Jack lay in his bed staring up at the ceiling, thinking about what had happened earlier that night. Everly had gotten up about an hour ago. She’d taken a shower in his bathroom while he went into Alyson’s room and got her overnight bag. She’d gotten dressed in her pajamas, and he’d gotten her settled in one of the guestrooms—with Toby. It had been a long time since she’d been able to sleep with her dog, so at least she wouldn’t be alone. As much as he wanted to spend the night with her, neither one of them were ready for that yet, which seemed a little odd when he thought about how important it usually was for people to spend the night together after sex, but he thought she really wanted her own space.He wanted some space, too, but only because he was afraid if he didn’t put some space between them, he wouldn’t be able to keep his hands off of her. And she needed to get some rest, not be harassed by him all night.Sigh

Waiting for Jack to pick her up for school was a lot harder than Everly thought it was going to be. She ended up texting him several times that night, as long as her phone was working, which wasn’t for as long as she’d hoped it would. At least she’d gotten a chance to tell him about her arm.In the morning, he picked her up alone, and Everly hardly got the door open before Jack was flying inside. “Is your dad here?” he asked.“No, his truck’s not—”She didn’t get to finish the sentence before Jack’s mouth was on hers, devouring her lips, his hands on her hips lifting her off of the ground. Everly couldn’t help but laugh as her fingers intertwined in his hair.“Sorry,” he said when he finally uncoiled his tongue from hers. “I’ve been waiting a while to do that.”Everly felt her heart still pitter pattering in her chest. She understood what he meant.

The moment Everly got into the car the next morning, Jack handed her the best picture of the three wolves that had been taken from the film that was found in her mother’s camera. He waited for her to look at it and gave her a moment to process.Her eyes roamed over the three wolves in the distance before she asked, “Which one is Granite?”“The largest one in the middle,” Jack told her. “My dad’s sure that’s him. See that sort of strange gray bib-like marking on his chest? Dad said that that’s pretty unique, and he’s certain that it’s Granite.”She slowly shook her head. “And who are the other two?”“The smallest one on the left is named Hester, and the one on the other side is Abram. He’s one of the oldest members of the council.”“And was Granite the council president  or whatever the hell you call him when this happened?” Everly

The rest of the week both seemed to drag along and fly by until it was Saturday again, and Everly didn’t know how she should spend her day. Should she spend the day pampering herself like she had the week before, or should she just veg out and watch a movie or ten?At least she had Toby with her. That was a major difference from the week before. She knew she shouldn’t spend too much time outside, and since it was early December it was pretty cold, too, but with the big fence in the back yard that Jack and the others had built for Toby, she didn’t mind going back there with her dog quite a few times that day for him to do his business and to play catch for a while until her dad yelled at her that she needed to go back inside. He said it was too cold, but she knew he was nervous that something else was going to happen to her.Everly mumbled under her breath that she was fine, but she decided to go in anyway, grabbing the ball off of the frozen ground. T

“I swear to the Moon Goddess, God, Buddha, Tiki, whoever you want me to swear to,” Paul said, running his hands through his hair. “I didn’t talk to anyone. I didn’t tell anyone! I didn’t show anyone the pictures. I printed them out and came right here. I didn’t even know who was in them!”Everly felt sorry for the guy. The moment they’d gotten to the Grey house, Jack had used that mind-link thing to call him over to their house, as well as Chase and a couple of other guys she didn’t know, guys his dad’s age. Victor was out of town at the moment. Everly was staying out of the way, standing with her back pressed against the wall, wishing she could just melt into the drywall and disappear.“No one else knew about this,” Jack said, not for the first time. Paul was sitting in a recliner, though the footrest wasn’t up, and the others were all sitting on the couch. Except for Jack who was paci