CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

Night falls, and I’m still somewhere in the forest, looking for a place to settle down.

I can see the lights of the city twinkling below, and I make my way closer, wondering if my parents are still at the little apartment where we started out living in Flagstaff.

But as I approach the door, lurking in the shadows, the reek of death hits my nose. A streak of blood, visible through a window, leaves me certain.

My parents are dead.

I had suspected as much, back in the pack house when I chose death over staying with Malcolm and Miranda. Usually, a wolf’s pack bond with their family members would be enough to override their willingness to die. But I was so sure that I had nothing left to live for, and I realize now that if my parents had been alive, I would have wanted to survive if only to avoid putting them through the devastation of losing their only child.

I prowl around the edges of the apartment, not wanting to go in. I can smell Malcolm and Miranda here, and I know the