The mixture of leafless deciduous trees and firs gave way to taller and taller pines. They grew up along the sides of the road, protruding from the rocky ground like teeth jutting out to the sky. We were driving into the mouth of a hungry beast, and I was the prey, waiting for it to snap its jaw and trap me alive.

I pushed my nightmare out of my mind as best I could, but the image of the hungry fire and the demonic wolves snaked its way into my head, burned into the fabric of my memory.

Alex and Liz had returned from the back room a while ago. Liz now sat on the couch next to me, reading her book again as she drummed her fingernails lightly on the table.

Alex seemed to have calmed. He sat on the far side of the space, playing melodies on his acoustic guitar. He paused for a minute, looking out the window at the trees rushing by.

Finally, he strummed out the notes to his next song. I recognized the familiar tune of Aerosmith's "Dream On" instantly. He sang the lyrics quietly, but he carried the tune well. Alex rarely played the guitar when Make Them Scream performed—only on the occasional song to back up Jake and Reggie's parts. He was a natural at it, just like my father had been. I didn't know why he didn't play more often.

I wondered how many bands Alex and his wolf pack had been across the ages. Had they always been musicians? If not, what had they done before? Who had they been? Who were they, really?

The bus's engine revved, and my ears popped as we ascended into the mountains. Cliffs rose along both sides of the bus. The old highway had been sliced out between the mountains like a canyon. I flexed my jaw to pop my ears again.

The sun set along the horizon, making the traces of snow at the tops of the pines glow pink. Liz had taken away my phone so I couldn't check my GPS to see where we were, but I got the foreboding feeling we were getting very close to our destination. I wished I could call Derek, even if I couldn't tell him what was going on. I just wanted to hear the sound of his voice. But, even if I did have my phone, I doubted I'd have service anyway.

I thought about the lyrics as I listened to Alex play. It was a song about growing old and dying—two things he would never know. Although, maybe, he'd been growing old this whole time.

The air held an oppressive heaviness to it that made it difficult to breath. Or maybe it was just the lack of oxygen at the higher elevation.

As Alex played toward the end of his song, his eyes met mine for just a second. He sang out the lyrics, requesting through them that I joined in the song. Chills ran down my spine, but I couldn't help myself. Music was something that felt good to me, no matter what. Tears burned behind my eyes as I joined in. We sang together, neither of us looking towards the other in acknowledgement.

When the song ended, Alex let the final notes linger in the air. He glanced up at me, meeting my eyes for a second before looking back out the window and strumming the chords for his next song. This one was by The Cure. The haunting, nostalgic tune made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

I pushed myself up as chills rushed through my body. I didn't want to hear him play this song. My dad had always sung it to me on Halloween when I was a child, and it brought back too many memories. It hurt me to hear it now. It was Halloween today, and it had been thirteen years since he'd sang it to me.

"Where are you going?" Liz turned her eyes up to look at me.

"Just need to hit the head." My legs quivered, and I hoped she didn't notice that I was shaking.

She nodded as I left the room. I glanced at Alex one last time before closing the door behind myself. He turned his eyes up to meet mine for just a second, but it hurt to look at him.

I could tell his heart was breaking.

The sound of the guitar drifted in through the door to the bathroom as I shut it behind me.

Alex didn't stop playing.

I leaned against the sink, panting as sweat trickled down my back and chest. The tiny scratches that covered my skin stung as the salty sweat ran over them. My blue eyes looked patriotic rimmed in white and red. I hadn't had a real night's sleep in days.

I ran the faucet and splashed some water over my face, trying to cool the blush growing across my chest and over my cheeks.

I finally had my family back, yet everything felt wrong. I wanted to trust them, but I couldn't. They were planning to destroy my wolf tonight. She was a part of me. I couldn't let them take that from me.

Right?

But what if I was wrong? What if my wolf was lying to me? What if she really was planning to take over my body tonight like Alex said? He'd heard something when he was listening to her, and I didn't believe that he was lying. He'd just misunderstood, right?

I clenched my teeth as I shut off the faucet, water still dripping from my chin.

They aren't who you think they are.

A voice whispered in the back of my head, and a chill rushed down my spine. Visions of my dream flashed back to me—a burning, raging inferno surrounded by a pack of howling wolves.

"Hello?" I called back, not realizing I was saying the word aloud until it flowed out of my mouth.

You can't trust them.

"But they are my family."

They abandoned you when you were just a child. They don't care about you. They care about each other. I'm a threat to them. They are worried I'll destroy them.

The stream from the faucet shifted from a clear, clean trickle to a rusty brown, like water coming from a corroded pipe that hadn't been let to clear.

They left you when you were twelve. I never left you. I've been with you all along. I'm a part of you. The connection we have is sacred. Don't let them kill me.

"What do I have to do?" I whispered. The mirror shifted in front of me, like it had turned to liquid. It undulated like a lake when a stone is dropped into it. The water leaking from my face turned a deep red, slowly dripping down into the sink like blood. It swirled around the drain like a worm crawling along the ground before being sucked up.

They were going to take my blood tonight and offer it to the forest. They were going to kill a part of me.

"I don't want to lose you." I turned my gaze back up to the mirror. My irises flashed and glowed orange. The rims of red around them burned, swelling until they consumed all of the white of my eyes like flames devouring paper. Like the blood moon devouring the stars.

