Escaping Monsters - Rita Stradling Page 0,4
This bus driver had been paid off to drop me straight back into my alpha’s waiting arms. But if my alpha had found me, he’d have had us pull over on the freeway. Hell, he might have the local police do it. He had powerful connections in the human world as well as the supernatural one. More than likely, this bus was stopping off for an unscheduled refueling, but even that was dangerous. Every single time the bus doors opened, was another chance that I’d be scented by werewolves.
I hunched down in my seat, unzipped the top pocket of my bag and curled my fingers around the handle of my gun. My palm was slick against the grip of a small semi-automatic. I was an omega, the least dominant wolf in any pack. I couldn’t fight another werewolf, but I sure as hell could shoot one.
The bus exhaled under me as we pulled into a dark, dilapidated station that claimed to be the Grayhaven Bus Terminal. Trying to keep my breaths as even as I could, I tensed for an attack.
The doors opened with a whooshing sound, and the odor of piss and unwashed bodies wafted up, making my empty stomach flip.
I could smell old beer, piss, mold, bleach, and cheap perfume, but no… werewolf. I sat up in my chair to peer out the tinted window of the bus.
Bracing myself for the putrid mixture, I inhaled deeply again, and again, there was not even the slightest trace of werewolf musk. It was the first city since Arizona where I didn’t smell even a whiff of werewolf. The bus stop sign blinked over my head, shining upon piles of trash and the homeless sleeping under the detritus.
Tingling adrenaline spiked through me, kicking me in the stomach. It was the feeling I got every time I settled in a town, and it was strange because I hadn’t even considered disembarking into Grayhaven. Even if there wasn’t a sitting pack here, the risks of being spotted in a town near the Cascades were high and staying in one place increased the likelihood I would be spotted. The moment I was identified, I would be hunted down and handed back to Kane Shipman, my alpha.
Ten years ago, I’d signed a marriage contract with the man I thought was Kane Shipman, except the Kane I knew was an imposter. Really, Michael Card, the bankrupt owner of a pencil company was hired by the real Kane Shipman, werewolf Alpha of North America. The man I stood at the alter with used all of Kane’s information, social security number, birth certificate, everything, on our official marriage paperwork. It didn’t matter that the real Kane wasn’t the one I stood across the altar from when I said, “I do.” According to the law of the United States of America and every werewolf within the lower forty-eight, I was Kane Shipman’s wife and, to most wolves, his property as well.
Looking at the bus stop that strangely didn’t smell like werewolves, I inhaled a shuddering breath and pulled a loose quarter from my pocket. “Should I get off in Grayhaven?”
I tossed the coin in the air, caught it, and smacked it down on the backside of my hand. “Heads is yes, tails is no.”
When I lifted my hand, George Washington winked up at me.
Fuck a mother-fucking duck. I was going to do this. I grabbed my go bag, pulled it on, and headed for the back stairs of the bus.
“Hey, you!” Someone called over.
I stopped dead in my tracks as my heart climbed into my throat. The gun was tucked in the top pocket of my bag, and it would take far too long to get it out, point, and shoot.
“Sweetheart, I’m talking to you in the back.”
Clenching my hands into fists, I peered up to the front of the bus.
The bus driver leaned out to look over his shoulder. He was a middle-aged man with a scruffy chin, beer belly, and gaze that lingered too long on the female passengers. I’d successfully avoided his attention since I climbed on seven hours ago, but now I found myself fixed by it. “Sweetheart, a girl like you shouldn’t be walking around out alone at this time of night. Do you have someone coming to get you?”
At thirty-seven, I could hardly be considered a girl, but between my height, baby face, and the fact I stopped aging when I was bitten and turned into a werewolf, people usually guessed my age