by Reine, SM
Because I bit him.
Rylie gave Vanthe a shaky smile instead of answering aloud. “You should probably go find the bell. Gwyn might not turn into an animal twice a month, but she’s pretty scary when people don’t do what she tells them.”
He saluted her and loped around the building, vanishing into the shadows. As soon as he disappeared, Rylie sagged against the fence.
Just the thought of having to sit down to eat with the pack made her tired. Even Bekah and Levi treated her weird, and they had known her before the Alpha thing. Abel was the only one who made her feel normal anymore.
Up until the moment he touched her chin, anyway. Now she thought she might explode into a thousand pieces.
“What was that?” she whispered into the night, brushing her fingers over her jaw. She could still feel his skin on hers.
Loneliness. It had to be loneliness.
Only one more week until the semester ended. Then Seth would come home for the break between terms.
Summer couldn’t come fast enough.
THREE
Mail
If there was one constant to life on a ranch—even a ranch filled with werewolves—it was the omnipresence of chores.
Rylie woke up to work before sunrise, and she could already feel the new moon approaching. It whispered to her from the dark sky beyond her window. She parted her curtains to gaze up at the smattering of stars fading into the velvety blue of false dawn.
The moon was only a sliver of fingernail over the hills.
I’m coming…
That whisper used to fill her with dread, but it no longer held any sway.
She closed the curtains and ignored it.
Hoping that she was the first to wake up, Rylie grabbed a pair of jeans and work boots off of her dresser and sneaked into the hallway.
The bathroom door was open.
“Success,” she whispered. When was the last time she had gotten to shower without waiting in line?
Feet thudded down the hall. A shoulder bumped hers.
“Sorry! Emergency!” Bekah’s honey-blond curls flashed past her, and the bathroom door slammed shut. The lock clicked.
The pipes in the walls rumbled as the shower blasted to life.
“Hey!” Rylie pounded her fist into the door, forgetting that everyone else was still asleep. “Showering is not an emergency! I was here first!”
Bekah started humming show tunes.
“I’m sending you back to California,” Rylie growled, more to make herself feel better than anything else. The Riese twins, Bekah and Levi, split their year between the two sanctuaries. They would be going back soon anyway.
Grumbling to herself, Rylie hiked the jeans over her hips, stuffed her feet into boots, and went out to labor in the fields alone.
She usually shared the chores with Abel, so his absence quickly became hard to ignore. Feeding the chickens and checking the fence for holes wasn’t nearly as much fun without someone to distract her.
By the time the sun rose, the temperature was already over seventy degrees, and she was sweating.
Rylie tried not to watch the highway for signs of the Chevelle, but when she finished making a lap around the outer layer of fencing, she found herself sitting on a post to watch for Abel anyway.
Only a few hours until the moon. Only a few hours until she had to be Alpha again.
Where was he?
A car approached, but it wasn’t the Chevelle—it was the mail truck.
Her heart jumped.
Rylie ran to the mailbox, and she arrived just as the truck pulled away with a cloud of dust in its wake.
There was a lot of junk mail and hospital bills, but there was also a padded manila envelope with Rylie’s name on it. Another letter was addressed to her, too. All the return address said was, “Seth.”
The sight of his slanted handwriting made loneliness gnaw at her stomach. Despite his promises to visit between every semester, he had started doing summer and winter classes, too—they hadn’t been together for longer than a weekend since spring break the year before.
Opening the envelope made his smells wash over her, bringing back memories of their time together.
Meeting at summer camp. Fighting off his werewolf-hunting mother. Working on the ranch together. Having to leave him so she could get control of her wolf and become Alpha.
Before she could read the letter, the big red pickup rolled down the hill. Gwyn stopped beside her.
“Where are you going?” Rylie asked, passing the bills through the open window.
“Thought I’d stay in the city tonight. Escape the furry…” Gwyn whirled her finger through the air, as if searching for a word. “You know.”
“Are you worried about getting hurt?” she asked, frowning. It had never been a problem before.
Her aunt’s eyes were warm. She reached down to brush the hair over Rylie’s shoulder. “Not with you in charge, babe. I could just really use the vacation. I’ll only be a few days.”
Rylie made herself smile and nod, but worry knotted in her throat.
The only reason Gwyn ever went to the city was for treatments at the hospital. But the antiretroviral cocktails had been working great, especially since Rylie had been keeping a close eye to make sure her aunt took them.
Things weren’t getting worse again… were they?
“Love you,” Rylie said as Gwyn wiggled the gearshift.
Her aunt shot a knowing smile at her. “No wild parties while I’m gone. And if you’re going to drink, don’t touch the liquor on the top shelf. That’s the good stuff and it shouldn’t be wasted on teenagers.”
“Gwyn!”
“See you soon,” she said with a wink.
The truck groaned down the path.
Rylie waited until she reached the privacy of her bedroom to read Seth’s letter. She curled up among the fluffy white pillows in bed with it, leaving the padded envelope on her desk.
