Isabelle Rand kissed her boyfriend, Bram, on the cheek and exited his vehicle. As she walked to the front of the school, she took a deep breath. When she reached the doors, she turned around and waved at Bram, knowing he wouldn’t leave until he saw her walk into the building.
She made no move to look and see if he drove away as she walked down the hall to her classroom. But, instead of going to the end of the corridor, she took a right into the school’s office.
“He’s gone,” her coworker, Jessica, said.
Isabelle breathed a sigh of relief, but it didn’t last long. She was only a fourth of the way through her plan.
Two more teachers, Danni and Alice, with their arms full, came from the back office area along with their principal, Noah.
Danni and Alice dropped the huge, mismatched luggage at Isabelle’s feet.
“Here are most of your clothes,” Danni told her.
“And here are the rest of your clothes and toiletries,” Alice said.
Jessica came over from where she’d been watching the window and took Isabelle’s hand, placing a set of car keys in it. “Here’s your new car. It’s nothing great, but it’s bought and paid for.”
“Give me the keys,” Noah said. “I’ll pull the car around.”
Isabelle handed them over.
Noah looked at Jessica.
“It’s a black Kia,” she told him.
Isabelle swallowed hard as she tried not to cry. “I don’t know what I’d do without you guys.”
Jessica hugged Isabelle first. “This is what friends do for each other.”
“Help them go on the run like a criminal in the night?” Isabelle joked as the first tear fell.
Alice embraced Isabelle next. When she pulled away, she squeezed Isabelle’s arms. “No, we’re helping you escape an abusive boyfriend who doesn’t deserve to call you his.”
Isabelle smiled as best she could.
Danni enveloped Isabelle last.
“I’m scared,” Isabelle said in her friend’s ear.
Danni drew away and looked into Isabelle’s eyes. “I know. I would be scared, too. But we’ve been planning this for a month. Minneapolis is less than two hours away. You will make it before he even knows you’re gone.”
“Honey, are you sure you don’t want to go to a shelter? Are you sure your friends in Minneapolis can keep you safe?” Alice, twenty years Isabelle’s senior, asked.
There was no way Isabelle could tell these wonderful humans that she was going to the safest place in the world for her. Not only was Damien her friend, but he was also the alpha of the Minnesota Wolf Pack. And her other friends whom she was seeking solace from were the wolf-shifter sentinels. Once she told Damien about Bram, he would do everything to help her. And Bram wouldn’t dare take on the alpha of their pack. Not if he wanted to live to tell about it.
“I’m absolutely sure. I just need to get there.”
“Okay, honey. We trust your decision.”
“We’d better go. I’m sure Noah has pulled the car to the side door by now.”
Isabelle took one of the handles to wheel the bag outside, and Danni took the other.
Once they walked outside, Noah popped open the trunk and then got out of Isabelle’s new car. The bags were loaded into the trunk, and then Noah hugged Isabelle.
When he stepped away, he held out his hand. “Phone.”
“What?”
With his other hand, he reached into his back pocket. “Your phone.”
“Oh. Yeah. I almost forgot.”
The four of them had discussed the unlikelihood of Bram tracking her phone since he wasn’t on her plan, but they didn’t think it was a risk she should take. Plus, she didn’t want to deal with the numerous phone calls he was bound to make once he realized she was gone.
She opened her purse and took out her phone. With a silent good-bye, she handed it over, and Noah gave her a new prepaid phone.
“I programmed all our numbers into it, just in case you need anything. And please let us know when you make it there safely.”
“I will.” She looked around at her friends. “I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”
“I do,” Alice said. “You can repay us by getting yourself to safety and staying there.”
Isabelle smiled. “I will. I promise.”
“You’d better.”
Isabelle walked around to the driver’s side of her new car but stopped before getting in. She’d almost forgotten. “Please be careful. Bram is not a good guy, and he’s not what he seems. He’s very strong and very dangerous.”
She wished she could come out and warn them that Bram was a wolf-shifter, stronger than all of them combined, and capable of turning into a wild animal that could rip them to shreds. But she couldn’t. They were her friends, but she couldn’t give away her species.
“Honey, please don’t concern yourself with us. It’s a teacher in-service today, so no students to worry about, and we’ll just tell everyone else you called in sick. We know nothing.”
Noah waved the phone. “As soon as you leave, I’m going to call my office with your phone. It’ll show up on your statement that you called in. Like Alice said, don’t worry about us.”
Isabelle closed her eyes. “You know that’s never going to happen. But I will try to worry less. As long as you promise to be careful.”
“We promise,” Alice said for all of them.
And, with one last good-bye, Isabelle took off for Minneapolis…and for freedom.
