Just being in the truck with Sam made me smile, even though he was busy driving, and I was probably driving him crazy with all of my questions. We had the radio on, and even though he refused to sing along, even to the songs I knew he had to know the words to, and I peppered him with a million different questions about what it was like growing up in Whispering Hollow. I stayed away from the personal parts, about his family, about his dad and Horace in particular, and he let me know that it hadn’t been easy for him being a kid out there in such an isolated part of the world. They hadn’t had much, and he still didn’t have much, even though it was clear he worked hard f

The jewelry shop was about what I was expecting. We walked inside to see lots of counters with lots of pieces of jewelry on display including rings, earrings, necklaces, and pendants. There was a couple browsing, the woman already covered in large diamonds, her husband hanging back and letting her wander from case to case. They were well dressed and probably in their late thirties or early forties. I felt very out of place.

“Well?” Mom asked the second I walked in the door.“Well… what?” I asked her, staring from her face to Max’s, to Grandma’s, to Grayson’s.

I woke up around 3:00 in the morning to the sound of multiple wolves howling back and forth and knew there was something wrong. I had fallen asleep in my clothes again, which made it easier to get up, put on my shoes, and head outside. The thought of texting Sam or Ben came to mind, but chances were, they were already in their shifted forms, and I doubted they accepted text messages when they were wolves.

“How did she do that?” I whispered into the wind. No one answered me, though. Verina had disappeared in front of my very eyes, but her wolves were still there, at the moment.I heard growling behind me and turned to see that we had been joined by the remnants of my grandmother’s pack, as well as a few other wolves I hadn’t seen yet. We outnumbered t