mom. My crime of wanting to go to college.

  From the various signs that had passed, I had figured out that my illicit hitch hiking had brought me out of Kentucky and through West Virginia to the most western part of Virginia. The part with mountains. I had no real way of knowing how far I had walked, and my geographical knowledge of small towns in Virginia was sorely lacking.