When she got back the next evening, though, she didn’t immediately climb into bed.
Something was different.
It wasn’t that anything was misplaced, other than Byron the Destructor tipped on his side. Rylie sniffed the air.
Someone had been there. She could smell the oils from their skin on her clothes, the individual strands of hair that had drifted to the floor as they picked through her belongings and replaced them exactly as they had been before. Bending to put her nose close to the drawers, she could just make out the odor of their sweat.
She had smelled this at the boy’s side of camp. It was the werewolf in human form. It had been searching through her belongings, but for what?
Rylie had to tell Seth.
She immediately wrote a note on a clean journal page: The werewolf was here. We have to talk. She wedged the paper in her window like usual, and waited.
And waited.
Seth didn’t arrive to take the note that night. She fell asleep shortly before dawn and woke up to find the note still in place.
Rylie stood outside the cabin while everyone else showered, staring into the forest. Was the werewolf still watching her? Was it out amongst the trees, waiting to see how she would react to the invasion?
She took deep, even breaths, letting her eyes fall closed so her sight wouldn’t distract her. After a moment, she found the lingering smell of the werewolf. It wasn’t far away—too far to see, but with the wind going just the right way, close enough to detect. It had moved through camp the night before, and the day before that. It might have been lurking nearby for days.
Now that Rylie knew what to look for, the range of scents painted a colorful picture in her mind. The wolf had mud on its feet from the dark, shady places much higher on the mountain where snow never melted. The cold bite of winter lingered on the edges of the summer shrubs. She even picked up musty old stone quarried from the mountain, and rusty chains.
The werewolf had been to the same ruins as Rylie.
“Who are you?” she whispered as though it would hear her and respond.
Rylie could tell the werewolf had paid special attention to her books. They smelled the strongest. It had even examined The Legends of Gray Mountain, but it left the folder. The werewolf wasn’t looking for that. What did it want?
Her journal. The werewolf wanted her journal. It was never left amongst her belongings, not since Amber and Patricia had read it. Maybe it was trying to confirm Rylie had begun to change.
She ran her nose over the pages of The Legends. Breathing in again and again, savoring the woodsy musk, Rylie memorized the werewolf’s smell. In human form, she needed to concentrate to differentiate smells, but she would remember it next time she changed.
She could track the werewolf to its den.
Checking the seam of her window, Rylie found the note to Seth where she left it. She didn’t want to wait anymore. The werewolf was getting closer, and she had to talk to him.
Rylie and Seth needed to move against the werewolf.
She spent the day trying to decide how to reach Seth. The hike over to Golden Lake was long, and Rylie wasn’t sure she could make it there and back between Louise’s checks on the cabin. She also didn’t have a canoe or any way into the supply shed to borrow one.
The counselor’s ATVs caught her eye on the way to dinner, and an idea blossomed.
Rylie caught up with Louise after they ate. “How long have you been a counselor here?” she asked casually.
“I’ve done this every summer since I graduated high school,” she said, “so this is my fifth year. It’s a great summer job. It’s helped put me through college.”
“That’s cool.” A thought occurred to her. “Do you know much about the history of the two camps?”
“Yes, actually, I do! I got my undergraduate degree in anthropology.” Louise turned to take the path toward Group B’s campsite, and Rylie followed. “My specialty was legends and mythology. I’m going to South America to work on my graduate degree this fall. Are you interested in that kind of thing?”
“Yeah,” Rylie said. “I’m especially interested in the settlers that originally lived on Gray Mountain.”
“Those are pretty good stories. Very dark, though. Bloody.”
She gave a weak smile. “That’s what makes it cool.”
“What have you heard about the local legends?”
Way too much, Rylie thought bitterly. “I heard the original settlers fought a war against the animal spirits of the forest.”
“That’s the story. This land was supposed to be sacred to the gods of the beasts,” Louise said.
“What made it sacred?”
