SCAR (LOST CREEK SHIFTERS NOVELLAS Book 2) Read online

  When the pull finally grabbed her, she stopped and looked down. It had fallen open on a big map of Venice, Italy. Willow felt her insides light up and a smile beam out across her face.

  “I couldn’t have picked anywhere better.” She smiled to herself as she traced her fingers across the winding lines of the roads of the mainland and the canal-ways of Venice itself. And she let her mind begin to wander.

  Venice, out of all the places that she had randomly selected via her Atlas game, was certainly one of the most romantic and intriguing. She had long fantasized over the idea of traveling to Italy with the love of her life, maybe even visiting there when they were on honeymoon, but she was yet to meet someone special enough. Willow closed the atlas and felt her mood darken. How had something that was usually so enjoyable turned into a stark reminder of how she was still single, when everyone around her appeared to be coupling up and falling into blissful happiness?

  Even her boss Arlo had recently found love with a new girl who had come to town. And although Willow was more than pleased for them, she couldn’t help but feel as if she might be starting to want a significant other of her own.

  She picked up her cup and took a long, drawn out sip of coffee. As it warmed her from the inside out, she imagined that it must be the same kind of feeling people get when they find the one that they are supposed to be with.

  Behind her, the librarian sneezed and made her jump. The sunlight was beaming in from the windows high up toward the ceilings, and suddenly, Willow realized, as much as she loved spending her free time cocooned in there reading and learning, she wasn’t going to find the man of her dreams inside the old, empty library of Lost Creek.

  She got to her feet and drained the rest of her coffee cup before she gathered up her books and began to put them away on the loose cart for the librarian to stack away. It was only approaching noon and she had until 7pm before she had to be at work.

  “So,” she said to herself. “The question is, where to next?”

  The librarian looked over her shoulder as if she wasn’t sure whether she was being spoken to or not, and Willow smirked to herself as she turned and started toward the main doors.

  As she pushed them open, the bright sunlight hit her straight in the face. It was warm and caressed her delicate skin like a kiss. She looked up and down Main Street, and at the hustle and bustle of the town coming to life from its lazy morning. This was Willow’s favorite time of day, and there was only one place she wanted to be so that she could people watch and let the world go by.

  She crossed the street and made her way to Middle Park, a small circular field in the center of Main Street and surrounded by newly planted trees. The park, even though it was tiny, appeared to have sprung up one day out of nowhere. It had two benches, one at either end, and they both looked out down the street and over all of the shops and activity of the day to day life of Lost Creek.

  Willow chose the bench that looked out toward the mountains and she shielded her eyes from the sun as she looked up toward the snowy peak that was just visible from behind the high clouds. She could see the trail of ski lifts working their way up quickly and she wondered what it would be like to throw caution to the wind and take herself up there one day.

  Even though she had lived in Lost Creek for many years, the idea of winter sports had never much appealed to her. She was always more content down on the ground, where she knew where she was and everything was familiar. And besides, a town like Lost Creek had so many secrets, she didn’t want to find herself caught up in a situation that could potentially become dangerous. She had heard enough stories of what went on between the bears and the wolves of the town. And even though she was amongst a privileged few that were not part of a pack, but were still on the “inside”, she didn’t want to get in over her head.

  She rubbed her forehead and looked over to Arlo’s Bar. It stood proudly in the midday sun and she felt so much love and affection toward it. Willow had first taken a job there when it was still a diner and Arlo was just starting out. He had taken her under his wing and given her her first real job out of school and she had enjoyed her time there as a waitress.

  Lost Creek had become even more of a vacation hotspot since, and she had seen the town change to keep up with the demand for fresh places to eat and visit on nights when the skiers had stopped skiing and the walkers had returned from the woods and lakes for some relaxation. When Poppy, Willow’s new best friend, had rolled into town as one of the tourists several months before, none of them could have anticipated the winds of change that she would bring with her.

  Arlo and she had fallen head over heels in love, and now she was working alongside Willow on most of their nightly shifts. She had helped them change the place from a diner to a sports bar and now they were packed every single day of the week and business was booming. Especially in the summer months, when the town was alive with fresh faces every single day. It seemed that people couldn’t get enough of their laid-back atmosphere and the fact that Poppy and Willow worked side by side certainly helped pull in the male clientele.

  She had always loved being a part of Arlo’s, but since he had begun to date Poppy, Willow had felt as if it was maybe time that she try to find her own place in town. She didn’t always want to be the third wheel and she was looking forward to meeting a man of her own.

  “Why don’t you let me introduce you to one of my friends?” Arlo regularly asked her.

  She had seen the guys that Arlo hung around with, and although they were incredibly sexy, she knew Arlo’s secret… He was a werebear. And that meant that the majority of his friends were likely pack members of The Unbroken Bears too.

  Willow had never wanted to admit to herself that she couldn’t see herself with a man who could turn into a beast as soon as the moon was full, but the thought did secretly intrigue and frighten her. And she didn’t know whether she was up to it.

