Prologue

“Pull in there, sweetheart,” Gabe’s mother said, pointing at a rest stop sign ahead. “It’ll be safer than waiting on the side of the road for a wrecker to come, and besides they have bathrooms.” His mother smiled over at him and Gabe shrugged irritably, unwilling to give her a smile in return. He knew he was being a grouch, but it was only the third day of their little vacation, and he wasn’t ready to take off back home just because some stupid alarm had gone off signaling a minor break-in at the barn back home. Theneighbor who’d been watching things for them called and said he had taken care of everything, and there was no need to interrupt their trip. Still, nothing would satisfy his mother except to get up in the middle of the night and head back home.

Gabe turned into the rest stop area on the highway, bumping along on the flat tire. They’d taken his mother’s car rather than his old truck, and she’d neglected to tell him before they left thatthe spare was flat. She’d dropped that little tidbit only after the tire blew in the middle of nowhere. They’d be lucky if the rim wasn’t destroyed.

He got the car as close as he could to the rest rooms, and she hopped out with a fond, apologetic glance back at him.“Go get yourself something to drink and a candy bar, honey, while you’re waiting. You always get grouchy when you’re hungry.” She hurried up the sidewalk to the deserted rest rooms.

Gabe sighed and got out of the car to stretch. He’d taken his mother on a week-long trip to the North Georgia mountains as a celebration that summer had arrived, and school was over for another semester.

His mother and father had been to these same mountains years ago on their honeymoon. With his father gone, this was a trip of nostalgia for her. She’d spent the days shopping in the little stores, and Gabe put in some time at the motel pool, working on his tan. It had been a nice, relaxing trip after his grueling finals, and he was looking forward to a summer’s break from school.

When their neighbor called in the middle of the night, his mother insisted on getting up and driving home, despite the hour, and despite his vehement protests. He was still a little angry they couldn’t have stayed a couple more days. After all, he’d turned down a trip with his friends to the beaches in Florida to take his mom on this trip, and she was ruining this for him too.

Gabe walked toward the vending machines to get something to drink, but before he could get to them he heard a strange animal-like growling coming from behind him. It sounded close— very close. He whirled around to look, but saw nothing. The woods beyond the paved area were dark and deep, but he could see nothing moving. The quiet surroundings made the howl that vibrated through the air next all the more blood-curdling. His reasoning mind told him it probablywasn’t anything to worry about. It had to be some coyote that ventured a bit too close to the rest area. Then a second howl shot reason all to hell. Gabe trotted back for the safety of the car, but not soon enough. A dark form slammed into him, knocking him down with a vicious swipe of teeth grazing his shoulder. Gabe threw his arms up instinctively, only to feel fangs sink deeply into his forearm, as his head struck the pavement. The feel of saliva dripping in his face was the last clear thing he knew for a few horrifying minutes. He was vaguely aware of someone screaming as he tried to fight the monster off. The world tilted. He was flipped from his back to his stomach and his faceslammed down on the pavement. He didn’t know anything else until he came to, covered in his own blood, headlights shining on him. His mother’s still form lay beside him on the sidewalk, and men shouted as they ran toward them. Gabe crawled to his mother, grinding his teeth so as not to scream in pain, refusing to accept what was happening, too overwhelmed with the shock.

“I pulled in here to make a trafficstop and saw the guy on top of you,” someone said, touching him lightly on the shoulder as another uniformed officer knelt beside his mother.

Gabe tried to sit up, crying out in pain, too devastated for tears as he watched the officers make a valiant attempt to save his mother. A trucker who seemed to come from nowhere tried to stop the bleeding from themost obvious and worst of Gabe’s wounds on his arms and shoulder.

“What the hell was that thing?” the trucker asked.

“Some freakin a Halloween costume, I guess,” the officer answered, still panting for breath.

“Jesus, what did he use to cut them?”

“I don’t know.” The officer glanced up at Gabe, his eyes drifting down to his nakedness from the waist down and darting quickly away.“Sorry, son, she’s gone.”

With a pool of blood spreading beneath where he sat and a scream starting in his throat, Gabe wished he’d died as well.

Chapter One

Gabe Sullivan raised his head and opened one bleary eye to look around him. Groaning, he closed the bloodshot eye and fell back on the pillow. He had no idea whose bed he was in. Nor did he have a clue who the guy was snoring softly beside him. Gabe eased his legs over the side of the bed and sat up, immediately wishing he hadn’t. Shit, how much did he have to drink the night before? He spotted his clothes on the floor beside him and pulled on his jeans as fast as he could, considering he only had use of one eye. The other one, throbbing in time with the heavy metal drum pounding in his head, he had to keep tightly shut. Picking up his shirt and his shoes, he tiptoed to the door—except for when he stumbled over the other guy’s shoes, stubbed his toe, and did a little impromptu dance on one foot before crashing into the wall. The dude in the bed must have been really drunk or pretending hard to be asleep. He never moved. In fact, if not for the steady rising and falling of the bed sheet in time with the snores, Gabe might have gone over to check his pulse. That crash had been epic.

