Free BrightBlueMoon by Ranae Rose Page A

such an ordinary scene that the strange wonder Kimberly had been a part of for the past week struck her anew. The other shoppers didn’t have a clue about the secret world that existed in the surrounding mountains, had no idea how reality differed from everything they’d spent their entire lives believing.
    She was probably the only person in the entire store who knew there were people out there whose souls lived in more than one form, whose bodies could go from human to animal in the blink of an eye. If any of the other shoppers knew she believed such a thing, they’d think she was crazy.  
    A smile stole across her lips as she steered her cart toward a check-out lane. She didn’t mind carrying the secret, knowing that even though she was completely human, her knowledge set her apart from others. She’d carried the burden of her grief over Michael alone for so long that this was a welcome change. It felt good to keep a secret that didn’t hurt, and after all, she wasn’t really carrying it alone. She had others to share it with – Michael, Mandy and the entire Half Moon Pack, not to mention the bear shifters who lived nearby.
    There was no denying it – it felt good to have a secret that made her different while including her in something special at the same time. Even if it was something so crazy she wouldn’t have believed it herself if she hadn’t seen it again and again over the past week. Given that, maybe it wasn’t completely bizarre that she felt more at home in the mountains than she did in the city she’d called home for the past three decades.
    With that sobering thought in mind, she paid for her groceries and made her way back to the mountain where her rental cabin awaited her last night in the Smokies. With any luck, the next morning would bring a fresh start – one she’d been waiting on for twenty-nine long years.
     
    * * * * *
     
    “Braden Spencer’s last meal would’ve been breakfast for dinner, if he’d lingered just a little longer at his campsite before wandering alone into the wilderness of the Great Smoky Mountains,” Gus Oliver said, giving the camera a grave look. “According to the fiancée he left behind, he fried a package of bacon before leaving her to cook a batch of pancakes on their camp stove. After promising to be back within half an hour, he never returned.”
    Gus took a slow step, sweeping a hand in a broad gesture that encompassed all of the area he stood in, just below the ridge Braden Spencer had fallen over. Alex had a camera trained on him – presumably one equipped with night vision.
    The moon shone down, round and full – the second full moon of the month, a spectacular orb hanging high in the sky, bidding a special farewell to October. Gus treated it like his own personal limelight, his chest puffing as he walked a leisurely circle around the area where the hiker’s body had been discovered.
    “What brought Braden to this remote neck of the woods, miles from his campsite? Was he chased – did he perhaps stumble over the ridge above while running in a blind panic? No one knows for sure, but one thing is certain: after he fell to his death, he was not left to rest in peace.”
    Gus paused, and even from where Michael waited and watched in shadow with Jack, Noah and Daniel, he could practically smell the self-satisfaction rolling off of him.
    “Tonight, we embark on a journey intended to answer questions raised by Braden’s tragic death. Are the shadow wolves that left marks at the scene of his demise still out here, hunting for their next victim? If so, what will it take to stop them from striking again? Join us as we head deeper into the Great Smoky Mountains and expose the monsters that took a life here where I stand, just last night.”
    A low sound broke the silence, the closest noise a wolf could make to a sigh, and Michael didn’t have to look to his right to know it came from Daniel.
    Truth was, though he wasn’t vocal about it, he pretty much