Warrick ran with the confidence of a young Alpha. His paws alighting upon the ground as he skimmed through the woods. Wind whipped through his black and gray coat. Small animals scurried away as his large wolf ran freely through the forest.

I slammed Springer's head against the brick of the alleyway. If he breathed, he'd be purple by now. He was 5'9" with nearly white blond hair and violet eyes. It was the bloodline of my sire that gave him those eyes, and I was about to take them back if he didn't have the money he stole from me.

The drive hadn't been as bad as I was expecting. Driving from my home in Nevada to my great aunt's home in southwestern Oregon was beautiful. I went through sage covered high desert and tree covered mountains. Sometimes I drove next to a river and watched the birds swooping over the sparkling water.

It was a warm, early spring day and the world smelled amazing. The trees were just starting to turn green and flowering. The grass was soft and vivid in the sunlight. Everything was perfect.

Xander Phillips walked carefully through the woods. He and his partner, Paul Garrison, had been called out to track a suspected supernatural hiding in the area. There had been nine calls in the last three nights and they'd pinpointed it to the southwest corner of the wooded area near the county line.

I was in my bathroom, working on applying my makeup. It had been about a month since I'd joined the Vasili's household and he'd finally gotten me a meeting with the doctor who killed my mother. We were seeing him in an hour and I was pretty excited.

I sat in the tree tops and leaned forward, adjusting my braided bun. For three days, I'd been scouting the area. Lots of ex-trackers would come through here, but I would lose their scent. There had to be an entrance nearby and I intended to find it.

It was getting dark; I knew I didn't have much longer until I could leave the cave that had been my refuge during the blazing summer day. Once the sun set, I would shift into my wolf form and head out. I loved running as my sleek, rust colored wolf and experiencing the world.

Jaxon stared out the window of the bus as high desert and sagebrush rolled past. He was on his way to Kotter's Folly, Texas. It was a medium size city in Trailbrush County.

A Growing Collection of Stories from the world of the Twisted Design Series.