“Alright, girl, what’s your deal?” Barrett pushes me down, hard, making me sit on a fallen log near the campfire.“Could I have some breakfast first?”“Someone give the wolf some bacon,” Barrett commands. The bear clan is all looking at me with distrust, but someone passes me a plastic plate piled with bacon, sausage, and potatoes. I dig in hungrily, feeling guilty knowing that Zach, Jasper, and Orsina are still locked in the trailer without food.But they’re counting on me. I need to be strong and clear headed if I’m going to be able to manipulate Barrett into letting me take the upper hand. I finish the meal, then set the plate on the ground. “Now tell me what’s going on here,” Barrett demands. “I’m actually from California,” I tell him. “But I’ve been having some issues with a local pack. They were trying to steal things, magical things, from me and my sister. I’m a Star Twin, actually. It’s a wolf shifter thing.”“Uh huh.” Barrett doesn’t seem too interested, bu

Barrett thinks I’m on his side. He thinks I’m willing to work with him to trick Jasper into telling me where his family’s ancestral cave is. He also thinks that I trust him and fully expect him to guarantee my safety, as well as that of the other wolf shifters, once he gets this information.Of course, he’s being played, even while he thinks I’m playing him. I have to stay calm and focused if I’m going to prevent him from figuring out what I am up to. The next thing I need to do is make sure I can get cell signal. If I can let Layla and Sarah and Nash know what’s going on, then I can get the San Diego pack to come up here and help. Once they’re out here and on our side, I know we’ll be able to get out from under this awful situation.I have to convince Barrett to let me go down into the town of Serpent Creek, where I’ll be able to use my phone to get ahold of the San Diego pack.“He mentioned the lawyer having some maps and papers,” I tell him. “Maybe if I could get those,

Sure enough, someone brings us plates of dinner. I share mine with the rest of the group, knowing that they didn’t have a chance to take a break from this awful prison trailer like I did.Jasper refuses to let me give him any of his dinner, though, pushing the portion back toward me. His eyes are filled with love, and concern, and a twinge of fear. The sun goes down. Barrett will want to complete the executions tonight, if possible.One of the guards opens the door and orders me out. I stand outside in the freezing cold while Barrett saunters up to me wearing a thick fur coat.“Well, girlie? What did you get for me?”“I’m close,” I tell him. “Really close. One of the Whismore boys even thinks I have a crush on him.”“Close,” Barrett repeats. “Does that mean you still don’t know where that grave is?”I shake my head. “I’m trying, but you know, if you push someone too hard to tell you something, they get suspicious.”“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Bar

With my wolf eyes, better adjusted to the darkness, I finally see it. The San Diego pack, all in wolf form, their fur a rainbow of greys and browns, is racing up the mountain toward us.They’ve arrived just in time.I join them, adding the pounding of my paws to the sound of them descending on the bear clan.My first order of business is to free Jasper, biting through the ropes around his arms with my sharp teeth. Then Orsina and Zach are freed, joining us in the battle.It’s a brutal and difficult battle. Bears are strong, difficult to take down, and vicious in their own way. Wolves are faster, though, and we outnumber them. The San Diego pack hasn’t been struggling under a generational curse that’s been slowly killing them off, so we have nearly twice as many members as Barrett’s bear clan.I see one of the younger members of the bear clan, a male who seemed rather obsessed with Orsina, chasing her down. I pounce on him, biting down with my strong jaws and giving Orsin

No one in the San Diego pack was able to talk Greyson out of his insistence that he ought to be the one to carry out the potentially fatal rescue mission. He says a grim goodbye to Nash and leaves to creep up the side of the ridge where he can sit, unnoticed by the bear clan, until and unless he needs to leap into action and sacrifice himself for the rest of the pack.As for me, I’m determined to make Greyson’s sacrifice unnecessary. He won’t need to come down on Barrett and try to wrestle the detonator away from him if I can just convince the bear clan’s Alpha to listen to us.We decide that I should be the one to try and talk to him. He trusts me, or at least he knows me, after our time together. I’m not exactly the sorceress that Layla is, but I am her Star Twin. Plus, I know all about the carving and its inscription, and the blessing and curse that form its two sides. “I’m coming with you,” Orsina insists. I open my mouth to protest, but she just takes me by the hand and