I groaned as I woke up. My mouth felt dry and my entire body ached. I blinked, but it was too bright. I closed my eyes again.

Where am I?

My head pounded, and my right arm tingled with pins and needles like I had fallen asleep on it. I tried to flex my fingers, but I couldn't feel my hand at all.

"What the fuck?" I muttered under my breath.

Am I hungover?

My head ached like I'd had a dozen shots last night. I tried to move my other hand to hold it, but my wrist was stuck. Something was caught around it, restraining it behind my back. Shaking my head in confusion, I opened my eyes again, blinking until I adjusted to the light. I was on Make Them Scream's tour bus lying in one of the bunks. The bunk across from me was empty. I listened to see if I could hear anyone moving in the bunk above me, but I heard nothing.

How did I get here? What had happened? I tried to think back, but all I had were flashes of memories.

Running through the woods. Drinking water from a creek. The feeling of wind rushing past me . . . And then screaming. Teeth. Pain.

And then darkness.

I swallowed a huge lump in my throat as I tried to move my arms again, but I couldn't get either of them free. Something rough rubbed against the bare skin of my ankles, pulling them tight against each other. I was still dressed in my jean shorts and tank top, but my boots were gone.

Wait.

Did someone tie me up here?

"Hello!" I called, my voice cracking with dryness. I coughed.

No answer.

"Hey!" I screamed, this time making sure my voice came out strong and clear. "What the fuck is going on?"

Still no answer.

"Somebody untie me!"

Where was Make Them Scream? Why was I tied up on their bus? Had something happened to them?

A haunting voice in the back of my head told me I should already know the answer to that question.

Frantically, I tugged at my wrists, trying to snake them free from the binds, but the more I pulled, the tighter they squeezed like a Chinese finger trap, rubbing my wrists raw.

I flipped my blonde hair out of my eyes, panting as I caught my breath. I blew a stray strand away from my lips. Sweat beaded on my neck and chest. On the other side of the door to the main area of the bus, voices whispered. I couldn't make out what they were saying, but that meant someone was out there.

"Help!" I called. "Hey! Help! What's going on?"

My heart skipped a beat when the engine of the bus shuddered and roared to life. With an ear-splitting beep, beep, beep, we backed up, bumping over the uneven gravel parking lot. I was jostled around in the bed and fell onto my side.

The bus halted, and then we pulled forward, picking up speed.

"Hey!" I screamed one more time.

The door to the room swung open.

"Quit screaming like that," Alex scolded me. "You'll fracture your vocal cords."

I pursed my lips into a frown. "You scream on stage all the time, and what the fuck is going on? Untie me!"

He slid the door shut behind himself and took a seat on the bunk across from me.

"You don't remember, do you?" He rested his elbows on his knees and held his head in his hands, breathing heavily. Finally, he looked up to meet my eyes. "I know what this must seem like, but I promise, this is all for your own good."

That was when I saw the teeth marks on his neck. Dry, rust-red streaks ran across his pale skin and the dark patterns of his tattoos. The collar of his black shirt looked damp, and a small amount of fresh blood leaked from the puncture wounds.

I swallowed down a salty, sick taste as the memory of sinking my teeth into fur and breaking skin came back to me. The taste of blood.

"I did that," I said lowly.

He nodded.

I squirmed where I was tied, inch-worming myself so I could sit up with me legs hanging off the bunk. They hadn't tied me down to anything, just tied my arms and legs together, which seemed like a bit of a gamble if they wanted to keep me in one place. There wasn't anywhere for me to go on a moving bus anyway, I supposed, so maybe it didn't matter.

My chest stung like it was covered in tiny scratches. My right arm was still tingling and numb, and my shoulder ached like I'd gotten a Tetanus shot. A small trickle of dried blood ran from a swollen red dot on my upper arm. I remembered something blinding me and then a rope or a collar being pulled tight around my neck. Liz's voice, and then . . .

"Liz had to sedate me," I whispered. That must have been why my arm was still numb and why I couldn't feel my hand.

"We had to get you back here." Alex nodded. "Your wolf took control of you and tried to escape. We had to fight her down when she attacked. We tried not to hurt you in the process as best we could."

I squirmed in my binds, trying to loosen my hands against the rough rope around them. "Can you untie me?" I asked.

He bit down on his lower lip, and then he shook his head. "I'm so sorry, Allison. I can't do that right now."

"But why?" Tears stung my eyes. "This is hurting me, Alex. Please."

He squeezed his eyes shut for a second, and when he opened them, they were glistening. Was he . . . crying?

"I'm sorry, really, I am," he finally said. "But we can't trust that your wolf won't try to take control again and attack us or try to escape. We have to get you to Montana."

