“Take a look.”
Unfolding the page, the bolded headline read:
WOMAN KILLED IN ANIMAL ATTACK
My stomach tightened and my eyes darted to Harlow's face. When he didn't say anything, I read the brief article. It was about the woman who had been killed by an animal in the woods earlier in the year. I knew the story, the media covered it for days. Her death was the reason my mother didn't like me spending time out there. I shuddered as chills ran down my arms. I hated the first question that came to mind, but I had to ask it. I took in a jagged breath and met Harlow's eyes. “Was this your fault? Your pack’s fault?”
Harlow promptly sat down and reached for my hands, but I jerked them away. “No! Rayna. No! That's what I'm trying to tell you!” his tone urgent. “This attack happened in April. My pack didn't return to Harbor Glenn until the end of June. Attacking humans like this is forbidden and punishable by death. Only a rogue, lone wolf would attack a person.”
“There are no exceptions?”
“I'd be lying to us both if I said there aren't any exceptions.” Harlow waited for me to relax and when I didn't he continued his explanation. “Nick is obsessed with keeping up on any news involving animal attacks. Anything that could jeopardize us. We were out of the country when this attack happened so it wasn't on our radar until Ivy thought of it the day I caught you at the St. Croix Stream.”
I released a troubled breath. “That's why they ran off. She wanted to show them this woman's story.”
“Yes. Ivy thought if we could find this woman's name we might be able to track down a lead. But—”
“Her name isn't mentioned because the family chose to keep that information private,” I said paraphrasing the article, staring down at it in my hand.
“We have a theory that someone related to this woman has planned to avenge her death.”
“But how would this person know about your pack? How would they even determine she was killed by a werewolf and not a bear or something else?”
“The way her body was mangled would be the first giveaway. There are stories of werewolves throughout Maine. Of course, some people believe they’re just that—stories—while others know better. Werewolf hunting has been instilled in some families for as long as werewolfism has existed. Hunters live all over the world. They hate what we are. They will track us down and kill us at any given opportunity. These hunters don’t care one way or the other if our pack is responsible for this woman's death. It’s an excuse to hunt. The worst part is hunters blend into society like you and I. Any one of them would kill to infiltrate our pack, gain our trust and get as close to us as you are.” Harlow leaned forward in his chair and placed his hand on my knee. “You can’t tell anyone about any of this, Rayna. It could put you in danger.”
Chills broke out across my body. “I promise.” Harlow’s expression didn’t soften at my words. “You’re scared,” I said, recognizing something troubled in his expression. Harlow had never looked at me like this before. And there was nothing I could say to fix it.
“The pieces have been unraveling slowly so far, but we don’t even know how much time we have to figure out what it is these hunters plan to do with the dagger before it's too late.”
“The dagger these hunters stole,” I began, forming my final question, “and this necklace,” I said, picking it up, “if they're both tied to your family's curse, does that mean you and Nick are the only ones who will face whatever the hunters are planning?”
“No,” he replied with a sense of guilt. “When a werewolf accepts entry into a pack an invisible binding happens. Supernatural lines blur our lineages. Our pack becomes our family. Whatever we face, we face together.”
“Harlow,” I said, breaking the silence between us, “I promise I won’t say a word of this to anyone,” I reassured him with the utmost sincerity. “Maybe I can help,” I offered. It seemed like the least I could do.
“Thank you,” he sighed. “but it's too risky and I don’t want to drag you in any deeper.”
“I get it now,” I said after a brief lull in our conversation.
Harlow eyed me skeptically. “Get what?”
“You, Nick and Ivy. Why Nick is the way that he is. Why you are the way that you are.”
Harlow’s expression solidified.
“I don’t mean it in a bad way!” I clarified. “I just understand you now. In a way I didn’t before.”
Harlow looked at me, puzzled. “Well, I hope I didn’t scare you off.”
“Close call,” I joked, giving him a sly smile.
