Chapter One
It was way too hot for March. The high that day had been seventy-eight degrees. For the last three nights, Agatha Portman had slept with her windows open so the cool night air could caress her skin. It was late when she finally left the gym, but she kept her car windows down so she could breathe in the primal smell of the forest at night.
She was wearing a pair of black workout pants and a loose t-shirt that was damp with sweat from a tough forty-minute spin class. Not that it mattered, no matter how hard she tried it seemed she was never going to lose those last fifteen pounds.
Her legs felt a little weak as she pulled into her driveway, parked her car and cut the lights. Once the engine had quieted, the sound of hundreds of chirping crickets filled the air around her. The night was pitch black, there was no moon. Agatha lived in a small bungalow at the end of a long solitary lane, far from the center of town. She liked it back here. Her house was her own little space, no noisy neighbors, no sounds other than the occasional car on the road and the endless chirping of the crickets.
Which had stopped. Agatha tilted her head and listened for a moment, but no, she was right, the crickets had stopped. In fact, everything had stopped. The wind still whistled through the trees, but there were no other sounds. No birds called, no insects buzzed, there was only silence outside.
The hair on the back of her neck stood up as her heart started racing. Something felt wrong, but she didn’t know what. She looked in her mirrors checking behind the car, but she didn’t see anything. The night was dark, but everything looked fine. So why was she suddenly afraid?
Agatha couldn’t name her fear. It was something primal that came from the deep recesses of her mind. It was instinct pure and simple.
Get in the house, she told herself. Her arms were shaking as she reached into her purse. She grabbed her cellphone in one hand and her keys in the other. Her eyes were wide as if they were trying to take in every last detail. Still that strange otherworldly silence rang in her ears. Her heart started to pound and the back of her neck tingled.
It’ll be ok once you’re inside. It was a mantra she repeated to herself. If she could just make it through her front door, everything would be fine. She didn’t know what frightened her, but her instincts told her she wasn’t alone. There was something else in the darkness. She gathered all her courage from within herself. Taking a deep breath, she opened her car door and stepped out, placing one foot on the dirt road of her driveway.
As if on cue, she heard the unmistakable sound of an animal howling. The howl rang in her ears, it sounded like a wolf and it sounded very close. She gasped and turned towards the noise, her heart hammering in her chest. Maybe it was just a dog? She turned towards her house and focused on her brightly painted blue front door. She had painted it that color last spring. It was like a beacon and as she broke into a run she refused to look anywhere else.
The howl came again, closer this time. Gasping, Agatha ran towards her front door. She had just hit the cement walkway when she heard the first panting breaths of a large animal. Her eyes went wide as she took desperate gasping breaths. She glanced behind her, but couldn’t see anything. Where was it? What was it?
Her keys were in her hand. Her door was only a few steps away. Relief flooded her body, she was going to make it. Whatever was out here wasn’t going to get her. She could get inside and call animal control.
Then she heard the low, wet growl of an angry animal. She froze. Every cell in her body froze, only her heart continued to pump, thumping painfully in her chest. The wolf appeared to her left. At first, it was nothing more than a large shadow in the darkness, but then it moved underneath her porch light. It moved slowly and confidently. With one easy leap, it was on her front steps, blocking her passage to the door.
The wolf was massive. It was easily three times larger than any dog she had ever seen, including her ex-boyfriend’s German Shepherd. It was almost as tall as she was. It had mangy with scraggly brown hair and blood-tinged drool dripped from its mouth as the animal reared back and bared his long fangs at her. It smelled horrible; a mixture of rot and sweat and wet dog.
It gave a low, dangerous growl and then, to her horror, it began to move towards her. She staggered back almost falling as her sneakers slipped off the cement walkway. Agatha gave out a muted scream and the wolf growled and snapped its teeth at her. She let out a sob and continued to inch backward. How did it know to block the door? How was this animal that smart?
She needed to get back to her car. She should never have got out of it. The wolf was growing angrier. Its hackles were raised as more drool slipped from the animal's mouth. It seemed to almost smile at her. Then it was moving, running towards her at a speed she could not have imagined.
Agatha let out a terrified scream as she tripped and fell back. She was going to die. She was going to be eaten by a wolf in her own front yard. It lunged at her and all she could see was sharp teeth and matted fur before she closed her eyes and lifted her arm to protect her face as best she could.
The animal let out a painful sounding yelp and Agatha managed to peek from behind her arm. To her horror, she saw that a second wolf had joined them. Agatha was shaking and crying as she pulled her knees up closer to her and wondered what she could have possibly done to deserve this.
The second wolf was different. It was bigger and completely white. Where the brown wolf had mangy fur and a foul odor, this white wolf was like a well-kept pet. Its fur was clean and smooth, no drool slid from between its teeth.
Agatha was frozen, stuck in that dangerous place between fight and flight. Her eyes were wide and white, her face was streaked with tears. A sob escaped her lips, then to her shock, the white wolf turned and looked at her. Right into her eyes. And then it nodded towards her car only a few feet away.
Her jaw fell open, had he come to save her? Was that possible? The brown wolf growled and snapped its jaw at the white wolf who turned to face his opponent, getting down on his haunches in a dangerous pose. He stood between Agatha and the brown wolf, appearing poised to leap should the brown wolf make a move.
He’s protecting me, she realized and then her brain snapped into gear and she was scrambling for her dropped keys. Agatha got up off the ground as the brown wolf glared at her. He growled and took a step towards her, but the white wolf was right there, blocking the other’s path, giving Agatha the chance to escape.
“Thanks,” she whispered as she raced to her car, got in and locked the doors.