A New Life (Excerpt)

Ashlynn

I sat in our Ford F350 truck, pulling a horse trailer behind it, my cheek against the cool window of the truck. Mom was driving now, giving me a break, humming along to some old country song. I wasn't even paying attention to what it was at this point. We had been on the road for three days now. Three long days. I couldn't wait to get there.

I let out a loud audible sigh and turned to my mother, "How much further till we stop? I've gotta pee."

She looked down at the gas gauge and over to the GPS that was on the dash console. She shrugged her shoulders, "I'd say another twenty minutes till we hit the next gas station. Can you wait that long? Or you want me to pull over and you can find a bush." She smiled, knowing I did not want to "find a bush". Especially not in unfamiliar territory.

"I can wait." I sat up straighter and reached over to the radio, pushing the eject button for the CD she had playing.

"Hey," she looked pissed. "I was listening to that."

I shrugged. "It's making me sleepy. We need something more upbeat. I don't know how you can stand to listen to that for hours on end."

"The point dear daughter, IS for you to sleep." She smiled but it didn't go to her eyes. I stared at Mom for a few minutes. She looked tired. She looked tense. She kept looking in the mirrors, I'm guessing she thought someone would follow us. She had her long hair thrown up in a pony tail, little wisps of her brown curls falling out around her face. My mother was beautiful. She always had been. The bruise on her cheek was now a faded yellow, almost gone. I sighed and looked away, rubbing my sore thigh. We just have to get there, and we would be safe.

Three Days Prior

I had just graduated Veterinary School. I was home with my mother during the day, a rarity since I was typically at school. But now I was finished. I was Dr. Ashlyn Cane. I was working on my resume and looking over some near by postings for Vets. Mom leaning over my shoulder giving her opinion now and then. She knew more about these places than I did. She had been here most of her life.

My father wasn't home. I was glad. He was drunk most of the time. He was loud and over bearing. He spent a lot of time at the bar, hitting on the waitresses and tossing back whiskey like it was water. It took a lot of liquor to get our kind drunk. Werewolves had a high tolerance, since our metabolisms were so fast, it burned off quickly. If I had to guess, I'd say Grady Cane (that was my father, but I rarely called him Dad), drank about two gallons of whiskey a day. His stupor generally lasted long enough for him to fuck some floozy at the bar, and then come home and knock my Mom around a bit. He'd sleep it off and then get up and go to work the night shift at the lumber mill. My opinion of my father, he was a piece of crap. But Mom was mated to him, so she felt the pull that made her stay. She also felt it every time he was cheating on her, pain in her stomach. I would hear her sometimes, laying in her room, crying. I hated him.

Mom was just pulling dinner out of the oven, as I was packing up my laptop and papers to go put them away. Grady stumbled in the kitchen door, his eyes instantly on me. "What the fuck are you doing here?" he growled out.

"Um I live here." I continued to try to make my way to the stairs, to head to my room.

He growled at me. Actually growled. I stopped dead in my tracks, looking him in the eyes. His eyes were blood shot, and the smell of liquor was heavy on him. I glanced nervously at Mom, as she set the pot roast on the counter and turned to him. "Grady, leave Ash alone. She's done with school. She's trying to work on her resume and find a job. Now let's get ready to eat dinner before it gets cold." Her voice was soft, timid. I knew she was trying to defuse something that I wasn't even truly aware was happening. I glanced back to his face, he was still staring at me. He hadn't even looked Mom's way.

"Don't fucking tell me what to do Carolyn," he shifted his gaze to my Mother again. She took a step back from the counter, inching towards the other end of the kitchen island. I stood there, paralyzed. I wasn't sure what I should do, but the moment he lunged for me, I shifted. I was not going to allow him to try and hurt us. Since he was so drunk, he couldn't shift.

Grady must have realized what was happening, because he grabbed a kitchen knife that had been laying on the counter and swung it at me, as I lunged at him. It stabbed me in the leg. I whimpered as I hit the floor, blood oozing from my leg. I instantly shifted back to my human form, placing pressure on my thigh. Grady had never hurt me before, but I was also not typically home at the same time as him

Mom screamed at him, "What the hell are you doing Grady?" I lay on the floor, holding pressure on my wound, as I watched him stalk towards my mother, a menacing look on his face. He had dropped the knife on the floor the instant it hit my leg. I looked at it, then back at him as he kept moving towards my mother.

I watched as Grady slammed his fist into my mothers face. He was huge and my mother was petite, he sent her flying back. Her back hit the refrigerator hard and she slid down it to her butt. "You don't raise your voice at me! This is my fucking house,"he was seething, his spittle hitting her in the face. Mom sat there with her hand against her eye. She just sat there, looking at the floor, not making eye contact.

I was pissed. I picked up the knife, grabbed my cell phone and limped out the back door. I was going to call my Uncle. He was the Alpha. Our house sat at the very edge of Pack Land, closest to the human town, but far from other pack members. My father never wanted to be near other pack members. He liked his privacy. I would assume so he could terrorize my mother without anyone knowing. Specifically the Alpha.

We had five acres, a pasture out back that was fenced in, and horse barn. I had two horses out in the barn. I had trained them myself, something I was proud of. My father hated that I was talented at taking care of animals. He would always make comments about how he was surprised that someone as weak as me could tame any animal. He was an asshole.

I limped over to the barn, dialing my uncle. He answered on the first ring. "Hey Ash, heard you graduated! Congrats."

I whimpered as I bumped my leg on the fence as I climbed through it. He heard me. "Ash, what's wrong?"

"I think you need to come here as fast as you can. My father is drunk. He stabbed me in the leg and he's inside with Mom. He punched her in the face." I started crying, something I rarely did.

