It wasn’t quite noone when I got out of bed the next morning, but it wasn’t early either. I woke up feeling like I’d done a rigorous workout the day before, every muscle in my body sore. Perhaps that was because I had. I’d definitely been running a lot faster than I normally would. Most people probably would do so with a wolf fight happening behind them.

My mom was in the kitchen when I walked inside to hang up the keys by the door. I wouldn’t have even come inside if I didn’t need to do that. I would’ve preferred to sit on the steps and wait for Ben. Assuming he showed up. I wasn’t sure I’d understood him correctly. I mean, the idea that he wanted to take me for a ride seemed surreal. He was so unbelievably attractive, and I was just ordinary me.

“Red?” I repeated. My energy was red. “Why red?”Ben raised an eyebrow at me, as if he couldn't believe I had to ask that question. I had been asking a lot of questions lately that seemed unnecessary to him, I’m sure. “I think you know why,” he said quietly. Not the first time I’d heard that.

Horace’s truck was gone from the drive when Ben pulled his vehicle into the space he’d vacated earlier and came around to open my door, which was very gentlemanly of him. He did not hold my hand as we walked up to the house, though. Why, I’m not sure, but I think he must’ve known, either because Sam told him or because of this energy flow thing he’d been telling me about, that there was something going on between me and Sam. I wasn’t exactly sure what that something was, just as I honestly wasn’t sure what the something was between me and Ben either. We had kissed--a lot. And probably would’ve kissed more if the Evel Knievel of birds had

Ben didn’t come into Raven’s room with me. Instead, he pushed the door open for me and then closed it behind me. I assumed he would stay in the hallway, in case I needed him, but I wasn’t sure. Her room was the same dingy white as the boys’, but everything was put in its place--except for a pair of jeans that was tossed across the end of the b