Jennifer sighed, switching off the radio of her black Jeep, as she cruised across the Mojave Desert, well past midnight. The full moon's glow lit the starry sky in the absence of artificial city lights, offering her a wonderful view that was only spoiled by the somewhat unnerving loneliness.
Her radio had been unable to pick up much of anything save the occasional late night talk show host, and most of them weren't entertaining or even vaguely assuring. Where she expected to find music, she only managed to find bursts of static.
She glanced sideways out the window at the passing blackened scenery, the starlight revealing occasional bushes along an otherwise barren stretch of Nevada. She had been planning that trip to Reno in some form or another ever since her best friend had moved there last spring.
Suddenly, a darkened canine form darted across the road in front of her headlights, and she shrieked, swerving into the left lane and successfully avoiding it. Jennifer glanced back over her shoulder, sighing and laughing embarrassedly as she saw it had been a coyote, padding across the asphalt.
She had to admit to herself that the isolation of the trip was getting to her, as well as the sleep deprivation. She must have been on the road since the early hours of the previous morning, and she rubbed her eyes often in the struggle to stay awake. After nearly creating road-kill, she was thinking it was time to call it a night.
Jennifer drove on another few miles, before she pulled off to the side of the highway, cutting the engine of her Jeep and leaning her head back against the headrest. She exhaled deeply, finding herself more exhausted than she'd realized, now that she had a moment to relax.
She crawled into the backseat of her Jeep, where she had more cover from the open environment of the Mojave, and curled up using her hoodie as a blanket. She figured waiting one more day wouldn't kill her friend, and besides, she would enjoy herself more if she were well-rested.
As her eyelids began to feel heavy, she tugged her hoodie close around her body, her breaths slowing to a comfortable, easy rhythm. The last thing she was consciously aware of before sleep claimed her was a sorrowful howl that drifted on the wind, wailed by some unseen beast of the night, god-knows-how-far away.
Jennifer was jolted from her slumber by sharp claws digging into her wrists, and a fiendish snarl inches from her nose, shocking her eyes open. Her gaze was met with the most intense pair of heterochromatic eyes she had ever seen, the right iris green, and the left golden.
Her heart felt as if it collapsed on the spot, as she was seized by a crushing, horrible terror that paralyzed her body and caught her voice in her throat. As her eyes adjusted frantically from the realm of her dreams to the harsh reality facing her, she observed that the powerful eyes were attached to a lanky yet toned body, covered head to foot in inky black fur. Pointed canine ears were folded against his head as he snarled at her, and his wolf-like muzzle snapped a bit at her nose.
A thick, fluffy tail could be seen swaying behind him, and had she not been absolutely frozen in fear, she likely would have tried to pet him to see if he'd wag it.
She came to realize his clawed fingers were digging into her wrists, and that he had removed her hoodie, leaving her in only a thin green tank top and a tight pair of blue jeans.
By now, her fear had subsided some and she started to kick and buck underneath him, desperate to at the very least get some space from the creature she didn't even believe existed.
The beast growled angrily, and slammed her wrists back against the door, as he took a chomp at her tank top and yanked his head backward, tearing the flimsy material easily. Jennifer hadn't been wearing a bra, as she'd been traveling alone, and in one of the hottest deserts in the United States; naturally, she gasped as her bare breasts were exposed to the cool night air of the Mojave.
