Gemma
Leaving the only place where she felt loved, Gemma’s heart broke.
Marie, her only friend, cried as they drove to the airport outside Rhodes. It would figure that as soon as she got the knack of speaking the language, she’d have to leave the beautiful country of Spain.
“Do you really have to go?” Marie asked.
“They’re too close,” Gemma replied. “I have got to hide somewhere far away from here.”
“But do you really think they’ll…” her friend couldn’t finish the sentence, and Gemma’s heart panged.
She laid a gentle hand on Marie’s arm. “It’s okay,” Gemma replied. “I won’t let them get me. I will find justice for my parents’ murders.”
She thought she’d finally escaped the wolf shifters from her pack, and she started to relax and actually enjoy life. Apparently not.
“Can you write or call?” Marie said.
“I wish I could, but it would be too dangerous. They might try to hurt you to get to me,” Gemma said.
After parking in the passenger drop-off lane outside the airport’s front entrance, Gemma grabbed the two small bags that held her meager possessions. Marie threw her arms around her. Gemma had never fought tears so hard and failed. She had to be strong to stay alive. Nervously glancing around, her eyes scanned the area, searching for someone acting strange. Gemma would hate herself forever if something happened to Marie because of her.
“My thoughts will always be with you,” her friend said.
“And mine with you. Take care of yourself,” Gemma wiped the teardrops on her cheeks and headed into the airport.
She didn’t look back. She was barely keeping at bay the anguish threatening to overwhelm her. All it would take was one look at Marie’s forlorn face, and she would lose it.
Gemma approached the check-in counter, and the man behind the computer smiled at her. She gave him her name and held her breath as he typed. When the printer spit out her paper ticket, she let out a released a sigh, grateful once again for her mother’s best friend, Aliyah.
Without help, Gemma would have been dead not long after her mom’s death when she was ten years old. Her life in hiding had killed the carefree, loving child she was. A part of her had died and been laid to rest with her family.
As Gemma boarded the plane, her thoughts once more turned to Marie. How many people would she lose in her life? Sometimes, she just wanted to quit. But that would dishonor her parents.
Gemma was a wolf shifter, the only pure white wolf in her pack. Because of this, the wolves thought they needed to sacrifice her on her twenty-fifth birthday to the moon goddess to ensure their continued survival.
Her parents didn’t believe in this myth, so they made plans to escape soon after she was born. But they were discovered, and her father was killed fighting so she and her mother could escape. Mama had been so regal and beautiful. Her voice was musical, entrancing everyone around her. Every night, her mother would tell her stories about her father, her grandparents, and the rest of the clan so she would know her heritage.
She thought about one conversation they had right before her mother was killed.
“I know that life on the run and having to look over your shoulders is not fun. But promise me you will never give up,” her mother had said in a fierce voice Gemma hadn’t heard her mother use before.
“I promise,” Gemma replied.
She hastily wiped away the tear that squeezed out of her eye when she thought about her mother being killed on Gemma’s tenth birthday, fighting a group of wolves that had found them. Her last words had been that she loved Gemma.
Those words, said in her mother’s voice, echoed in her mind when Gemma started to feel weak and wanted to give in. Her parents died protecting her.
With her new identity from Aliyah, Gemma hoped that Las Vegas would be a good place to hide. Her pack’s land was a couple hours’ drive from the city of sin, and where was a better place to hide than the last place they thought she would go?
She looked around the plane surreptitiously, trying to see if she recognized any of the faces on board. So far, all she saw was a bunch of bored humans sleeping, reading magazines, and staring off into space. None of them looked familiar.
Maybe she had bought herself just enough time to breathe and figure out what she was going to do next and where she could go. She had to stay in places where there were a lot of people so she could blend in, although she longed for nothing more than the peace and quiet of a small country cottage away from the hustle and bustle of large cities.
She wondered about the moon goddess that her wolf pack wanted to sacrifice her to. What could this goddess give the shifters that they wanted so desperately that they were willing to kill a member of their own pack?
Her mother had said many in the pack believed spilling the blood of the white wolf, thus pleasing the moon goddess, would make the wolf pack more powerful. However, every shifter pack had its own territory, and they were all powerful in that territory. The only exception was the dragon shifters. Although the population of dragon shifters was getting smaller, they were still more powerful than any other shifter. Many of them could breathe fire, or at least steam, which could instantly kill an opponent. Their talons had a special venom in them that could prove deadly.
Dragon shifters, however, tended to mind their own business. They didn’t venture outside their own territory, so they were no threat to anyone else.
So, why do the wolf shifters feel the need to sacrifice me to get more power?Did they hope to take over the territories of other shifters? Did they want to become supreme leaders?
Perhaps they were just bloodthirsty and so mired in the ways of the past that they were unable to reason that maybe their beliefs were outdated and overrated. Either way, she wouldn’t be safe until her twenty-fifth birthday – and maybe not even after.
Gemma got off the plane in Las Vegas, hoping to find a new start. As she looked around, she shivered as she felt someone watching her.
