Inever thought my lifetime of misfortune would lead to becoming a werewolf.

In theory, I knew what a werewolf was. Who didn’t watch movies, or read books, or watch some serial on Netflix? But that was fiction, until I learned it wasn’t.

The madness began with a breakup. Isaac had a lot of secrets, one of which was his wife of ten years. I thought that was the worst of it. It made sense; he was an attractive guy, muscles, a charming smile, money from a good paying job. He’d flirted with me the first day I started working at the only gas station in town.

Back living at my aunt’s after failing spectacularly in my attempt at college, there hadn’t been a lot of job options open. The gas station was easy. Late shift offered a pay bump, and I was a night owl anyway. He had walked in to fill his big SUV on his way back from the city. Looked like he was an accountant or something, as he was dressed nice in fitted slacks and a button-down.

I was a sucker for clean-cut, or anything, really. Affection and attention were the draw, no matter how I got it, which was how I’d gotten kicked out of college. I got caught sleeping with a professor. Since I knew a handful of people who slept around even more than I had, I attributed it all to my misfortune. After all, my mom had given me up at five years old, claiming I brought nothing but bad luck. My aunt took me in and her own long streak of bad luck began. I tried to apologize and help as much as I could, but the cloud of trouble remained. She’d done the best she could, given me attention and helped me through school, but as a nurse, she had worked a lot, and come home exhausted. The rest was all on me. Bad grades in high school, led to no real scholarship chances, which made community college sound like a good idea to get out of this tiny, middle of nowhere town. That hadn’t worked either, and I ended up back with my aunt, trying to make some sort of progress to being a responsible adult.

Then Isaac had stepped into my life. A whirlwind affair, him flirting, us fucking. I wasn’t the sort of queen who made a man work hard to get into my bed. I thought he liked me, had been on the verge of something with him. Like maybe we could be more than a fling? But I had gone into town to get bread from the bakery before heading home after an overnight shift, and ran into Isaac with the wife. He’d gotten uncomfortable fast. Introduced me as the guy who worked at the gas station. I didn’t even have a name at that moment.

Honestly, I shouldn’t have been mad. It was all par for the course, my life often derailing just as I thought something was going well.

The threat to my job had been unexpected. Isaac had shown up the following night at the station, after ignoring my texts and calls all day, threatening to get me fired if I said anything to anyone. His eyes were wild. I wondered how much of the man that I thought I knew was an act. Ending things now seemed like dodging a bullet, as he seemed more than a little unhinged. Three months of casual sex didn’t mean I owed him shit, but I had learned caution in my short, chaotic life.

“Okay, man,” I said, “No harm, no foul. No worries.” I wasn’t dumb, just sort of cursed. Since I was on the smaller side, and knew for a fact that Isaac had a crazy and almost, ha, supernatural physical strength, I tried to talk him down. “Not saying anything to anyone. But maybe it’s best if we call it quits, yeah? It was nice while it lasted, but I don’t want to mess with things with your wife. She seems like a nice lady.” Compliment and take the blame. That was the key to getting out of trouble. “You’re too good for me anyway, nice job, pretty wife, good family. I don’t want to interrupt all that.”

He breathed for a few minutes like he was having trouble understanding my words. Was he taking something? I’d never noticed, but again, mostly we fucked. Personal stuff not really on the table, and that was okay. I didn’t plan to stay in Maple Falls. The world beyond was bigger, easier to get lost in, and had plenty of hot guys and adventure. I just had to figure out a way to afford to escape this backwoods town and minimize my curse.

“You okay?” I asked him as he stood there breathing.

After a minute, he nodded. “A break, maybe?”

“Sure, if that’s what you want.”

He nodded like one of those bobblehead dolls, though I had no intention of ever seeing him again. Not a break, but a full break up. Goodbye, have a nice life type of thing.

“A break sounds good. She is a nice lady.” His words sounded very robotic, like he was trying to convince himself rather than me.

I gave him a smile, hoping it would get him moving out the door. The sex had been good, but not enough to put up with the obvious lack of control he had. “Great! Well, I’ll see you around, right? Have a good night.”

He stood there another long minute, and I worried he wouldn’t leave. It wasn’t even ten yet, and my shift didn’t end until five when the morning attendant came in. I’d be alone until then. If he went nuts, I could call the sheriff, but they would take a while to arrive. Plus, I suspected doing something like that would get me fired, since Isaac was a regular, and well-known in town. While I was sort of the troubled kid, back from screwing up at college, and most people only knew me from my few months of working at the gas station.

Finally, he shifted his weight from foot to foot for another minute, the sound of a car pulling into the gas station making him look out toward the lot. Then he nodded. “Take care of yourself, Toby,” he said, and walked out.

I thought it would be the last I saw of him and spent a minute admiring his nice ass and broad shoulders as he walked out. The new arrival called out a greeting to him as he passed to enter the convenience store. Everyone knew him by name. The town was small, and again, this was the only gas station.