His expression softened as he recognized my playful tone. “Well, it’s getting late—”
I jumped out of the chair at his words, pulling my cell phone from the back pocket of my jeans. It was well after six. “Yeah, I have to get back.”
“Wouldn't want your parents to send a search party,” Harlow teased. “I’ll walk you back,” he offered, lifting the backpack from the floor. I held out Cecily’s journal for him to take along with the necklace. “Keep them,” he said, carefully sliding the necklace into his grasp. Taking a step forward he placed the leather strap over my head. “You agreed to wear this,” he said as if I needed reminding, and proceeded to fix my hair with a soft smile. His eyes dropped to the journal. “Read or skim this,” Harlow suggested. “If nothing else, it’s an interesting read.”
The walk back to my house was mostly silent. I had so much running through my mind I couldn't think straight. When we made it to the edge of Rider's backyard I said, “Well, I can take it from here.”
Harlow took both of my hands in his. Staring down at them he said, “I know this is a lot to take in. And I understand if I’ve given you a lot to consider. I just want—”
“Harlow,” I spoke his name gently, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze. “I’m not running from this. Or you.”
He leaned forward, touching his forehead to mine. “You do have a choice, Rayna.”
I swung my arms around his neck. “And I’m choosing to stay,” I told him with a sort of finality, pressing my lips against his to seal the moment. Something surged inside me when our lips met and I found myself in the dark again.
This time, I was in a moving vehicle. The car slowed to a stop and shortly thereafter I was greeted by a burst of cold air as my body was pulled gently from its place and scooped up into someone’s arms.
“Rayna, are you okay?” Harlow asked, concern written all over his face as he gradually came back into focus.
I shook my head as if to shake away the vision. “I’m fine,” I told him, sounding unsure of myself. “Why does this keep happening?” I muttered.
“What?” Harlow said, alarmed.
Meeting his gaze, I confessed, “Sometimes I just blackout or something. This is like the fourth time it’s happened.” I wasn’t about to mention the visions that accompanied the problem.
Harlow crouched down and swung one of my arms over his shoulder as if I needed help walking.
“What are you—?” I started to ask, still a little dazed.
“I’m not letting you walk the rest of the way home like this.”
He had to be joking. “Harlow, I’m okay, really!” I protested.
He clearly wasn’t having it and continued to guide me toward home.
I was just glad we weren’t far from my house at this point. It left little time for him to grill me further on the matter. “See, I’m fine,” I told him triumphantly as I slid out of his grasp when we reached the top of my driveway. “And now you have to walk all the way home.”
“I hardly have to walk,” he replied with a suggestive grin as he accompanied me toward the door.
I made a face at that. This whole werewolf thing was going to take some getting used to. “I think I can manage from here. The door is what ten, fifteen steps away?”
Seconds later the front door pulled open. “Rayna?” My dad called out. He couldn’t see us from where we stood in front of the garage.
My eyes widened at
Harlow. “Go!” I whispered, pushing him away from me.
Harlow leaned in giving me a quick peck on the cheek before bolting across the neighbor’s front lawn and out of sight.
chapter twelve
THE BELL RANG INDICATING THE END OF FIRST period. “Time is up,” Mrs. Hodgkins, my AP English Teacher, announced to the class. “Please leave your tests on my desk on your way out.”
I scanned over my answers on The Great Gatsby one last time before gathering my books and bringing my test to the front of the room.
“That was brutal,” Rider commented from behind me as we shuffled out into the hallway.
“Well if you read the book…” I teased suggestively.
“I rented the movie!” he revealed with a guilty smirk, just as one of his buddies called out to him from down the hall. He excused himself and took off in the opposite direction.
Arianna tapped my shoulder lightly as she passed me by. “See you at lunch,” she smiled.
I smiled back at her before taking a quick detour to my locker to grab my calculus book.
Rounding the corner toward Mr. Rosenberg’s classroom, I bumped shoulders with someone heading in the opposite direction. “Oh, excuse me,” I apologized to the man.
