Free Wolf Frenzy by Ava Frost Page A

excuse of an apple’s appearance, she might have seen his anger at her slight lateness –because of traffic, of all things- as an omen of many angry beratements to come.  Three years younger, and a thousand years stupider, she hadn’t.
    And now she was here.
    Her ride was long gone, the gruff man who let her hitch a ride in his truck snatching all of her money away as she tried to count the bills to pay him, leaving her with only the change left in her pockets.  She doubted any of these families with children, the excited couples, the eager-to-arrive and the impatient-to-leave would let her ride for free, or even if she had any money.
    Now what?
    She couldn’t sit here forever.
    Dropping the core onto the path, Kori heaved herself to her feet and just started walking.  Her empty backpack thumped mockingly against her shoulders with every step, now that she sold all her other changes of clothes.  Her cell was pawned the moment she left town, all her jewelry traded or stolen along the way.  Anything to get as far away from Jason as possible.
    Even thinking about him made her walk faster, until she was almost running.  She had no idea what this little off-ramp town was called, but the streets were busy and narrow, the streetlamps hazy.  Every shadow turned into her boyfriend, swiping at her with dark ethereal arms.  Her arms pumped.  She was gasping, breathing raggedly, puffing out hateful curses at herself for not exercising until her life depended on it.
    She had seen the news, caught glimpses of her face in the middle of newspapers others read on the bus or train back when she could afford to take them.  Jason was playing her family, playing the entire country as he led a hunt to find his precious girlfriend.  She wanted to scream at teary-eyed reporters, “He wouldn’t even let me read!  We haven’t had sex in months!  I sleep in the garage!”  But who would ever believe her, a hysterical young woman just out to cause trouble like her kind always did?  They would tell her she should be grateful she even had someone who would look at her, what with her weight and all.  Never mind that Jason was the cause of that, too.
    “Oh!”
    She tripped over a bump on the sidewalk, ripping her jeans at the knees as she collapsed forward onto concrete.  Her palms stung, grit sticking in her skin.  She stayed there for a moment, head down, breasts heaving, trying to be grateful for the chance to rest.
    Two pairs of hands grabbed her, on her hair and backpack straps, around the neck and beneath her shoulder, dragging her roughly to her feet.  She cried out in pain and surprise, trying to kick out as a hand thrust deep into her pocket and grabbed her empty wallet.
    “Hold her still,” someone whispered low and quick.  The speaker, a slender teenaged something with indistinct features, thumbed rapidly through the folds of her wallet as their silent companion held onto her with cruel strength hard enough to bruise.
    The moon was up, having relieved the sun.  Glistening white halos of light revealed narrower streets than before.  The assailants stood just at the front of an angled alleyway, hidden from sight the direction she’d come; beneath her feet, the road was perfectly smooth.  The bump from before now a tapping, impatient foot, having filled its tripping quota of the day.
    “Dammit!” the person with her wallet swore, dropping it into the dust.  They yanked off her backpack, and then immediately threw that on the ground also.  “Shit, bitch, where the hell do you keep your money?”
    Frozen with terror, she couldn’t reply.
    Hands roamed her curves, all the way up to pull on her ears.  She whimpered, terrified, knees going weak, only the strength of the one behind her keeping her on her feet.  “No jewelry either?”
    “I don’t….I don’t have…any…” she choked out.  Her bangs hung in her face.  Tears slid down her cheeks.
    “Hey,” the quiet person holding her hands behind her back