Long Shadows: The Lycanthropy Files, Book 2 Read Online Free

out, making sure the garage door was securely closed behind us. Then it was out the side entrance and on to the back roads and the place where I knew I was safe even if I was less sure of my welcome: Crystal Pines. I caught a slight aroma of fuchsia when I turned out of the apartment complex, but it didn’t linger, and I grinned.
    So long, wizard!  
     
     
    A few hours later, I pulled into the Crystal Pines subdivision. Formerly the small Ozark village of Piney Mountain, it had turned into a weekend community for rich city folks who wanted to get away from it all but not really. I remembered I hadn’t called Joanie to tell her I was coming, so I pulled into the row of parking spaces by the diner. It was after the lunch rush, so there were plenty to be had. My stomach growled.
    I likely won’t have a job when I get back, I told myself. I don’t need to spend money eating out.
    A knock on my window startled me, and I looked up to see the craggy face of Matthew Grunden, the town’s social worker, peering in at me. He waved, and I wiggled my fingers back at him.
    “Nice car,” he said when I got out and stretched.
    “Thanks. It was a splurge last year after one of my P.I. cases went really well.”
    “You deserve it.” He kissed me on the cheek, but I didn’t miss the sniff he gave me. I wasn’t offended—I did the same thing. At least it was facial cheeks and not the other ones. He was one of the original members of the Crystal Pines pack, having been turned by one of the contaminated vaccines in the hands of evil scientists.
    “So what brings you up here?”
    The answers tumbled to the forefront of my mind, and it took me a moment to organize them. He misunderstood my hesitation.
    “It’s hard to think on an empty stomach. Let me buy you coffee.”
    “I’m fine,” I started to protest, but the growling noise from my abdominal region in response to a whiff of something savory and meaty caught me out in the lie.
    He smiled, and the wrinkles around his eyes deepened. “Not a problem, young lady. It’s been too long.”
    “How are the kids?” I asked once we got settled in a booth and the young waitress gave us the patented Crystal Diner “one minute” hand sign as she poured coffee for a couple of guys who looked like regulars the way their butts molded to the stools.
    “They’re doing well, and the last one of them finally went back to school this week.” Matthew grinned. “They’re like puppies and have already sorted out their hierarchy. Simon Van Doren has taken the alpha spot with Johnny Jorgens as his beta. The other four fall in line well.”
    “Any effects from being experimented on?” I shuddered. Although my memory had blocked the trauma of my own experience in the cave by the river, enough of the residual emotion remained that I still reacted, a classic Posttraumatic Stress reaction. All I knew was I lost my high singing range after screaming from being forced to change from human to wolf through chemical means. At least that’s what the others had told me. That and maybe it was a good thing I didn’t remember, although I wondered. It’s disconcerting to have hours missing from important memories.
    He shrugged. “It’s hard to tell since they’re going through so many other adjustments. I’m keeping a close eye on them in both their forms.”
    The waitress approached, pad in hand. “Hey, Matthew. What can I get you folks?”
    “What is that amazing smell?” I asked. “You’re venting it outside.”
    She laughed. “That’s our special today, a Philly cheese steak sandwich on one of Holly’s mini-baguettes. It’s got all the fixins and comes with fries.”
    “Sounds perfect. I’ll have mine medium rare, and I’ll do a tea as well.”
    “Split one?” Matthew asked. He patted his flat stomach. “I’m trying to watch my girlish figure, and my wife will have dinner waiting for me.”
    I agreed. I tried not to look at the empty corner booth, where I’d first seen and