My Uncle didn't know that my Mom was being abused, she never told anyone. She was embarrassed. She would stay away from the others when she had visible injuries. She told me to never tell Uncle Tobias. This time, I didn't care. My father had to pay. I heard the my Uncle hang up the phone, without so much as a word. I knew it would be just a few minutes before he got there with some of the enforcers.

My Uncle Tobias arrived five minutes later, with his Beta and three enforcers. He saw me sitting in the pasture, my back resting against a fence post, holding pressure on my leg. It had almost quit bleeding. I just needed a couple of stitches so it wouldn't scar, but I couldn't quite get to the barn to grab my suture kit from the office. I was shaking inside. Tobias motioned to his Beta to come to my aid, as he made his way into the house, one enforcer remained outside, his eyes trained on me, and shifting back and force to the screen door that my Uncle had just gone through.

I heard some yelling, but couldn't make out what they were saying. The Beta helped me stand and we made our way to the barn. I quickly cleaned my wound and put a few tight stitches in. We made our way back outside. As were walked towards the house, I suddenly saw Grady get tossed right out the door into the yard, the two enforcers that had been inside were right behind him. My Uncle came out a couple minutes later, carrying my mother in his arms. Her whole face was bloody, her lip busted open and a trickle of blood coming down her forehead. I could hear her softly whimpering.

The enforcers grabbed Grady by his arms, hauling him up. The third enforcer starting pounding into his face. My Uncle said something to them, so quiet I couldn't hear it. They simply nodded, threw Grady in the pack of one their trucks and drove away. My Uncle snapped his head my way, making eye contact. "Ash, get in the car now. I need to take your mother to the doctor. Then we are going to have a serious chat." He strode the car, laying Mom down in the back seat. The Beta helped me hobble to the car and get into the back, me gently putting Mom's head in my lap. She sat there crying quietly.

And that is how we ended up leaving Northern California and our beautiful Red Woods forest behind. We both were treated at the hospital, then went to sit with my Uncle as he made a few phone calls. He asked me if I thought I could drive with my leg the way it was. I could. It was my left leg, and the truck was an automatic. We went back to the house, and packed up some things, loaded my horses and tack, and hit the road, heading to Montana. We were going somewhere outside Great Falls. If we were both in tip top shape, it was an easy 2 day drive. But we would need to stop more frequently to let our wounds heal. We weren't going to be able to shift while traveling, it could be dangerous. And shifting was the fastest way to heal.

I had no idea we even had family in Montana, but apparently I had another Uncle, and he was Alpha of the Lone Wolf Stables in Montana. The name was of course a cover up, so the humans didn't catch on. And it really was a horse ranch, which excited me. I was going to be their Veterinarian, much to my surprise. It was part of the deal my Uncle made, so we could start a new life. He didn't want my mother to feel ashamed of what had happened, so he gave her the one thing she asked, let us move away and start over.

We pulled into the little gas station that was seemingly in the middle of nowhere. We were somewhere in Idaho. I thought I saw a sign that said Idaho Falls, but since I was half asleep, I couldn't be sure.

Mom pulled in next to a gas pump, handed me the card, so she wouldn't have to go inside. She didn't want anyone seeing her face. It was still healing, and she didn't want people staring. I opened the door, a little bell jingling as it opened. There was a guy behind the counter reading a magazine. He looked up, his eye catching mine. Instantly I knew, Werewolf. We must have crossed into another Pack's territory. We better make this quick, and get moving.

I walked to the counter, acting like it was no big deal that we were here. I handed him the card, "Gonna fill up on pump 2 please." He glanced out the window and saw Mom had pulled the pump handle and was standing there waiting to pump the gas, as she glanced around on high alert.

He snatched the card from my hand and swiped it and handed it back, without a word. "Thank you sir, can I use the restroom?" He grunted and pointed at a sign to his right that said restroom. I smiled a thank you and walked to the bathroom. I quickly handled my business and walked out. There was now another guy in the little mini mart. There was no other car outside, so I found this odd, but just kept walking.

"Hey girl," the man from behind the counter said. I turned to look at him, one eyebrow cocked.

"What happened to her face?" He pointed out the window towards my Mom who was now staring at me through the glass door, all her injuries clearly visible.

"Ummm, she got in a fight." I didn't know what else to say. Our kind didn't allow domestic violence, it was punishable my death. Speaking of, my father should be nearing his death sentence. Alpha said they would torture him a bit, wait for him to sober up and then deal his sentence.

The other guy in the store approached me. "You two ladies in some kind of trouble?" He was looking me up and down. I had on a pair of denim shorts, my now healing wound visible.

Shit, I thought in my head. I looked at the guy behind the counter and back to this other one who felt like he could undress me with his eyes. "Just passing through to Montana. We are fine." I went to walk away and the guy grabbed my wrist.

"You don't look fine." His voice was soft. I took another look at him, now that he was close. He was handsome, with dark brown hair and two dimples in his chiseled face. He had a five o'clock shadow, which only added to his allure. He had on a pair of cowboy boots and tight wranglers. Any other time I might be inclined to talk more, but we needed to get out of there.

I abruptly pulled my hand back. "We don't want any trouble. We just have to get back on the road. Thanks for your concern." I walked as fast as I could to the door, the little bell jingling as I walked out. I looked at my Mom, mind linking her to get in the truck now. Her eyes grew big, as I heard the door open behind me and Mr. Handsome followed me out. He stopped about two feet out of the door and stood with his hands in his pockets, not taking his eyes off me. I jumped into the passenger seat and closed the door, looking back at him as we pulled out. He stood there staring at me as we drove away. I sighed and sunk into my seat, willing Mom to drive faster and get us the hell out of this town.