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Tanner cants his head to one side. “Fucked? No. He’s been part of the group since we got with Nova, but he’s never gone there with any of us. Other guys? Maybe. I dunno. Never thought about it.” He’s still looking at me with a perplexed look on his face. “Why? You have a crush on the professor? Must run in the family.” He laughs and says, “Did I ever tell you about the time me and Nova tied him to a chair? He’d got all up in his own head about being older than her so we—”

“You didn’t tell me, but Mack did.” I let the words sink in for a moment.

Tanner’s eyes flash with curiosity. “He told you?”

“Right before he took my pants off and—”

“You and Mack?” Tanner looks as if his mind has quite literally just been blown. He rubs his reddening neck and breathes out hard. I can’t tell if he’s turned on or just totally confused. “When?”

“After we found Kayla.”

“How?”

“You need me to explain the choreography?” I ask, shaking my arms because the urge to shift is becoming too much.

“No, but… Mack? You and Mack? Now? With everything…” Tanner trails off. He doesn’t sound like he’s judging me but, all the same, his questions make the hairs on my arms prickle.

“I needed a distraction. Not from Nova. From everything else. Kayla had asked about Nico, and it brought back…” I pause and push my hair from my face. “Stuff.”

Tanner bites his lower lip. “Right.” His tone has softened. “I get it. No judgement.”

“I figured Nova wouldn’t mind. She likes it when you and I—” I raise my eyebrow at him.

“Yeah,” Tanner smiles. “She does.”

Shaking my head, I say, “Look, I’ll give you more details later. But we should—”

“Go ahead.” Tanner waves at me. “Break out your wolf superpowers.”

I laugh at him and nod. Somehow, knowing everything he went through, and how hard it must have been to come back from it, his carefree demeanor has become even more attractive. I can see why he was the first one Nova fell for. I can see why he was the first one I felt truly comfortable with.

“Wolf Boy, coming up,” I tell him.

In a few cracking, straining, stretching seconds, I’m on all fours and covered in fur. A wave of adrenaline courses through me. I shake it off and focus on the task at hand—tracking Nico’s mother.

At first, it’s hard to catch her scent. It’s masked by something I didn’t notice before. When Mack and I patrolled the woods, I kept catching a whisper of it but thought it was a plant or weed I hadn’t encountered before; it certainly didn’t smell like an animal of any kind. Now, I know exactly what it was—the trail left behind by the Hellhounds. Just a trace, but enough to remind me of darkness, and damp, and rotting flesh.

Pushing through it, I search for wolf instead. I catch my own scent, and Snow’s. I can smell the remnants of my encounter with Mack, where some of it spilled onto the ground between us. It sends an animalistic shudder through me, but I turn away and head deeper into the woods.

I move faster than Tanner. He has to run to keep up with me, clumsily pushing branches aside and yelping whenever he scratches himself on one. Occasionally, I turn and offer him a withering stare that says, By the stars, Tanner, be quiet or she’ll hear us before we find her.

We’re almost at the edge of the woods, close to a street on the edge of town which is full of quaint white houses. I stop and notice my tail stiffen. I raise my head and sniff the air.

“You got her?” Tanner asks, crouching down beside me.

I meet his eyes, then turn and move slowly through the pine trees. The space between them is wider now, and we could easily be spotted. I’m staring at a fenced-off backyard in front of us. It is overgrown, and the house itself looks abandoned.

“She’s in there?” Tanner asks.

A low growl rumbles in my throat. Yes, she’s in there.

* * *

A hole in the fence, obscured by freakishly tall weeds, tells me I’m right. I sniff a piece of fur caught on the cut wire. Tanner crouches down and examines it, then nods at me.

Silently we creep forward together until we reach the backdoor. It’s ajar, so Tanner pushes it open. As we enter, a million scents assault my nose. Rotting food, mold, damp, people, and wolf.

With a shudder, I shift back. My muscles twitch for several seconds after a shift, as they reacclimatize to their human form. It’s an odd sensation, but slightly pleasurable at the same time.