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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Trajectory

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright 2015 © Emily Walker

  Cover by JM Rising Horse Creations

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

  Someone is murdering the shifters of Woodland Creek.

  Yesterday, Brent Perry wouldn’t have cared—or even understood—what was going on.

  Yesterday was the last day of ‘normal.’

  Yesterday, the woman he’d been dating turned into a bird and took flight—FLIGHT—when someone started chasing them down. Now, he’s discovered the secret of Woodland Creek—and he’s in deep trouble.

  Yesterday, Chloe Hamil did a stupid thing. Panicking, she shifted in front of her new boyfriend. She was trying to impress him, as the pretty girl he wanted to be with. She didn’t want to be the freak with wings. Now, she’s not sure Brent will ever talk to her again, and worse, she’s afraid whoever is trying to kill her will go after him...

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Emily Walker

  For more maps and information, please visit the

  Woodland Creek Website

  http://woodlandcreekseries.com/

  “Stupid me. When you’re scared you should scream like a girl and not turn into a nuthatch,” Chloe Hamil scolded herself as she made her way down from the tree she’d been hiding in.

  Brent Perry had gotten the balls to ask her out. They’d dated for two months and then he asked her if she wanted to date only him. He was finally her boyfriend after years of friendship and strange sexual tension. She’d gotten scared and flown away after shifting into her animal form, the tiny little nuthatch. Chloe assumed she’d probably flown out of her boyfriend’s life forever.

  Her best friend, Layla Adams, would never let her hear the end of it, but it wasn’t Chloe’s fault. It was the person who was shooting at them.

  “Why was someone shooting at us?” Chloe asked the leaves, which had just started to turn yellow and red with the beginning of fall. Talking to foliage seemed like a normal thing to do after the night she had. Brent had suggested a nice walk in the woods to talk about their feelings for one another. It was near her home and he had stopped by to see what she was up to. They had been walking for maybe ten minutes when a shot rang out and the bullet went right by her. Brent noticed as well and he tried to shield her. It was too late. The second her body sensed danger it went right into shifting mode. As hard as she tried, she’d never been able to stop it when she was scared.

  It was terrible. All she could do was watch him grow taller as her body folded in on itself and shrunk all at once. The look on his face was a mixture of shock and horror.

  Woodland Creek was a small community. There were less than four thousand people in town and a lot of those people were not human. The humans who were in the town were mostly kept in the dark about the existence of people who shifted into animals. It tended to make them want to leave when they found out. The existence of one paranormal being meant others existed and that was a little too much for them to handle.

  Now Brent knew for sure there was something otherworldly going on in their small Indiana town, and she was the reason for it. She needed to deal with the fact that she’d exposed herself to a human without any warning and then she needed to figure out the issue of whoever had been shooting at them. She decided to go to the police.

  It was about eight in the morning. She’d slept in the tree in bird form, too scared to come down and face life. It was Sunday, so she didn’t have to be at work until ten forty-five and the police station, like everything else, was just a stone’s throw away. Once she got back to her apartment, she climbed into her tiny, red bug and took off toward the station.

  She walked into the station and didn’t see anyone at first, but she heard talking, so she sat in one of the hard, puke green chairs they placed out front for visitors.

  “Can I help you, little lady?” The chief of police walked out from the back room, rubbing his face. TJ Rickman had been a policeman for a decade in town and she’d dealt with him before when she’d bailed Layla out a couple of times for her escapades.

  “Chief Rickman,” she said as she stood. “I need to report someone shooting at Brent Perry and myself yesterday around four o’clock in the woods.”

  “Shooting.” TJ rubbed his belly and she realized there were donut crumbs there and around his mouth. He rubbed his face again, knocking off some of the sugar, and went to take out a notepad.

  “Okay, where were you exactly and how do you know someone was shooting?”

  “We were about a ten minute walk behind my house. You know the old, blue one. It used to be Mama and Daddy’s?” He nodded as he made a note.

  “Okay.”

  “We were walking and suddenly a bullet flew past us and hit the tree across from where we were standing. There’s no doubt in my mind it was aimed at us because it was so close and then there was a second bullet.” She left out the part where she’d already been flying out of the area when the second bullet whizzed past.

  “So someone was shooting at you just because they wanted to? That doesn’t sound all that plausible. I’ll have one of the deputies go out and look into it.”

  Chloe could tell he didn’t believe her and it was unfortunate because there was a lunatic out there shooting a gun at people. It wasn’t the best feeling that law enforcement didn’t want to just run out there and put a stop to it.

  “So, I’ve done my part reporting it, right?” Chloe wasn’t sure if she should try to do anything else. It wasn’t like she could identify the person who did it. They hadn’t seen anyone with a gun in the woods.

