1
JOLYN
Eleven Years Ago
I knewit was weird to follow them, but I couldn’t help it.
Whenever I saw Kane, I had the urge to stay close, to see what he was up to, like he was some sort of superhero, and if I remained nearby, I’d finally get to see him change from his glasses to his cape.
Which was ridiculous because Kane didn’t even wear glasses.
Ever since he defended me, stopping Tom Akins from beating the crap out of me when I was ten years old, I’d held him in high regard. And by “high regard” I meant “crush.” I’ve had thehugestcrush on Kane Baird for the past seven years.
Because he couldn’t speak—some injury he’d suffered a few years ago no one ever spoke about—I’d learned ASL in secret. He’d been homeschooled for years now. On the rare occasions I saw him, a thrill went through me and I tried to prolong the sighting as much as possible. I’d take any excuse to stay away from home, to ease the tightness banded around my chest. Sometimes that meant following him.
Okay, so it sounded a little creepy. But seriously, what else was a girl supposed to do?
Skulking not far away, I followed him out of town. He was with his two friends Walker and Landon. They were always together, each a year apart in age. Walker, the youngest of them, would graduate in a month.
They made a handsome trio. Kane was the biggest, he’d only bulked up over the past couple of years. Landon, the most slender, always wore dress pants and a button-down shirt. Walker, shorter than the other two, was the most wiry in strength. His shoulders and chest seemed wider than they should for his height, like he wasn’t done growing yet.
Deeper they hiked into the forest with me following. They passed the old trapper’s shed, then the creek. Where were they off to? I could hear them talking, but not what they said, the wind carrying their voices away. I guess it kept my presence a secret too, because they didn’t look back at where I trailed them, trying to keep just around the last bend so I could duck out of the way if they turned around.Not a creeper at all.
The trees grew closer together, the noise of town fading to nothing. My heart pounded while nervousness swirled in my stomach. I should probably head home and leave them to their day, but my feet kept following. What would I say if they discovered me? I’d daydreamed about being bold enough to ask Kane on a date. He didn’t have a girlfriend from what I could see. But in that daydream, his friends hadn’t been around.
They disappeared from sight. Picking up my pace, I puffed a breath of relief when I glimpsed them again.
A scream—a woman’s voice—tore through the air. I froze, the fine hairs on my arms standing on end. A second scream followed, this one more masculine and primal. The three boys tore off in its direction, up a hill and away from the creek. I followed, running frantically through the bushes, branches scraping at my shoulders and arms. I cleared the hill, and the shallow valley spread before me. What I saw made my heart pound in my head. A huge grizzly bear dragged a limp woman by her foot through the layer of dead leaves on the forest floor. It let go when the three boys screamed at it, not twenty feet away. Were they crazy? That bear was massive and feral. Probably the one scaring campers at the local campground. But that was on the other side of town. These boys should be running in the opposite direction, not shouting at it.
In an instant, everything changed. The world blurred. Kane, the boy I fancied myself in love with, morphed into something else. He leaped through the air, skin changing into fur. Hetransformed. A gasp caught in my throat like a boulder. His clothes ripped from his body. Before I could scream, he’d turned into a massive bear, one whose growl stopped my heart.
I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t process what the hell I was seeing. A haze fogged my vision.
The fact that Walker also changed, turned into a cougar, was secondary. It hardly registered. All I could see was one bear attack the other. A roar ripped through the air.Fur. Claws. Blood.I didn’t realize I’d grabbed hold of the tree next to me until I squeezed the bark so tight it cut painfully into my palm.
I couldn’t look away. Every instinct in my body told me to get the hell away from here, but I couldn’t move. Landon stood apart from the battling bears, yelling at them, shouting Kane’s name over and over again.
But that wasn’t Kane anymore. It was a monster. My infatuation with him shed from my body, fear and horror taking its place. The edges of my vision darkened. My head felt disconnected from my neck. The invisible band around my chest squeezed tighter. I forced myself to breathe. It came out strangled.
Landon turned, and I stumbled back, falling down the slight incline in my attempt to get away. I couldn’t let him see me. If he could be friends with monsters…I didn’t want any of them to find me.
Crawling on my hands and knees, I gulped breaths, then stood on jelly legs. I ran as fast as I could. By the time I reached the edge of the town, my lungs burned. I ran through Goldenlach Ridge to our property on the lake, ignoring the heads that turned my way. For once, I was grateful to see my brother. Emerson noticed me from his spot at the picnic table and stood up from the game of chess he’d been playing by himself.
“What’s wrong?” He strode over and grasped my shoulders, steadying me.
Terrified, I shook my head, my entire body trembling. What I’d seen shouldn’t be possible. It didn’t make any sense. People shouldn’t be able to change like that. Kane and Walker looked like normal boys, but they weren’t normal at all.
“They’re animals,” I gasped between broken breaths. “They changed. The boys. They’re animals.” My words came out garbled. Would he believe me? It sounded insane.
Instead of dismissing me, a strange light entered Emerson’s eyes, one I usually hated to see. “Changed?”
I nodded, panting for air, swallowing against the fear lodged in my throat. “I can’t explain it.” It felt like my tongue was made of sandpaper. “They were human, then they…weren’t.”
The hands on my shoulders tightened. I braced myself for more pain, but he let up, putting his arm around my shoulders in an oddly comforting gesture, and ushered me toward the house.
“Let’s make some tea. Then you’ll tell me everything.”
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