Rylie,
That last picture of you almost killed me. You’re so damn beautiful. Being away from you makes it hard to breathe.
My every waking hour is consumed with studying for finals, but I keep losing concentration to think about you. The way your hair falls over your eyes when you’re sleeping. The taste of honey on your lips lingers. When I try to study for my anatomy lessons, I can only think about your body.
Stupid as it sounds, I’m counting the hours until the last final ends and I can join you at the ranch. As I write this, only one hundred forty-six hours remain—only.
I’ve got a surprise for you. It’s going to be good. Promise.
See you soon.
With all my heart,
Seth
Unable to control her smile, she hugged the letter to her chest and closed her eyes.
Saturday. Just three days, and she could have the real thing.
Her gaze drifted to the other piece of mail with her name on it. She sniffed the padded envelope. It smelled faintly of gunpowder—one of Seth’s distinctive odors. It must have been the surprise referenced at the end of his letter.
Rylie peeled the envelope open. A small box fell into her lap, along with a dried red rose and a slip of paper. Even though the flower’s petals were dried into curls, its perfume lingered. Sweet musk drifted through the air.
She opened the note. There was only a single line inside: I’m coming for you.
She blinked and reread it, then read it a third time.
I’m coming for you.
Her smile faded a fraction.
What a weird message. Of course Seth was coming for her. He would be back next Saturday.
Feeling uneasy, Rylie opened the box—and almost dropped it.
There was a silver bullet inside.
FOUR
Missing Wolf
The breeze cooled as the sun dropped low to the horizon. The barn cast long shadows over the fields, and lights turned on inside. Dark figures moved on the other side of the frosted glass.
After th
ey got rid of the herd, they had converted the barn into a dormitory for the sanctuary’s werewolves. Rylie kept an eye on them from the back step of the ranch house.
She should have been down there to help them prepare mentally for the night’s transformation.
But she didn’t get up.
Rylie considered the box in her cupped hands. She hadn’t opened it again, but she could smell the silver bullet through the wood. It made her queasy to have it close.
Who would have sent her such a thing? She didn’t have any enemies—none that were still alive.
Laughter floated over the breeze from the barn. The younger wolves were joking and roughhousing, like they were at a sleepover.
Why should they be nervous? Rylie had helped them through a dozen painless changes.
And they hadn’t gotten any death threats lately.
Lights appeared on the highway at the bottom of the hill. She had watched enough cars approach and pass that she didn’t get excited.
But this one slowed as it approached the driveway.
Her heart skipped.
Abel.
The wolf pressed against the inside of her ribs, like an excited dog leaping at the return of its friend. She shoved her beast aside, jumped to her feet, and stuffed the box into her pocket—bullet and all.
The Chevelle pulled up to the tree at the bottom of the hill. Abel stepped out alone.
She jogged to the car. “You’re late.”
He grinned to see her. His gold eyes flashed, and his cheek dimpled. “It hasn’t even been a whole day. You’re so impatient.”
Rylie wanted to hug him, but she stopped a few feet away and ducked her head. “Where’s the new kid?” she asked, forcing her voice steady even though her stomach twitched like she had swallowed a jar of lightning bugs.
“Never showed.” He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “The flight was late, and he wasn’t on it.”
“Then what are we supposed to do?”
“Dunno. We can call the Whytes later and see what they say.” He slung his backpack over his shoulder and started toward the house. He hesitated at her side. “I told you I would be back in time.”
Rylie’s inner wolf swelled at his proximity, urged on by the approach of the new moon and the sounds of her nearby pack. She found herself leaning forward, closing her eyes, and smelling his chest.
There was so much information in his scent—his journey to the city, the beef jerky he had eaten on the trip, all the people at the airport, the hotel room. It flooded Rylie’s mind with color and borrowed memories.
When she opened her eyes, Abel was staring at her.
“Sorry,” she said. She meant to step back, but she had been rooted to the spot. Rylie had no control over her legs.
Normally, Abel would have picked on her for that slip in humanity. He never missed an opportunity to harass her.
But this time, he smelled her back.
He lowered his face to her neck and brushed his nose over the skin bared by her tank top. His breath breezed over her throat.
Rylie shut her eyes and clenched her hands tight, resisting the urge to touch him.
The wolf wanted to rub the side of her face against his. Mark him with her scent, and be marked.
Abel’s eyes flicked up to her lips. His face hovered close enough that she could smell the minty flavor of his gum.
My pack, the wolf whispered.
Shut up, Rylie responded, giving her beast a hard, internal jab.
It took all of her strength to take one step back, but once she did, the second step was easier. She cleared her throat. Nudged a rock with the toe of her shoe.
Abel straightened and didn’t remark on the moment of weirdness—which only made it weirder. He rubbed a thumb down a ridge of scar on his cheekbone. “Better get everyone together for the change.”
She stayed by the Chevelle as he entered the house.
Somehow, the box with the bullet found its way into her hand again, and Rylie’s fingers tightened around it. The corners bit into her palm. A painful reminder of Seth.
