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JAMIE

The short-term rental I was able to book on my phone looked like a good place to be murdered.

From the outside, it had all the makings of a Dateline episode. A lonely stretch of dirt road, the occasional abandoned car, and several rundown little bungalows. If I were in a movie, a dramatic string orchestra would have been losing its shit the moment I showed up. As it was, I arrived to depressing silence that made me feel like the last living person on earth.

My phone said it was almost eleven but it felt much later, and the growling of my stomach reminded me I hadn’t eaten since I came across a blueberry bush early in the morning. I wondered if I could get a pizza delivered to the desolate outskirts of Hell?

The name of the cabin was Grain Silo, and I thought the owner was being creative. But as I crept closer to the front door, I realized the place had clearly been built for holding corn or oats or pretty much anything other than me. It was all part of the adventure…or so I tried to convince myself so I didn’t freak out.

The code on the door worked on my first try, and the door lock instantly released. As I pushed open the door, I half expected to find some weirdo staring back with an axe. Or a banjo.

When I flipped on the light, I was still alone, so I went inside and grabbed the list of amenities on the entry table, mostly to see what it was missing. There was electricity, an outhouse, and an outdoor shower, which was really just a fancy way of saying this place was completely uninhabitable in the cold. Good thing I had fur to keep me warm or I’d probably freeze.

My breath fogged out, and I knew shifting would need to happen sooner rather than later.

But before that, I pulled out a few protein bars from my bag and unpacked my laptop and some clothes. If I slept on them, they’d be warm when I needed to put them on again.

When I powered up my laptop, I was surprised to see a new email in my business inbox. It was from someone named Cameron and had been received just a few minutes ago. Cameron’s message was in all caps, which usually meant an older guy or one who was very alpha . He needed a website for his new business.

Apparently, the random ads I’d run for Jamie’s Digital Designs were working. He wanted the site finished in less than a week and a budget of a thousand bucks. That was doable, for sure.

I fired back a response with a million questions about the specific content he needed. Honestly, I was terrified Cameron might be someone who knew me or Roderick and was trying to lure me out of hiding. It was exactly the kind of dick move he would make, and I didn’t want to be stupid enough to fall for it.

The next email from Cameron came in less than five minutes later. He said he was starting up a private investigators firm and was hoping I could start working with him tomorrow. He was in the city and could meet with me over lunch to hand over all the files.

Hand over digital files in person? Who the hell was this guy? When I asked him to just send a link to his cloud storage drive so I could grab everything remotely, he seemed to have no idea what I was talking about.

Great. A Boomer looking for a website. Would he ask for a flashing “Under Construction” gif with a little guy holding a shovel too?

I wanted to tell him we weren’t a good match, but having enough cash to stay in the city sounded pretty good. And no one from my pack would want to meet me there. They’d want to meet me somewhere remote, like the grain silo I was isolated in, so they could take me by force if needed. And they would definitely need to tie me up and incapacitate me if they tried to get me to go back to Roderick.

My fingers shook so much from the cold that typing was more of a challenge than it should have been. A room with decent coffee, indoor plumbing, and a million alphas who weren’t after me was my best next move.

After a quick search of coffee shops, I wrote back to tell him I’d meet him at the Starbucks in the central train station at 4PM, then I powered down the laptop and shifted into my fur. My body temp was higher as a wolf, and the fur kept me nice and toasty in this miserable tin can. At least it was only my miserable tin can for a few more hours before I headed to the city to collect my next paycheck.

Maybe I’d stay just long enough to get the website done and keep moving. Or maybe I’d stay longer. It was easier to stay hidden in plain sight if there were lots of crowds around. And my scent would be easier to mask. As long as I wasn’t in heat, I’d be fine. And since I’d never actually gone into heat before, I didn’t expect it to be an issue anymore.

I could make it on my own. This new life didn’t have to be a punishment for running. It could be my reward for being brave. Without worrying about pack rules or my family making decisions for me, I could just be me. Jamie.

Jamie’s Digital Designs would finally be my priority and actually pay my bills. It would allow me some freedom to live by my own rules.