Chapter One
Gwen jammed her high heel onto the accelerator and blasted past a hole-in-the-wall gas station that probably didn’t even offer brand-name beef jerky.
This place was out in the sticks, but she needed a vacation from her life, so that’s what she’d gone for.
She was midway through her break-up playlist, belting out a tearjerker at the top of her lungs. Geez, she wished she could carry a tune. Right now, she could be breaking glass with her screeching, but whatever. She was alone in the car and she needed this. Screech-singing was an art not many had honed. Everyone she knew could sing except her, which made her unique. Unique!
All she’d brought with her for a three-night stay at the Crooked R Dude Ranch was a duffle bag. At least that’s what she’d told her best friend, Tabby, but that was definitely a lie. She’d brought six duffle bags and still hadn’t had enough room for her three curling irons and her blow dryer, so she’d buckled those into the front seat.
And yes, okay? She’d been talking to her hair styling tools for most of this five-hour drive into the remote Montana mountains. She’d named her blow dryer Billie with an ‘ie’. It was a girl, and she was now Gwen’s second-best friend.
Her first-best friend was currently blowing up her phone.
Her phone rang over the speaker of her SUV, and Tabby’s name came on the screen. Again.
Gwen narrowed her eyes at it, then hit a sharp corner leading onto another road. Fifteen more minutes and she would be pulling up to the gates of Crooked R, where she, city-girl Gweneth Patricia Smithers, would learn to ride a horse, and eat steaks medium rare, and squish bugs, and whatever-the-fuck-else she was supposed to learn at a dude ranch.
These roads were a little rough on account of the snow blowing across the lanes and the thin layer of ice, but she had four-wheel drive and a bat-out-of-hell mentality that had gotten her into the woods in record time.
The ex-who-shall-not-be-named can kiss her brassiere. She wasn’t useless! She was capable! She could do things! She would prove that at the dude ranch.
Three days from now, she would be an all-new woman.
Tabby was calling again.
Growling in frustration over her bestie interrupting a rap song she actually knew four percent of the lyrics to, she jammed the accept button. “I’m fine.”
“You’re spiraling,” Tabby said.
“And what’s wrong with spiraling?”
“Nothing, except that you are supposed to spiral with friends. Someone who can watch over you and drive your drunk ass home before you make stupid decisions.”
“I’m not at bars! I haven’t even had a drink since FartFace dumped me. My head has never been clearer!”
“The pitch of your voice sounds crazy right now.”
“If you must take care of me, I shall be at the Crooked R Dude Ranch for the next three days. At least. I might be so good at being useful, they might just hire me full-time. Who knows.”
“You know I can’t take off work right now. I’m slammed.”
“Too bad, so sad. Well, I’m not at bars, and you don’t have to worry about me picking up random boys because I hate everything with a penis. Animals included. If I saw a boy bunny right now, I would run over it with my truck.”
“No, you wouldn’t. You love animals.”
“You’re right, I wouldn’t, but I’m trying to make a point. All the boys are banned from my yard, ain’t no milkshakes here. Oh! I’m going to play that song next.” Gwen leaned forward and eyed the swaying trees out the front windshield. Her 4Runner was getting harder to control in this wind, and the trees were swaying dangerously. “Hey, I’m going to get back to driving. Safely. See? I’m not spiraling if I care about safety. I’ll be to the Crooked R soon. They make us hand over our phones so I’ll be out of service for a few days.”
“What? Why?”
“They have a no technology rule.”
“That seems sketchy.”
“It sounds amazing, Tabby,” she said softer. “He won’t stop blowing up my phone. You want me to talk to him too soon, and get weak again, and go back to him?”
“Of course not.”
“Then I need this. I need to be away from the phone and focused on me for a few days. I need to feel…”
“Stronger?”
Gwen nodded and gripped the wheel tighter. “Exactly. Me and Billie will be fine.”
“Who’s Billie?”
“My blow dryer, byyyyyeeee!” Gwen hung up as Tabby was saying something that sounded very worried. She didn’t need anyone to worry over her.
She had everything under control.
She had a plan to move on, and be okay, and get back to her she-wolf badass self in no time.
Her truck slid a little on the road and the back end fishtailed.
Eek! She slowed and gained control again, sighed in relief, and looked over at Billie the blow dryer. “Don’t worry. Everything is going to be fine.”
But when she looked up, she gasped, as a massive pine tree was falling across the road in front of her.
Gwen slammed on the brakes but her 4Runner only skidded across the ice and didn’t slow.
She screamed as the tree barreled to earth right on top of her. She barely had time to throw her arms over her face before the sound of shattering glass deafened her.
And then…there was nothing at all.
Chapter Two
Around here, crows were always a bad sign.
At least that’s what Aux had grown to learn over his thirty-five years on this mountain.
Crows here were different. They were aware and eerily intelligent. They hunted chaos.
He leaned over the steering wheel of his tow truck to study the circle of crows in the sky ahead of him. There were twelve, at least. They sure were close to the dude ranch. Usually, they avoided the ranch. Too many predators, and the crows around here were smart. They valued survival.
A growl rattled his throat. The animal didn’t like the crows. His kind never had, and the crows didn’t have much use for bear shifters either.
No humans were on the roads today. Smart for once. Wind storms like this took too many lives. He ghosted a glance at a tree that had fallen and covered one lane of the abandoned back road he was on. It was his job to clear the trees and tow people out of ditches when the weather was bad like this, but that tree would have to wait.
Something deep inside him said he needed to get under the crows.
He took a right onto a snow-covered road. There was a set of tire tracks, but the falling snow was already starting to cover them. What idiot was out here in this? Besides him.
The trees were swaying back and forth in the billowing wind and gusts of snow made it hard to see, but up ahead he could make out something dark across the road.
A tree.
He squinted at the odd shape of it as he approached.
Shit. There was an SUV under the tree.
Fuckin’ humans.
Aux sped up, the thick tread of his tires gripping the new snow. He pulled up behind the car. The tree had slammed down onto the back of the rig. God, he was about to find a body. This is the part of the job he hated.
The snarling in his chest intensified as the bear scratched at his skin. The animal inside of him didn’t mind finding bodies. He could never get enough blood and death. Monster.