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Okay, so it was him

"I could have done without that particular trip down memory lane," I murmured

"You asked me to tell you a secret, which only ould know"

I’dthese lines: On my sixteenth birthday he’d taken ue - who’d shown one off to kill someone But he had taken ht Anyone could discover that information if they took the trouble to look No one could know that the man who had "raised" me was also the man who had made me an orphan

I couldn’t blame him; my mother had been a olf at the ti had Edward been calling my name? I

wasn’t sure I’d drifted too far down the unpleasant road to my past

"Sir?"

"You must come to Wisconsin There is trouble in a place called Fairhaven"

Thatwith several other agents, if there wasn’t I assumed the issue olves, since those were Jessie’s specialty I also assumed some type of Native Ah you couldn’t have Jessie without Will and vice versa They’d been inseparable since they met

"The usual kind?" I asked, which was shorthand for any mysterious increase in the wolf population, wild animal attacks, or sudden, random, and inexplicable bloody death

"Perhaps Joinout"

I found it odd, sad, and just a bit rude that horrible things were happening in a town by the name of Fairhaven

But I hadto tell Edward there was someone after me? Someone who knew they needed a silver bullet to do any kind of daht probleh the door My time had run out

"Do you have my research with you?" I asked instead

That question was innocent enough

"Not with one?"

"Yes"

"Your serum?"

"Dust"

"Then you’d do well to hurry"

The line went dead without a good-bye Why should tonight be different than any one of a thousand others?

He hadn’t asked if I was all right Of course, I was as hard to kill as s he hunted

Another of the reasons Edward kept me around Still, it would have been nice, just once, if he’d asked

"Everything okay?"

Nic seeer wobbled I still wasn’t going to let hi’s fine"

Or as fine as it was going to get

I bought some snacks - beef jerky, ave Nic the bill After thanking the attendant, ent outside and contemplated Nic’s brand-new car

Or new to him anyway The vehicle had to be at least thirty years old and resembled a tank The Plymouth Grand Fury, once the car of police forces everywhere, had been retired in favor of the Crown Victoria and various SUVs When that happened, the fleet of Furys had been sold at auctions across the country We’d obviously been gifted with the results

I cliraphed his thundering headache more clearly than the three aspirin he doused with a cola chaser as soon as his butt hit the passenger seat I started the car and headed east

One hway that seehts, the next he was asleep Though I’d have to wake hih of relief I was too tired to field any ht now

I kept my eyes on both the tree line and the road Every movement, every shadow , h I felt as if I were navigating the Starship Enterprise fro, shiny, navy blue hood that seeine in a Fury could outrun even a olf The knowledge sootheda few thousand silver bullets would have

In the close confines of the car I could s My body responded in a predictable manner I insisted I was better than the aniht I had my doubts

In most cases, the lycanthropy virus destroys a person’s huht, but inside there was a de, a lot of bad things happened

A olf in hu in existence In the ression, drive, ambition, which makes a olf pretty hard to spot in the sun

Sadly, there isn’t a tail or fangs or pointy ears to mark them as one of the bitten

Sure they’re evil, but so are a lot of people I’ve always been of the opinion that there are a helluva lot more olf lawyers than olf pediatricians, but I’ve never had the time to prove it

One way to know for certain: Shoot a person with silver If they explode, olf If not oops

All I can say is, don’t try this at ho Hoht he was a olf"

Such technicalities have never stopped Edward Lucky for him he’s a law unto hi and mournful The sound called to me, and I wasn’t sure why I’d never been pulled by the moon, tempted by the pack

Once a h I loathed beco what I was, I had little choice when the ht I ht had been different I recalled the painless change, the rush of energy, the power To experience that again wasthan it should be

What if I stopped the car, got out, got furry and ran with the others? We’d hunt as one, together we’d kill I’d no longer be a lone wolf, scorned by both humans and lycanthropes I’d have friends A family

Maybe even a lover

Absently I fingered the talisers war, but I couldn’t nize the voice Male or feined?

Heat radiated frolanced down and choked My hand had sprouted fur,but war the talisman and recited the table of eleain, e actually happened? I’d never heard of such an occurrence We became wolves, completely, e shifted We were not able to pick and choose what part of us turned furry I should try again, but I was afraid

If I was turning into so other than what I’d always been, my days were nu h there’d been ti than life, noasn’t one of the man at my side Foolish as the idea was, I wanted to be with Nic for as long as I could

I drove on, tense and alert, slurping coffee as if it ater and waiting for the sun to explode over the horizon - or a olf army to explode fro to wait before the first one happened The sun was as reliable as the ht came a sense of security At daolves shifted back into hu us, they’d find the way from home without clothes or a car

Nic mu the night, asked his nae, one back to sleep He didn’t have a concussion as far as I could tell