  She decided she would go and see her parents before her shift at work and maybe eat something. Her parents had lived in Woodland Creek their whole lives. They said it felt like a sanctuary for shifters to thrive and be comfortable. Chloe had been one of only four kids in the preschool class until Brent had moved to town and then a couple of months later Layla had moved as well. Layla’s family was of deer shifters and had heard about Woodland Creek through some other family members who already lived there. Brent’s dad had gotten a job teaching at the local college and once they moved into the area they never wanted to leave. The three of them were thick as thieves and got into a lot of trouble together. When they were in the eighth grade Chloe’s feelings started to change for Brent. She saw him in a different light, but never told him about her crush. She was terrified they wouldn’t be friends anymore. When they hit high school, that’s when Layla had discovered drugs. She’d gone down such a dark path they had stopped talking for a while.

  Pulling into her parents’ driveway, y
ou never really knew what you were going to see. Today was no exception. There was a nude statue in the yard and it was half painted red and white. Her dad popped out from behind the ugly thing as she got out of the car.

  “Can you believe someone just threw her away?” Rob Hamil always got excited about the trash he found and tried to repurpose. It was always something completely useless. This time it was a strangely painted statue. The time before that he’d found a car bumper someone had stuck different colored gum all over. Because it was trash and disgusting, Chloe’s mother had made him throw it away immediately. Chloe could only imagine what she would have to say about this newest discovery.

  “No, Dad,” she replied sarcastically. “I can’t ever believe the amazing wonders you bring home from the dump.”

  “Side of the road. I’m going to spray paint her silver and she’ll stand in the yard like a gorgeous shiny princess,” he yelled behind her as she walked inside their cute little farm house.

  “Hi, honey.” Debra Hamil sat at the kitchen table, writing out a grocery list. She looked exactly like Chloe, with dark brown hair and eyes, fair skin, and small features.

  Chloe debated telling her mother what happened, but did she really want to worry her? Maybe she could fib a little and get her opinion.

  “Hi, Mom, how are you?” She kissed her cheek, then sat opposite her at the table.

  “Did you see your father’s boobs? I swear all he’s done is stand out there and stare at them. He acts like he hasn’t seen tits before.”

  Chloe giggled. “You know how he gets with his discoveries.”

  “I do, but that ugly thing is out of here as soon as I figure out a way to get him away from it. He’s like a dog in heat with that thing.” Chloe giggled again. Her father was a mountain lion, not a dog. She had gotten the nuthatch gene from her mother. There had been a fifty percent chance she would be a mountain lion, but she looked like her mother down to the colors of her feathers. If she were a mountain lion, she wouldn’t have hidden in a tree like a weakling, she would have fought. At least she could fly. Layla had always been jealous of that fact.

  “Something happened in the woods with me and Brent,” she blurted out.

  “Oh, my dear.” Her mother didn’t look up from her list-making. “I hope you used protection.”

  “No, Mom, that’s not what I mean. We were walking in the woods and something startled me, and I changed in front of him.” She thought maybe she should mention someone shooting at her, but didn’t really want to alarm her parents if it was a wrong place wrong time thing.

  “Oh no, Chloe, you didn’t. You just started dating.”

  “Why is that a bad thing, Debra?” Her dad had walked in and was frantically trying to scrub silver paint off his hands. “That can got away from me.”

  “Because, Rob, you don’t lead into a relationship with a human by letting them know you’re a shifter. That’s something you ease them into if you even need to tell them at all.”

  This was a subject her parents disagreed heavily on. Her father thought the whole world should know about shifters and it was dumb that they kept it a secret, while her mother very much adhered to the rules that a human only needed to know if it was unavoidable. In her mother’s mind, when it came to a relationship, waiting to tell the other person what you were was right up there with waiting to say I love you.

  “How did he react when you talked to him afterward?” Her mother put down her pen and leveled her with a piercing stare.

  “So, I didn’t talk to him. I hid in a tree for the evening.” Chloe looked down, knowing her mother was going to be disappointed in her.

  “Okay, so you go see him and you talk to him about it as soon as you do.”

  “It’s okay, baby girl.” Her dad had given up the battle with the paint and joined them at the table. “You gave him time to think about what he saw and now you can explain that he didn’t eat some tripping mushrooms, but he actually saw you change.”

  “Dad, I don’t think they call them tripping mushrooms.”

  “How would you know?” He immediately got defensive.

  “Fair point,” she said, “it’s just that I’ve wanted to date Brent since the eighth grade and it’s finally happening. I screwed it up by an uncontrollable freaking shift.” She put her head in her hands.

  “I think if you’re meant to be together, then he won’t care about your feathers, Chloe,” her mom reassured her. Chloe wanted to believe her, but she didn’t see his face when the change happened. He was scared.