He looked off to his side, and then looked back to me, exhaling heavily as he pushed his dark hair out of his eyes. I noticed that his blond roots were beginning to show. I had never realized he dyed his hair before.

"I wasn't telling you the whole truth last night when I said I thought being in the clearing might help you communicate with your wolf," he finally continued.

A jolt of pain flared through my temples as a flash of a memory came over me, but it was gone before I could grasp it. A distant voice. There was something I should be remembering but wasn't. It lay just beyond a veil within my mind.

"Why then?" I asked, but I felt like I should already know the answer. I felt like I'd heard him say it before.

"I lied when I said I didn't hear anything when I tried to read your wolf's mind." He ran his hand through his hair again. "Right before she attacked me, I heard what she is planning."

"What?" I whispered.

"She wants to take over your body—to shift and never shift back. She's planning to do it tonight, with the power of the blue moon. That's why we have to get to the clearing in Montana." He blinked, and for a second his eyes flashed red like embers in the harsh hue of the florescent lights. "We have to exorcise her."

Listen! Listen to what they are planning to do to us.

The thought stormed through my mind with a chill, like the unsettling rush of deja vu. I'd had that thought before. I'd heard this all before.

Don't trust them.

My skin itched, but I couldn't move my arms to scratch at it. It felt like tiny insects were crawling beneath it. I clenched my teeth. Why couldn't I remember?

Alex pushed himself to his feet. "I'm going to get you some water and something to eat. I promise, I'll be right back."

He left the room, sliding the door closed behind him.

I twisted my arms around in the ropes, trying to get to an angle where I could untangle them, but it was useless.

"How is she doing?" Liz asked from beyond the door.

"As good as we could expect, I suppose," Alex replied. "She hasn't had any severe reactions to the injection. She doesn't remember any of last night."

I pinched my eyes shut, thinking back to the last thing I remembered from the previous night. We were all sitting around the campfire. I remembered singing while Jake played the guitar. I remembered feeling calm. Safe. We put out the fire, and then we went to bed. I remembered Jake snoring. I went out into the other area of the bus to sleep . . . and then . . .

Flashes of voices suddenly came back to me. Alex and Liz—I'd overheard them talking about the exorcism.

They want to kill us!

Suddenly, like a dam was giving way somewhere in my mind, it came flooding back.

I'd heard her.

I'd talked to my wolf. We'd opened the channel!

Don't let them kill me! A weak, distant voice called from the depths of my mind, like it was echoing up from a well. You have to help me!

Alex was wrong! My wolf didn't want to take over, she just wanted to communicate, but the channel was too weak. She hadn't attacked them last night because she wanted to hurt them. She was scared! She was panicked. They were planning to exorcise her tomorrow because she hadn't been able to make contact with me. Of course she was scared! Hell, I was terrified myself! But now that she had made contact . . .

I have to tell Alex.

"Alex!" I shouted. "Alex!"

A thunder of footsteps. The door swung open. "What?" Alex gasped, flipping his hair out of his face. "Are you okay?"

"I remember!" I exclaimed.

He furrowed his brow at me. "What do you mean?" He closed the door behind himself.

"I remember what happened last night! I talked to my wolf! I talked to her!"

His eyes widened as I said it. His hands curled into fists, and his jaw clenched. "Allison." His voice was a protective growl.

"No, no." I shook my head. "It's not a bad thing. I heard her thoughts—her real thoughts. We opened the channel! Only briefly, but we did. She doesn't want to take over my body, she just wants to communicate with me. She wants to work together with me. It's going to be okay!"

Alex turned from me, shaking his head. "No," he said lowly. "No, she doesn't, Allison."

"But she does!" I shouted. "I talked to her last night. What you heard when you listened to her must have been wrong. Maybe she was just confused about what you were doing and trying to protect herself. You must not have heard her right—"

"I know what I heard!" He snapped around to face me. The muscles in his neck tensed, and fresh blood dripped from the bite wound. He clenched his teeth, panting like he was trying to restrain himself.

My lungs skipped a breath, and my heart raced.

"I know what I heard, Allison," he repeated, more calmly this time. He wiped some of the blood from his neck, staining his hand a bright red. He grimaced as he looked at it before wiping it on his black shirt. "She's lying to you. She's trying to manipulate you."

"No, she isn't!"

Maybe you're the one that's trying to manipulate me. A growling thought stormed through my mind, but I wasn't sure if it was my own, or if it had originated somewhere else.

Alex closed his eyes tightly. "I'm sorry," he finally said. He headed to the door, but he paused right before he opened it, turning back to face me one last time. "I love you too much to lose you to this monster." Then, he left, and the door slammed behind him.