Thing?! The word fills me with rage, and if I weren’t being held prisoner by Jess’s flames, I don’t think I’d be able to restrain myself; I’d reveal myself to my brother and Louis and the entire town, show them I’m not a thing! I’m a werewolf! It isn’t something I chose to be, it isn’t something I ever imagined I’d become, but I am! But then I realize with heartbreaking clarity that even if Barnaby and the others knew what I was, knew what I was forced to become, it might not change their minds. They might not be able to separate the wolf from the girl, and they might still want me dead.
“We have to split up,” Louis orders. “Half of you go that way; the rest follow me.”
I have no idea which directions they’re heading into, but I can hear them leave, not retreating, but moving closer to what they hope will be victory. When the flames around me recede, I don’t have to look up; I know that we’re alone, my enemies have gone, and it’s just Jess and me.
“That special-effects display is something I’ve been working on for a while now,” Jess explains. “Just to, you know, test the limits of my skill set.”
I nod my head in gratitude, too exhausted and shocked and confused to respond.
“We’re very much the same you and I,” she adds.
Looking at her splendid beauty, I have no idea what she’s talking about.
“We’re both works in progress,” she says, one hand running its fingers through my fur. “We’re both finding our places in this world and in our new selves.”
Impatiently, I nod my head. Not because I don’t agree with Jess or want to hear what she has to say, but because the hunger has returned. Licking my lips, I walk toward the dead rabbits, unable to contain my joy.
“And that, Dominy, is my cue to leave,” Jess says. “I love you, but I cannot watch you eat. It is beyond gross.”
Before I can say good-bye, Jess disappears, taking her sunshine with her and leaving me alone in the glow of the moon. The truth, however, is that I’m never alone. I’m never just me. For the rest of my life I’m destined to have a companion, a connection. Like darkness and light, like the sun and the moon, the wolf and the girl will never be separated.
So which came first, the wolf or the girl?
It doesn’t really matter, because it looks like they’re both here to stay.
K TEEN BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
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New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2013 by Michael Griffo
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
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ISBN: 978-0-7582-8072-5
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