Bitten After Midnight

Delaney

I was never drinking again.

Ever.

Not for a million dollars, a lifetime supply of chocolate, and free tuition. Actually, maybe for the tuition. College was expensive as shit.

I tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and nearly face-planted into a bush.

"Whoa. Okay. Rude."

I pointed at the pavement, though I wasn't entirely sure which of the three cracks I was supposed to be mad at. "You shouldn't be there."

The sidewalk, unsurprisingly, didn't apologize.

I giggled, then immediately regretted it when my stomach rolled over like a dog begging for a treat.

Oh, God. I was going to die.

Nineteen years old, barely three weeks into my freshman year at Greyhaven University, and I was going to die because some idiot named Trevor had convinced me vodka tasted just like lemonade.

It did not. It tasted like poor decisions.

And apparently I had made several.

I stopped beneath a streetlight and leaned against the pole, taking a moment to appreciate how wonderfully solid it was.

Unlike the ground. The ground kept moving, swaying under me like the deck of a ship I hadn't agreed to board.

"Okay, Delaney," I whispered. "You are a strong, independent woman who can absolutely walk home."

I nodded. Then frowned.

"Where's home?"

For one terrifying second, I couldn't remember. Then my brain coughed up the answer. Dormitory. Greyhaven. Third floor. Room 317.

With Sloane.

Ugh.

Sloane Whitaker was another terrible decision, though technically the university had made that one for me.

My roommate was a pretentious little princess who complained about everything from my alarm clock to the way I folded my clothes. Last week she'd informed me that my shampoo smelled cheap. Who the hell sniffed someone's shampoo and immediately started doing the math on what it cost?

Rich people were weird.

I dug my phone out of my back pocket, and the screen lit up my face like a flashlight at a campfire story. 1:47 AM.

Shit.

I was supposed to have left the party almost an hour ago. Or maybe I had left an hour ago. Time had become a very confusing concept. There were notifications stacked across the screen, but the words slid around every time I tried to read them, so I gave up and opened my maps app instead.

My phone disagreed with that plan.

Low Battery: 10% Remaining.

"Traitor."

I squinted at the little blue dot that was supposedly me. Greyhaven was only a few blocks away. Easy. I could do a few blocks. I had survived eighteen years living with my parents. Walking back to my dorm couldn't possibly be harder than that.

The thought sobered me for about three seconds.

I hated thinking about them. My father's angry voice. My mother's constant criticism. The way our house always went quiet right before something terrible happened, like the air itself was holding its breath.

Nope. Absolutely not.

I hadn't worked my ass off to get into Greyhaven just to spend my first semester thinking about the people I'd finally escaped.

College was supposed to be my fresh start. New school. New city. New people. No more walking on eggshells. No more hiding in my bedroom. No more wondering what kind of mood my father would be in when his key turned in the lock.

Just me. Delaney Mercer. Independent college student. Future successful adult.

Currently drunk off her ass.

I snorted. "Really nailing that last part."

My stomach twisted again. I swallowed hard and started walking.

The streets around campus had been crowded earlier, but now everything felt strangely deserted. Most of the houses were dark. A few cars sat along the curb, dusted with the first damp of the night. Somewhere far off, music thumped from another party, and I could just make out people laughing.

Lucky assholes. They were probably having fun while I was busy relearning how walking worked.

I pulled my jacket tighter. It was colder than I'd expected. September nights in Greyhaven apparently didn't care that I'd dressed for a house full of sweaty college students. My jeans were uncomfortable, my sneakers were rubbing raw spots into my heels, and I'd somehow spilled something sticky down the front of my shirt.

Wonderful. Classy, Delaney. Very classy.

My phone buzzed, and I nearly dropped it.

5% Remaining.

"I'm literally walking," I told it. "Stop being dramatic."

The screen went dark. I shoved it back into my pocket.

Ahead, the sidewalk curved alongside a narrow stretch of trees that separated the neighborhood from the university grounds. I'd taken this shortcut before. At least, I thought I had. In daylight it was actually pretty, with benches and little decorative lights and a paved trail winding toward the residence halls.

At night, it looked like the opening scene of a horror movie.

I hesitated. The long way meant another fifteen minutes of walking, and absolutely fucking not. I wanted my bed. I wanted water. I wanted to take off my bra and sleep until graduation.

"Shortcut it is."

