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“I’ve never seen a monster like it.”

Then a chorus of howls swelled in the woods.

Chapter 18

The eerie sounds continued late into the night, and even early into the morning.

While we huddled in the living room—Angie continuing to weep—howls, barks, and grunts bounced off the cabin walls from all directions. At one point, scratching started up at the back door, but by the time Ben found the courage to peek through the curtains with his rifle clutched in an iron fist, whatever it was had run off.

Or it was never there at all.

Maple had been a wreck all night, growling with hackles raised every time something neared the cabin. She slept deeply now in an armchair, snoring and twitching in her exhausted slumber.

“Coyotes. It had to be coyotes,” Riss stammered as she rocked herself on the couch with arms tightly wound around Angie. “We don’t get wolves in this area anymore. Right?”

I nodded in small confirmation. No wolves had been in this part of the country for ages. I didn’t have the heart to tell them though that coyotes didn’t make sounds like what we heard last night. Like huffing deer, agitated bears, and at one point... Crying.

My head bobbed, exhaustion threatening to take me under. The only sound that startled me anymore was the creak of floorboards when Ben paced to another window to take a look out at the gray, pre-dawn light illuminating the surrounding fields and forests.

“See anything?” Riss asked sleepily with Angie passed out in her arms.

Ben shook his head. “The snow’s all packed down. Like there were lots of animals here last night. When it’s safe, I’ll go out to see if I can ID any of the prints.”

A fresh shiver rolled through me, for I didn’t know if I wanted to find out what had been circling our cabin all night.

Around eight in the morning, when the sun was fully on its way up and there wasn’t so much as a bird tweet in hours, Ben put on his coat and took Maple out with him to look around. Riss helped Angie up to bed, wanting the poor, shocked girl to get proper rest before they did anything else, and I stayed in the living room to keep an eye on Ben and Maple at the windows with the curtains drawn back a few inches.

Out of nowhere, the back door started rattling.

I jumped so fast that every muscle in my stiff body protested, locking up with burning pain lancing through my neck and back.

It’s not Ben. He was just circling around the front of the house, but just in case he sprinted to the back and couldn’t get in through the locked door—

I flew into the kitchen, a whirlwind of frenzied motion, and unlocked the back door to let him in.

Only it wasn’t Ben who surged into the kitchen.

It was Fox.

He stormed in, immediately invading my space with huge eyes and a stern downturn of his lips.

I stumbled away from him, my hip knocking into the corner of the counter. A hiss of pain blew out through my clenched teeth. “What are you—”

He grabbed me by my bicep, shaking me just enough to communicate how furious he was. “What the hell were you thinking? I gave you one rule!” he roared in my face.

I gaped, the fear of last night rising back up like a tide I couldn’t escape, but the crash of it wasn’t half as bad as I expected. I was too numb, too used to the delirium from staying up all night in abject terror. The fear didn’t batter me down this time, and it left room for rage to swell in its place.

My forearm collided with his chest, and I shoved him as hard as I could. He gave an inch, so I used it to keep pushing until he was off balance. When his back smashed into the door behind him, knocking it shut, I couldn’t stop the tirade that poured out of me. “I’m not an idiot, Fox! I heard them talking in the woods the other night. I know they have Everly, or they have something to do with it, and I’m not giving up till I figure out what your family did.”

Every inch of me bristled, my shoulders rising and falling with heavy pants like a lioness about to strike for the jugular.

Fox’s eyes widened, his face going slack. At last, I’d broken through his moody shell, getting to the raw center. It took losing my patience, and maybe my sanity, but I would take any break I could get.

Feeling closer to the truth than ever, I fixed him with a stony glare, my head upturned and our mouths almost touching. I waited for him to deny it, but the shock of my attack must have pierced the right spot in his defenses, because he said a bit weakly, “You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.”

I dug my elbow into his chest harder. “Enlighten me.”

He shook his head ruefully, turning his face away. “You’re in over your head.”