Chapter One

Juniper

The temptation to run in these new tennis shoes was both thrilling and frightening. But I kept the pace even and smooth as my feet hit the trail, the sound an echo of my lost running days. The crisp morning air filled my lungs, and I kept my hands shoved in the pockets of my jacket. With summer nearly upon the Pacific Northwest, I couldn't expect too many more days like this one. There was no better way to spend a late-spring morning than at the arboretum, the beautiful foliage surrounding me bringing peace and good memories.

The trees around me rustled, unsettling dew from last night's rain and showering the ground below with rainbow specks of water as sunlight filtered through. In my earbuds drummed a familiar beat that lifted me up and pushed me forward. The only thing more perfect than this would be getting back to my apartment with a hot latte in my hands and a long list of movies to binge on a day when I had no plans.

A planned couch-potato day was not a usual part of my weekends, but I was tired to the bone—the kind of tired that a draining job and the stress of no money puts on a person. The kind of tired that a nap wasn't going to fix. Tired. Stagnant. The kind of tired that made you want to ignore the buzzing phone in your pocket as your roommate called you. Again.

I debated letting it go to voicemail. Kat had already called me twice, so something must really be up if she was awake before noon and calling instead of texting.

"What's up, Kat?"

"My job blew up!" she squealed, and I yanked one of my earbuds out on reflex, clicking the volume down.

"Do you want to try that again without the dramatics?" I asked. "What really happened?"

"No, for real, June," Kat snapped. "You know all those sirens we heard last night? It was some kind of gas leak in the plaza. Several of the buildings were badly damaged from an explosion or something. The deli was blown to pieces."

I stopped walking. "Are you serious?"

An older couple stared as they walked past me, the lady giving me a snooty look for blocking the trail. Not that it wasn't plenty wide for all of us, but I moved aside all the same.

"So serious," Kat groaned. "I'm helping Mrs. Pataki with whatever survived the blast today but after that I'm probably out of a job."

"She's not going to relocate or reopen? What about insurance? You can't tell me the deli doesn't have enough insurance to fix the damage."

"Even if she does, I won't have any shifts for months until it's fixed. I don't know what I'm going to do."

"First, take a deep breath." I listened to her breathe. "Good. Now, don't worry about your share of the rent this month. I've got savings and I've been in a pinch before when you gave me the help I needed. I pay back when it's my turn."

"But—"

"Then we find a new part-time job for you until we know for sure what Mrs. Pataki is doing."

"Juniper—" Kat sounded as though she had begun crying. "Girl, I don't know what I would do without you."

"You'd be fine, because you're tough once you've got your head on straight." I smiled. "Keep taking deep breaths as you need them, and let me think more about a plan for when I get back. I'm going to finish my walk. I'll pick us up some cheap groceries on the way home, okay?"

"Can you get that spicy miso ramen?" Kat asked, sniffing.

"Sure, I'll buy plenty of them. See you later."

"Okay, bye, June Bug."

Another stone of stress dropped into the pit of my stomach. Using my savings would set me back from quitting work at the sports clinic for something better. Kat had been there for me, though, and I'd be there for her.

I ran a hand through my short black hair. The undercut was cute but it was high-maintenance enough that I was close to letting it grow out again. And hell, if Kat had really lost her job, things were going to be too tight to go to the salon for a while anyway. I shoved the earbud back in place and changed my playlist to something a little more aggressive to pick up my pace. I was walking fast, but not quite jogging. Shoes to pavement. Clear your mind. Breathe and let your thoughts go.

With what I had scraped together, we'd manage for a couple of months. Seattle was a big place, and there was always someone hiring somewhere. The work might not be great, but it would pay until we figured out something better.

I let my feet take me where they wanted to go. My head was clouded with money calculations, not really paying attention to where I was going. That is, until the splat of scarlet on the pavement in front of me caused me to stop. Someone had lost a good amount of blood. Recently.

There was no one on the path in front of me. No one on either side of me. No one behind me. But in the grass to my right there was another spot of red.

I headed toward a thick patch of trees. If someone was injured, I might be able to help. Cursing the fact that I had left my first-aid bag in my car on the other side of the park, I ran procedures through my head. I hadn't taken those first-aid courses for nothing.

