Chapter 2
FORD
Today was the day. I was doing this, leaving the flight that didn’t want me and not looking back.
I walked through my small apartment, checking the cabinets, the closet, and the medicine cabinet, making sure I didn’t leave anything important behind.
The furniture was either staying with the new tenant or had already been sold, and I was down to the boxes in my vehicle and the suitcase by my side.
I expected to wake up this morning excited, happy, and thrilled that I was going to have a fresh start in a new town with a new job. No one would be looking down on me because I wasn’t “dragon enough” because of my omega father being human. And I was. But also, my nerves were taking over.
As harsh as this place had been to me, it was what I knew.
Who knew what Bramble Woods would be like?
Maybe it would be worse there. Maybe the humans would find me not human enough.
Maybe they’d think I talked funny. Maybe the job would suck.
But I knew one thing, I didn’t belong here.
And for the one year of my contract, I could do anything.
I finished the rest of my coffee, washed the mug, and put it in the final unsealed box.
It was instant coffee which made me chuckle.
The mug had originally belonged to my human omega father, and he would’ve given me a lecture on how instant coffee wasn’t real coffee.
A lecture I’d have earned. The stuff wasn’t good, but I didn’t want to deal with packing the coffee maker.
I had a packet of the stuff that came in a work gift a very long time ago.
I couldn’t remember how old it was, but it was freeze-dried, so did it really matter?
I was about to leave when my phone started ringing. My gut was to just leave it alone and ignore it. This was my day to leave, to start again. Nothing could be more important than that. But when I pulled it out, it was Jared, a flight mate and the closest thing I had to a friend.
He looked down on me but pretended not to. In some ways, that was worse, but at least I had someone to sit beside in classes and most recently at my job.
“Yes, Jared?”
“I wanted to say goodbye.”
“Oh, well… goodbye.” This was awkward. We didn’t have the kind of relationship that would last past me driving out of the city, and that somehow made it weird.
But then he asked me a question about work, and I realized it had nothing to do with him missing me. The call was just his way to get the answers he needed. Which was fine, but honestly, I’d rather have had him lead with that.
Just like with all my other peers, Jared didn’t think my dragon’s side was dragon enough.
I wasn’t sure how they determined that. I was pretty badass, if you asked me.
It sucked being in the middle, not quite human and not quite shifter.
My flight never fully rejected me, but they didn’t accept me, and that hurt even more because it was like maybe, one day, they would. Only that day never came.
I hung up, swung my backpack over my shoulder, grabbed my last box, and balanced it on my suitcase.
My arm wrapped around both as I made my way to my vehicle.
It was packed to the gills, boxes everywhere.
I was moving across the country, sure, but how much of this stuff would I need?
The place I was renting was an old hunting cabin, and it came fully furnished.
Most of this stuff would probably stay in the boxes, but I didn’t know where my life was heading next and decided to keep it all.
As I drove away from the city, my dragon was not as pleased as I thought he’d be, but there was no second-guessing my decision now. I turned on the music full blast, moving to the beat of the bass, wanting to drown out my dragon.
My new job is going to be great.
I’m going to have friends.
I’m finally going to belong.
I kept that going as I drove and drove and drove, stopping when I needed to sleep and continuing on as long as I could before stopping again.
I didn’t want to waste too much time at hotels or rest stops.
The earlier I got there, the more days I’d have to get settled in before my job started.
I’d given myself a lot of leeway, knowing that anything could go wrong while driving, from a broken-down car to a flat tire to bad weather.
The last thing I wanted was to miss my first day at work.
I was about to make the last stretch of my trip, the end oh so close, when I looked at my gas gauge and realized I needed to fill up first. It was the last station before I turned off the main road, and for some reason, it was insanely expensive. Whatever, I needed it.
No tap or insert available, I swiped my card.
This place was ancient. The screen told me to see the attendant.
My first thought was that something had gone wrong, that I had a flag for possible fraud since I was in another state, or maybe worse, someone had stolen my card.
But when I went inside, the guy didn’t even look up at me.
“Card reader’s not working out there. How much do you want?
” I told him, paid, and went back out to pump.
I put the nozzle in my car and started it when the guy behind me decided to drive away without finishing what he was doing.
A loud snap followed by gas flying all around told me exactly what he’d done—driven off with the spout still in his tank.
Gas was everywhere. It was on my shoes, my jeans, my shirt, my hands—all the places. Fuck.
I immediately stopped pumping, closed my tank, and went inside.
It sucked, but I didn’t know how much of a big deal it was until I witnessed the clerk’s reaction.
It wasn’t just a big deal… It was huge. The place was filled with rescue people, from firemen to police to ambulances.
