It was a quiet night. The heat of summer was gone, fading into fall, and a soft breeze was blowing. As Ben and I drove home, I didn’t hear a single wolf out in the forest around us, which was unusual. But then… it was early, and a lot of the kids were still at the dance.
The forest was alive in ways I hadn’t heard in a while. I didn’t want to compare tonight to my first time with Sam, my first time period, but it was hard not to as Ben and I walked hand in hand between the trees, the flowers puffing out their fragrant glitter, the fireflies twinkling and leading us on, the soft hum of insects and night birds creating a melody softer and more beautiful than anything I’d heard at the dance. Ben walked confidently beside me, no longer frightened of what was about to happen but as committed to it, as committed to me as ever.
I had no idea what time it was. Nor did I know how long we had been lying there. It seemed like forever and no time at all, all at once, but when I heard the sound of a wolf howling frantically in the distance, I sat up at the same time as Ben. It seemed like a familiar, yet pained, howl, and I knew at once it was Sam.
I took in the scene before me as I ran toward Sam, hoping to get there in time. I saw Ben, too, a blur, rushing to Sam’s side. He was backed against the river, in his wolf form, a circle of dark wolves in front of him.It was the Parker boys. I could tell, even though none of them were facing toward me. Sam was outnumbered eight to one. Now that Ben was also there, i
“Are you all right?” Ben asked me, sliding into the driver’s side of his truck as I buckled my seat belt next to him. He took hold of my hand, his fingers warm against mine.“I will be,” I assured him, swiping at my tears. “I just… wasn’t expecting this. At all.”
It’s sort of funny how my bedroom ceiling looks the same every night. Whether I’m devastated about the loss of my grandmother or confused about what just happened between Sam and Starla, when I’m laying on my back, staring up at the ceiling, it looks exactly the same as it does on nights when I hardly notice it at all. You’d think there’d be some sort of a change--a darkening of the white paint or a show of some sort cast by shadows of despair. But… no. It’s the same now as it always is, even though I’ve been lying awake staring at it for hours. Eventually, it will change when the sun starts to come up and slides between the edge of cur
“Try to calm down,” Melanie said to me as she stood, her hands up in front of her. I supposed she could tell I was about to come unhinged. Her eye was blue and swollen, her lip split. It looked painful. It looked… wrong. “I’m okay.”“You don’t look okay!” I spat, not angry with her, of course, but angry with the monste
When I was done eating lunch, I sat outside for a few minutes, letting the autumn sun warm my face. I had two tasks to complete that day, and I didn’t want to do either one of them. But it was my responsibility, as the leader of this pack, to make sure all of my wolves were taken care of, and even if Melanie hadn’t been a pack member when Mr. Hudson put his hands on her, she was still my friend. There was no way in the world that I could possibly let this go.
Ben drove me to Mr. Hudson’s house later that afternoon, when Melanie was pretty sure he’d be home. Tony had come by and got his belongings earlier, when the owner was not at the residence. But as Ben’s truck rocked and bumped along the rutted driveway, I could tell in my gut the old man was there now.I hadn’t brought my staff. I didn’t think