Preview of Wild Atonement
The Dark Pines Pride, Book Two
Chapter One
Hayley slammed down the application packet in frustration. What colleges even did paper college applications anymore? That’s right—only one. The dinky community college in Huntwood, which was probably the only place that would take someone like Hayley—a high school drop-out who’d been living off-grid for the past four years.
She hadn’t held any kind of job for more than a month. It had been nice, actually, because the kind of work she’d done had been in the way of short-term construction gigs. Jobs that allowed her to work with her hands, make things. She’d loved that, and her mountain lion had enjoyed the physical labor. She had no idea how her brother Will could handle his graphic arts job, sitting on his ass at a computer.
Teaching would be a change of pace. If she were honest with herself, she’d admit that she didn’t even want to become a teacher. It just sounded like the most responsible job possible. Teaching children, being responsible for their learning and their safety while at school. Teachers were fucking heroes, and if there was anything Hayley had ever wanted to be, at least since she was seventeen, it was a hero.
Name: Hayley Ann Jaynes
Age: February 21, 1996
Occupation:
Her pen wouldn’t move over the lines. Occupation? Hell, where should she start? She didn’t have an occupation. She had things she wanted to do, and things she felt she should do. And lots of odd jobs in the past.
The application wasn’t filling itself out, that was for sure. Hayley kept getting in her own way. Why was she doing something that she didn’t even want to do?
Her phone rang. Will’s name popped up on the screen.
“Hello, dickweed,” she answered in the sweetest voice possible.
“Language, Hayley.” His voice was stern. At twenty-nine, her brother was eight years older than her, and he seemed unable to turn off his cranky parent mode.
“Did you just call to scold me, or is there something else you’d like to say?”
His voice came out kinder. “I just miss you, wanted to say hi.”
“You could come say it in person,” she said, slyly. “I’ve got a fold-out couch now. It’s so grown-up.”
“How’s construction on your place coming along?”
“Slowly. It’s raining so we can’t work on it today.”
“Let me guess,” he said, “you’re working on applications.”
“Hell yeah. Gotta get my education.”
“Make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons.”
Fuckballs. At her twenty-first birthday celebration back in February, she’d drunkenly confessed to Will and Jackson that she didn’t actually want to teach. Damn those tequila shots to hell. Now he was constantly on her case about “following her dreams” and “believing in what’s meant to be,” which was pretty hypocritical language coming from a guy who seemed all but terrified of returning to their family’s territory.
The thought gave her the perfect change of subject. “When are you going to come out and see the houses?”
“Never.”
“Come on, Will,” she said. “Don’t be a scaredy dicknugget.”
He sputtered. “A what? Never mind. I’m not scared of shit. I’m just not going back there. Too many bad memories.”
Something in the way he spoke told her he wasn’t being entirely honest. She’d figure it out eventually.
“I gotta get back to work,” he said. “Logo design for a start-up company and they want it two weeks ago.”
“Let me guess,” she said, “they hired you yesterday?”
“You know it. Love you, sis.”
“Love you too, assface.”
“Hayley!” he said.
She chuckled, and as she ended the call, she heard him laughing, too. She returned to the college application and listed the last three jobs she’d held—unloading stock for a mom and pop grocery store, working construction on a cabin for a prepper, and landscaping for a mountain resort in Montana. That had been for the Corona Pride, who’d been happy to host the Jaynes siblings for a whole month, but their alpha hadn’t wanted them to stay too long.
Then it was back on the road.
Hayley was so fucking glad to be home, even if it meant finally sitting down and getting her ass into college.
Her phone rang again and she snatched it up, grateful for the interruption. There was no name listed, but the number was local, so she answered it.
“Is this Hayley Jaynes?” The male voice was completely unfamiliar. Maybe someone from the community college in Eliston that had turned down her application a couple weeks ago? Maybe there’d been a mistake.
Hayley quickly dropped the playful, annoyed tone she’d been using with Will and adopted something more professional. “Yes, this is she.”
The speaker didn’t say anything at first, but then she heard a quick exhale. “Hayley, so pleased to reach you at last. I’m Alec Lockman, your fiancé.”