“Hey, Toby,” Liam Ulrich greeted me as he headed toward the back. “Did you get eggs in? The grocery store is out, delivery delayed, and I need to make sure my morning crew is ready for prep.”

“Yeah, loaded the case,” I said. “Need me to help you get it all to the car?”

“Nah,” Liam said, waving at me. He was a nice-looking man, pretty almost, not as broad as Isaac, but something about him always made me pause. Liam didn’t look like he could mess someone up, but I got the feeling he could, a vague sense of don’t fuck with the pretty baker. He’d always been friendly enough, though I knew most of the town deferred to him for everything from planning festivals to housing developments. It was strange, more like he was a mob boss than some bakery owner. “You okay with me clearing the case?”

“Sure,” I agreed. “The boss doesn’t care as long as it’s paid for. Wouldn’t want you all to run out of eggs. I’m hoping to stop by your shop after work and grab some sweet bread. Aunt Jillian has been begging for it.”

He disappeared into the back for a moment to grab a box, knowing his way around the shop. “How’s Jillian doing? I heard she took a bit of a fall.”

Since she was nearly seventy, it was a big deal, but I didn’t think it was my fault. I hadn’t been home when it happened. “She’s okay. No break, just bruises. Has one of those bracelets now, linked to my phone, in case something happens.”

“Good thing she has you around to help,” he said, carefully stacking up the eggs.

“She’s been talking about moving to Tacoma to live with her daughter,” I admitted, depressed by the idea, as there wasn’t a place for me there. It had been her plan once I’d gone off to college. But I was still messing up her life as much as I was messing up my own.

“Might be better to be close to the city and a good size hospital,” Liam agreed. “Would you go with her? I can’t imagine working here is all that exciting for you.”

“Not really. I’m saving money. Think I might move south.”

“Jillian has been here for ages. Pillar of the town, really. We’d miss her, but I understand.” Liam gave me a warm smile. “Let me know if you need anything. Help with getting her anywhere, or a new place to work.”

He wasn’t flirting. I knew he had an ex-wife and a pre-teen daughter, but he came across to me as unavailable. A vibe most straight guys gave me, but also sort of sexless? I’d met a guy in college who identified as asexual, and he hadn’t really had a vibe either. It was like a lack of sexual presence, the absence of some sort of pheromones or something? I wasn’t about to ask Liam his preferences and chance that hidden dark strength pointing in my direction. I’d always had a very keen instinct that had yet to steer me wrong, even with my bad luck. My problem was that I rarely listened to it, and thought too often with my little head rather than my big one.

“Thanks,” I said as I rang up the massive haul of eggs. “Not sure I’m cut out for a bakery. I’m not an early morning sort of guy.”

“Or super early if you look at it that way,” Liam said.

I laughed. True. Never got to bed before eight in the morning. “Let me help you get these boxes loaded; not like I have a rush of other things to do.” He didn’t protest as we each carried a large box out to his SUV. I was glad to find Isaac gone, thankful he hadn’t hung around, waiting for Liam to leave so he could come back and bother me.

Once he had everything loaded, Liam waved goodbye, and I went back to the empty shop, my stack of books, and the set of tarot cards a friend had given me before leaving Bellingham. I had a bit of a knack for reading cards and was happy to find a few books in the local library that gave me more details on varied spreads and card meanings.

At least Maple Falls had a well-stocked library. Everyone donated books to it, and funds. It had outgrown its old building shortly before I left for college last year. Then they’d taken over the old community center, and now it was a sprawling spread of rooms. Tonight’s reads were all fiction. Some gay erotica, ‘cause who didn’t like some man on man action? But I had a few fantasy titles too. Was slowly making my way through the selection, and even gave them five dollars a week from my meager earnings to keep the library growing.

No one else came in. I pulled out my cards, frowning at the five-card spread giving me the death card. It meant change, not death, or at least rarely did it mean actual death, and I wasn’t opposed to change, but had no immediate plans for anything outside of the ordinary. I really hoped Isaac would not get me fired. Maybe I’d work at the bakery. Assuming Liam didn’t blackball me for screwing a married man. Sometimes folks got really weird about that, even though I hadn’t known. The town was small, but I also hadn’t been around in almost two years. Things didn’t normally change, but a lot had. I didn’t think it was because I was older now. The town had been dying for years, everyone fleeing to the city for jobs and to raise families. But Maple Falls was growing for the first time in over fifty years; because of the bakery, or something else? I tried to keep myself and my long history of bad luck away from them. No need to ruin the good thing they had going.

I picked up a book and read, getting lost in a story about a fae prince finding a mortal to love. Isaac didn’t return. A few folks stopped for gas, and two or three came in to stock up on overpriced junk food. Not a bad night overall, no mishaps, and I’d never once encountered someone trying to steal from the store. Maple Falls was a sort of nothing happens type of town. My bad luck ran rampant, but didn’t ruin the lives of everyone around me. Small-town folks seemed to roll with the punches better than big-city ones.