  “Does this have anything to do with the gun shots I heard yesterday afternoon?” her dad suddenly asked.

  “Yes,” Chloe said. “They startled me and I changed.” There was no point in lying and she just didn’t have to say they were shooting at them.

  “Well, I guess that would scare anyone. See you later.” Her dad retreated back to his special project and Chloe turned to find her mom staring at her again. She was trying to figure out what Chloe wasn’t telling her. It was time to go. Ever since she was a little girl her mother had always been able to tell when she wasn’t giving her all the information.

  “I better go home and get ready for work. I’ll let you know how that conversation goes.”

  Her mom nodded. “I think it will be fine. Just be honest with him. We can’t help what we are, sweetie.”

  Chloe kissed her cheek and started for the door. “I’ll call you after work.”

  “Listen, honey, our instincts aren’t usually wrong. If something scared you that badly then maybe don’t go into the woods for a few days.”

  “All right, I won’t. Good luck with Dad’s statue.” She wiggled her brows and headed back out to her car. Her dad was really concentrating on painting one breast with the tip of a paintbrush. It was a little disturbing.

  Brent Perry woke up on his couch where he’d sat for three hours after coming in from the trip in the woods. He’d stared at the wall, reliving over and over again what he’d seen Chloe do. He still didn’t believe it. There was simply no way she had done that. People didn’t just turn into animals and fly away. Maybe she was some kind of witch. He’d known Chloe for most of his life, and he was just not ready to believe she’d kept this type of secret from him.

  He’d finally gotten the courage up to ask her out. It had only taken him six years and he was kicking himself for waiting. They’d always been such great friends, he hadn’t wanted to ruin it. Before he’d asked her out the first time, their friend Layla had sat down with him and laid it out for him. She was pretty blunt and basically told him what an idiot he was being.

  “Listen, Brent, you two are perfect for each other and you both know it. You’re just being an asshole at this point if you don’t ask her out.”

  “Layla,” he’d said. “I get it, but what if it doesn’t work out?”

  “Things sometimes don’t work out, but if you don’t at least give them a chance then you’re just being stupid.” She’d left after that without another word. They were in the Barcade where Chloe worked and as soon as her shift was over he told her how he felt.

  Now they were in a strange place after they’d had such a blissful few weeks. He was pretty sure he didn’t know what was real anymore. There was only one person he could talk to about this that he could trust and it wasn’t going to be fun. He called his dad.

  “Hey, Dad, I was wondering if I could get Aunt Z’s phone number.”

  “Why the hell would you want to speak with my sister, Brent? She’s not had anything sane to say for over a decade.”

  What the hell could he tell his dad he needed to speak with Zazie Perry for? She hadn’t been in their lives recently and she was committed at the moment.

  “You’re right. I was just thinking she might want some company after being there for so long.”

  “Fine, let me get you the number. I think it’s a mistake, but I’m not going to stop you from seeing your aunt.”

  No one in town knew the reason they’d moved to Woodl
and Creek when Brent was younger. Zazie had gone crazy after her son ran away, and Zander Perry thought he could help his sister. She’d always lived in Woodland Creek and talked about how nice it was. Brent’s dad was dealing with the loss of Brent’s mother to cancer just a year before and thought maybe he knew what she was going through.

  Brent didn’t know the whole story, but his father told him she was out of her mind when they got to town. She claimed a wizard had taken him because she owed him money and it was her fault that she’d dabbled in dark magic. She claimed she was a wizard and she knew others like herself and some could turn into animals. It had always stuck with Brent how specific her story was, and now that he was questioning everything, he wondered if Aunt Z was really crazy. He didn’t know what he wanted her to tell him. Maybe he just wanted some confirmation.

  “Here’s the number, son, please don’t get sucked into her delusions.”

  Brent knew it was already way too late for that, but he didn’t feel like there was any reason to let his dad in on it. There didn’t seem to be a good way to tell him, and his dad had enough to worry about. Brent worked for his father on his business. His dad was an entrepreneur and did handy man work and built things for the people of Woodland Creek. There were enough people who didn’t want to fix things for themselves or needed furniture that he’d built a great business and brought in enough money to support himself and pay Brent a decent salary. They were taking a break right before classes started back, because once school was back in, Brent would be working every weekend. He’d branched out last year and started taking custom orders online. He hadn’t nailed production and distribution yet, but people would drive from everywhere to get a custom piece made by him.

  After hanging up with his dad, he got up from the couch so he could take a quick shower. He’d only call her if he couldn’t get in to see her. The institution, as his family called it, was about an hour away, so if he was going to see her he needed to get a move on. At least it was Sunday and they didn’t have to work.