“You notice how tall some of these peaks are?” She pointed up at the mountain. Even though the camp was already high on its face, Gray Mountain stretched much taller. “The gods were believed to live on the moon. They said the animals would climb to the top to commune with the gods and find out how to best serve them. This was also how the gods got to Earth. They only had to take a step down.”
“Why did the settlers think that?” Rylie asked.
“There’s supposed to be some pretty cool natural rock formations on the highest peak. I’ve heard they look like a temple, but I haven’t hiked that far,” Louise said.
“And that’s where the animals talk to their moon gods.”
“Supposedly. That’s why they thought the wolves howled so loud here.”
“What about the curse?” Rylie asked. When Louise looked confused, she went on. “The curse that turned the settlers into wolves.”
“Oh. That’s not how I heard the legend. The werewolf thing—that was a deal between the humans and the animal gods. It was a blessing meant to bring man and nature together. It ended the war.”
“How could transforming into a monster be a blessing?”
“Wolves aren’t monsters,” Louise said. “They’re extremely intelligent.”
“Right. So how did the legends say you could lift the ‘blessing’ of the animal gods?”
The counselor laughed. “I have no idea. It’s just myth! Superstition! Anyone moving into the wild frontier would have had problems with the environment. Living on Gray Mountain was rough and the settlers had wild imaginations. The fact that no native tribes lived here only added fuel to the fire.”
“I guess,” Rylie said, disappointed. They reached the camp, and Louise moved to go to her cabin. Rylie stopped her. “Hey Louise?”
“Yes?”
“Can I… have a hug?”
Louise smiled. “Of course.”
They embraced. Rylie was careful not to squeeze hard enough to hurt the counselor. Louise walked away grinning, and Rylie waited until she was gone to look down at her hand. She had slipped the black key off Louise’s keychain. She was sure it went to the all-terrain vehicles parked by the office.
Rylie snuck out after curfew, taking no flashlights or maps. She had to trust that she could find her way to the other side by smell.
But the key didn’t work on any of the ATVs.
She frowned at the key in her hand. It looked like a car key. If it wasn’t for the ATVs, then what was it for?
Something shiny and black caught her eye around the side of the shed. It was an SUV the counselors and administrators used to get from Golden Lake to Silver Brook, and it was brand new. It wasn’t even muddy.
Holding her breath, Rylie tried the key on the driver’s door. It unlocked.
She grinned.
Five minutes later, she was roaring along the rail, gripping the steering wheel with shaking hands. There was a lot of power in the SUV’s engine. It was a beast on the steep trail.
Rylie didn’t have her learning permit, much less her driver’s license. She had only driven her dad’s tiny old sedan before. This thing was much bigger, and much more powerful, than anything she had ever controlled in her life. Every little movement of the steering wheel made it swerve like crazy.
Her heart pounding, she grippe
d the wheel as hard as she could and tried not to flip the SUV. It bounced over every rock and dip. The headlights swayed over the road.
When hiking, the trip around the lake was supposed to take three or four hours. Even with Rylie’s cautious driving, though, it took less than an hour for her to reach the “Welcome to Camp Golden Lake!” sign. She braked a little too suddenly, and the SUV stopped with a jerk.
Rylie’s legs trembled as she climbed out of the car to look at the sign, dizzy with adrenaline. She had to stop and brace her hands against her knees. “Oh my God,” she whispered. Driving was awesome.
A map of the camp was mounted beside the welcome sign. It looked like Golden Lake was laid out almost like a mirror of Silver Brook, but the map was useless without knowing Seth’s cabin number.
After all that effort to steal the SUV and sneak over to camp, Rylie had no idea where she was going.
Five camps, with five cabins each. What else could Rylie do? She would have to look around and hope Seth was awake. She turned to get back in the driver’s seat.
A hand clamped down on Rylie’s elbow. She shrieked.
“I’m surprised you came back,” Jericho said, towering over her like a furious storm cloud. “I didn’t think you would be that stupid.”
