Sneak Peak: Hunted
If any of you caught this past week's blog post on rejection letters, you'll know that I recently signed a contract with Less Than Three Press for my novella, tentatively titled Hunted!
Yay!
The good folks at LT3 are currently editing the manuscript, but I wanted to give you guys a sneak peak. The story primarily centers around a regular guy who's just trying to survive college and finds out his crush is a werewolf. This is one of her flashbacks.
The only thing you really need to know, other than that werewolves and other shifters exist in this world, is that they have an enemy called Hunters. In order to keep everything under wraps, when a Hunter kills a shifter they usually make it look like a suicide.
CW: mild descriptions of violence.
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“So what’s this secret you’ve got?” Allison asked. “The suspense is killing me.”
Ellen just motioned for her to keep following. Her sister Carol had told her this was a bad idea, but Allison had been Ellen’s friend since middle school. Was her only friend. It didn’t feel right, not to tell her this.
People thought their friendship was strange. Mostly because Allison was three years older than Ellen, who was graduating high school this year. Allison had decided against college, instead working full-time at one of the local restaurants. She gave Ellen discounts and protected her from bullies.
So now, Ellen led her through the woods. This far north in Minnesota, the forests were thick and wild, untamed. Humans, living in speckled towns and villages, were merely guests.
“So you know about werewolves?” Ellen asked.
“Yeah...”
“Forget everything you know about them.”
Allison gave her a look. “Okay, you’re really weirding me out.”
“Just...bear with me, okay? I’ll explain everything, but I have to show you, first, or you won’t believe me.”
Allison waited.
Ellen took a deep breath, and changed. In seconds, she was a massive, dark brown wolf.
She was grateful that she was a cute mammal, and not one of those shifters who turned into a snake or crocodile. Allison hated reptiles.
Allison stared at her for a long moment, then she sighed. “God dammit.”
From the folds of her heavy sweater, she drew a pistol.
Ellen froze. She had never seen this side of a gun before, and oh God, Allison was going to shoot. She was going to shoot her. What did Ellen ever do to—
A dark mass slammed into Allison. She screamed as blood spilled on the ground.
The wolf that had tackled her and torn into her arm shifted, transforming into Ellen’s older sister Carol. Blood dripped from her lips, her normally very neat dark hair was frizzed, and her eyes were narrowed with a cruelty Ellen had never seen before.
“How long have you been a Hunter?” she asked.
Ellen whined. Allison couldn’t be a Hunter. She was just scared. Just reacted out of fear and—
“...four months,” she croaked.
Carol sighed, and looked at Ellen. “I’m sorry. I did a check on her a while ago, but obviously I missed something.”
Ellen stared at them, her sister pinning her best friend down. She knew about Hunters, of course. It was considered a rite of passage in their pack to kill one.
“Go home,” Carol said, starting the transformation back into a wolf. “I’ll handle this.”
Allison whimpered. She looked so small, utterly helpless and hurt.
And she was going to kill Ellen, and her family.
Most people Ellen’s age had gone to maybe one or two funerals. Ellen had been to twenty-three. Almost all of them “suicides."
Ignoring Carol’s warning growl, Ellen approached her former friend, who was looking at her with wet, pleading eyes.
Ellen clamped her jaws over Allison’s throat and tore.