Chapter 1

Chapter One

Lake

Present day . . .

"Come on, Lake, you're a twenty-six-year-old woman. You need to stop all this mess," I mutter to myself, unpacking my few possessions out of the box.

I've been on the road for so long, running, never looking back, that I don't know how not to run. It's all I've done all my life. A life where I'm constantly looking over my shoulder. For what exactly? I don't know.

Up until my thirteenth birthday, I had my dad and uncles to look out for me. To help me. But one by one, they were killed. Dad made sure I knew about safety precautions to look out for, but I was never more than just a step ahead of the danger following me.

What I don't understand is what exactly I have chasing me. I haven't ever seen it before. Only felt the panic rise inside me as something came closer. I've gone all over to get away from it. Across oceans, never staying in a place longer than needed.

That is until I entered into the town of Redwich. The first time I crossed into town, it was like a sense of ease for me. I felt safe for the first time in my life. It somewhat hurts to think this way because I thought with my dad and uncles, I would always be safe, but I lost them all.

I swear I'm cursed. I've lost anyone who I've ever cared about. Anyone who helps me seems always to wind up being killed. Or that's the only thing I can think of happening. Nobody is left where I'd last seen them—only blood. Enough so, I'm sure no one could survive with the amount of blood lost.

I sometimes look to the sky and plead . . . to who . . . I don't even know, but I just want someone to listen. To help me. To save me. To give me back the ones I love most.

But I'm alone. Always alone.

I guess that's why coming to Redwich and getting a sense of security within the town eases some part inside me. There's a lot still to do. I have a job to make up the money I've spent so far from being on the run constantly. I'm never in one spot long enough to hold down anything permanent. It's usually something under the table and quick earning.

My dad had made sure I had money, and I did. I didn't like dipping into it unless it was a must. It's important that I make it last for as long as I can. What I'm able to make, it's never more than a hundred or so.

Maybe that's why I'm hoping with how this town makes me feel, I can stay long enough to recoup. With the possibility of hopefully getting some rest.

I pull the night-light that I've had forever out of the box and set it down next to the bed. Plugging it in, I tilt my head back to look at the ceiling. A sense of ease washes over. Just as it does any other time I look at tigers. They're beautiful creatures. Sometimes, I wish I were one of them. If I were, my dad and uncles wouldn't have been taken away from me.

No matter how different I was from them, they never treated me as such. To my dad, I was always his special little girl. My uncles, I was their little fighter. If I'd been like them, I wouldn't be running from something I don't know about. They never told me about it. Just that I was special and that I wouldn't understand because I'd been so young. What they did was tell me that I needed not to ever come in contact with a shifter of any kind.

That's something I didn't understand either. I thought because they were shifters I could, but they were adamant I was to never come in contact with any other shifter. None whatsoever. Uncle Jair once said it's because I was special, and life depended on secrecy. Until the danger was gone, I was to stick to the shadows.

Sighing, I shake my head and look at the time, blinking bright green numbers. It's just after one in the afternoon. There is plenty of time to explore the town and find the grocery store. Maybe scope out places with the potential for me to work at.

I make a mental list of what I need for groceries. Not much. Mainly milk, eggs, bread, and some lunch meat. I don't know how to do much, but I've learned to cook eggs on a stove. Add in lunch meat, it makes for a good meal. It's better than going hungry, which I've done a lot while in hiding, not knowing when the best time to go out would be. To which I learned was afternoon. No chance of me being caught out when the day meets the night and vice versa.

Those are the times I really feel the danger closing in on me.

I don't know what else to think or how to behave in some cases when I think of the danger. At the end of the day, though, all I do is run. I never turn back and fight. I never stand up for myself. Not once do I wait to see the dark void coming for me. The depths of evil want me so badly, I can feel it before it can ever get close enough to touch.

Walking through town, I keep my head down not wanting to draw attention to myself. I have a lot of reasons to want to keep to myself. Mostly, it's what I learned when I first explored the town.

Redwich is a shifter town. How do I know? I'm not sure, but I'd seen a group of guys out on bikes passing by, and just the looks of them screamed shifter. As long as you knew what to look for. Another thing I found in exploring the town is that some of the names of businesses as I passed them had names similar to what you would think of as werewolves, like Moonlight Ink or Club Heat. I didn't need to go into the tattoo parlor or the nightclub. There was one other place I found called Dyrk. The vibes were definitely darker than that of anything else. The place screamed danger and I knew I best steer clear of it.

All of them, if I can.

Regardless of all the shifters, it's the first time I've felt secure in one place. I'll be happy if I can keep feeling this way for just a couple weeks. Long enough for me to regain my strength. For months, I'd felt myself waning away and losing hope. The determination to keep going was weakening inside me.

Being in this town, I'm hoping that I'll be able to find both hope and determination once more.