"What do I have to do?" I whispered. "I'll do anything for you."

All you have to do is trust me. I'm here with you.

Red wept from my eyes like thick tears of blood, but I couldn't move to wipe them. I didn't want to.

We have to stop thinking of each other as separate. It is we now, not I. Not you.

I felt my head nodding without any input from my mind. Like a puppet on a string.

The injection has made it so we can't shift right now, but the effect has almost worn off. By tonight, we'll be strong enough to shift again. Trust in us. If we pretend to go along with their plan, we can catch them by surprise. We will escape together.

"I understand."

We understand.

"We understand."

A sudden knock on the door jarred me from my trance. Immediately, my eyes flashed back to blue. The drain gurgled, sucking up the last traces of blood from the sink. I spat into it for good measure and to wash the rest of it down.

Another knock. "Allison, are you okay in there?" Veronica's voice called from beyond the door.

I shook myself once. "I'm fine."

I pulled the door open. Veronica stood there, one hand in a fist in the air like she was about to knock again.

"I'm fine," I repeated myself, my voice coming out harsher than I'd intended.

"Oh." Veronica lowered her hand, twirling her violet hair around her finger. She sat down on the side of the bunk behind her. "Liz just asked if I could check on you. I didn't mean to disturb you."

Pretend to go along with them. The voice echoed in the back of my head again.

"It's okay," I said. "Sorry, I didn't mean to come off as harsh."

"No problem," Veronica replied. "Who were you talking to in there, by the way? I thought Liz took your phone away."

My breath caught in my throat as my heart slammed against my ribs. "I wasn't talking to anyone."

"I heard you muttering something," Veronica raised a sculpted eyebrow at me. "I couldn't make out what you were saying, though."

"Oh, that." I forced out a chuckle and ran my hand back through my hair. "I was just talking to myself. I do that sometimes when I'm nervous. I don't even realize I'm doing it, usually."

Veronica tilted her head to the side, and then she smiled lightly. "I get it, Allison. I talk to myself sometimes, too. I know you must be nervous about tonight. I know it's scary, but I don't think it's going to be that bad."

"Thanks." I forced a soft smile and sat down on the bunk across from her. "Hey, I've been wondering something."

"What?" she asked.

"Why do you still hang around with Reggie?"

"What do you mean?" She furrowed her eyebrows as she shifted in her seat.

I picked at my now destroyed hot pink nail polish for a second before retrieving the tiny neon hand grenade from my pocket and fidgeting with it. "The two of you were dating before he was turned, right?"

"Right," Veronica replied. Her eyes went to the plastic item, probably wondering what it was and why I had it, but she didn't say anything about it.

"He's going to have to shift and become someone else one day." I shifted the grenade back and forth between my hands. "Doesn't that bother you?"

She narrowed her eyes at me.

"Why do you stay with him?" I asked.

"Because I love him," she responded almost immediately, like it was obvious and she was shocked I would even be asking. "When you love someone, Allison, it doesn't matter. You don't leave them just because something changes."

My jaw clenched. Veronica was right. When you love someone, you stay with them. I picked at the ridged cap of the hand grenade, wanting to break it open. My parents didn't love me. They left me because they were selfish. And now they were trying to take something from me that was sacred. They were trying to kill a part of me.

"Aren't you worried?" I asked Veronica. "One day, Reggie will have to shift to become someone else. That's how it works, isn't it?"

She nodded. "Every thirteen years, yes. But Reggie isn't going to leave me. I'm not worried about that."

"You won't get to grow old with him. He'll remain young. He'll watch you slowly die of old age."

Veronica smiled at me. There was a calm innocence in her expression that made me boil with envy.

"Reggie won't leave me, Allison." She played with her hair again. "Do you know how the change works?"

I shook my head. "Not exactly, no."

"Alex is the leader, so he is fated to a new person every thirteen years. He must consummate with that person. But, the rest of them get to select their next host. Do you know how it is passed?"

I narrowed my eyes at her. What was she getting at? She'd used the word "consummate." I wasn't sure if she meant it literally, or if she just didn't know exactly what that word meant.

"When they perform the ritual," Veronica finally continued, "the werewolf passes to a new body in one of two ways. It can pass to either a person the werewolf has bitten, or to a person the werewolf has had sex with." She gave me an out of place smile. "Reggie isn't going to leave me. Twelve years from now, when Alex finds his next mate, Reggie is going to choose me. We are going to be joined together. Forever."

My mouth fell open. I didn't know how to respond to what she had just told me. The idea of it was absurd.

"And . . . that's what you want?" I finally managed. Did werewolves have some sort of brainwashing mind control power or something, too? "You want this . . . this monster to take over your mind? To take over your body?"

"They aren't monsters," Veronica replied. "And yes. I want to spend forever with Reggie. When you love someone, Allison, you never leave them. You spend eternity with them if you can, and if you don't get eternity, you just spend all the time that you are given."

A tear leaked out of my eye, tracing a cool line down my cheek. I blinked, trying to keep the rest of them back.

Veronica was right. My wolf was right. When you love someone, you don't leave them. You don't abandon them.

My parents didn't love me, and I was not going to let them win.