Badlands: The Lion's Den Read Online Free Page A

here.
    She hurried down a side street, stripped out of her clothes, stuffed her clothing in her purse, and shifted, sinking to all fours. Ugh. Now her sense of smell was even better.
    Then she prowled the dark, lonely streets, purse in her mouth, looking for a place to sleep. She’d lied to Finn about the hotel. She didn’t have money for a hotel, or a cell phone to call and make a reservation.
    She’d never owned a cell phone. The Wilkinsons had made sure of that.
    And she’d spent almost all her money on the bus that had brought her to the Badlands border station, where she’d handed in her identity card and listened to various dire warnings before they’d let her through a big metal gate. She’d had to shift and run twenty miles to get to Darwin.
    Up ahead she saw a row of old buildings that seemed abandoned. She sniffed at the air. She was alone; no other shifters anywhere within scenting distance.
    Well, she’d sleep here for the night and figure out what to do in the morning. She slunk through the doorway of what appeared to be an old warehouse, and began pacing through the moldy, damp rooms, heading towards the back of the building.
    Had she made a mistake coming here? She’d fled to the Badlands in a state of pure panic. She had found out that her cousin Krystle was here, living in Darwin.
    She hadn’t wanted to tell Finn that Krystle was related to her, in case the people who were chasing after her were looking for Krystle too. She needed to warn Krystle what might be coming her way, though. She just prayed that her cousin would be back soon and could give her some kind of guidance on how to survive this strange, terrifying new world.
    Flora finally came to a room near the back of the building, with a pile of flattened cardboard boxes in the corner.
    She settled down cross-legged on the floor, stared at the pile of boxes, and concentrated hard.
    Burn, she thought.
    Nothing happened. Of course.
    She pinched her arm, even though she’d tried that already. Pain didn’t seem to work. She’d jabbed herself with a pin the day before just to be sure.
    Fear didn’t work either. If it had, those wolves who had just attacked her in the alley would be barbecued wolf-kabob. She was glad she hadn’t set the wolves on fire; she didn’t want them dead. She just wanted them to behave themselves.
    She thought back to that summer six years ago, when her cousin Krystle had been staying with her family for the summer after a stint in juvie. Flora’s thuggish older brother Howie had attempted to fondle Krystle. She’d kicked him in the nards and run off through the field behind their house. Howie had tried to chase Krystle, and Flora had jumped on him – and the shed near the house had burst into flames, as if a bomb had gone off. Right before the fire, Flora thought she’d felt something – an odd buzz inside her, something she’d never felt before.
    When Flora had looked across the field, she’d seen Krystle standing there, fists clenched, staring at the shed.
    Flora had rushed off to tell her parents that she had been the one who’d set the fire, to keep Krystle out of trouble. It hadn’t helped much; her parents had shipped Krystle off to stay with another relative a few days later anyway.
    With a heavy sigh, she slid behind the boxes and curled up to sleep.

Chapter Four
     
    She woke with a start, and lay still for a long moment, scenting and listening. The sun was up, streaming through the building’s cracked, filthy windows.
    She smelled someone nearby. Female bear. Well, that was good news, right? What were the odds that a female would try to mug her?
    Then again, this was the Badlands. Anything was possible. She’d have to be ready to run for it.
    She shifted and changed into her clothing and shoes from yesterday, and walked out the back door into an alley. A teenaged female bear shifter, in human form, was rummaging through a trash pile.
    “Hey,” Flora called out. “I’ve got twenty bucks, if you