Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 87968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“I’ve been living in New England for the past ten years and I’ve never had any of those kinds of problems.” I informed him. “I’m not who you think I am—I don’t belong here!”
“Yes, you do, Kira O’Shea.” He snapped his fingers. “That’s where I head your name before—your daddy, Patrick O’Shea, was the Alpha of the Wolverton pack, wasn’t he? Or co-Alpha, anyway. Didn’t he become blood brothers with Drew Callahan to try and keep Jareth McCain from taking over the pack?”
So many names from my past…names I had tried to forget!
“I…I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, trying to keep my voice even and calm. “All that pack stuff is just more bullshit. My father might have bought into the sick, twisted mythology of this town, but I don’t!”
My captor gave me a look.
“Oh, you’ll believe in it soon enough when you get to the Open Breeding, girly. There’s a full moon tonight—I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the Alphas lose control and shift into their Fur Forms.” He chuckled. “Of course, one of the Unbreakable Laws is supposed to be ‘no breeding in Fur Form,’ but we kind of make our own laws, here in Wolverton. We have ever since the takeover.”
“Takeover? Takeover of what?” I demanded, hoping to get off the subject of my captor’s weird beliefs.
“Why, that takeover of the town, of course.” He raised his eyebrows at me in the rearview mirror, as though he was surprised I didn’t know. “When we kindly invited everyone without any Were blood to leave Wolverton. It happened about five years ago, I guess. We’re the first all-Were town in the U.S. Of course, they got a few up in Canada and lots over in Germany, but Wolverton is the first here on American soil. We’re mighty proud of that, I can tell you!”
His words made me sick to my stomach. So the weird mythology my father had followed had spread throughout the town—had essentially taken over completely. And I had been stupid enough to come back here. What the hell was wrong with me?
This whole town was crazy and I was trapped here now.
How in the hell was I ever going to get out of Wolverton?
TWO
How the hell was I going to get out of Wolverton? That was what I was still wondering now, as I jounced along in the back of a windowless van—the same kind that serial killers use—being taken to the Open Breeding which was apparently going to happen in the middle of nowhere. At least, if the way the van was bouncing was any indication. It didn’t feel like we were traveling over smooth asphalt—no, we were driving over rutted, country roads to God alone knew where.
“There’s going to be a full moon tonight, you know.” It was the girl with the green eyes who was sitting beside me—the same one who had said we had no choice about getting bred.
“Yes, so I’m told,” I said dryly. I was looking down at my hands, which were cuffed in front of me, and wishing I could get a key to the cuffs. Maybe I would have a fighting chance to get away if my hands were free…
“But you know what that means, right?” she asked in a small voice.
“No,” I said impatiently. “What does it mean?”
“Well…I mean…I know that ‘no breeding in Fur Form’ is supposed to be an Unbreakable Law, but they don’t really seem to care about that here in Wolverton. I mean, not from what I’ve heard from my friends, who’ve already had their first breeding,” she said, her eyes wide with fright. “Do…do you think the Alphas are going to Shift before they breed us? Because once an Alpha mounts you, you have to let him knot you—even if he’s in his Fur Form. I mean, you’re not allowed to fight him, you know? You just have to let him breed you.”
I felt a cold chill run down my back but I refused to give in to the fear.
“I don’t believe all that Shifting nonsense,” I said briskly. “It’s all bullshit.”
She frowned at me.
“But…haven’t you been to any pack gatherings? Haven’t you seen the Alphas Shifting under the full moon?”
Memories from my childhood tried to sneak past my mind’s defenses—images so strange I’d convinced myself they were hallucinations caused by trauma… I pushed them away.
“I haven’t lived here in ten years,” I said firmly. “I just came back to try and find a relative who turned out to be deceased. So no, I haven’t been to any ‘pack gatherings’—and I don’t want to be going to this one. I want to be back in my car, headed for the state line—away from this shitty little town with all its weird beliefs!”
The girl shook her head but didn’t try to say anything else. She turned to the girl beside her instead, someone who looked familiar—I might have known her in high school—and started up the same conversation she’d been trying to have with me about being mounted and knotted and bred.