  “I don’t know, Arlo,” she’d told him. “I just want to meet someone on my own. I don’t like the idea of being set up. It would all feel too forced, you know?”

  And she had meant it. She didn’t want to find herself set up on a cringey blind date with a guy she had no attraction to, or anything in common with. But really, if she had been fully honest with herself, it was probably due to nerves.

  “Just don’t find yourself on the wrong side of town,” he’d said to her with raised eyebrows. And she had known exactly what that had meant.

  Don’t be dating any of those wolves…

  He may as well have said it himself. But Willow knew Arlo, and she knew that he would never voice it, even if he’d wanted to more than anything in the world.

  A truck screeched to a halt and began beeping its horn as an old lady walked slowly across Main Street. It snapped Willow out of her daydream and her memories, and when she looked down at her watch, she realized that she had been sitting there in Middle Park for over an hour.

  I better get home, she thought, suddenly aware of the mountain of housework she had left behind that morning and the fact that her night shift was looming toward her. She jumped to her feet and started to walk back to the edge of town, where her small apartment building was waiting.

  3.

  Home was inside a wooden residential building at the end of Main Street. It was built in the style of all the other places that were lined up and down the town’s main shopping stretch, and yet, inside, it was completely different to anything Willow had known before.

  Most of the residents of Lost Creek lived out in the woodlands or in small clusters of log cabins that were dotted around the perimeter of the town. But Willow had managed to bag herself the top floor of one of the only apartment buildings in town, and even though it was small, it was somewhere she loved to call home.

  She walked slowly up the three flights of stairs and approached the landing outside her front door. She had collected large potted plants over the two years that she had lived there, and she had arranged them underneath the skylight outside
her apartment like her own private garden.

  She checked them all lovingly before she slid the key into the latch and let herself inside. Warm sunlight was flooding through the windows, right up to the vaulted ceiling and beams, and she dropped her handbag down on the floor and kicked off her sneakers. When she had left earlier that morning, she hadn’t tidied anything, and her freshly washed uniform was still draped over the backs of the chairs that sat around her dining table, drying by the window.

  She walked over to the couch and started to fluff up the cushions before she dragged out the vacuum cleaner and plugged it in. As she rolled it over her floors, she hummed a tune to herself and thought again of Venice. Where she was, at this particular moment of her life, was a far cry from Italy, but she knew that she wouldn’t dwell on it. She could do anything that she put her mind to, and she was determined that, soon enough, her own time would come.

  When she finished her housework, she flopped down on the couch and stretched. It felt good to get her living space sorted. Clean home, clean mind… That was a philosophy that she had always lived by, and now that she was done, her day seemed to have opened up ahead of her again.

  Her eyes looked up at the clock and she realized that it was getting close to five pm.

  “Dammit,” she said aloud.

  She wandered over to the window and looked out and down across Main Street. She could hear the chatter of many conversations drifting up to her from below, and already, some of the tourists were getting rowdy outside the bars and taverns. Maybe she should head down earlier and have a drink before her shift began, she mused to herself as she rubbed the back of her neck. She had two hours before she was officially on the clock, and she knew that she could be ready in no time if she quickly pulled on her uniform and touched up her make-up.

  The decision was made. She darted over to the dining table, picked up her newly laundered uniform of short denim cut-offs and a black t-shirt and headed into her bedroom. Once inside, she stripped quickly and pulled them on over her head and looked in the mirror. When Arlo had first told her that he wanted to change the diner into a sports bar, she had been wary. But since it had gone from strength to strength, and she had gotten used to the new vibe around the place, she was enjoying it a lot more. It felt more grown up. She didn’t feel like she was just some waitress anymore…she was a bar girl. Someone who pulled big pints and served liquor. She wore tight revealing clothes, was lusted after by the men who came in to drink and watch the games, and she was having so much fun, it barely felt like work at all.

  When she had finished applying her lipstick and had tied up her long, dark hair, she slipped her feet into some flats and picked up her purse. She would be down there in less than three minutes, once she left her apartment, and even though she still had almost an hour and a half before her shift began, she didn’t mind. She had missed the place whilst she had been off, and now, she knew it was the right time to see her friends again and put herself out there in the world.

  Arlo’s was already busy by the time she stepped inside and the familiar uproar greeted her. Poppy was behind the bar, wiping down the countertop and when she heard the door, she looked up and smiled. Willow waved to her and headed on over, stepping through a crowd of men who were watching a ball game on one of the high televisions that were hanging down from the ceiling.

  “You’re early,” Poppy said with a grin.

  “I know,” Willow pulled up a stool on the other side of the bar and laid her purse down. “I was bored… Just thought I’d head down and grab a drink first.”

  “Good idea,” Poppy laughed. “Maybe I’ll join you.”

  She turned back to the refrigerators and opened up one of the doors. Willow watched as her hand hovered inside over the bottles of beer and then stopped over one of the town’s own. Arlo’s family had a brewery and they had fashioned many craft ales that they sold at various points along Main Street and at all the popular tourist spots.

  “This okay?” she held one up and turned back to Willow.

  “Sure is,” Willow said with a wide smile.