He jerked her away from the SUV. “No!” Rylie cried.
She thought she saw Seth standing out amongst the trees before Jericho hauled her to the office, but it didn’t matter. Rylie had already been caught.
***
Rylie sat on a chair by the door of the director’s office, staring at her hands as she waited for the verdict.
Jericho and Louise had been in a phone meeting with Jessica and the director for the last two hours. She wasn’t optimistic about her punishment. Rylie had finally found the end of Louise’s patience. She had been furious when Jericho woke her up at midnight to discover Rylie had stolen her key.
Going over to the side of the lake was a minor infraction. It was banned, but a few kids dared to do it a couple times every summer. A fifteen year old stealing the counselors’ SUV to drive to the opposite side, however, wasn’t just banned. It was illegal.
She would bet anything that Jericho was rooting for her arrest. Jessica was probably her only chance now, and that wasn’t saying much. She already wanted Rylie to come home.
Rylie felt sick. Horrible visions of transforming into a werewolf at her mom’s condo swam through her mind. What if she destroyed the building? Worse, what if she ate her mom?
And what if she never saw Seth again?
Louise emerged from the office. Rylie stood up.
“Am I…?” she asked.
“You can stay.”
Relief flooded Rylie, and it was so overwhelming that her knees buckled. She caught herself on the back of the chair. “Thank you.”
Louise wasn’t smiling. “I defended you in there. If Jericho and I hadn’t begged them to let you stay, you would be going home right now.”
“Jericho stood up for me?”
“You could be going home in handcuffs. You stole my key. You stole the SUV. You went to the other side of the lake, where girls aren’t allowed.” She threw her hands in the air. “Jesus, Rylie! What were you thinking?”
“I know you won’t believe me, but I had to do it,” Rylie said. “Please, Louise.”
“I’ve bent over backwards to help you, but this is it. I’m drawing the line here. You’ve betrayed my trust, and I can’t deal with you anymore.”
Louise’s rejection stung worse than Rylie expected. “I had to do it,” she repeated in a tiny voice.
“You’re getting moved to another group for the rest of the summer. Group E has more counselors, and one of them is always awake at night so you can be supervised. Katie’s going to take you to your new cabin.”
“I’m sorry,” Rylie said.
“You’re confined to the cabin for the next week. You can only leave for showers and meals. The director will reevaluate if you should be allowed to participate in the last two weeks of camp after that.”
“Confined? I can’t be confined!”
“This is what you wanted, and you got it,” Louise said, her eyes red and shining. “Congratulations.”
She walked out without giving Rylie a second look.
Confinement
Rylie’s new roommates were much friendlier than her old ones, but this time, she had no loft to convert into her private bedroom. The cabin only had three beds, one on each wall. The other two were occupied by girls who had gotten in trouble earlier in the summer.
“What did you do?” asked a brunette named Gina.
“I stole a car to go to the other camp,” Rylie said. “You?”
“I hit a girl in the showers.” She grinned. “Then Nancy and I jumped her behind the nurse’s office.” Nancy was grinning, too. Neither of them looked like they felt bad about it, so Rylie decided to leave them alone.
They weren’t confined to the cabin like Rylie. Gina and Nancy got to participate in group activities while she wrote in her journal. It was boring and lonely, and Katie checked on her every hour or two. There was never a chance to sneak out.
The back window to the cabin slipped open on the third day of her confinement. Seth climbed in.
“Where have you been?” Rylie hissed. “I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for ages!”
“I’ve been at Golden Lake. I’m being watched, so I couldn’t get away. It was hard to find you.”
“Well, I’m never getting away again! I’m under constant surveillance now.”
“You can’t change inside the cabin,” Seth said. “Especially not on a full moon. You could kill the other campers. Not to mention it would raise a few awkward questions.”
