by Maia Starr
“Your proof isn’t enough,” Danny said through clenched teeth. “This is all happening because of you, Ginny. If I had never met you, nothing would be going wrong right now. If only you’d been quiet and obedient like I told you to be, everything would be fine.” Ginny wanted to speak again in defense of her actions, but Danny snaked closed once again, leaning in to the point where Ginny had to arch her back away. “You’ll pay for trying to take my children away from me. Do you hear me, Ginny?”
“So now you’re making threats?” Ginny said, gawking. “You don’t know when to stop, do you? If the judge heard this—”
“The judge isn’t here,” Danny said. “I have powerful friends, Ginny. Friends that wouldn’t mind helping me with this case if you continue to fight me. You aren’t their mother; you’ve only been around them for a year. You are nothing to them, and I’ll see to it that you regret ever trying to take them from me.”
“As if I’d ever regret something like that.”
“You will; just wait for it.” Backing away, Danny let another cunning smile loose, just thin enough for Ginny to understand his intentions. “If you don’t back down by the next hearing, I’ll be forced to take...drastic action. Understand? Even the kids might be punished for how disobedient they’ve become.” Speechless, the weight of the courthouse bearing down on her shoulders, Ginny remained still, leaning away from Danny. “Good, then take the kids back home and cook up something for dinner.”
Turning, Danny stuffed his hands in his pockets and stalked away, his footsteps echoing heavily in the vaulted ceilings. “Where are you going?” Ginny asked suddenly, finding her voice once again. “You’re just leaving them with me?”
Danny stopped to glare back at her, clicked his tongue, and resumed his walking. In no time, Danny disappeared around a corner, leaving Ginny and the two twins to stand awkwardly alone in the near silent buzzing of men and women in business suits sauntering by.
Ginny didn’t snap back to reality until Oliver tugged on her skirt, causing her to crouch down to get to his and Grace’s eye level. His giant blue orbs bore into her, and with Grace by his side, the pressure to keep them safe shrouded Ginny. Danny’s words echoed in her head: Even the kids might be punished for how disobedient they’ve become.
Unable to even think of what punishing Oliver and Grace could mean, Ginny’s mind crumbled and rebuilt itself, her fears taking hold of her heart so strongly that only one option came to the forefront of her mind.
Ginny smiled nervously at the twins. “How do you two feel about going on a trip?”
An hour later, Ginny frantically unlocked the front door to her and Danny’s house. No, his house now. This place was no longer her home, if it ever was. Shuffling the children inside, she shut the door behind them, making sure to glance over her shoulder to ensure the car was still running.
“Mommy,” Grace said. “You left the car on.”
“Yes, I did!” Ginny said, trying her best to remain cheerful while using her hands to hurry the two up the stairs to the second floor and into their shared bedroom. “I left it on because we’re in a hurry. Do you guys remember where your suitcases are?”
“Yeah,” they both said.
“Good! Go get those and fill them up with your clothes, okay?” Ginny said, pushing them into their bedroom and speed walking into hers and Danny’s.
“Can I take Mr. Gali?” Grace called.
“As long as it won’t slow you down!” Ginny called back.
“I can’t find my socks,” Oliver said.
“Your socks are in the lower drawer, remember?” Ginny replied.
“Oh yeah...” Oliver said.
Through the commotion, Ginny hurriedly stuffed her suitcase, which she dragged out of her closet, not bothering to fold her clothes and properly pack her other items. Ginny thought it was good enough to simply throw everything in at once and clamp the suitcase shut. As long as she had her clothes, she could get the wrinkles out later.
“Are you two finished yet?” Ginny asked as she lugged her suitcase into the hallway. Peering into the children’s room, she found Oliver struggling to stuff a few shirts into his tiny suitcase, and Grace trying to place all of her stuffed animals into hers. Exasperated, Ginny rushed in, helping each and earning awed looks.
“You’re so fast, Mommy,” Grace said, clutching Mr. Gali, a pink sheep, to her chest.
“You’re incredible,” Oliver said simply.
