Page 1 of Fated to the Wolf Cowboy (Cowboys of Collier #1)

Tricia

The wind whipped through the streets of New York City as howls broke out around Central Park.

Trackers.

It was another round up.

I hovered on the edge of the park, not daring to venture any deeper into Pack territory. Heavy paws pounded against the ground. I was close enough to hear them and felt the vibrations even through the sidewalk.

They were close and getting closer.

I walked a little faster and tried to control my breathing, knowing there was nothing I could do about the pounding of my heart in my chest. They’d hear it. They’d know.

At the next alley, I turned abruptly and took off running.

There were others there, homeless, drug addicts, those less fortunate or lost to a world that would happily ignore them.

I didn’t think there were any of my kind though.

We didn’t come here. The overwhelming stench of trash and human body odor were too off putting for our sensitive noses.

I pulled a handkerchief over my nose and mouth, but it provided little help.

Staying in my skin was essential. The trackers were less likely to find me this way. I’d been in my skin for months now and it was weighing heavily on my inner wolf. But it made me feel safer.

They couldn’t run here in wolf form, which I knew would make them stronger. It wasn’t safe for any of the wolf shifters living in the city to be out in their fur, especially in the middle of the day. And even trackers’ senses dulled in human form.

I was safe, but I didn’t feel safe.

It wasn’t likely they were after me anyway, but the possibility was there and that was enough to scare the shit out of me.

Rumors were growing that they weren’t just tracking down the Raglan experiments anymore. As if those who had been unfortunate enough to be captured right off the streets hadn’t suffered enough by that evil human faction.

We should be helping them, grateful they had been returned to us at all. But no one knew for sure what had been done to them. There had been genetic experiments involved, or at least that was what the rumors said.

People were afraid of them. That shouldn’t mean we hunt them down and kill them like animals. I truly believed we were evolving beyond that point. I needed to believe it, but I couldn’t keep my head buried in the sand until they came for me next.

Once a group of people cave to the fears of the unknown, it’s not long before they begin to fear others that are different too. And now they were actively hunting witches.

I could not take it anymore. I just couldn’t sit here and wait for them to come for me. It was making me paranoid. Every second of every day my ears were on full alert, the hair on the back of my neck permanently stood up, and I just knew they were going to come for me next.

I didn’t stop in the alley, and I didn’t look back. I kept my head down and pulled my hoodie tightly over my head.

In the last three months I’d had to move seven times to stay low and off radar of the trackers. At first it was just a precaution. My friend Aleah had laughed and told me I was being an idiot.

“We were born this way, Tricia. They know that. We aren’t some monsters like the experiments,” she’d say.

Aleah was a witch too. She’d turned up dead, tossed away in a dumpster outside her apartment a few weeks ago.

The local human police found her. She’d been a Jane Doe to them, no investigation, just another product of the streets, and therefore disposed of unceremoniously.

Morris hadn’t even stepped in to identify her or anything.

Something was going on around here. I was still processing it all and my anxiety had spiked significantly since.

But I knew the stories. While my dad hadn’t entirely abandoned me, mostly because he needed me to take care of his sorry ass, he had reminded me of what an abomination I was throughout my entire life.

Even as a kid he’d tell me, “Be smart, Tricia. Keep your freak powers to yourself.”

And I’d heard all the old tales. Hell, there were certain kinds of witches that some Packs still killed when their powers emerged, even if they were just little pups. It was barbaric.

My witch powers were pretty benign. Aside from being the weird kid who liked to make friends with the animals, most didn’t think much of it. When the Raglan experiments began showing back up, a list was generated of all the witches in the New York Pack.

We were supposed to be more evolved now, more tolerant. Even the humans were making an effort in that department. So, the list was announced as a way to protect my kind.

I’d begged my father not to put my name on the list, but he’d done it anyway.

I was certain they’d offered him some money or something to report me, and he would have snatched it up and turned in his own mother for it.

I was glad my mother had died young and didn’t have to see the monster he’d become.

The thing was, our Alpha wasn’t a bad guy.

In fact, Morris had helped me on numerous occasions.

He tried to keep order within the Pack, but we were too big, too spread out for one man to control.

A kingpin had risen quickly in recent years.

He’d never officially challenged for control of the Pack, but he did what he wanted, when he wanted.

Morris may still be the man in change in name, but not in actuality.

The kingpin funded the Pack now and the men that worked for him were savage; more wolf than man.

All stereotypes were there for a reason, and the Wolf of Wall Street had certainly become one that arose more realistically than any human could comprehend.

