Page 7 of Loan Wolf (Green Valley Shifters: Generations #1)

7

GABE

G abe watched the clock as Clara’s return time came…and then went.

At hour four, after sundown, he was a complete wreck.

If Clara had gotten hurt, he would never forgive himself. If Daisy had broken down… If Clara had attempted one of the dangerous trails without a guide… If someone had accosted her…

Gabe could think of a dozen terrible possibilities, each of them darker and more dire than the last, until his wolf was spinning in worried circles and he was going to send them both into a panic.

Gabe finally pulled his phone from his pocket and opened the tracking app. There was a cluster of pins right at his own location, and icons of the few bikes he’d sent off on overnight rentals. And there was Daisy, at Mueller’s Pond.

There were plenty of good reasons that Clara could be there.

It wasn’t that pretty of a pond, cloudy with algae and weeds, though it had some appeal in the winter when it froze and they cleared it for skating. It was big enough to boat, barely, and had some fish. It had been technically closed to swimming and fishing for years, but people still did, and rumors swirled that the closure was for mysterious reasons, varying from heavy metal poisoning to enchantment.

A certain subset of the gossip suggested that the pond would grant your wishes, but take a terrible price.

Most people scoffed at even the idea of magic, though, and generally agreed that it was just a magnet for mosquitos.

Gabe looked at the time on his phone. He wasn’t expecting anyone else that evening and no one would care if he closed early. He took the pickup, rather than riding a bike, even though it wasn’t that far. If Daisy had a flat, he’d need it to bring her home.

Bring her home , his wolf echoed, but he wasn’t talking about the bike.