Other than a summer trip to one of the national parks and a long skiing weekend to the mountains every year, Aislyn had not ventured far from Boise. At first, working full-time and going to school kept her too busy and tired for extra-curricular activities. She had met Gavin a few weeks before graduation, and he had taken up every bit of her spare time until their split. Apart from accepting an occasional date and hanging out with Amanda when she was in town, she had been content as a boring homebody ever since. Even though he had never talked in terms of a future, of taking her anywhere except for dinner out or inviting her to his softball games, she’d let herself dream of the day he would take her to the valley to meet his family. She never imagined she would one day make the four-hour drive alone, in a state of nervous alarm, running from one man who had shattered her life with callous disregard to another who had splintered her heart with obvious remorse but little in the way of explanation.
Sprawling prairies of ranch land dotted with cattle and cowboys riding the herds filled her vision for as far as the eye could see once she left the city. The vast openness soothed her frayed nerves even though her stomach stayed in knots. The afternoon had slipped into twilight by the time she neared the turnoff her GPS guided her toward, that time of day that was neither daylight nor night. The gray light accompanied by the quietness of the countryside produced an eerie feeling, and now, as she turned onto the unpaved, forest-lined road the map showed, leaving behind all other traffic, that strange sense she could not explain tightened her muscles until they cramped.
It’s just exhaustion, she told herself, the tiredness of stress and driving for so long without a break dragging her down. She had shied away from thinking too much about what she was doing, where she was headed, and to whom. She had allowed the good memories of those months with Gavin to surface again, a reminder of his generous patience with her, the way he would focus on her and the needs she was discovering she possessed in spades, aches and desires no other man had come close to assuaging.
The road blurred in front of her, alerting her to the state of her grogginess, but not in time to avoid running over a nail-protruding fence rail. The sudden pop of a front tire forced her to grip the steering wheel tighter as she brought the car to a slow, bumpy stop. With a curse, she got out and checked the damage, dismayed to see how fast the tire had deflated. The shakes she experienced earlier returned even stronger, starting on the inside and working their way outward until her legs gave out, and she slid down to lean against the damaged tire. Tears welled again, only this time she didn’t blink them away, couldn’t even if she wanted to. A sob tore up from her constricted throat, and then another, and another. Pulling up her knees, she lowered her head and let all of her fear and despair pour out in a blubbering pity-fest.
Aislyn didn’t know how long she sat there in the road, folded up in a ball of misery as darkness settled like a cloak around her. As her crying jag wound down to soft weeping and then hiccups, the rustle of tall grasses and heavy panting alerted her to another presence. Raising her head, she froze in shock and terror, staring at the dark shape of a huge wolf sitting a mere few feet away from her, close enough she could make out the vivid green of its eyes and feel the warm brush of its breath on her face. Hot tingles of awareness ghosted across her skin, the sensation akin to her reaction whenever she’d been with Gavin. The similarity was as alarming as sitting so close to a wild animal.
Oh, crap. The closest Aislyn had come to anything other than a dog or horse was at the zoo, where thick bars kept her safe. Perfect end to a rotten day, getting eaten by a wolf. A bubble of hysteria tickled her throat, but before she succumbed to it, the animal turned and trotted toward the woods. Her relief was short-lived when he sat down again right at the tree line, facing her with a calmness that somehow reached her across the grassy expanse separating them.
After a few minutes passed where neither of them moved, she took a deep, fortifying breath and pushed to her feet. When he didn’t budge, just sat there staring with an intentness that seemed oddly familiar and less unnerving than at first, she reached inside the car to turn on the headlights and then inched her hand over to grab her purse. Her initial plan to arrive on Gavin’s doorstep unannounced just got changed. She kept her eyes on the wolf while rummaging in her purse for her phone and dialing the number she still had programmed.
“Shit,” Aislyn muttered when she got his voice mail after five rings. The wolf laid down, relaxed, appearing to go to sleep, and she wondered if he was a hybrid, part domestic dog. That possibility, even though not likely, eased her tension and fear enough to give her the courage to make her way toward the trunk, pausing once, preparing to dive into the backseat if he so much as moved a muscle. “Weird,” she whispered as he remained stretched out on his stomach, his head resting on his paws. “You’re just going to lay there and