My kind had roamed this territory long before the humans settled here.

At first, we’d lived more like victims in hiding, but at some point, that had all changed.

Deals had been struck, real estate sold, until there were those that now controlled it all—the legitimate and illegal.

It had breached the edges of Pack territory and spilled out across the city. Wolf shifters were everywhere.

That meant there were eyes and ears everywhere, too.

And that also meant there was no longer a safe place for someone like me to live here any longer. I had to get out while I still could.

At the end of the alley, I stopped. Before I left the safety it provided, I stood there and listened. A howl sounded in the distance, but it was much further away now. I squatted down and felt the ground. There were no longer the vibrations of thunderous feet running on the pavement.

Relaxing just a bit, I casually peeked my head out to scan the street. Seeing nothing out of place, I turned the corner and quickly walked to the tiny hotel room I’d been able to rent for a week. I wasn’t willing to stay in any one place for longer than that now anyway.

I didn’t relax for even a second once inside the room.

It was time to get the hell out of here.

I couldn’t live like this a second longer.

Shoving the few things I still owned into a backpack, my carefully thought through escape plan quickly came to fruition.

Step by step I doubled and then triple checked the area as I proceeded to the nearest subway station.

A block ahead I saw familiar faces just as I quickly descended the stairs.

My heart was racing as I started to run, yet I tried not to draw too much attention to myself. As I got to the platform, the doors were closing.

“Shit!”

I looked around for a place to hide as my heart nearly pounded out of my chest.

Daring a look back, I saw them. Three of the kingpin’s trackers. My stomach flipped and I fought back the urge to throw up. I was stuck and fear was crippling me.

Don’t shift, I demanded as my wolf tried to surge ready to protect me.

Think, Tricia.

I looked around and saw a rat run past a man sleeping under a piece of cardboard.

Help! I cried out.

Suddenly more rats appeared. Three of them were dragging a ratty old blanket across the floor, dropping it at my feet.

I was still shaking all over, but it gave me an idea.

Blend in with the humans. Good thinking, I thought.

I threw myself to the ground and covered up with the blanket. The smell triggered my gag reflex, I knew I needed to keep my head covered. Lord knew, the odor would certainly hide my scent.

“Well? Where is she?” I heard a male ask with a growl.

“I swear, it was her. It was Tricia.”

The blood in my veins turned to ice.

They really were looking for me.

I wasn’t just being paranoid.

“Maybe she made the subway after all,” the third guy said.

“Check and see where it was headed,” the first said.

“I don’t smell her here,” one of them added. “Are we even sure it was her?”

“She’s in her skin and she’s a witch. Who knows what she’s capable of.”

I shivered violently. It felt a bit like my powers were escaping me.

One of the trackers sniffed loudly.

“Got her. Come on.”

I was confused but started to calm a bit hearing their footsteps get further away from me. And then they were running.

“Over here.”

“Watch out!”

“What the hell is going on? Did you see her?”

“No, but her scent was so strong. She went into the subway tunnels.”

“You nearly fell off onto the tracks.”

“But I was just following her scent.”

“So that’s how she got away. Can you tell which direction she went?”

“Eastbound.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“I know a better entrance, less people around. If we hurry, we should be able to loop back and cut her off. Come on, let’s go.”

They took off at a full sprint back towards the entrance.

I was still shaky, but better.

What the hell just happened? I wondered.

One of the rats scurried up my leg. I didn’t hesitate to reach down and touch her. Suddenly visions popped into my mind. One of the rats was carrying my scent with him. He jumped off the platform and disappeared into the dark tunnels.

“How are you doing this?” I whispered.

I already knew the sewer rats were somehow connected, but how had I tuned into them so thoroughly?

Before I got my answers, a westbound subway arrived.

“Is it safe?” I asked.

The littlest one nodded her head as they grabbed the edge of their blanket and pulled it off me.

“Thanks,” I told them before sprinting onto the subway just as the doors were closing.

I knew I wasn’t going to feel safe until I was far, far away, but the further I got from Pack territory, the more real it became.

I was doing this.

There were rumors that Westin Pack was a safe haven for witches. Unfortunately, it was all the way on the other side of the country. I was going to have to travel in my skin because that was the safest way for me to keep a tracker from finding me.

I had no idea how I was going to make it, but I had to believe I could.

Paradise was waiting for me in California. All I had to do was get there.

One step at a time, Tricia , I reminded myself.

Never in my life had I felt so utterly alone. I hated it. But it was going to be worth it in the end. It had to be.