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I hadn’t told Phil what I was planning, and I doubted he would approve. It didn’t matter. I would do what I felt I needed to do with or without him. I didn’t need permission from any man to follow my path, much less a man who spent more time on his skin care routine than he did on making sure I came. I mean, really. Who the fuck did that?
Reminded of my sexual frustrations, I growled and grabbed my cell phone, calling the insurance company to send a tow. Fucking Tesla. Electric cars might be the wave of the future, but for all their gas saving blah blah blah, they still used rubber tires. And as I just found out, running over six-inch-long rusty nails were hazardous to all vehicles, regardless of all the fancy tech shit.
So there I was, an hour late to my own damn birthday party and stuck on the Garden State Parkway just two exits away from my hometown. At least I had heat. I checked the temperature gauge and frowned. Sixteen fucking degrees was too damn cold, I didn’t give a shit what anyone said aboutmajestic blankets of white across forestsorwinter wonderland photo ops.
Despite the enormous midnight black Wolf inside me, I did not appreciate winter. Like at all. I turned the heat on full blast, snuggling into the seat as I waited for the tow truck. It was fifteen minutes away, which wasn’t bad. Of course, as soon as I had that thought, the battery light went from green to red and within thirty seconds, the damn car shut down on me.
“Motherfucker,” I snarled, tapping my long fingernail on the damn thing.
It was no good. The car was dead. I had no heat. And my phone just chirped, letting me know the tow truck was delayed, and I’d be sitting there for the next two hours if I didn’t do something. Gritting my teeth, I called my brother.
“You’re late,” he said jovially, and I could just picture the goofball smiling wide as he scolded me.
“I’m stuck,” I countered.
“Are you safe?” Erryn asked, having grabbed the phone from Davi.
Her tone was more than concerned, and I knew her eyes were probably glowing purple with her Hybrid beast. God, I missed her! Actually, I missed both of them. Erryn and Davi raised me and our sisters. They were the best people I knew. Caring and protective, but also loving and fun. The two of them were so in sync, I used to stare at them in awe. For the past six years, I lived in Manhattan, and I never came across another couple like them.
“Yes, I’m fine, Err. Phill’s car just?—”
“That fancy electric thing I told you not to drive?”
“Yep, that one,” I mumbled, feeling like I was twelve all over again. “Anyway, I got a flat, so it wasn’t the car’s fault,” I grumbled.
“Then why are your teeth chattering, Marti?”
I closed my eyes and huffed a sigh. Dammit. Nothing got past Erryn.
“Because after I got the flat, the car shut down and now, I have no heat. There. You happy?” I barked, trying to stop my teeth from chattering.
“Of course, I am not happy. Just vindicated,” she replied, and I heard a muffled laugh that told me Davi was listening.
Ugh. Incorrigible. There was nothing like looking like a fool to make you feel like a child again. I cleared my throat and tried for patience.
“Why don’t you use magic to fix the flat?”
“Because, Erryn, as you know, I’d be more likely to make the damn car explode. Besides, fixing the flat wouldn’t matter. The engine is dead!”
“Still having problems with your powers, pup?”
I ignored her probing question. I knew she meant well, but I didn’t want to get into it.
“Am I walking or are you coming to get me?” I asked, finished with this conversation.
“Stay put, pup. I’ll send someone to get you.”
Erryn hung up before I could respond to her cryptic statement, and my rumble filled the tiny car. Something was totally up with my Wolf. Ever since the Curse of Natalis had been broken a few years back by a tenacious teenager named Grazi Kelly, I’d been able to communicate with my inner animal faster and clearer than ever.
But living in the city was hard on Wolf. Hell, it was hard on my magic, too. Truth was, I’d been so busy pretending to be normal with my human boyfriend and my human world job, I’d lost touch with my supernatural self. What was I supposed to do? My entire life, I tried so hard to just fit in. Years of hiding my magic from the Macconwood Wolf Pack had taken its toll. How long could a person live in denial, anyway?
The sign to Maccon City loomed in the distance, but with Wolf’s help I could read it just fine. A bitter wind shook the idiotic, pretentious automobile, and I shivered, but not because of the cold. Something was coming. A change. And I wondered if I was ready for it.
My phone buzzed, and I saw a text from Phillip, but I really was not in the mood. He probably got an alert his precious car had stopped working. The man was ridiculous about material possessions. I knew he grew up poor and was proud of how far he came, but sometimes it felt like I was just something else he’d acquired.
After all, with my Hispanic heritage, my noticeable curves, and my own hard knock life background, far as he knew anyway, I checked off more than a couple of the boxes he needed to appear a super guy. The first time I met him he greeted me with some badly accented Spanish, and I had to tell him I didn’t speak a word.
That was when he really got interested. I guess I’d had a weak moment, or seven. I mean, Phil was a nice guy, if a little vanilla. He’d been a good listener though, and hearing about how I’d been abandoned and put into foster care, he didn’t judge me. In fact, he seemed to admire how far I’d come. Maybe we were alike in that way, but something was very clear as I sat in his overpriced car a few hours away from where I left him.
