Chapter 4: Seven Years

Four black SUVs parked across the front of my bakery at seven in the morning, and every window on Main Street got a face in it.

I was behind the counter with flour to my elbows and a tray of cinnamon rolls in my hands.

"Mom," Hazel said, from the stool where she was supposed to be eating cereal.

"There's a lot of big men."

"I see them, baby."

"They're wolves," Jonah said.

He did not look up from his book.

"I can smell it from here."

My stomach dropped.

I put the tray down very carefully.

Sable Creek sat on neutral ground four hours south of Hollowbrook, and in seven years I had never once seen a pack car on its street.

I had picked the town for that.

I had a two-bedroom apartment over the shop and a loan I paid on time.

I had two children who thought their mother was a woman who got up early and made good bread.

They knew about wolves.

Everyone did.

They also knew I was not one, and that was the whole of what I had let them learn.

"Upstairs," I said.

"Both of you."

"But I haven't finished my..."

"Hazel."

She heard my voice and got down from the stool.

I took the back stairs behind them with my heart going so hard I could feel it in my teeth.

Jonah stopped on the third step and looked back down at the shop.

"Mom, the one in front is looking at us."

"Keep walking."

The bell on the front door rang.

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