ChangingPaths Read Online Free Page A

the couch after helping clear the dinner dishes. They’d spent the
time they’d been awake and alone getting their bearings. Mentally Harmony noted
that she’d have to get them both cell phones since there wasn’t a landline at
the cabin, it was just too isolated to go to the expense of installation.
Glancing toward the living room where Rain sat with closed eyes and arms
crossed over her chest, Harmony realized she could hear the tinny sound of the
music from Rain’s earphones even from this distance.
    “No need to take that tone with me. I’m not the reason you
left.” Willow’s voice was firm.
    “You’re right, I’m sorry.” Harmony rubbed her forehead. It
was harder than she’d thought it would be, being back here. Too many memories,
not all of them pleasant, warring for her attention. When her own parents had
died, Aunt Willow and Uncle Jake had taken her in without question. Uncle Pete
and his wife Aunt Margie had also always been there for her, people she could
depend on no matter what. They’d been the ones who would have stood sponsor for
her entry into the Pack.
    And then Tom Marks had come into her life. She’d been
sixteen years old and hadn’t known yet that the moon would deny her. Though
most teens shifted right after reaching puberty her family had always taken a
bit longer. She had been looking forward to that, until Tom, then her entire
focus had been on him. He’d been so wonderful then.
    With his smooth city ways and his promises of showing her
the world, he’d swept her right off her feet and into his bed. She’d lost her
virginity to him before she’d lost her heart. Then nearly lost more than that
before she’d finally gotten away from him. The only good thing he’d ever given
her now sat in the next room.
    “The first couple of years weren’t so bad. I managed to get
my GED even though I was working full-time. We moved a lot. I thought it was
because Tom couldn’t catch a break, you know? He always had an excuse for
losing whatever job he’d found.”
    She paused, taking a deep breath, knowing she had to get
this out of the way but not liking it at all. Fortunately Aunt Willow knew the
reason she’d returned. From her desperate reaction to that first phone call to
the last time they’d spoken right after she and Rain had reached the Wisconsin
state line, Willow had been nothing but encouraging. She’d also never taken no
for an answer.
    “We’d been together for a while before things got really
bad.”
    “Was that when he put you in the hospital?”
    “Rain was three the first time. She’d spilled some milk and
when I didn’t get it cleaned up fast enough he just went crazy.” Yes, just like
so many other women she hadn’t learned her lesson. It had taken three more
severe beatings for her to realize that he wasn’t going to change.
    With the help of her sympathetic female boss she’d left him.
She’d taken their daughter and just kept moving farther away from him until she’d
wound up in California. There she’d managed to start rebuilding her life. She
and Rain had been happy there. Until Tom had shown up in their lives again.
    He’d claimed he had changed, that he still loved her and
their daughter. He’d said he wanted them back. She was no longer naive or
desperate enough to believe him but she’d wanted her daughter to know her
father. The first time Rain came home with a bruise on her arm Harmony had lost
her mind. She glanced toward the living room again. Rain hadn’t moved but she
couldn’t be sure the child wasn’t listening to their conversation instead of
her music. It seemed to her that the volume had gone down a bit.
    She felt sure Rain remembered some of her father’s violent
outbursts but hoped her daughter had forgotten the more virulent ones. She knew
she’d never forget the time he’d hurt her though. Rain had told her that he’d
grabbed her arm when she told him she didn’t want to do something. The next day
Harmony had gotten an