LITMIR.BIZ

      Here’s To Pie In the Sky

      Chapter 1

      Emily parked her car outside of the warehouse and waited. She was terrified but determined. It was a chilly autumn day. The small trees that lined the road had lost most of their leaves as they prepared for winter, giving them a somewhat skeletal aura. Above, gray skies stretched out, blotting the sun in a heavy weight of dreariness. It mirrored her mood nicely.

      At another time—what seemed like a lifetime ago—she’d loved the fall. The colors, crunchy leaves, and the hint of warm apple cider in the air. It’d always filled her with a sense of happiness. Of contentment. Now, in this place so far from home, it was just a cold reminder of hard months ahead.

      Any minute, the warehouse employees would be leaving the building. She was going to confront him. She’d never seen him in person. The passenger seat of her car was littered with pictures and documentation from a private investigator she’d hired six months ago. Right after her sister suddenly disappeared. He’d been expensive, but finding Amber was worth any price.

      She hadn’t ended up with as many details as she’d hoped for, though, since he’d just up and disappeared one day, as well.

      While not as well informed as she’d hoped to be when the investigator vanished, she was able to use the information he’d already supplied to pick up the trail right where he left off. His last batch of pictures had contained several shots of her missing sister—proof positive Amber was still alive—and a single five-by-seven of the man who had her. Enclosed was a two‐page letter Emily had first thought to be a tasteless joke.

      It read like the rambling of a madman. One word recurred again and again in excited print.

      Werewolf.

      On the day he was supposed to call and give her an update, she’d been waiting by the phone, ready to blister his ears and demand her money back. How dare he blame her sister’s disappearance on his delusional fantasies?!

      But the call never came.

      It was only a few days later when she’d been politely excused from two different police stations. As soon as the officers pulled Amber’s information and saw her sordid history, they shrugged off her disappearance, saying she’d likely run off with the man in the photo, and there was simply nothing to indicate otherwise. Then, in a roundabout way, informed Emily she was better off to let it go and move on with her own life. Unfortunately, the local police knew Amber.

      Well.

      They also knew this wasn’t her first disappearance. But Emily couldn’t just walk away and move on. While her relationship with her sister was . . . strained, to say the least, Amber was the only family Emily had left. Their mother had passed a few years ago, leaving her two daughters all that remained of their little family.

      A few days after her ill‐fated attempt to contact authorities, Emily got her first glimpse of the monster the investigator had warned her about. It was a night she’d never forget. She bore the deep grooves on her arm from the beast’s claws for weeks after the attack. The human man that accompanied the creature claimed it was a warning to let it go and leave it alone.

      Idiots.

      It was the attack that spurred her to start doing her own research. Months later, the research had led her here, to this quiet small‐town street in Maine. Now she was waiting for the pack leader to leave work so she could follow him home and hopefully find Amber. She’d stared at the picture of him so many times in the past months, his face haunted her dreams. She’d know him anywhere.

      When the whistle that announced quitting time finally blew, her heart seemed to grow cold with nervous excitement. She slumped down in her seat to avoid notice as the workers began to file through the door and scatter into the parking lot.

      She paid no attention to them, because the moment he walked through the door, she locked onto him like a radar. Nothing could break her focus. She was surprised her hot stare didn’t burn a hole in the side of his head as he walked along the sidewalk that hugged the building and led into the employee parking.

      She had a moment of panic when he stopped suddenly and looked around, then tipped his head up and seemed to take in a deep breath. Smelling, no doubt. He was a hunter, and something had clearly triggered his instincts. That she knew it was her—while he didn’t—gave her a small thrill of satisfaction.

      His behavior only lasted a moment.

      Not long enough to be noticed by anyone around him. He seemed to dismiss it as he continued toward his truck.

      Emily waited as the old truck pulled past her before she started her car. She wouldn’t have much trouble following the truck since it was white with a big orange stripe down the side, and something in the engine knocked loudly.

      Using the rush of workers as cover, she pulled into the flow of traffic almost a block behind him. She was comfortably hidden by the vehicles through town, but every few blocks more people turned down side streets, slowly dwindling her cover until there was no one left to act as a buffer. His blinker indicated a left turn onto a country road, and Emily quickly decided to go straight through the four‐way stop instead of following him directly.

      She was so close.

      She crossed through the intersection and turned her car back around as soon as he was out of sight. With a deep breath to calm her jangling nerves, she turned onto the country road he’d taken and began to follow the cloud of dust left in the wake of the ancient truck.

      It was even easier than she expected since the old gravel road gave her nearly half a mile worth of dust cloud, which was plenty of distance to go unnoticed and acted as a perfect cover. It wasn’t a long drive, maybe fifteen minutes at most, but it seemed like forever to her.

      She

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