Misfit Pack (The Misfit Series) Read online

  Misfit Pack

  The Misfit Series Book 1

  Stephanie Foxe

  Steel Fox Media LLC

  Misfit Pack

  All rights reserved.

  No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Under no circumstances may any part of this book be photocopied for resale.

  This is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and coincidental. All inquiries can be sent to [email protected].

  First edition, August 2018

  Version 1.0, August 2018

  Copyright © 2018 Stephanie Foxe

  Cover © Steel Fox Media LLC

  Cover by Covers by Christian

  The Misfit Series (along with the plot / characters / situations / worlds) are Copyright (c) 2017-18 Stephanie Foxe and Steel Fox Media LLC

  what is stronger

  than the human heart

  which shatters over and over

  and still lives

  - rupi kaur

  The Sun and Her Flowers

  To the strong-willed, the resilient, and the misfits. To the families we choose. To the ones who love us unconditionally.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Make a Difference

  Acknowledgments

  Follow me

  More by Stephanie Foxe

  Chapter 1

  AMBER

  “There are reports that yet another area has been discovered where magic simply does not work. Jan Compton is on the ground with the most recent update. Over to you, Jan,” the reporter said, her face a serious picture of concern.

  Amber tied off her braid and snorted. “Unable to use magic? What a tragedy,” she muttered as she snatched up the remote and shut off the television.

  Witches and Elves and all the rest of them were so dependent on magic. As a human, she had no problem getting by without it. She didn’t hate it or anything, but the panic over three little spots where magic didn’t work had gotten old real fast. They had probably always been there, and it just so happened that someone had finally stumbled across them.

  She grabbed her leather jacket and pulled it on, running her fingers over the material that was soft from regular use. When the weather was cool enough, she wore it every day. And in Portland, it was almost always cool enough in the evenings to want a light jacket.

  Amber patted her pockets. Keys. Wallet. Mace. With a nod, she slipped out of her studio apartment and locked the door behind her.

  Her neighbor, Mrs. Huntington, was just coming in. She narrowed her eyes at Amber, then hurried into her own apartment. That woman was nosy as hell and a pain in the ass. Last week she had reported Amber for “coming back too late” and “slamming her door.” The woman had As the Witch Burns blaring out of her television twenty-four seven. There’s no way she heard anyone doing anything.

  Amber was tempted to kick her door as she walked past, but she shook off the pettiness. Tonight wasn’t about crappy neighbors. It was supposed to be fun…whatever that was.

  There was a free concert in the park with some new local bands, and a few older ones whose popularity had fizzled as their fan base had grown up. The Troll Bangs was going to be on stage around eleven that night. Since that was the only band she was interested in seeing, she had skipped the first few hours of the concert.

  Her twin, Dylan, had loved The Troll Bangs to an almost embarrassing extent. He had dragged her to three of their concerts in high school one summer. Amber hadn’t hated them, but Dylan had taken his fanboying to a whole new level. She pulled out her keys to unlock the ugly, old red truck she drove, shaking her head at the memory. Watching the band without him would be bittersweet.

  The truck didn’t have keyless entry or elf-spelled air conditioning like a new model would. She had rebuilt it with her dad as a graduation gift, one of the few things she ever did with him one-on-one. It still ran, but only thanks to her constant maintenance. Maybe in a year or two she’d be able to afford something new.

  In order to avoid the traffic of downtown Portland, she took the long way to the concert. The Market had appeared there a couple of weeks ago, and for the next two weeks it was going to remain a pain in her ass to get to work.

  Despite her annoyance with the traffic, she was glad The Market had popped up nearby. She hadn’t been in years, not since it showed up in Texas a few months before she moved away. The Market was old and made up of so much magic that no one knew how it worked anymore. It disappeared and reappeared every new moon, always in a different location, and always completely unpredictable. The only things that were sure about The Market were that it liked populated areas and that it somehow always made room for itself no matter where it landed.

  The merchants who traveled with it had to sign an unbreakable contract that lasted for at least one year. Openings were hard to come by, though; merchants who got a spot never seemed to want to leave.

  The narrow streets that led to the concert were lined with vehicles. She parked her truck at the first open spot. There was no point in driving around for thirty minutes, hoping for something closer, when she didn’t mind the walk.

