Tainted Mate (Violet Eclipse Shifters #2)

Chapter One

Josie

“Josie!” I heard the whisper-scream but thought I was in the middle of a dream. A hand clutched my arm and shook me. I sat straight up and saw my aunt at my bedside. Her face was red. Her eyes bloodshot. The veins in her neck protruding. Her shift was near, and so was her urgency.

Fear laced the air, sour, burning the inside of my nose.

My clock showed almost two in the morning.

“What?” I asked, voice raspy from sleep.

“Shhh.” She clapped her other hand over my lips. “You have to go, my girl. Run for your life. Don’t look back.”

My wolf picked up on the desperation in her tone. The terror scent came directly from her.

“Why—” I started, cut off by loud banging on the front door.

“Josie. Now!”

I shoved my window open and, with one last look at the woman who raised me, I bolted outside and fell into a shift, my favorite penguin pajamas falling in shreds around me.

Racing through the forest, I could still hear the angry voices and my aunt matching each one with her own anger.

My wolf meandered around trees and over streams and rocks, letting the chaos fade into the background while we ran for our lives.

They would never have me. Never trade me to another pack like money or cattle. I would rather die after making them hunt me down than to submit to some man twice my age and be his chosen mate.

No fucking way.

I sprinted away until my chest twinged. We’d crossed the pack boundaries.

Officially or not, I was rogue. No alpha. No pack. No rules. No being treated like an outsider.

We were on our own.

I forced the yearning for the comfort of my aunt aside and pushed forward. The moon hung low in the sky, and the sun would soon rise. To the east, cars. My wolf turned in that direction.

Fuck! I’d flown the coop with nothing. No bag. No money. Not even my favorite sneakers.

I had nothing.

Still better than a life of being locked in a cage of a forced mating.

The smells of food cooking drew me near. I approached the building up ahead. Eighteen wheelers parked in rows and bright lights near the gas pumps. A truck stop.

Maybe I could stowaway in the back of one? Steal some clothes from a truck? Not things I would’ve ever considered before tonight but when I shifted, I would be naked.

A naked woman, alone, at the crack of dawn, at a truck stop. Sounded like the worst horror movie ever.

A booming truck horn stilled my wolf form as my paws hit the asphalt of the parking area, followed by the hiss of brakes. Headlights blinded me. I stumbled back.

“What the fuck?” A woman barreled out of the truck and stomped over to me.

“You’re…” She scanned the area and I lifted my muzzle.

Oh, she was a shifter too. A bear shifter.

“Are you alone? Do you have clothes? Are you in trouble?” She crouched to my eye level as she spoke.

Her eyes were kind, and my wolf picked up nothing but truth in her voice.

I turned my head, scoping out the area. There was no one else near, and I had to speak to her.

Maybe she could help me out of here. Thinking the coast was clear, I shifted to two legs.

No reason to feign modesty with another shifter.

We were used to nudity. “I’m alone,” I said, clearing my throat. “I ran from my pack. I have nothing.”

She nodded as though my words were the catalyst she needed to take action. “I have some clothes for you. I have about four hundred more miles until I have to drop this load and go back home. There are some stops along the way, but you can ride with me.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I…can’t repay you.”

“No need. We girls have to stick together. Here.” She lifted her hand and opened her truck door. “Get in. I’ll get you the clothes then fill up and get us some breakfast. Deal?”

I nodded. “Deal. Thank you so much.”

“No need. Here.” She pulled out some underwear and a matching sweatshirt and jogging pants, along with some socks and tennis shoes.

Never thought I’d be in someone else’s underwear, but desperate times.

“Get those on while I take care of things. Is someone after you?”

“Yes. My pack. They wanted to trade me to an old sicko alpha.”

“Enough said. Fucking bastards. We’ll be on the road in less than thirty minutes. Stay in the back. It’s darker, and no one will be able to see you if you crouch behind one of the seats.”

She dropped from the truck and entered the truck stop while I put on the clothes and waited, counting my breaths until I got out of here. My pack steered clear of humans and their places as much as they could. I doubted they would come here, even if it was over their hunt for me.

“Hurry up,” I murmured from behind the driver’s seat as the woman pumped gas. Shit. I hadn’t asked her name but she hadn’t asked mine either. Maybe that was by design. The less she knew, the more easily she would claim she didn’t see me.

Minutes later, the woman got into the truck and, after we were on the road, urged me to get into the passenger seat.

She’d bought me not only breakfast but a small backpack and filled it with snacks.

This woman was a saint. “Go on and sleep while I drive. It’s a long way and you look like you could use the rest. I’m Daria by the way. ”

I didn’t argue, exhausted.

Daria had recently had her mating dissolved. Her husband didn’t work but complained about her being on the road so much. Then she found he was cheating on her, and it all was over. She claimed she would never mate again. Maybe she would find a human male and marry him.

We agreed that trusting men was hard.

Late that afternoon, she stopped in a city that looked like a perfect place for a new start.

Lots of small businesses lining the clean streets, people walking along the sidewalk.

“This is the end of the line. I’m about twenty minutes away from my drop.

Here…” She pulled some cash from her pocket.

“I didn’t think about getting out more from the ATM.

This is all I have.” It was almost forty dollars.

Not a lot but enough to feed me for a few meals. I hoped.

“Thank you, Darla. For everything.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t do more, kid. Take care of yourself. This world can be a bitch.”