I stepped onto the trail. Gravel crunched under my sneakers. The trees swayed in the breeze, their leaves whispering overhead like they were gossiping about me. For a while, the only other sound was my uneven footsteps.

Then something moved.

I stopped. Or tried to. My body kept going two more steps before it caught up with my brain.

"Hello?"

Nothing answered.

I squinted into the trees. A dark shape stood between two trunks. Probably a deer. Greyhaven had deer, right? Of course it did. There were trees everywhere, and where there were trees, there were deer. That was probably science.

I laughed quietly at myself. "Stupid deer."

Something cracked. A branch, and a fairly large one.

My smile faded.

The shape moved again, and this time it came toward me.

I blinked hard, trying to make my eyes focus. Whatever it was stopped just beyond the weak light spilling across the trail. Big. Really big. And black.

For some ridiculous reason, my first thought was that someone had lost their dog. A massive one, like those fluffy mountain breeds that weighed more than a grown man.

"Hey, puppy."

My voice sounded strange. Too loud. Too cheerful.

The animal went still. I took a hesitant step forward.

"Are you lost?"

Then it lifted its head, and I saw its eyes.

Dark red.

Not brown. Not amber. Red. Two enormous, unnatural eyes fixed directly on me.

My drunk brain scrambled to make sense of it. Dogs didn't have eyes like that. Neither did deer.

The creature stepped into the light, and my breath caught.

That was not a dog.

Its shoulders rose nearly to my chest, wrapped in thick black fur over a powerful body far too large to belong to any animal I'd ever seen. Its paws were massive. Its muzzle was long, and as its lips slowly peeled back, they revealed teeth that gleamed sharp and white.

A wolf. A big-ass fucking wolf, standing in the middle of Greyhaven.

I stared at it. It stared back.

For one completely insane moment, I wondered if someone had slipped something into my drink. Maybe Trevor's lemonade had been more than vodka. Maybe I was hallucinating. It had to be that, because there was no logical explanation for the monster standing ten feet in front of me.

The wolf lowered its head, and a deep growl rolled through the dark.

My stomach dropped. "Oh, shit."

It took another step. I took one back.

"Nice doggy."

Another growl.

"Wolf. Sorry. Nice wolf."

Its ears flattened. I raised both hands.

"Okay. I'll just... go."

I backed away again. The wolf followed, and my heart began to pound. Something about the way it looked at me was horribly wrong. Animals weren't supposed to look at people like that, like they understood every word. Like they were waiting for something.

Its mouth opened slightly, and its teeth glistened under the streetlight.

Then it lunged.

I screamed. Or I tried to. The sound snagged in my throat as I spun around and ran.

My shoes slapped the pavement. The trees blurred past in streaks of black and gray. I stumbled, caught myself, and kept going.

"HELP!"

The word barely made it out of my mouth. My lungs burned. My legs felt heavy and uncoordinated, like they belonged to someone else. Behind me, I could hear heavy paws, rapid breathing, and a low, vicious growl that seemed to hum right through the ground.

Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.

I was going to die. I was actually going to die.

I tried to scream again, and something slammed into my back.

Hard.

My feet left the ground. For one horrifying second, I was flying. Then I hit the pavement, and pain exploded through my shoulder. My face scraped across rough concrete, and all the air rushed out of my lungs.

I tried to crawl. A crushing weight pinned me down.

"No!" My voice cracked. "Please!"

Hot breath rolled across the back of my neck. I felt teeth.

Then a pain unlike anything I'd ever known tore through my body. My whole back arched. A scream ripped out of me, raw enough to hurt. Something warm and wet spread beneath my shirt.

I kicked. I twisted. I clawed at the pavement until my nails bent.

But whatever had me was impossibly strong. I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't make it stop.

Then the weight lifted.

For a moment I just lay there gasping, my fingers trembling against the ground. Somehow I managed to turn my head.

It stood over me, watching, those dark red eyes burning through the night.

I would never forget them. Not the color. Not their unnatural brightness. Not the terrifying awareness behind them.

My vision blurred. The pain was spreading, crawling under my skin like fire. I wanted my dorm room. My bed. I wanted someone to help me. Anyone.

The wolf lowered its enormous head until its face hovered inches from mine. I tried to pull away, but my body refused.

"Please," I whispered.

The world began to fade. The trees. The pavement. The cold night air.

But those eyes stayed.

Red. Burning. Watching me.

And then, finally, there was nothing.