LOGINDaxThe rim of the circle is still eating my grass.That's how you tell it’s linked to a live creature, according to the witch who likes my boyfriend better than me and pretends it’s the other way around just to fuck with him.Old dead ground has a clean edge.This one's got blades browning halfway up, right at the rim, dying while we stand here watching.'Dig it up,' the wolf says. 'Dig it up, bite it in half, and mail her the pieces.'We're doing one of those things.Noah walks the edge one slow time with the spade over his shoulder.Eight patches inside my fence, and out of all of them he picked this one like he was choosing a melon."Tell me your reasoning again. I like hearing it.""You like catching me being smart.""I like a lot of things about you being smart. Most of them aren't legal to do outdoors.""Seven of the patches, we can't tell what they’re connected to because the creatures are already dead and the magic’s been spent."He stops at the spot where the browning is wor
NoahYou can watch a graduation just fine from across the street.You just can't clap or cheer.The hall doors are propped open for the heat, so the names come rolling out over the parking lot one at a time, and I stand by the bus stop like a man waiting on a bus I'm not going to board.Two cars down, a very large man is trying to become part of a maple tree.He's holding a bouquet upside down. He needs the other hand for the branch he thinks is covering him.I walk over and stand next to the tree."They're called seats," I say. "They have them inside.""I'm being subtle." Finn doesn't come out from behind the branch. "That building is full of hunters.""That building is full of accountants and dental hygienists. The hunters are the few families wearing scuffed boots rather than dress shoes.""Right. And how many of those know my face?"He's got me there.He wasn’t in the files before, but since they started video surveillance, I’m sure those files have grown exponentially.None of th
Noah"One more time. All of it.""I hold the crossing," Tori says, in the tone of a hostage reading a statement."I stay out of the deep stretch. If anybody comes through the water acting lost, I point them at the county side and I don't follow. I'm a signpost. You smuggled your sister past five trucks of armed men to be a signpost.""A signpost to something nothing in this wood has ever managed to move," Dax says.He's lashing the spade to my pack like we do this every week."Staying within sight of the water is the rule tonight. Anybody gets lost, you don’t go beyond where you can see the creek to save them. If they’re out of sight and don’t come when you call, they’re probably not real. Don't leave your post for anything.”He thinks for a second.“And stay off the stretch past the crossing where the banks pinch. It runs deep through there, and much faster than it looks. No point saving someone from getting turned around just to get them drowned.""See? He briefs me like a soldier.
Dax"So, this is what being Alpha gets you," Finn says behind me, ducking a branch. "Night walks. Romantic.""You volunteered.""I volunteered because you said, and I'm quoting you here, Finn, you're coming.""That's how volunteering works when I do it.""He asked me at dinner," Noah says up ahead, without looking back."I said no. And here I am.""You said no with your mouth. Your face said you'd sulk all night if we left you behind."Three nights running I've walked this stretch myself, since the one wolf I'd trust to do it handed me her radio, and pride's not a reason to leave the north corner unwatched.Tonight we're going the long way, up past the creek, so Noah can look at Reena's two fresh circles and tell me whether the dead area is spreading.Mato's on Cody duty.They both seem most comfortable when it’s arranged that way.Noah's ahead of me on the deer path with a light in one hand and his crossbow across his back, moving the way he does.Watching him walk does things to me
Noah"I'm driving," Dax says, already in the truck."She asked for me.""And you live here, so it's a package deal now."He backs down the drive before my door's even shut."Also, ten more seconds in that hallway and we'd have let the phone ring out while you thanked me the way you were dying to, so somebody owes me a very specific apology later. I'm keeping a tab.""You can't smell that.""I can smell everything. It's my favorite thing about you. You’re full of slutty honey."Arguing with him about my own intentions is a fight I already lost in a hallway five minutes ago, so I let it go.The gate comes up in the high beams, and past the bars there's a little hatchback parked on the county side, lights on, and Heidi standing in front of it with her arms crossed like she's waiting on a late bus.My heart does something complicated.Two years of dating her, followed by months of her hating me, and some part of me still files her under home without asking permission first."That's her al
Heidi"Twenty-two years old and the best shot in the history of the hunters," Hennessy says, for the third time since I put the coffee on, "And he turns into a fairy and hands all that potential to an animal. It sickens me."Moving back home after the break-up is only temporary, but tonight I wish I’d just found another apartment immediately.Hearing all this is making me feel sorry for the man who trampled on my heart.It’s also making me drift even further from the doctrine I was raised with.The hunters are supposed to be the good guys, but everywhere I turn there’s more evidence of their failure as not only protectors, but human beings.Since I’m here, I may as well hear what they’ve got to say.I carry the pot over and refill his cup. Smile. Say nothing.That's my station tonight.Three council men are in our kitchen and as the daughter it’s my duty to smile prettily and serve them.Everything in its place."Gavin offered to see to it himself," Danny Pruitt's uncle says. "His own
DaxThe wolf wants to turn around.He's wanted to turn around since I cleared the fence, and he isn't being quiet about it, because quiet isn't a thing he owns.He just keeps shoving the same word into the back of my skull like a toddler with a doorbell.Ours.Ours, ours, ours."He's a hunter," I t
NoahThree weeks I've been hunting this wolf, and tonight, finally, he does me the courtesy of holding still long enough to kill.Big of him.He's at the tree line where Northgate's fence gives up and the real woods start, and he's shirtless.Obviously. He almost always is.Cold's got nothing to sa
DaxThe thing's in pieces at our feet and my body's still waiting for round two.I never come down off a kill clean. My blood's still up, ears still straining, every muscle still voting to hit something else.I don’t think it’s a werewolf thing. It’s an adrenaline thing.So when the wolf decides to
NoahThe wolf hits it like a truck, and the thing barely rocks.Wrong.Two hundred pounds of Alpha at a dead run should fold anything with a spine.This rotten thing takes the hit, slides back a boot-length in the dirt, and swings an arm the size of my leg.The wolf has to wrench sideways midair to

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