Hunger of the Wolf

Hunger of the Wolf

Copyright © 2012 Francene Carroll

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this book. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Chapter 1

D
ense trees
blocked out the sunlight and
seemed to close in around
the Jeep
as Amber Lee drove deeper into the mountains.
She peered into the shadows
nervously, looking
for a familiar landmark
that would reassure
her she was heading in the right direction. She had only been to the cabin
at Fire Mountain
a couple of times befo
re, once with Dominic
for a romantic getaw
ay
,
and once with Kat and
Tiff
any
for a girls’
weekend. Both times she
had been so caught up
with
her companions in the car
she had barely noticed the scenery
.
Now she was alone
and
it made her sad to think back on t
hose happy days
that were gone forever
.

She was also
growing more concerned with each passing minute
that she had missed the turn
,
and she wished she had paid more attention
when she had the chance
. T
here
was no wa
y she could
have guessed
back then
that she would one day
be m
aking this trip on her own
,
but l
ife had a way of taking
unexpected
detours
she had recently discovered
.

Kat had reminded her
as she was leaving the city about the
large tree with a carving
that would appear on the left about one hundred metres before the turnoff
to the cabin. When she rounded a bend and finally
saw
i
t
,
Amber
should have been relieved. Instead a chill ra
n down her spine
. S
he slowed down and prepared to turn onto the dirt road that would take her towards
the lake, trying
not to look
at
the
striking image of a wolf
someone
had
etched
into the tree
.
The effect was
very life like
,
and
she was
unable to resist
taking a peek
. On
her
previous visits
she had found it
amusing
but t
oday
, for some reason,
it seemed downright sinister
.

T
rying to ignore the unsettled feeling
that came
o
ver her at the sight of the carving
,
Amber continued down
the winding dirt road through the woods, st
opping once to open a gate
she did not
recall seeing
before. She was beginning to
worry again that
she had taken a wrong turn
when she spotted
a break
between the trees
in th
e
distance
. She increased her speed
as she drove towards the clearing
,
and
finally
she emerged
at
the cabin.

I
n front of her t
h
e lake sparkled
majestically
,
and
a
ll her
fears seem
ed to e
vaporate
in the
warmth of the sun
.
S
tepping out of the car s
he took a couple of deep breaths and
she
was invigorated
by the fresh
mountain air.
She love
d
this
time of year when the last burst
of summer
still
lingered
but
the trees were
just
beginning to change colour
.
The mountain had been named for the spectacular way it looked in fall when
from the distance
it appeared to be on fire.
There was
a hint of the coldness to come
in the
breeze that
ruffled her hair.

S
tretching her arms above her head to shake o
ut the kinks from the long drive
,
she
took in the panoramic views surrounding her
.
The
timber
cabin
perched
above the lak
e was exactly as she reme
mbered
it
.
The woods came
right up to the house
at the back providing complete privacy.
A
mber
revelled in
the isolation and the silence, knowing
she’d made t
he right decision to come here.
The only sounds she could hear were distant bird calls and the occasional splash
of a fish
in the lake
. She could literally feel
the tension draining from her body.
This
was exactly what she needed to help clear her head and heal her hea
rt after the
drama
of the
last nine
months
.

Reluctantly she
turned her attention
back
to the car and began unpacking her bags, but as she stacked them on the gravel
drive
she
could not prevent
thoughts of
Dominic
intruding on the
peace
ful moment
. Unloading the car
had
always been his job
when
they went away
,
and it was
ordinary moments
like this
, when she realized he
would never be by h
er side again
, that were the hardest to bear.

“At least he was good for something,” she
said
aloud
, trying to banish
the ache in her heart
.

“Excuse me
,” said a
deep
male voice behind her, causing Amber to scream
and drop the bag in her hand. S
he spun
around
. “I’m so sorry.” The words came from
a
dark hair
ed
ma
n who
seemed to have
mate
rialized out of nowhere
. “
My name is
Jesse
Davidson
.
I have a cabin no
t far from here.”

“Oh
my G
od, you really scared me,
”
wa
s all she could manage to utter as she put her hand on her heart to try to slow its pounding.

“
I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.
I come down to fish from the jetty sometimes.
When I saw your car
I thought I’d better
introduce myself so you
didn’
t think I was trespassing
.”

“That’s okay.” Amber took some
deep breaths to calm herself
. “I
’m not usually
this
jumpy
,
but I
wasn’t expecting to run into anybody out here.” As she s
poke she
studied him closely
.
He
was dressed casually in jeans and a
checked
flannelette sh
i
rt and looked to be in his
early
thirties
. His
wavy
hair
came down past his collar
,
and
he had a three day growth that
gave him a slightly dishevelled look
. His
body
was lean
,
and
he didn’t seem much like the outdoors type
. He was wearing a pair of
old-fashioned
glasses
that were
a bit nerdy
,
but he was attractive
in an understat
ed way.
S
he could t
ell
from his
expression that
he was
shy
,
and
she found it
a refreshing trait
in a man
after
Dominic’s arrogance
.

Amber vaguely remembered
Kat sayin
g something
to her
about a cute
neighbour
called Jesse
when she and Chris
first bought the cabin
two
years earlier
, but she had barely taken any no
tice. She was happily married
back then and had no reason to think about other men. She definitely had no reason to think about them now because she had come to the cabin to
get away from everything. T
he last thing she wanted was to
encourage visitors
. She s
till had to be civil though, so
she held out her hand to him.

“I’m Amber
Lee
. It’s very nice to meet you
,
Jesse
.”

“You too,” he replied, taking her hand. “Are you here for long?”

“I’m not really sure yet, we’ll see how it goes. What about you?”

“
I spend m
ost of the year
here.
My cabin
belongs to my parents but they’re too old to get up here
much
now
,
so I pretty much
have it all to myself. I have an apartment
in the city too
,
but I don’
t use it often
. I find the peace and quiet
out here
really conducive to my work.”