We wake up at the same time the next morning, stretching and tugging open the motel curtains to let the sunlight in. In the daylight, the damage done by Jasper and Zach’s fight the evening before makes me wince. “I hope they don’t charge us for this,” I say, picking up a broken piece of the treasure chest lamp.Jasper just shrugs. “In a town with feuding wolf and bear shifters, there’s a lot of property damage. The humans just seem to go with it.”“Huh.” Maybe things are different in a rural mountain town out here in Montana. I do my best to tidy up our room, then Jasper and I get dressed and showered before heading out to the diner.It’s called the Rocking Ranch All Day Breakfast Diner, a mouthful of a name that’s painted on a peeling yellow sign above the low brick building. Jasper and I slide into a booth with cracked, faux leather seats and page through the sticky, laminated menu pages. “I wonder where Zach is,” I ask, glancing around the restaurant. There are some

Jasper seems to know exactly where he’s going, and all I need to do is keep up. It’s not hard to stay at a full sprint, since it feels so good. The wind in my fur, the mountain air rushing past my snout, the ground firm and sure under my paws - it’s a fantastic experience.We leap down rocky ravines, jump over clear babbling creeks, launching our powerful bodies down the mountain. We reach the valley in between, a relatively flat meadow filled with golden prairie grasses and tiny wildflower blossoms. I smell their fragrant aroma, as well as the birds nesting among the grasses.But this isn’t just a fun adventure. Ahead of me, Jasper is determined, his snout close to the ground as he follows the scent trail of the bear clan. Occasionally he lifts his head, his ears pricked up, listening to the wind and getting a better sense of where we are. He seems to know this land like the back of his paws, and I feel sure footed and confident following in his trail. As we start to leave t

Layla’s explanation of the loyalty spell contained in the stone makes a lot of sense. Jasper’s family dwindling down to a few scattered members, plus the fact that Orsina felt compelled to reach out to us wolves for help as soon as she found the stone - it all fits with what we’ve discovered.I scroll through the translation of the poem Layla sent me, trying to make sense of the rest of it. It talks about love, and the two families becoming one. Is that just a metaphor, or is there something else there? The carving itself is strange and almost magical in its ability to look like a bear from one side, and a wolf from the other. At the end of our phone call, Layla told me that she’s sure there is more to the stone, more to its magic and its meaning. She promised to keep researching, and asked me to take more close up photos of the carving next time I had it in my possession. “I really want to come out there and see it for myself,” she told me. “Where are you in Montana, exactl

The bear shifters take us back to their camp. The heavy scent of bears is thick, but I can’t see Orsina. Various other bear shifters come out of their tents and campers as we approach. Zach, I see, is awake now, with bruises around his eyes and a glazed expression on his face. I stand next to him, trying to prop him up, and see Jasper doing the same thing on the other side. The three of us huddle together, our arms bound, our muscles aching after the unfair fight.A short, stocky man with a thick beard approaches us. “I am Barrett, the Alpha of this bear clan,” he declares, crossing his arms and glaring at us. “Please, you have to listen to us,” I beg, trying to get through to him. “We aren’t trying to hurt anyone. In fact, we’re trying to fix everything. Your family is under a curse -”“I’m aware,” Barrett snarls. “The curse of the filthy wolves. They’ve been stinking up our territory for generations. You have killed our family members, encroached on our lands, and stole

Once everyone wakes up and Orsina and I are back in our human forms, I gather everyone together to tell them about my idea. It seemed to crystallize in my mind as soon as I awoke from my dream, and I want to get it out of my head as soon as possible. “Orsina was right,” I whisper, leaning in to draw my head close to everyone else’s. “A good night’s sleep was exactly what I needed to come up with something.”“What’s the plan?” Zach asks. He looks much better this morning, though the bruises on his face will take a long time to heal.“The bear clan keeps talking about the Whismore line, wanting to end this specific wolf pack and family, right?”Jasper and Zach nod.“Well, I’m not a Whismore. I’m not part of the line.”“But you’re Jasper’s mate,” Zach says, tilting his head with confusion. “That means you join the family line.”“We’re not mated yet,” I say. I tug down my shirt collar to show them, in the gray morning light of the trailer. I don’t have a claiming mark