They shut down the pumps. I was questioned as a witness. It was a hot mess.
The gas situation cost me hours, and worse than that, I left with only half a tank, and I reeked of gasoline.
Even my hands, which I washed and washed, smelled.
It was awful. I took off my soaked clothes in the bathroom, sticking them in a plastic bag.
I knew it didn’t help much. They had been saturated, and whatever new clothes I put on would stink because my skin still did.
What I needed was the longest, hottest bath ever, but that wasn’t going to happen with a sink spigot that barely dribbled.
They offered me a hot dog to make up for all the trouble. A hot dog. What I wanted was to smell human again, which, given I wasn’t human, had me chuckling.
I got back on the highway, waiting for the next exit, and then worked my way toward Bramble Woods, stopping in a small town along the way to get some more gas, grateful I was the only one there. I did not need a repeat of last time.
When I walked in to grab a soda, the person behind the register panicked and asked how bad the spill was. It wasn’t until I told him the gas smell was from before I got there that he relaxed.
“Do you know what gets the stink out?” I asked.
“It’s gonna take a lot, and maybe your clothes won’t make it.”
I didn’t need to hear that.
My dragon’s solution was to shift, and when we shifted back, the smell would be gone. That wasn’t how it worked, but I had to give him credit for trying. Besides, it wasn’t like we could shift here without being seen.
The mountains came into view. We were getting there. As horrible as it smelled, even with my windows open, I was starting to feel like I’d made the right choice. The farther and farther we got from the old city, and the closer we got to my new home, the more I could see myself here.
Driving into Bramble Woods, I was surprised to see how small it was.
I’d read about the town enough to know it was small, but this was small small.
I kept expecting to get into town, only to figure out that I’d already passed it and hadn’t noticed.
Being tiny didn’t bug me. I didn’t need much.
I sure didn’t need skyscrapers and dragons being asses to me.
I backtracked and stopped at the general store, my new place of employment. Sampson, my new boss, greeted me. He was a shifter, though I couldn’t quite scent what kind, not with the gas filling all of my senses. His eyes definitely weren’t human.
“I need something that’s going to get this out of my clothes,” I said.
“Yeah, I guess you will. I got some stuff.” He put a box of detergent, a bar soap in a wrapper that looked decades old, and a bottle of liquid soap on the counter, along with a huge box of baking soda, the size of which I’d never seen before. “This should do it.”
“Thanks. This is hardly the best first impression.” It was embarrassing, that’s what it was.
“We Zoomed, and before that, you applied. This is the third impression at least. You’re good.”
We chatted for a couple of minutes, but I felt bad stinking up his store.
“I’m gonna go find my place and clean up.”
“You said you're renting a cabin, right? You got a place.”
“Yeah. I guess no one’s using it, so they are renting it out.”
“Well, be sure to get some rest.” He handed me the things. “I heard your boss is a real bear.”
He laughed at his own joke. I wondered what kind of bear he was.
“I haven’t paid yet.”
“Yeah, that’s the new-guy discount. Don’t worry, next time you’ll be paying double for a loaf of bread because the next town over is too far away.”
I thought he was kidding, and he probably was, but also, as I walked by and saw some of the prices, it was true.
That was what happened when you didn’t have any big box stores.
But I didn’t mind. I’d rather go someplace where they knew my name, and I had a feeling that was the kind of guy Sampson would’ve been even if I wasn’t working for him.
I got in the car and used my GPS to go the final distance.
To say it was down a road was doing a disservice to the term.
The roads were rough and tumble, not quite dirt but not quite concrete either, that was until they became all dirt and rocks.
This was definitely more isolated than I anticipated.
The forest was thicker, which was good. My dragon could wander around…
not fly, but that was okay. He didn’t mind the ground.
Finally, the GPS said I was there. It was the cabin, my new home, which was good, because I was exhausted, I smelled horrible, and I needed sleep.
So much sleep. But when I got out, the area didn’t feel vacant, like I’d been promised.
I grabbed my phone and checked the email again.
I had the correct address. Yeah, I was right. This was the place.
But why did it feel like I was intruding on someone’s home instead of renting an old hunting cabin?
I told myself it was probably the landlord, who hadn’t left the key on the table for me like he promised. I grabbed my backpack with my essentials and went up and knocked. I could hear someone inside and didn’t want to rush in, so I knocked again and a third time.
When the door swung open, standing there, wearing only gray sweats that sat low on his hips, his hair still wet, water dripping down his muscles, was the sexiest alpha I had ever seen. He didn’t look like any landlord I’d ever met. Yum.