“No, running in the halls, right?” he joked, meeting my gaze.
“That’s what they tell us,” I smiled.
His blue eyes studied me. “Did I meet you at winter formal?” he asked abruptly. “I was running the refreshments table. I know it was a few weeks ago and it was kind of dark in there.”
“Oh right...” I trailed off, unable to recall his name as an awkward silence fell between us.
“Hey, that’s an interesting piece of jewelry you’ve got there,” he commented, pointing to the pendant around my neck and I reached for it instinctively. "You were wearing it at the dance too if memory serves me.”
I nodded, unsure of how else to respond. “I should go. I don't want to be late to class,” I told him, trying to end the uncomfortable encounter there.
“Before you run off,” he added. “I was just curious if you could tell me anything about its history?” When I offered him a sideways glance in response, the young man chuckled at my reaction. “Oh, my mistake. That pendant looks like an antique is all I was getting at.”
“Maybe, but I’m not familiar with its background,” I lied.
He laughed once more. “Not a problem. Just curious. While I’ve got you, could you point me in the direction of Ms. Dover’s history class? I’m supposed to be shadowing her this week.” he explained.
“Take a left at the end of the hall,” I directed him. “You can’t miss it.” Something didn't sit right with me about my encounter with the volunteer from the dance and I’d have to ask Lacey if she remembered his name.
An hour later, I sat in the cafeteria, eagerly awaiting Harlow’s arrival. My eyes trained on the cafeteria doors.
“Are you okay, Rayna?” Lacey asked from beside me.
I turned my head in her direction. “Yeah, why?” She stared down at my bouncing leg and I stopped fidgeting. “I didn’t realize…” I broke off not bothering to finish my sentence.
“Are you sure?” Lacey pressed.
“Yeah. Oh hey, do you remember the name of the guy who was serving refreshments at winter formal by chance?”
“Why?” Lacey probed and it was hard to miss the defensive undertone in her voice.
“I literally ran into him in the hallway before calc—”
“And you didn’t tell me sooner!”
“Oh, here we go,” Arianna commented.
“Just tell me his name, Lace.”
“Walsh,” she said hesitantly.
“You’re sure?”
She gave me an annoyed look in response. “Of course I’m sure. I spent the rest of that weekend trying to cyber stalk him, but it’s hard to find a guy when you don’t know if Walsh is his first or last name.”
Despite what I wanted to say, I just nodded. She was already wound up enough so I returned my attention to the cafeteria doors. As soon as Harlow crossed the threshold, I was out of my seat. Lacey said something from behind me, but I didn’t catch it in my haste to get to him. Harlow’s smile transformed into a look of concern when I didn’t smile back. Pulling him aside, I was careful to keep my voice down, “We need to talk.”
“Are you all right?” he asked, scrutinizing my face.
“I’m fine. But I had a strange conversation with someone before calc that I thought you should know about.”
“Someone who?” Harlow wondered.
“His name is Walsh,” I started to explain, “He was in charge of the refreshments table when Lacey and I got drinks at winter formal.”
Harlow looked confused. “Okay. What about him?”
“We sort of bumped into each other after first period and he started asking about this,” I said, lifting the pendant. “He said he noticed me wearing it at the dance and asked me about its history.”
Harlow’s expression went uneasy. “What did you tell him?”
“Nothing. I said I didn’t know anything about it. I think he believed me, but that’s not even the weird part. The weird part was when he asked me where Ms. Dover’s history class is. He said he was shadowing her this week. But he was a chaperon at the dance and that was almost a month ago. It doesn’t add up.”
Harlow sighed heavily, his eyes searching the cafeteria.
“What?”
“I need to find Ivy.”
“Do you think—”
“I’m not jumping to any conclusions. Walsh doesn’t seem like much of a threat. He could just be intrigued by the necklace.”
“Or?”
“Or I could be wrong.”
“How can I help?”
