My husband and a few of his no-good buddies had driven out to the Rocky Mountain backcountry for a road trip, and we'd come to Highway 191 through the high country.
Word was there was a viral pack of begging wild wolves out there. They never attacked people; feed them a little, and they'd act as sweet and needy as house dogs.
That day, seven or eight of them came trotting up the road and blocked our car.
A few of my husband's friends were dead set on getting out to feed them.
I tried everything to stop them, refusing to let anyone open a door.
"That's a pack of wolves. They're animals. We can't open the door," I begged.
But his friends only sneered, and one of them jeered at my husband: "Paul Lawrence, your wife's a real coward. How'd you end up marrying a woman like this?"
Paul lost face right then. His cheeks flushed red, and he swung his hand and slapped me. "Say one more word and I'm divorcing you."
I didn't dare stop them after that. I just let them throw the doors open and climb out to feed the wolves.
In the end, more than twenty wolves came pouring out of the brush, faces gone vicious, and they lunged straight at me inside the car. One clamped down on my throat, and I passed out on the spot.
1.
When I woke again, I had actually been reborn.
We were still a mile from where the wolf pack would be.
I grabbed the steering wheel from my husband and pleaded, "Let's take a different road. Don't go this way."
Paul blinked, startled, and Marianne Hughes in the back seat went off at once.
"Why?"
"Didn't we already agree we'd stop and get our photos where the viral wolf pack shows up?"
"How can you just change your mind like that?"
Marianne was the girlfriend of Mike Whitney, one of my husband's buddies. She had this one habit—she always had to one-up me. If it wasn't clothes, it was food and drinks.
The second I objected to anything, she dug in and did the exact opposite just to spite me.
I pulled a long face and turned to look back at her. "I've just got a feeling that going to snap photos with the wolves is dangerous."
Before I could even finish, Marianne spat out, "I think you're just a coward!"
"Everyone online says this pack is gentle as anything. Give them a little food and they'll play cute and beg like puppies."
"Besides, we're almost there. You picking now, of all times, to say I can't go—is it because you saw my post and you're doing this on purpose to make me feel bad?"
Ten minutes earlier, Marianne had put up a post saying she was about to go get photos with the viral wolf pack, and that she'd have pictures to show all her friends.
I only shook my head and kept my voice level. "I'm not in the mood to make you feel bad. I just think it isn't safe."
"If it were one wolf, I wouldn't be afraid. But a whole pack?"
"A normal pack has more than twenty wolves in it. If they came at us, the handful of us wouldn't stand a chance."
"They're wild animals, not somebody's pet dog at home."
"And honestly, if twenty big dogs crowded up around me, I'd—"
I meant to say I'd be scared too.
But I never expected Marianne to go all sweet and fake. She burrowed into Mike's arms and whined, "Baby, look at Letitia Cox. She's always picking on me."
"I already told so many friends I was definitely getting my wolf photos today. If she won't let me, they'll all laugh at me."
Mike clearly had no mind of his own. He kissed Marianne on the cheek and said softly, "Sweetheart, don't be upset. We'll go get your viral wolf-pack photos, I promise."
I still wanted to say something—
But Mike wasn't having it. He turned to Paul and said, "Man, if your wife's such a coward, just don't bring her along."