  A group of elves clambered out of a car that had parked a few spaces ahead of her. They wore flower crowns that shimmered with magic. Fluorescent butterflies fluttered around their heads every few seconds. They must have been to The Market before coming there.

  A pixie flew out of the bushes and chased one of the butterflies around an elven girl’s head, trying to eat the magical illusion. She shrieked and batted it away, knocking her crown askew. The pixie jabbered its displeasure, then landed on a car and watched them walk away sullenly. Pixies were odd, gray little creatures with wide mouths like a frog and wings like a bat. They’d eat almost anything, but preferred metal and
bugs. Amber’s dad had always been chasing them out of the garage when they got into the screws.

  Her phone vibrated in her pocket, and the custom ringtone, an engine revving, rumbled loudly. She hesitated, then pulled out her phone. Her oldest brother, Derek, would just call over and over until she picked up. He was persistent like that.

  “Hey, big brother. Grandma Kelly didn’t kick the bucket, did she?”

  Derek chuckled. “You’re so morbid. And no. She does have a date tomorrow, though.”

  She grimaced. “I didn’t need to know that.”

  “Neither did I,” Derek said. She could hear the shudder of horror through the phone. “Anyhow, that’s not why I called.”

  “Well, I’m waiting,” she said when he didn’t immediately continue.

  Derek sighed. “Dad got in a wreck this afternoon.”

  “What?” She stopped in her tracks. “And you’re just now calling me?”

  “He’s fine. No one got hurt,” Derek said quickly. “The only reason I called is because Mom—because I just thought you should know. It’s a problem with his eyesight. We’ve been trying to get him to go to the doctor for months, but it took this to get him to make a damn appointment.”

  Amber sighed. She got her stubbornness from him. They all did. But he was in a category all by himself.

  “Thanks for letting me know. It’s probably going to take another wreck to get him to actually do what the doctors tell him, though,” she grumbled, kicking at a rock as she started walking again.

  “Tell me about it. He was still trying to argue he was fine in the ambulance.”

  “Hard-headed idiot,” she said, shaking her head. She hesitated before she asked her next question. She wanted to know…and she didn’t. “How is Mom doing?”

  Derek stayed silent for a beat. “You have her number, Amber. Just call her.”

  “She has mine, too, and you don’t see her calling me. She doesn’t want to talk to me, Derek.”

  “You don’t know that—”

  “Yeah, actually I do.” She was tired of this old argument. Derek refused to believe her. “I know that because she told me when she kicked me out of the house.”

  “That was almost six years ago,” Derek argued.

  “We’ll talk again when she invites me back,” she said, her tone making it clear she was done talking about it. She took a deep breath to ease the knot of guilt in her chest. “Thanks for calling, okay? I appreciate it.”

  “Yeah, of course,” Derek replied, his words clipped. “I’ll keep you updated.”

  “Thanks, bro. Talk to you again soon.”

  “Sure. Bye,” Derek said, ending the call.

  She lowered the phone from her ear and shoved it in her pocket. It was never good news when family called. She used to be close with all her brothers, but so long away from home and the relationships had just…fizzled.

  The sound of familiar music drifted toward her. A sense of nostalgia warmed her, and she picked up the pace. The main parking lot was packed. She wove through the cars, passing a few people that were leaving the concert already.

  A growl cut through the sounds of the concert and chatter.

  She frowned. That was odd. Shifters didn’t normally run around shifted in public. One of them was probably messing with a friend.

  She scanned the area as she walked toward the pavilion. She didn’t see any wolves or bears roaming around trying to startle people, but she couldn’t quite shake the unsettled feeling the growl had given her.

  She stepped out from between two cars. A loud scream rattled her eardrums, and a girl with pink hair crashed into her. A growl made all the hair on her arms stand on end. It was a lot closer this time.

  Amber shoved the girl behind her and faced the source of the growling. Bright yellow eyes locked onto hers, and a huge black wolf bared its teeth. Saliva dripped from fangs as long as her hand. The wolf took a step forward, and Amber reached for the mace in her pocket.

  She was too slow.

  GENEVIEVE

  The woman that Genevieve ran into had an arm stretched out in front of her. Like that could stop the werewolf. Genevieve took a step back, trying to decide if she could run fast enough to get away from the crazy-ass wolf. There was something in its eyes that made it seem wild. It looked insane.