“You just did, Rayna. Go eat lunch. I’ll be at the table in a minute.” Harlow and I spotted Ivy across the room at the same time, heading back to her usual table with a lunch tray in her hands. Harlow beckoned her over with a wave of his hand. Staring down at me, he said, “You can go, this will just take a minute.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I refused. I knew what was going on and I wasn’t going to let him keep me out of these conversations anymore.
Harlow's features didn’t conceal his irritation with me. “Please don’t do this right now, Rayna.”
“I’m not doing anything, Harlow,” I retorted curtly, standing my ground.
He didn’t have a chance to continue our little disagreement because Ivy had joined us.
She gave me a quick disinterested glance before ignoring me altogether. “What’s up?” she asked Harlow.
“Rayna says a volunteer from the dance, Walsh, showed interest in the necklace earlier today—”
“He bumped into me this morning, and started asking about it,” I interrupted, not allowing them to exclude me from the conversation.
Ivy didn’t seem convinced. “Is that the guy who’s been shadowing Ms. Dover’s history class?”
“Been shadowing?” I repeated for clarity. “He asked me where her classroom was.”
“He’s not on our list, but maybe we should consider him?” Harlow suggested.
Ivy shook her head disbelievingly. “Maybe what he said to Rayna was just his way of getting out of the encounter. I mean it’s pretty harmless. But if it’ll make you feel better…” she trailed off, offering me an accusatory stare. “Mind you, we do have bigger fish to fry.”
“I'm aware, but at this point, we can't afford to let anyone slide under the radar. You haven’t had any luck locating the dagger. We’re sitting ducks.”
Ivy gave me another sideways glance. “I’d be very careful with that if I were you,” she warned, pointing to the necklace. “One slip and—”
“Drop it, Ivy.” Harlow cut in, dryly.
“All right,” Ivy caved. “What do you need from me then?”
“Nothing, I just wanted to give you a heads up. I'll talk to Nick about Walsh when I get home.”
S
he nodded. “So are you going to be around later?” Ivy asked Harlow while giving me yet another hard stare.
“I’ll be there,” Harlow confirmed, and with that, we went our separate ways.
“You don't think she's going to tell your brother I have this, do you?” I said, lifting the pendant from my chest as we walked back to our usual table.
“No. Ivy knows I want you to have it. She's not a tattletale.” Despite his words, I wasn't so convinced.
“Rayna!” Lacey said as Harlow and I took our usual seats at the lunch table. “Arianna and I were going to hit the library tonight to start studying for finals. You should come too.”
She had a point. I glanced sideways to Harlow.
Lacey caught me and made a sound of disapproval. “Harlow gets you all the time, Ray. Let us have you for once!”
It had been a while since I’d spent time with Lacey and Arianna, even if it was only studying. But with everything going on with Harlow and the pack, sacrifices had to be made. I couldn’t miss whatever discussion was had about Walsh tonight. “I know, Lace,” I said guiltily, “but we sort of have plans...” I trailed off.
Lacey frowned. “What happened to hoes before bros, hm? Sure feels like you’ve got that backwards lately.”
“I’m sorry,” I pleaded. “I promise I’ll make it up to you. Beach’s date soon? I’ll buy!”
Lacey sighed and turned her attention to her food.
“What's happening tonight?” Rider probed expectantly, as if he were hoping to score a last-minute invite to a party.
Harlow waved him off. “Nothing you'd be interested in,” he replied vaguely. “It's my brother.”
Rider's expression lit up in understanding. “Forget I asked, man.”
After lunch, I didn’t get much interaction from Harlow until the end of the day in the parking lot when I spotted his reflection in my car door window. “Hey,” I greeted him.
“Hey,” he replied. “I’m glad you’re coming tonight. The pack should know what I've clued you in on. Ivy agreed to meet you in the clearing in an hour.”
I folded my arms in front of my chest. Great, Ivy. My favorite person, I thought sarcastically.
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