Normally their praises would overjoy Ginny, but for the moment she needed to focus on the task at hand. “Take your suitcases and follow Mommy, okay?”
“We’re not staying here?” Oliver asked.
“Do you want to stay around Daddy?” Ginny said, eyeing Oliver.
Oliver, for his part, dipped his head. “No...Daddy scares me.”
“Then we’ll leave until Daddy gets better and doesn’t scare you, okay?”
Looking up at Ginny, Oliver nodded. Finally sensing her children were ready to leave, Ginny helped them down the stairs and out to the car, where she threw their suitcases into the trunk and buckled the two into their seats. Taking one last look at the home she’d known for the last year, Ginny put her car into reverse and sped out of the driveway, speeding away down the road, not looking back. She knew it wouldn’t be long until Danny figured out Ginny’s stunt.
When Danny arrived home, he was at a loss for words.
The front door, left unlocked and partially open, swung easily as he grabbed for it, causing him to fumble with it. Since when did Ginny leave the front door unlocked? Frustration had been bountiful that day, with Danny more than ready to pull through with his threats towards Ginny, but sometimes it was the simple things that got to him: the unlocked doors, the unclean dishes in the sink, the sly remark under her breath.
“Ginny!” Danny called as he walked inside. “I thought I made it clear to you that the door should never just be unlocked! What the hell were you thinking?” When no response came, Danny stepped deeper inside, listening to the eerie silence. “Ginny? Oliver? Grace?”
The silence continued, and so Danny furrowed his brows and stalked through every room on the first floor, checking left and right for any sign of any of the three. When he got no impression of where Ginny and the kids were, Danny grunted and turned on his heel to jog upstairs.
“If you’re playing some dumb game, Ginny, I’m really going to lose it now! I don’t think that slap was enough for you!”
At the top of the stairs, Danny found a lone sock, either Oliver’s or Grace’s; picking it up, his frown deepened, and his fingers tightened around the soft fabric. Hurrying up, Danny walked into the kid’s room, which was littered with clothes and toys taken out of their bins, way messier than Danny would have ever allowed. A nagging sensation tugged at the back of his mind, but Danny clenched his teeth and moved onto his bedroom, where he found more clothes resting on a bed, Ginny’s clothes, and one of her suitcases missing from the closet.
It was then that Danny Krisher finally realized what Ginny had done. At first, his mouth simply hung open in disbelief at the guts Ginny possessed to take the children and slip away right under his nose, but then his hanging mouth closed to a clenched one, snarling and rubbing his hand across his forehead.
“Ginny!” Danny yelled, punching the wall. “Ugh, that’s it! I’ll show you what it means to cross me!” Whipping out his cell phone, Dany raced down the stairs and bringing it up to his red-hot ear. It was as Danny flung himself out the door that the call finally connected. “Yeah, I’ve got another job for you boys. We’re going on the hunt.”
With that, Danny jumped into his car and sped away, ready to pull through on his threats to Ginny. One way or another, that woman would feel his wrath.↡¶
Chapter Three
Zander
It was just like any other day for Zander, being chased through the tall, thick woods of Silverwood Island, his dark brown hair shifting in the breeze as he sprinted through the overgrowths.
Two ho
wls behind him signaled the other two wolves were catching up. Glancing behind him, he barely caught glimpses of lighter brown fur racing over his trail, matching each and every step his gigantic paws made in the muddy earth. Within minutes, they’d be on him, tackling him to the ground, binding him under their combined weight.
Not on his watch.
Invigorated by a new wave of adrenaline, Zander shot off towards the west, vaulting over and under two fallen tree trunks, letting the wind slap him in the face while his eyes glanced every which way for an opening to escape.
The other two wolves howled at this new burst of energy, speeding up themselves. As their chase hurried and grew more frantic, each slipped and slid across the wet ground, the morning dew slicking their paws. The bigger of the two wolves chasing Zander tumbled into a tree, caving it in and causing it to topple over. The smaller of the wolves cackled in delight, slowing only for a moment to harass his brother and then continue the chase. Zander wished he could stop to laugh too, but that would only put an end to their game sooner than he desired, so he kept running, eventually finding a single open path to barrel down.
