My mother hadn’t wanted me to move to town, but it wasn’t practical to live on the farm when over half of my business was done in the office. Not to mention the small kennel where we housed post-and pre-op patients, boarders, and strays. In the winter, I might be prevented from making it into the office for a day or two, and then what? If I was already there … half the battle was won.
I exchanged my khaki trousers—which repelled animal hair better than most—for track pants, my white blouse—out of which anything could be bleached—for an old T-shirt. I covered that with an equally old sweatshirt, switched my comfy shoes for the expensive running variety, then grabbed a hat and gloves, put my cell phone in one pocket, my keys in the other, and trotted down the stairs and out the door. Time for my nightly wog—my twin brothers’ word for the walk-jog I did to stay in shape.
Instead of wogging down Carstairs Avenue—the main street of town was named after my family. The Carstairs had lived in Three Harbors from the beginning, which, according to the welcome sign, had been in 1855—I took the path into the forest.
Three Harbors was a small town, but it was also a tourist town, and these days that meant bike paths and hiking trails. They were well lit and meticulously maintained. I still kept mace on my key ring. I couldn’t very well jog with a nine millimeter. Even if I owned one.
The forest settled around me, cool and deep blue-green. The trail had lights every few feet, some at ground level, others high above. Still, I rarely ran into anyone after dark, and I loved it.
My feet beat a steady wump-wump. That combined with the familiar crunch of the stones beneath my shoes at first drowned out the other sound. But eventually, I heard the thud of more feet than two.
At the edge of twilight, loped a huge black wolf.
About the Author
Lori Handeland is a two time RITA Award winner and the New York Times bestselling author of the Nightcreature Novels, a paranormal romance series; The Phoenix Chronicles, an urban fantasy series; and the Shakespeare Undead historical fantasy series. She also writes Western historical romance under the name Lori Austin. Lori lives in Wisconsin with her husband, and enjoys occasional visits from her grown sons.
Check out both of her websites at www.lorihandeland.com and loriaustin.net. You can sign up for email updates here.