CHAPTER ONE

 

Faith Harris stared down the unlit two lane road that would take her across the bay to Devils Point. The creepiest place on earth and current home of her insane twin sister.

Maybe she wasn’t clinically insane, but there had to be something going wrong in that brain of hers to move out here in what felt like the middle of nowhere despite being in relative close proximity to a big city.

The Pacific Northwest had a lot going for it with fresh air and lots of mountains and water, but these foggy islands were really not her thing. She preferred the creature comforts that came with living in Seattle.

Restaurants galore, a coffee shop on every corner to feed her caffeine addiction, and a safe, secure apartment building only a few blocks away from the college campus.

When she reached the bridge and looked over the water she saw nothing. The low lying white fog had rolled in and reduced visibility to barely a few feet in front of her car.

Faith continued slowly, hoping against hope that if any other cars were on the bridge with her, that they would stay the heck on their side of the road.

As soon as she found her sister, Rebel and was assured she was not lying dead in a ditch somewhere, she was going to kill her.

Kill her.

Ever since the death of their parents four years ago, she’d been forced to become the mother figure to her minutes younger sister whether she liked it or not. Unfortunately, with a name like Rebel, her twin did everything she could to live up to her name and then some.

And like her name, she was the polar opposite. Faith the good girl.

Just thinking it made her cringe. Did anyone ever stop to consider maybe she didn’t want to be the angel sister? Maybe she wanted to get a job in a strip club literally called Club Diablo on a creepy, foggy island and meet man after man without a care in the world.

She laughed. It was the most absurd thought she’d had to date. And lately these crazy thoughts were hitting her on a too frequent basis. Not that it surprised her. Her stress levels had gone through the roof as she went through the last of her finals and the fact her sister was not answering any of her calls didn’t help.

Faith frowned. This is exactly why she drove to this forsaken island in the first place. So she could give Rebel a piece of her mind in person. She only hoped it ended up as another false alarm and she’d find her sister shacked up with some new guy screwing like rabbits.

Before her mind could spiral out of control with worry once again, something moved in her peripheral vision. Automatically her head jerked to the right and saw nothing but fog. A chill ran up her spine as she turned to face the road again only to find a giant animal in the road directly in her path.

She white knuckled the steering wheel and slammed on the brakes, hoping they didn’t lock up before she got the car stopped. But the road was wet and the animal a little too close. Her brakes squealed and the scent of burning rubber hit her hard as her car screamed to a stop with a last minute thud as she struck something with her front tire.

She slowly peeled her numb fingers from the wheel and with one hand quickly shoved the gear into park. The rest of her body shook as equal parts fear and adrenaline coursed through her.

That animal had shown up in the road out of nowhere in a matter of seconds. What the heck was it anyway? A really big dog? Maybe a deer? She strained to see something—anything through the fog, but after a few moments collapsed against the seat in frustration.

She was going to have to get out and look. Her stomach lurched. The idea of finding one of God’s beautiful creatures had become road kill because her reflexes weren’t fast enough made her sick.

Why on earth had she driven all the way out here after dark? She could have waited until morning to come.

Because she had a bad feeling and she couldn’t shake it, that’s why.

With only one option to discover what happened, Faith unbuckled her seat belt and turned on her hazard lights before easing from the car.

Her steps dragged as she made her way around the front end and looked down at the road. And found nothing. What the–?

She walked around the entire length of the car and squatted by the hood and searched underneath with no results. Relieved that she hadn’t killed whatever animal that had appeared in the road, she blew out a hard breath and pushed her hand through her long hair.

A loud snap from behind made her jump. She whirled around and found a wolf not ten feet from her. Not just a wolf, this thing was massive. It probably stood to her waist. With her heart beating wildly, she took several steps back.

The path to her car door was blocked by a creature whose lips were now curled up, baring his teeth. She could run, but her every instinct told her if she did it would only encourage an attack.

“Hey there, sweet doggie,” she cooed with a shaky voice. “I didn’t mean to hit you. I didn’t see you. Are you okay?“ She kept her tone light hoping that he’d sense she meant no harm.

He growled in response and took a few steps closer. Faith backed up until her hip hit the corner of her car. There really was no other choice at this point than to run.

She turned on her heel and sprinted toward the woods. As she feared, she probably got less than a hundred feet before she felt the wolf at her back pushing her with his big front paws into the dirt face first. Tears burned at her eyes as she rolled, wriggling free from the legs pressing down on her back.

“I am not about to die at the hands of some mangy wolf.” She bared her own teeth in defense. “I have a sister that needs me to take care of her.”

The wolf stared at her and for a moment she’d almost swear it understood her. His head cocked to the side and his eyes focused in on her. For a few seconds she got her hopes up there might be a way out of this.

Then he bared his teeth again and dove at her…