  She couldn’t remember the last time she had had a drink, and it felt good to finally be unwinding, even if she did have to work in little over an hour.

  “So, how were your days off?” Poppy asked as she pulled the caps off the beers and put one down in front of Willow.

  She thought on it for a moment and whether she should finally admit defeat and tell someone that she was starting to feel lonely, but there was a small voice at the back of her mind nagging her to hold back.

  “You okay?” Poppy asked when she didn’t answer.

  Willow hadn’t realized it, but she was staring off into space.

  “Sorry,” she said as she rubbed her forearm. “Yeah, I mean, they were great… Nice and chilled.”

  “But?” Even after only being acquainted for six months, Poppy seemed to know Willow like the back of her hand.

  Willow could feel herself beginning to crack.

  “I don’t know,” she said with a sigh. “Sometimes, I just wish I had someone to share it with. Not that I’m complaining, though, honest!”

  She had to check herself before she even finished her sentence. Willow had always hated people who moaned ab0ut their lot in life, and she was the first to stand up and say that she knew she didn’t even have it that bad.

  Poppy smiled sympathetically, almost as if she had been waiting to hear it.

  “There’s nothing wrong with complaining every now and again,” Poppy reassured her. She reached out and touched her friend’s arm and rubbed it gently.

  Willow nodded and sipped her beer shyly. She hated the way she had just let herself crack. But she would rein it back in; she would have to.

  Behind Poppy, one of the back doors to the kitchen slammed and they could both tell from the heavy footsteps that it was Arlo. He heaved into view with a huge crate in his arms and as he slammed it down on the counter, Willow jumped backward and looked up at him.

  “Someone’s in early,” he teased as he sat down next to her and wiped the sweat from his brow. “To what do we owe such an honor?” His eyes clocked the beer clamped between her fingers and he nodded approvingly.

  “I just fancied checking in with you all,” she said heartily as she slapped Arlo on the shoulder. “I have been off for two days after all.”

  “Dedicated team member,” he roared before he ruffled the top of her head with his big, thick fist. “I like it!”

  Poppy rolled her eyes and took a swig of her own beer before she reached down and got one out of the refrigerator and passed it to Arlo.

  “Things are busy already,” he said as he winked at Poppy in thanks as he bit the cap off with his teeth and took a long swig. “It seems like every week this summer, so far, has gotten better and better.”

  He looked out at the crowd enjoying themselves with pitchers of beer and nachos. Men who had their eyes fixed upon the television screens and had accents from out of town.

  “Well, it is summer,” Willow said. “It’s not like it’s never been like this before.”

  “Hmm,” Arlo said. “Maybe, this time, it just feels different because we’re not just the diner anymore.”

  “Maybe,” she said with a shrug.

  He smiled from ear to ear, taking in the rest of the bar and the crowds that were gathering and flocking toward the counter. It was just past six pm and Willow could tell that it was going to be a crazy night.

  “It’s a good job you’re here early,” Arlo said as he pulled her to her feet. “Looks like we’re going to need you,” he grinned and swiped her beer away before he passed her an apron and a notepad and pen.

  “Hey!” Willow jeered as she pouted and scrunched up her lip to her nose. Poppy burst into laughter and Arlo shrugged.

  She rolled her eyes and held up her hands, he was her boss after all. She pulled on the apron and nudged him out of the way cheekily with her hip as she moved behind the bar and joined Poppy to begin serving. />
  Not all of the men and women who had come into the bar that busy evening were tourists, and this was the part of Willow’s job that she liked the best. She enjoyed catching up with the familiar faces of Lost Creek and hearing snippets of gossip from around and about.

  Some of Arlo’s gang had come in and were loitering near the back wall, waiting for their usual booth to be cleared and one of them nodded over at Willow to go and help them with the empties that were strewn across the tabletop. She finished serving her customer and then moved quickly toward them; at the same time, she could see that Arlo was making his way over slowly and had a concerned look on his face.

  “What’s going on?” he said to the guys as Willow pretended not to listen and began to clear the table.

  The group huddled together slightly, and Willow could tell that the atmosphere had suddenly changed.

  “Scar’s back,” one of the older men in the crowd said through gritted teeth. Willow was sure that his name was Thorben and had been friends with Arlo and sort of an older brother figure to him for many, many years.

  “Are you sure?” Arlo asked sternly.

  Willow could feel the tension rising between them all and Arlo’s breathing started to get heavier with each passing second.

  “It’s definitely him,” Thorben said. “He’s back, and you know what that means… Blu won’t be far behind.”

  The group fell silent and Willow felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up on end.

  She had heard the names Blu and Scar whispered around town before, but she had never been sure exactly who they were. She loaded empty glasses onto her tray and kept her head down, still acting as if she couldn’t hear what they were all saying.

  “But you can’t be sure Blu will come back too,” Arlo said. “Just because Scar’s returned, doesn’t mean Blu will follow.”

  “Those two are always side by side,” Bodhi, another one of Arlo’s friends, chipped in. “From what I remember, they were never apart. Even up until that day… And long after.”