Silver Moon (A Women of Wolf's Point Novel) by Catherine Lundoff

borrowed clothes dripped with sweat as she shed them on her way to the shower. She would get clean of this, somehow. Unthinking, she washed her hands thoroughly, forgetting that the blood was evidence if she really wanted to confess. She scrubbed vigorously, turning her skin hot and pink under the pressure.
    She had toweled off and was getting dressed again when she heard the knock at the front door. For a moment, she thought about pretending she wasn’t home or ducking out the back. Instead, she forced her reluctant feet to the door. She couldn’t hide forever, right? She found herself face to face with Erin through the glass inset on the front door. “Go away.” She surprised herself by meaning it.
    “Will you come by when you’re ready to talk?” Erin asked. Her eyes were sad and she looked worn down. “Please?”
    Becca nodded as if her head was on strings and Erin walked slowly away. She watched her neighbor go back to her porch. Molly was waiting for her. They went inside and Erin shut the front door.
    Becca groaned. She’d have to talk to one of them sooner or later. That or leave Wolf’s Point. Town was too small to avoid the whole group for long, especially when she worked for the leader of the Pack. She wondered if Pete and the kids knew about Shelly. He probably did; they didn’t seem to keep many secrets from each other. And how was she supposed to act around them now?
    Then it hit her: she didn’t have to stay. She could leave Wolf’s Point. Maybe that would get her outside the boundaries of the curse or whatever it was. If she got “called” because she lived here, why couldn’t she get “uncalled” if she left? She looked around the room and dismissed her possessions with a glance. There wasn’t time to pack. The moon was still pretty full tonight and she might change again. She’d seen that on TV once. She could come back for the rest or send for it when she was ready.
    She raced upstairs, refusing to look around her at the shabby, worn chairs or the one photo of her and Ed that she couldn’t manage to hide away or the knickknacks she’d inherited from her mother or her shelf of books. She’d think about what she wanted later, once she was safe and everything was back to normal.
    An hour later, her clothes and necessities were stuffed into a bag, and she and it were stuffed into her car. She forced herself not to peel out of the driveway. Two hundred miles away should do it; that was the limit of the original ordinance. Becca guessed that outside that zone, middle-aged women were just what they seemed and monsters didn’t run through the woods at night. Out there, maybe she could be boring, divorced Becca Thornton who didn’t change into things she shouldn’t under the moon and didn’t have thoughts she shouldn’t about her across the street neighbor either. Everything would go back to the way it was.
    She floored the gas once she got past the sheriff’s speed trap at the edge of town. No point in getting pulled over by Lizzie or one of the other deputies when she was this close to getting away. She hesitated when she hit the main road though, and paused, wondering where to go next.
    Then she remembered her cousins Marybeth and Hal up in Mountainview, about four hours away. They’d been after her to come visit since the divorce, said she was welcome whenever she had time, in fact. Now, well, she had nothing but time.
    Her phone chirped in her bag but she ignored it. She’d have to call Pete and Shelly from Mountainview while she was at it and spin some yarn, maybe something about a sick relative needing emergency care. They’d understand that, and it would give her an excuse if she decided not to come back. When she decided.
    That just left Erin and Becca wasn’t ready to think about her yet. Besides, Erin was a monster, like the rest of them, running through the woods and attacking people. But Becca was different. She was going to beat this thing. Then she’d make new friends,