Moon Bound

Not Like The Other Girls

I quickly tore the napkin into small pieces and stuffed the remains into my pocket. Finn would get mad if he saw it and I didn't want him doing something he would regret because of me.

What I needed was a distraction. Garret was a bully; nothing more than an insecure macho man who needed to torment others to feel good about himself. That's all there was to it. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of rattling me.

It didn’t take me long to figure out that the trick to making it through life in this town was not letting the others break me down. I learned to grow a thick skin, one that whicked their threats and insults off like droplets of rain. I kept eye contact with the ones who came toe to toe with me. If I showed the slightest sign of weakness, they would go in for the kill. I practiced words that would protect myself every morning before leaving the house. Things like “they are just a bunch of dumb animals.” or “they get off on seeing who can run the fastest. Lame.”

My bedroom walls were lined with self help books, books on positive affirmation, or meditating, even books on how to cleanse your soul for a happier self.

I wasn’t entirely sure that they worked. Some of the stuff just seemed like spiritual fluff. But I continued to read them anyway, because when you lived in a town full of roided out supernatural creatures you had to do what you could to get by.

So I found distractions, and I reveled in them. Thankfully, the diner never had a shortage of distractions. The place was a cesspool of germs, carelessly dropped food, and soda spills.

I grabbed cleaning supplies out of the back closet and got to work on wiping down the tables. I took my time working the rag into the sticky surfaces and when I was finished I switched the neon green open sign in the window to the red closed one.

Finn came out as I was putting the supplies back into the closet. He was bundled up in his coat to protect himself against the October chill. I snorted at the way he stiffly wandered over, practically drowning in the material. Wolves rarely got cold. The puffy coat was unnecessary, but Finn claimed he won it in a gambling match with buddies back in the day- one of whom was no longer alive. So he flaunted the thing during the autumn and winter months like it was his most prized possession.

He sat across from me with the tip jar in hand to divide up our earnings. It was my turn to count the till, and he patiently sat while I thumbed through the bills and then did it a second time to double check my math. Thankfully we weren't short today.

"You need a ride home kiddo?" He slid the tips over to me and I shook my head.

"Nah. I'll be fine walking. I don't want to make you go out of your way. You get on home to Clara, I'm sure she and the girls are ready to see you."

Finn's hazel eyes brightened at the mention of his family. I briefly wondered what it would be like to feel that kind of love. Considering my condition, I didn’t think finding a mate would be a possibility.

Not that I really wanted one anyway. Another screwed up part of pack life. Some guy just shows up and demands you submit to him and have to obey his every command for the rest of your life?

Hell to the no.

I was happy to have my free will. The rest of the girls in Crescent Valley could trip over themselves trying to prepare for the day they would meet their destined other half all they wanted. I wasn't going to go for that nonsense.

We were taught that mates were a gift from the moon goddess herself.

Yeah right. That was a bunch of B.S. The moon goddess didn't do squat. If she was real, she wouldn’t have placed a human in the middle of dog country. Unless the almighty goddess found some sort of humor in handing me over to shifters on a silver platter, ripe for the picking, then in that case- screw her.

It had sounded ridiculous even when I was a little kid that believed in the tooth fairy. The grownups really expected me to buy that there was a powerful mama wolf out in the great beyond that decided her kiddos couldn’t survive without another person bossing them around; so she divided our souls and sent us on a wild goose chase to find the other half.

The reality of it was that there was probably an Alpha somewhere that hadn’t liked being told no by a lowly female wolf so he started spewing off stories about the moon goddess in an attempt to keep us complacent. It worked big time. The only thing the other shifter’s my age could talk about was finding their mates.

Finn was really good to Clara though, so if believing in the mate bond kept them happy then more power to them.

I shooed Finn away, making him laugh as he left the diner with some pep in his step. There was a snowball’s chance in hell that I would ever feel that giddy about going home to a mate. It reminded me of an arranged marriage in a way. If everyone else was content with it then who was I to stop them. But that didn’t mean I had to fall for the hype.