Silverwood Island was a beautiful place to live, to run, to survive. In every direction, misty morning light shone through the trees as if the entire island were shrouded in the sun. Scents of lavender and wet wood and frightened deer created a whirlwind to distract Zander. Even the sweat of his pursuers didn’t escape him, the heavy pants and thundering footfalls as they aimed to run him down.
Life or death, the choice to run or be still, to desire to win or be content with losing. This is what this game meant to Zander. All he needed to do was win.
The howling of the two wolves chasing him became wild and agitated, ready to end the game. Zander’s chest pounded with the endgame in mind, preparing himself for the fight ahead. Chases always ended in fights, after all. Ahead through the trees, Zander spotted a break in the forest...no, not a break: the edge of the forest. Beyond, the sunlight bounced off white hot sand, the lapping of waves crashing against the shoreline, washing stones and seashells into the depths of the ocean and vice versa. His nostrils burned up at the smell of the salty seawater, and his eyes sizzled and teared up at the salty breeze.
But then something smacked into him: a large furry body sending him hurtling towards the edge of the forest. Zander bit his lip; he was careless! As he tumbled past the trees and onto the steaming beach, he looked back to catch the menacing glare of the bigger light brown wolf, its eyes boring into him; the smaller wolf leaped past the bigger, sliding onto the sand after Zander, cackling as Zander staggered to his feet.
The game had finally moved onto its next phase: the fight. Zander panted as he paced in a circle away from the smaller wolf, who followed, still cackling. The bigger wolf came out to circle in the opposite direction of his brother, forcing Zander to be pinched between the two wolves. Looking between the two wolves, Zander snarled, his pulse quickening and mind racing. Think Zander! he urged himself, how can you take them both on at once?
He didn’t get much time to ponder his strategy, as the smaller wolf howled and barreled towards Zander, catching him off guard...or so he made the smaller wolf think. Just as the smaller wolf was about to barrel into Zander, he sidestepped but left a single limb in the way to trip up the smaller; it worked too, with the smaller wolf slamming jaw first into the sandy beach and sliding forward with his butt in the air, like something out of a cartoon. Zander cackled, but then soon enough the bigger wolf was set on him, causing Zander to flinch and recoil too late. The bigger wolf swiped a massive paw across Zander’s head, snapping him backward with a sickening crunch and rendering him useless as he swirled through the air. The next thing Zander knew, his vision blacked out and his body went limp.
He couldn’t say how much later it was, but Zander woke up, his sculpted features beaten by the howling sea winds that wormed their way from the ocean onto Silverwood. Sand speckled his eyelashes and stung his eyes as he rolled onto his side, coughing and wheezing.
“Ah, and our champion finally awakes, does he?” a familiar, funny voice said as Zander pushed himself to his feet.
“Looks like he actually survived that hit to the skull I gave him,” a deeper and commanding voice retorted.
“You need to start pulling your punches, Flint,” the first said.
“Be quiet, Ash. I’m the one who fought off a bear all on my own, remember? I know how to weight my punches.”
“Oh yeah, because you clearly held back this time.”
Zander’s head pounded heavily as he straightened his back and gazed around at the beach, his vision filled with the crabs oddly walking sideways on the shoreline.
“Zander? Hello? You okay, buddy?”
It was a moment before he glanced down, first needing to claw at the top of his head with his hand, unable keep balance without it, but when he did, he spied a person. Expecting a wolf, Zander was caught off guard by the bright-eyed, muscular, and naked man sitting cross-legged before him. He smiled from ear to ear, leaning forward as if awaiting some offered secret from Zander. “Well? Are you right in the head there, Zander? I know Flint can hit hard...trust me, I know. I’m his brother, after all.”
“Ash?” Zander said, his headache finally dissipating and returning him to his senses. Once he finished speaking his friend’s name, he glanced at his very human hand, noticing the lack of fur and claws. “Oh, I shifted back, huh?”
