Prologue

When I was ten years old, a drunk driver crashed into my father’s car. They said it was so bad you would have a hard time telling where the drunk’s car ended and my father’s began. Dad died instantly. Thank God, but it devastated Mom. For a long time, I thought I might lose her too.

Slowly, Mom got better, well, sort of. She stopped starving herself or spending hours in her room crying and started acting like a somewhat normal person. Only she wouldn’t laugh or smile. 

Mom didn’t do that until she met Harry Ford. They met in Minnesota while Mom did extra training for her job and they began dating. Mom had started going back to the way she was before. 

There was only one minor hitch about this whole boyfriend thing, though. Harry wasn’t exactly human. 

When they got serious, Harry revealed his secret to Mom. Somehow, he didn’t pick up on the fact Mom sucks eggs at keeping secrets. Not even five minutes passed before she told me. Luckily for Harry, I can keep secrets. You see, Harry’s a werewolf. I know what you’re thinking — run, this guy is totally crazy! That’s exactly what I told Mom, so she convinced Harry to do the change into a wolf thing in front of me.

As cool as the shift thing was, I found it also disturbing. I mean, what is not disturbing about your mom’s boyfriend stripping down to his boxers in front of you? Oh, the icing on the cake? Apparently, he and Mom were destined to be. Mates, Harry said, and wanted us to come live with him in Minnesota.

Now, Harry made Mom happy without a doubt, so I figured I would overlook his canine inclination and agreed to move to another state. Besides, I had nothing keeping me in Chatham. After Dad died, I lost all my friends. The worst seemed to be over, and in all truth, what did I have to lose, right? As it turns out, I still had things to lose, and the worst was far from over. 

This is the story of how my one simple plan to get out alive was torn to shreds and stomped into the ground.