Rylie had already considered that. It had been the subject of her nightmares the night before. “I know. Plus, I think the other werewolf has been looking for me. It went through my stuff twice. It knows who I am.”
“What do you think it wants?”
“I don’t know,” she said, “but I think we can figure out who it is. It left its scent all over when it went through my stuff this time, so I think I can track it when I change this time. We can figure out where it’s spending the moons.”
A smile appeared on Seth’s face. “Excellent. But that will mean letting you run loose.”
“I can control myself.” Rylie made herself sound brave and confident, even though she didn’t feel it. The wolf was nuts. It would go after the other werewolf if she could smell it, but she had no way to keep herself from attacking any unlucky human that might cross her path.
Seth didn’t seem worried. “We’ll have to figure out how to sneak you out. Do you have any friends here? Anyone who can distract the counselor on duty?”
Rylie didn’t even have to think about it. “Yeah.” Cassidy would love to help her get into trouble. The trick would be getting to talk to her before the full moon—she was confined for the rest of the week, and the full moon was in two days. “I don’t know when we can talk. I used to see her at meals, but our eating times are different now I’m in this group.”
“Do you guys have weekly campfire announcements, like at Golden Lake?” he asked. “The other camp is having theirs tomorrow. That would be perfect.”
“You’re right.” Rylie glanced at the door. “You need to get out of here before you get caught. If Katie sees you, we’re both dead.”
“Okay.” He pushed the window open again. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to you sooner.”
Seth departed, leaving Rylie to sit alone and think about the full moon.
***
The bonfire announcements weren’t considered a “fun” activity, so Rylie was allowed to attend. She gave Katie the slip amongst the gathering crowd and sought out Cassidy, who had already found a seat on one of the highest benches.
“I’m surprised you’re here,” Cassidy said as Rylie sat beside her. “I hear you’re confined to your cabin.”
“The rumors are true,
” she said grimly.
“Everyone be quiet!” the director called, holding up both hands to silence the campers.
Most of the talking died off, but Rylie leaned close to Cassidy’s ear. She could see Katie looking for her near the fire, so there wasn’t much time. “I need to sneak out of camp tomorrow night,” she whispered.
Cassidy’s eyes lit up. “Really? Why?”
“I’m meeting a guy, but I’m under constant surveillance. I need someone to…” Rylie fell silent as another counselor passed, waiting to continue until she was gone. “I need someone to distract the counselor on duty so I can sneak out after curfew and get back in at dawn. You’re not far from me. Do you think…?”
“That sounds like fun,” Cassidy said, grinning. “Who’s this guy you’re sneaking out to meet?”
Rylie pushed a pebble around with the toe of her hiking boots. “His name is Seth. He’s from Golden Lake.”
“Is he cute?”
She thought of his muscular shoulders and slanted smile, and her cheeks got hot. “Oh yeah. Really cute.”
“Be careful,” Cassidy warned. “Is this guy worth the trouble?”
“Definitely.”
She shrugged. “Your choice. I’ll totally help.”
The activity director’s voice caught Rylie’s ear. “There’s going to be a cross-camp social event in a week. Everyone from our side and the boys’ side will attend,” the director said. “It used to be a yearly tradition, but we stopped about seven years ago after things got a little out of hand.” Rylie felt a little thrill. The boys from Camp Golden Lake included Seth. “There will be music, dancing, and food. It’s a great time to meet our brothers from the other camp.”
“And hook up with hotties you’ve been sneaking out to bang,” Cassidy whispered, nudging her elbow in Rylie’s side.
Her cheeks heated. “Sure, if I’m allowed to go.”
“Wear your nicest hiking boots!” joked the director. Everyone laughed.
Katie caught up with Rylie when everyone stood to go to dinner. She didn’t bother chastising Rylie for sneaking off, but she hovered behind her as they walked to the mess like a body guard. “Hey Katie,” Rylie said. “I was thinking… since I’m going to be off cabin restriction by then… will I get to go to the dance?”
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