“After I smacked you to hell and back?” Flint, the leaner yet taller brother, said. A small and friendly smile waited on Flint’s lips, his warm eyes inviting Zander to come closer. Like his brother, and like Zander as he was finding out, Flint was just as naked. Zander couldn’t help but imagine if only the two brothers before him were women instead of men; sausage fests like these weren‘t exactly his thing. Images of the moments right before he blacked out rushed back into his mind, the fast mix of dozens of emotions as Flint moved quick as lightning to swipe his massive paw across his snout. Remembering the immediate past brought back the headache, and Zander clutched at his head as he lowered himself to the sand and chuckled.
“So I lost after all!” Zander exclaimed. “Makes sense to lose to my alpha...but at least I managed to take down Ash.”
“Take down?” Ash shouted, throwing up his hands. “Yeah, right, more like you got lucky surprising me with that dirty little trick of yours!”
“Nope, I saw it all. He got you good,” Flint said.
“See?” Zander reiterated, matching Ash’s wide smile. “Though I think your swipe was still too much, Flint!”
“Bite me,” Flint barked.
Both Zander and Ash burst out laughing, eventually infecting Flint with their raucousness. Falling back onto the sand, feeling the hot beach on his bare skin, Zander rolled his head to the side to look down the beach, only to spy something peculiar. A lone cottage stood on a small crested part of the forest overlooking the ocean. Dark gray and quiet, its door shut tight, Zander couldn’t help but stare at it. His alpha must have noticed his staring at the cottage because he spoke up moments later.
“Abandoned,” he simply said. “As far as I know, that little cottage hasn’t been owned by anyone on the island for as long I’ve been alpha.”
Zander’s steely eyes locked onto it while he leaned back up to a sitting position. Squinting, he made out some broken windows, the glasses cracked and shattered. Roof tiles appeared to be missing and shredded in the wind. And a cold breeze drifted down from the ledge, reaching even this far away. Despite its chilling nature, Zander’s body resonated with the breeze that came down from it, found how the cottage was angled to forever appear to be looking out over the sea to be downright tragic.
“What are we talking about?” Ash said, struggling to look over his shoulder, eventually just using his hands to turn him around in the sand. “Oh, that shabby looking house? It’s tiny. Looks lonely actually, as if it were some lost puppy.”
“I get that,” Zander said, catching the looks of b
oth Ash and Flint. “It’s hard to be alone, isn’t it? Even for an inanimate house.”
Zander knew all too well what he was saying, his own heart clenching at the thoughts. There were very few on Silverwood Island without a partner, without a mate to warm their bed and share their days with. Even Flint, one of his closest friends now, had been alone a year ago, though now Flint couldn’t lay claim to being a lone wolf. Zander still had the right. Sensing the concerned looks of his friends, Zander showed his pearly whites and crawled over to them both, throwing his arms around their necks and bringing them closer to his chest. “Aw, come on, what’s with the long faces? It’s just a house! Sooner or later someone will buy it, and we’ll renovate it for them, earning that sweet salary that’ll keep us alive on this gorgeous island of ours.”
Ash crossed his arms, pretending to pout. “Let’s destroy it. Burn it down!”
“Okay, now that’s just cruel,” Flint said, chuckling and pushing away from Zander. “You’d have to get through me first. No one blows down any house down without my approval first.”
Slipping out of Zander’s arms and clambering to his feet, Ash grinned like the fool he usually was. “Time to finally become alpha!”
Despite the piercing pain in Zander’s chest, his thoughts still lingering on his cold, empty bed at home, he jumped to his feet, gluing the smile he wore to his face indefinitely. “Hey! Don’t pretend like I’m not even here! I’ll have you know that I’m more than ready to take both of you on again and thrash you both around like a bear hunting salmon.”
Both the brothers laughed at his intense interruption, wiping tears from their faces. “Oh, now that’s the Zander I know!” Ash said.
“You never get old, do you, Zander?” Flint said.
For a moment, the aching in Zander’s heart ceased, his attention entirely on the duo before him. But as each readied himself, circling each other for round two of their wrestling match, Zander’s eyes wouldn’t stop darting to the lonely cottage.↡¶