  Her heel slipped on a large chunk of gravel. She gasped and tipped backward, her hand flying out to grab the woman’s leather jacket, but her fingers slipped.

  The wolf lunged at them with a snarl, and the woman’s body slammed into Genevieve, driving them both to the ground.

  Sharp claws cut into her side, and gravel dug into her bare arms. She screamed, trying to cover her head with her arms, but she couldn’t move with the weight of the woman and the wolf pressing down on her. The woman was fighting back and shouting, but her words were lost among the growls. Genevieve couldn’t tell if it was aimed at her or the beast.

  Teeth clamped around her thigh. She screamed and slapped at whatever had her. The dull pain grew sharp as her leg was wrenched from side to side with vicious shakes. Her hands hit fur and teeth. The pain kept her from taking a full breath.

  The woman had her arm wrapped around the wolf’s throat as though she were trying to strangle it, but she couldn’t pull it away. Genevieve lifted her other foot and drove her heel into the wolf’s face in a frantic stomping motion.

  A rock bounced off the side of the wolf’s head, and the creature turned toward whoever had thrown it with an enraged growl. In an instant, the weight was gone, and so was the woman. Genevieve forced herself upright, frantically looking around for somewhere safe to run to.

  A teenager with a shocked look on his face stood right in the path of the charging creature. He threw another rock, hitting it right in the face, but it would take a whole hell of a lot more than that to stop two-hundred pounds of muscles and rage.

  The wolf barreled into him, latching onto his shoulder, and he went down with a yell. The red-headed woman that had tried to help Genevieve jumped on the back of the wolf with a crazed shout. It turned, locked its jaws around her arm, and shook her like a rag doll. The woman slammed into the ground, still trying to fight back.

  Before she had time to regret it, Genevieve jumped to her feet. Her leg almost gave out on her, and pain shot all the way up to her hip, but she gritted her teeth against it. Her foot hit the same stupid rock she had tripped over. If she could distract the creature for just a moment…maybe they could get away.

  She picked the rock up and flung it at the wolf.

  It hit the wolf’s neck. The creature paused in its attack, dropping the woman’s arm, and turned its freaky, yellow gaze on her. The red-headed woman grabbed something from her pocket with her uninjured arm, and a stream of liquid hit the wolf in the eyes.

  It yelped and flinched back, shaking its head back and forth, pawing at its face. The woman jumped up and kicked it square in the chin. The wolf turned and ran, snaking the through the cars until it disappeared.

  Genevieve looked down. Her dress was ripped, and blood dripped from a deep bite on her thigh.

  “Well, fuck.”

  TOMMY

  No. No no no.

  Tommy lay in the dirt with his hand clutched to the ragged bite on his shoulder. He choked back tears of pain and struggled to sit up. He should have just run. He shouldn’t have gotten involved.

  A woman in a leather jacket stood over him with a can of mace in her hand, panting. Everyone else that had been in the parking lot had fled. He doubted anyone had even bothered to call the police.

  “Shit, kid, are you okay?” she asked, extending her uninjured arm to help him up. Her other arm was smeared with blood that dripped down from the bite.

  He took it and let her pull him to his feet. “I just—shit. I’ve been bit.” The implications of what had happened sunk in.

  “I’ve been bit,” he repeated uselessly. This couldn’t be happening. He took a step back and looked up to the sky. It was a full moon.


  The woman followed his gaze. “Yeah, this is not great,” she said.

  The girl with the pink hair she had been protecting walked up behind her. Blood was streaming down her leg. “Did we all get bit?” she asked, her voice shaking.

  “Unfortunately,” the woman said, looking back at her. “What’s your name?”

  “Genevieve,” she replied.

  “I’m Amber,” the woman in the leather jacket replied with a nod. Amber turned back to him. “What’s your name, kid?”

  “Don’t call me that,” Tommy snapped. His whole body shook, but not just with adrenaline. He could already feel some freaky magic shit starting inside of him. This couldn’t be happening. His life was already hell. He couldn’t deal with this on top of it.

  He took a step away from the women. Amber watched him, worried. She held out a hand like she might try to grab him.

  “Look, calm down, okay?” she said, stepping closer.

  “I just got bit by a werewolf on the full moon and you want me to calm down?” he shouted at her, taking another step back. “Are you kidding me?”