What was she thinking?
Bekah jogged past with a couple of other werewolves—Eldon and Simone, who came from Canada—and Rylie waved at them. They were still new enough to the change that they needed to work out energy before moonrise.
Thankfully, Abel’s door was closed when Rylie retreated to her room.
She found a pen and paper and sat at her desk. She had a computer, but the internet in the countryside was really slow, and there was something romantic about seeing his handwriting. It reminded her of swapping notes at summer camp.
Contemplating the blank page, she twisted the pen’s cap between her fingers.
Should she tell him about the bullet?
A door opened and closed somewhere else in the house. Abel flashed by the outside of her window and headed toward the barn.
She ducked her head and didn’t look at him.
The silver bullet sat next to her lamp as she wrote.
Dear Seth,
Hard to believe the end of the school year is already here. Finals made the last couple of weeks fly past.
It’s always kind of bittersweet when summer comes around: on one hand, I’m deliriously happy, because it means I get to see you; on the other hand, knowing that I’m leaving all my friends and teachers for a few months is sad, too.
Now there’s an added dose of melancholy when I walk the halls of our high school. It’s been empty without you for two years, but it was something we had shared together. Being there made it easy to retreat into thoughts of you and your arms around me.
But once the bell rings on the last day, that’s it. I’m never going back. A chapter of my life is ending and I don’t think I’m ready for it.
There’s so much I’m leaving behind. Memories of being friends with people like Tate—I still miss him, even if I still can’t meet his eyes after what happened to his mom. Watching you at football games. Studying together in the library.
I worked so hard to finish high school. I had to make a lot of sacrifices.
I should be happy, right?
Rylie hesitated, pen hovering over the page. She bit her bottom lip.
She didn’t want to worry him with the bullet yet—there was no way to know who had sent it anyway. But a million other things were on her mind, and didn’t know how to approach those, either. The werewolf that didn’t show up at the airport. Gwyn’s worrying secrecy.
And worst of all, The Abel Thing.
What could she say about that? “Hey Seth, I’ve been having funny feelings for your brother lately. My wolf wants to rub him. What do you think I should do about that?”
Yeah, right.
She sighed and propped her chin on her hand. Abel was gathering the rest of the werewolves at the bottom of the hill. They were knee-deep in long grass, and butterflies and bees flitted through the air around them.
Rylie had worked at his side enough that she could imagine the way the summer heat would make his sweat glisten on his shoulders, the smell of his perspiration, the pleasant baritone thrum of his voice.
As she watched, he stripped off his shirt and tossed it onto the rocks by the pond.
Her cheeks heated. She turned back to finish the letter.
I miss you. Come back soon. Please.
All my love,
Rylie
She folded the paper, stuck it in an envelope, and took it down to the mailbox.
FIVE
Changing
Twenty werewolves.
The number went up and down as months passed. The previous summer, there had been thirty at the sanctuary; over Christmas, it had been only a dozen. But twenty was what they had on the night of the new moon.
The werewolves were volunteers, not prisoners. They were strongly encouraged to spend every moon at the ranch, and many of them did. But they had jobs, families, friends—lives that they couldn’t all leave.
Twenty werewolves meant a lot of families
missing their daughters, fathers, and brothers.
There was nobody to miss Abel. He hadn’t spent a single moon away from the sanctuary since they opened it.
Bekah and Levi had already stripped naked and waited by the pond, talking quietly about mundane things. A couple of others began to follow suit, but most people stayed dressed until their changing forms ripped through their clothing. It was hard to let go of human modesty.
Abel would have stripped too, but it embarrassed Rylie. Instead, he waited with her on the back porch of the ranch house wearing nothing but sweatpants.
Rylie surveyed her pack from the back porch of the ranch, hands gripping the wood railing.
Everyone was spread over the hill. Watching her. Waiting.
She drew in a breath and let it out slowly. From a few steps away, Abel watched her shoulders rise and fall under the straps of a white linen dress. The gown was laced together with loose threads that would fall apart when she shifted. It was only a shade paler than her skin in the starlight.
If the moon had taken form and walked on earth, Abel was pretty sure it would have looked like Rylie.
“Five minutes,” she said in a low voice.
Abel repeated it louder for the benefit of the other wolves. “Five minute warning!”
She twitched, as though the volume of his voice startled her.
Rylie glanced at him. Her eyelashes fluttered as she drew in a shuddering breath and bit her bottom lip. Abel found his gaze strangely fixed on the indentations her teeth left in her skin.
She returned her gaze to the pack below them, but she spoke directly to him. “Where do you want to change? Do you want to go down with them, or…?”
“I’ll change with you. Always do, don’t I?”
“I just thought…” Rylie trailed off. He watched her throat work as she swallowed.
He briefly considered going down the hill to change with the other wolves, but the idea of leaving Rylie alone made his hackles rise. She always walked among the pack in her human form. What if one of them attacked before she could change? Even an Alpha’s throat could get ripped out.
