Prologue:
To The Wolves
It was getting late, she knew.
Ever since dinner, she’d hidden herself in her room, watching the sun go down and the moon take its place. A full moon tonight, so bright it felt like approval. It helped to calm her nerves.
She lay in bed until the light from the moon faded, until her room was bathed in near darkness.
Her heart pounded as she shoved her last few pieces of clothing into her bag. She had dressed for warmth, wearing her jeans and several layers of shirts to give her more space to pack the rest.
The room she had lived in for most of her life felt empty without the mementos weighing down the duffle. She smiled, the thought of leaving her childhood behind was bittersweet, but the thought of starting her life, with him, she couldn’t believe it.
Her smile remained as she crept through the house, avoiding the floorboards that squeaked. A thud, her hip collided with the new sofa table, and she hissed. She bit her lip as she thought through all the words she would have said if she weren’t sneaking out in the dead of night. It seemed ridiculous to resort to this, an adult collecting bruises because she was scared to talk to her family about moving out.
She waited and listened, her father’s loud snores and the quiet hum of the TV in the living room, but nothing else. Moving to the door, she slipped out.
The air felt cool against her skin. At night, at least, the weather recognized that fall was just around the corner. Despite how quiet she tried to be, the night was anything but. Cicadas, frogs, the hums of central ac from the nearby houses, and the echoes of howling wolves filled the air around her.
The young woman, smiling, turned to the wolves and never came back.