The morning dew drenched my ankles as I went deeper into the trees. The sounds of struggle made my heart race, and I reached for the pepper spray clipped to the lanyard in my pocket. I shifted my fingers around the keys and my ID badge until I had a firm grasp on the small canister.

"Is someone in trouble? Hello?" I raised my voice enough that others could overhear if this was an emergency.

Rustling ahead confirmed that more than one thing moved. I squared my shoulders and pushed forward, and came upon the strangest conversation of my life.

"Curse you, warlock, for all eternity!" A snarling, pissed-off woman spat out the words.

"Calm down, Amelia," a man with a stern voice said. "We need to secure a safe location before the Lunaria's Dream wears off."

"What the hell did you do, warlock?" another male voice hissed.

Thrashing came after that. Grunts of pain, frustration, and discomfort.

"I . . . told you," an exasperated man said. His tone was clipped, strained. "We have . . . nine hours . . . of this."

Then, growling. Multiple dogs were present, which added an unknown and possibly dangerous element to this, and I hesitated calling for emergency services because there might not be enough time to wait before something worse happened. But the moment I heard the woman's pained whimpering, I was spurred into action, my pepper spray in front of me as I rounded the tree.

"Okay, that's enough!" I snapped. "What are you doing to her?"

Hunched in the pine needles that littered the ground were four huge men, all with varying degrees of injury visible, from scrapes and cuts to what looked like burn marks. Somehow, the dogs were gone. Another man was on the ground, covered in soot and in obvious pain. His once nice button-up shirt was in tatters, and he clutched his abdomen. The woman alongside him was naked. Like, fully naked, with scratches all over her. Her long black hair was a rat's nest, and when her eyes locked onto mine, I shivered. They looked inhuman. Yellow, like an animal's.

As I stood there before the four stunned men, one of them growled at me. These people were clearly in need of medical and psychological attention, but more importantly, this woman and probably the man on the ground needed rescuing.

"Turn back around, human," the man with the stern tone said. "This is not your business."

"The hell it isn't," I snapped, my voice shaking. "What did you do to them? Is this a kidnapping?"

The woman at my feet convulsed, arching her back off the ground with a strained groan. Thrusting my pepper spray in front of me, I trained it on the biggest man. With my free hand, I reached down to try to take a vital from the woman's wrist.

"Don't move or you're getting a face full of pepper spray!" I shouted, hoping someone on the trail would hear me. "I already called the cops, so you had better behave while I help her."

I prayed my bluff would work long enough for me to examine the woman on the ground, because she could be under the influence of any number of drugs. She could be having a panic attack or a seizure. I just needed a moment to see what I could do for her.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a moment. What happened next came fast. Too fast. I-couldn't-see-it fast. My hand was near her wrist, going for a pulse, when the woman on the ground changed somehow.

"Amelia, don't shift!" someone shouted.

"Alpha!"

"Dammit!"

The woman, Amelia, flipped from her back to all fours in less than a heartbeat. Her limbs flailed, and she clawed at her temples in pain before turning to me. In a flash, what was once a human woman had grown a weird, long mouth. Her teeth sharpened into something grotesque and reminiscent of a horror movie. And as I tried to yank my outstretched arm back, she lunged and bit me.

The pain shot up my forearm and right into my shoulder. An echo of pain in my skull rang hard as I instinctively screamed and pulled back my arm. The four men jumped into immediate action. One of them disarmed my pepper spray and flipped me onto my knees, pinning me down. The other three all jumped onto the woman, the thing , who'd bitten me.

With my head pressed to the grass and tears blurring my eyes, I witnessed the most bizarre morphing of a human shape I had ever seen. The stuff of nightmares. The woman's face shifted back and forth between human and the odd long-mouthed face that had attacked me. Hair faded in and out. Bones shifted under her skin, making sickening popping sounds. She convulsed under the three men trying to pin her down, and at the same time, in her own way, she was holding them back.

I had one solemn moment of clarity when the biggest of the three holding that creature down turned and locked eyes with me. A semblance of sympathy and regret settled within his expression.

They were having trouble holding Amelia back, and as one errant leg went flying, I failed to move from its path. Pain smashed my temple like a brick as her foot connected, and my vision grayed as my head snapped backwards and I fell flat to the ground.