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Chapter 1

They say the hunter's moon was once called the blood h a crisp autuht turns blood from crimson to black

I much prefer the shade of blood beneath the ress

I aer-Sucher to those in the know - of which there are a select few I huntthat's a euphemism for today's serial killers, it's not When I say "monster" I ic on the loose The kind of thing that will give you nightmares forever Just like me

My specialty is olves I must have killed a thousand and I'm only twenty-four Sadly, my job security has never been in jeopardy A fact I learned all too hen my boss, Edward Mandenauer, called

"Leigh, I need you here"

"Where is here?" I mumbled

I aht co most of my life in the dark

Werewolves eht, beneath the moon They're funny that way

"I am in Crow Valley, Wisconsin"

"Never heard of it"

"Which gives you much in common with the rest of the world"

I sat up, awake, alert, senses hu That had sounded suspiciously like dry humor Edward didn't do humor

"Who is this?" I demanded

"Leigh" His long-suffering sigh was as much a part of him as his heavy Ger?"

"It's h?"

I did not greet each day with joy My life was dedicated to one thing - ridding the earth of olves

Only then could I forget what had happened, perhaps forgivewhen everyone I'd ever loved had died

"Liebchen,"Mandenauer murmured "What will I do with you?"

Edward had saved o day filled with blood and death and despair He had taken s, then set ent, and only Edward and I knehy

"I'ht," I reassured him

I wasn't and probably never would be But I'd accepted that I'd moved on Kind of

"Of course you are," he soothed

Neither one of us was fooled by my lie or his acceptance of it Which was hoe both kept ourselves focused on as i them all

"The town is in the northern part of the state," he continued "You will have to fly to Minneapolis, rent a car, go east, I think"

"I a to Shit Heel, Wisconsin, Edward"

"Crow Valley"

"Whatever I'm not done here"

I'd been working in Canada at Mandenauer's request A fewcalled Miniwa Sootten the details I didn't care

All I kneas that there olves running north, plenty of them

But as ht like to, I couldn't just blast every wolf I saith silver There were laws about such things, even in Canada

The Juger-Suchers were a secret branch of the government We liked to envision ourselves as the Special Forces ofThink The X-Files versus Grimm's Fairy Tales on steroids