I scooped up my purse from where it was stored behind the counter and quickly checked around the empty booths to make sure everything was tidied. Satisfied that everything was in its place I made my way toward the entrance. My sneakers squelched against the checkered floor as I walked out into the night to lock the door behind me.

Humming to myself, I turned my back against the quiet night to check my phone. There was nothing except a message from my best friend about a cute guy at the mall in the city thirty minutes away. I dropped it back into my bag but stilled when I heard a crunch to my right. My head snapped towards the sound to find that nothing was there.

An owl hooted and I could see its shadowy shape jump down from a tree across the street.

Relieved that it was just an animal, I twisted back around to stick my keys in the lock.

That's when a hand curled around my arm. My body stiffened at the unwelcomed touch. A scream rose and caught in my throat, my heart jackknifing in my chest as I turned my head to look behind me.

Oh. f**k.

Garret's narrowed yellow eyes burned into me with hatred. I peeked down to find his canines were poking into his lower lip. Under the glow of the closed sign I could see sweat beading on his forehead. He was mad.

"Hey Mutt." His voice was gruff from his wolf coming through. I swallowed thickly but didn't look away. I couldn't let him sense my fear. "Did you tattle on me to your friend? That wasn't cool."

"Nope." I shook my head, popping the p. "I was going to bring your coffee out to you but Finn decided to give me a break."

His fingers tightened and with a sharp tug he swiveled me around to face him. Like most wolves this guy was triple my size. He could crush me like a bug with his pinky finger alone if he wanted to.

I almost whimpered when the saliva dripping from the lethal tips of his canines landed on my chest.

Then his hand was gone from my arm as suddenly as it had snaked around it. It took me a moment to realize he was now touching my cheek gently instead. My brows furrowed in confusion.

What was he doing?

"Such a shame you're human. I hate seeing your pretty mouth go to waste." The words came out in a lisp through his elongated teeth and I shuddered when understanding dawned on me.

A lazy smile spread across his face at the trembling I was no longer able to control.

I wanted to look for help but knew it wasn't worth it. Nobody was around. It was ten pm. Everyone was at home or out in the woods that lined the town's limits to let their wolves free.

"You should have been mine Lyra. You could have actually lived a life of purpose; one of being a mate, a wife, and bringing pups into the world. But you just had to go and f**k it all up.”

"What are you talking about?" This was so out of left field. Sure Garret bullied me all through school and even now, but that was the extent of our relationship. If he wasn't hassling me about being a “mutt” he wasn't paying me any attention.

He scoffed and grabbed my face hard, the smelly heat of his breath fanning over me as he leaned in, "Don't patronize me. You wear those tiny t-shirts and tight jeans just to torture us. You know we can't have you because you're human and you get your kicks from making us suffer."

If my jaw could have dropped open it would have. What was this guy on? He sounded crazy.

"We all thought you were a little weird growing up, but God, I wanted you anyway. I was going to make you mine when you turned sixteen. And then you ended up being a human chick. Do you have any idea how angry that made me? And that mouth of yours. Always lying. To me. To Finn. Making him come out and treat me like I'm a toddler." The snarl that came out of his mouth was edging on animalistic. I flinched at the sound of him cracking his neck. His wolf was so close to the surface.

"You know what your problem is? You think you can get away with s**t because you're not like the other girls. Someone needs to teach you a lesson." He buried his face in my hair and inhaled deeply.

Tears welled up in my eyes. Wolves could be sadistic. And Garret didn't appear to be in a merciful mood. He let go and leaned back for just a second to eye me up and down.

I swallowed back the bile that was threatening to make a grand entrance. I weighed my options rapidly. I could either stand here and possibly die. Or I could give myself a fighting chance and possibly die.

My dad had raised me to be a fighter.

So I took the moment he was using to leer at me and I ran.

I ran for my life.