Gabe got the door closed behind him with a minimum of noise considering he was still pretty damn wasted himself. He slipped into his shoes, jammed his arms into his shirt sleeves and stepped out of the house, hoping like hell his old truck was outside somewhere. Sure enough, he saw it right away, pulled more or less into the driveway behind a sleek, black BMW. He looked around the upscale neighborhood and failed to recognize it. Making his way to his vehicle, he found the keys still in the ignition. Thank God for the nice neighborhood, though it was doubtful anyone would want to steal his battered 1985 pickup truck. Still, it was all he had. He drove slowly down the street, hoping to find a landmark to tell him where the hell he was.

Once he got out onto a street with more traffic, it didn’t take long to see he was in Dunwoody, one of the wealthier northern suburbs of Atlanta and very distant in a lot of significant ways from the Stay Lodge on the interstate, his current abode. As he drove slowly home, he watched the rear view mirror for any signs of a cop. His breath would still probably blow way over the legal limit, and the last thing he needed was to get put in jail for another DUI. He tried to remember what had happened the night before.

He could recall drinking. And dancing. Lots of dancing. Slow, dirty grinding on the crotch of a guy with a hell of a bulge in his jeans. He couldn’t even picture his face or remember how they’d met in the little gay bar he’d been frequenting for the past two weeks he’d been in town. He wondered briefly if he was the one whose bed he woke up in, then shrugged in irritation. The blackouts were getting worse, and he wondered if he should be worried about them, then decided the hell with it.If he was lucky, he’d drink himself to death soon.

He’d sure be en trying to ever since the attack the year before had turned him into a monster. Not bad enough the fucker had killed his sweet mother.He’d also raped him violently enough that he’d torn him, even though Gabe had healed incredibly fast, leaving the doctors scratching their heads. If that hadn’t been enough, the bastard’s bite had turned him into the same kind of beast, waking every full moon.

Mentally clicking through a calendar in his head, he remembered today was Saturday, no work, thank God. A few more days before the full moon, probably the reason he was feeling restless and ready to move on. The temporary roofing job had lasted a few days longer than he’d expected, due to some problems the boss had run into.When they’d pulled off the old shingles, the decking underneath was rotten in places and had to be replaced. Gabe was cutting his departure a little close, and he needed to be out of town and far away from people before he shifted.He’d thought he’d pack his belongings and get out of the city this morning, and he still needed to, but it would be a few hours later than he’d planned. He’d head toward the North Georgia mountains. He hated the place after what had happened there a year ago, but it was close by and offered plenty of places to get lost for a few days. Despite his hatred of the area, he was strangely drawn to it more and more on these full moon nights. He had to wonder what the conflicting emotions were all about.

He had his camping gear in the back of the truck. All he had to do was swing by the motel, pack his few possessions, pay his bill, and get on the road by noon. He headed up Georgia 400 toward Gainesville.Figured he’d stop there and get something to eat while he decided how to get to the closest hiking trails.

He used to live in Alabama, in a little town called Centre, just across the Georgia line. He’d been going to school at Jacksonville State, studying agriculture, and he’d always planned to settle down to work his family’s farm, find a little house close by, and figure out how to tell his mama he was gay.He’d known she’d cry a little and then find a way to be okay with it. She loved him, and she wanted him to stay close to home and help her with the farm. His father died of cancer when he was in the tenth grade, and she’d been running the farm ever since, with his help and the help of some hired hands, and she’d done a pretty good job too. She was getting older, though, and was looking forward to the day she could hand the reins over to her only son.

But now his mama was dead and gone like the rest of his life, destroyed by a crazy, vicious, ravening beast of a werewolf. The monster had ripped out her throat and left him for dead lying beside her—or at least he was interrupted before he could finish the job.

By lunchtime, he sat in a drive-in in Gainesville, a medium-sized town in the foothills of the North Georgia mountains, eating a hamburger and trying to figure out where to go. Poring over the map, he found what looked like a large forest near the Georgia/North Carolina border which looked even more remote than the camping sites he’d been to before. He figured out the best route to take to the Nantahala National Park, not too far away and offering plenty of hiking trails where he could lose himself for a few days. The park was perfect for his purposes. Large and sprawling, the national forest would offer him plenty of trails to lose himself on. He would need to stay off the main trails and confine himself to the more remote areas, but the park was wild and parts of it so rugged and remote he could shift in relative safety.