Hank arrived just before five in the morning. He was a big man in his fifties. No one ever bothered Hank. He was reliable and always patted me on the shoulder as he passed, like I was a good kid, as I heard many people say. They had no idea the trouble I caused, unintentional as it was. In school, it was things like friends getting caught cheating on tests, or a vending machine stopped working after they put their money in. Here at home, it had been Aunt Jillian’s furnace going out the day after I arrived, to the tune of a repair costing over four grand. She said it wasn’t my fault, but I knew better. Bad things happened around me.

Was it strange to wish to be normal when I was as boring as a man could be? Young, gay, somewhat smart, though I had trouble focusing, and was admittedly a little flaky. Living each day without worrying about what I would screw up would have been nice. I might enjoy reading about adventure, but my brief attempt at it in college had been a bust.

“Off to bed with you, pretty boy,” Hank said as I gathered up my stuff.

“Going to run to the bakery and get food first.”

“That bread is fantastic,” Hank said. “I should probably eat less of it.” He patted his gut, which only overhung his belt a little. Built like a tank, Hank had worked the overnight shift until I’d taken over, claiming he enjoyed sleeping regular hours now. “No trouble overnight?”

“Nah,” I said. “Is there ever?”

“Not in a while,” he said. “Not once the bakery moved in.”

It was an unusual comment, but I’d have to have been blind not to notice the change in the town since the bakery arrived. “Well, adding jobs keeps people happy and healthy.” The main street had really turned from a ghost town to a flourishing little town center after the bakery moved in, with other shops arriving, like the grocery, a small bookstore, and an antique shop. It had been unusual that Liam had chosen Maple Falls as a location at all, since he’d have had an easy hit in Bellingham. Folks drove all the way over from the city for his bread. Maybe he liked the small-town life.

“Jobs,” Hank nodded. “Always good, but I think it’s more about the management. Get going. I know you’re back for the overnight again.”

“Kiss, kiss,” I teased him as I swung on my jacket and shoved my hair out of the collar. It was getting long, touching the top of my shoulders, thick and blond. I needed to cut it, but hadn’t been awake during the day long enough to get to the barber.

“Brat,” Hank muttered as I made my way out the door, but his smile was broad.

My car was a decrepit thing, rusted, twenty-plus years old, with duct tape holding it together in some areas. It ran, mostly. Sean, over at the auto shop, kept it on the road, but often advised me it was going to crap out one of these days. A money pit with too much wrong with it to bother fixing. Oil changes and air filters could only keep the corpse on the road for so long. It was another thing holding me back.

I headed toward town, the lights of the main street close to the gas station, brightened the roads though everything was closed. The bakery opened at five thirty, usually with a line, but I made my way in and out fast, grabbing bread, waving at the crew, filling up my travel mug with coffee, and heading back to my car.

Aunt Jillian lived about twenty miles outside town. Lots of dark, narrow roads I’d been driving for years. The last dredges of winter lingered, and the sun wouldn’t be up till close to seven. I took the roads as I always did, half on autopilot, half alert. The coffee helped; the winding turns through stretches of trees did not. The familiar path lulled me into a sleepy daze. I’d had a few close encounters with deer on this road, a coyote or two, but tired as I was, coming down from the adrenaline of the prior day, and finding out Isaac had a wife and a bit of a crazy side, I was fading fast. The idea of getting home quickly and crawling into bed, was the only thing keeping me moving.

Bright lights rolled up close behind me. I hadn’t even heard it, but now some beast of a vehicle was shining their bright lights through my windows. Fuck. SUV? Truck? I couldn’t tell. I sped up a bit, even though the turns were tight, and prayed the asshole would get on their way. After over a mile of him dogging me, I moved over, into the opposite lane, and he jolted past.

“Asshole,” I said, watching the tank zoom off into the dark. Like he couldn’t have gone around if he were in such a hurry? And who hurried around here anyway? I pulled back into the right lane; grateful no one had been coming the other way. The roads weren’t big enough for horse play. One lane each way, zigzagging through trees, meant no shoulder, at least until it opened up into the highway.

I drove another five miles, almost home, and finally felt the tension ease from the encounter, stress keeping me vigilant for a while, but I didn’t see the eyes until it was too late.

It was a half second of glittering in the headlights, instinct to swerve and hit the brakes all at once. My car hadn’t been built for race car actions. It tipped, half spun, and slammed into a tree so hard I felt my bones break with a breath-stealing crack. I took a shuddering breath while pain ripped through me, my mind still in full panic even though the car had stopped moving. Something hot trickled down my forehead as the pale rays of the sunrise topped the trees.

I couldn’t move, but heard claws on pavement. Had a moment of fear slam through me as I glimpsed the eyes again. Not a deer or a coyote, but a giant ass wolf stalking across the narrow distance from the road to where the car had stopped. It hurt to breathe, everything fading, and I thought, that would be my bad luck. Survive a crash only to die eaten by wolves before anyone knew where I was? Maybe my death card draw actually meant death. At least I passed out before it happened. Small favors.