[1st draft] Bora's near-death experience caused a brief separation from Gemma, but to live in peace, he must end the Seven Shadows.
Bora Hawk, the polar wolf, has an unexplained target on his back. His enemies want him dead, caged, or becoming the...
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Right past the high grass lake are two run-down boarded-up shacks that look rat-infested. A red sprayed painted sign said to keep out while the weeds almost engulfed the other shack.
I heeded Xannon's words before we left for our journey. Be careful. There are some crazies out there. They'll sniff you out before you notice them, but then it will be too late. Xann and Bora's parents claim they will catch up to us later, so for now, the rest of us travel together in Adam's new trailer. This place is in the country depths of Texas, near the outskirts of Louisiana.
"Someone supposed to be living here?" Wooly stared around with a twisted lip of disgust standing on the broken, sunken concrete.
"Seems so." I trek through the high grass, scanning through it to avoid deadly snakes.
"I think we stepped out of the Arctic right into hell." Carina wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead. She is sweating up a storm, watching her body glistening with tears.
"I'm sure the sun is Texas' neighbor." Bora stripped down to his shorts. Not that I am complaining as I watch him drip down to the belly button.
These new feelings I can't control, and ever since he came back, nothing about my body has been the same. Even my menstrual date changed. I'm two weeks early. He gazed at me worriedly at the heat flash beaming with subtitles breaths of the cool wind. His pale red chest is brightening. Maybe some tan lotion. I pulled out my book bag from the vehicle and dug through it, searching for a towel as well to get him dry first.
"Both of you are weak." Miska holds it together, but the mascara from her eyes is sliding.
"No transformations, and we should be fine." Bora leads.
"What if they show up?" Carina leaned against the trailer using a cool mist fan blowing on her face.
"They lived in the deeper Arctics, where they only get a month or so of summer. I doubt they will settle here."
Quinn spit out his laugh. "It's 74 degrees and clear skies. It feels like spring." He keeps making mocking jokes. "It must be a wolf thing."
"Shut up, human," Carina backfired. They argue like children.
"Make me," Quinn smirks.
Bora and I left them to it and wandered to the back of the house, seeing nothing but wood planks and broken chips on the ground like trash covering the yard with a dirty-looking pond and unkempt trees. "It seems no one is home. I doubt anyone lives here."
Bora used his hands like binoculars, looking through the dingy, scum glass. "The house is in ruins. It is nothing but dusty furniture and trash spread out on the floor. To be honest, you can't even walk through it without falling. And it smells bad," as he backs away, dusting his hands.
"I'll call them." Both Adam's and Malinda's phones went to voicemail when I called. I looked up at Bora. "No answer. What now?"
"Let's regroup in the front and figure it out."
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