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There was no performance or hidden identity. No certainty about how difficult tomorrow might become. Only the truth of his hand holding mine while the family laughed about raisins in potato salad and Karen sulked behind a slammed door.

25

HUDSON

DON’T AIM AT ANYONE

Two days after the wolfsbane attack, I drove three miserable preteens across the mountain to apologize to a family of bear shifters.

Aaron sat beside me in the passenger seat with his hands folded in his lap. The Kipner twins sulked in the back, wearing the kind of formal clothes children wore when their parents wanted strangers to believe they had been raised correctly.

Before we left pack land, Aaron’s mother had adjusted his collar, kissed his forehead, and told him that if he embarrassed her further, she would volunteer him for every community cleanup between the pack land and two states over.

The twins’ father had been more concise. “Tell the truth,” he said. “All of it.”

The boys took that warning seriously enough that the truck remained quiet for nearly ten minutes.

Then Aaron cleared his throat. “Do you think they’re going to kill us?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“What if they shift?”

“You’ve met bear shifters before.”

“Not after we put fake traps near their driveway.”

I kept my eyes on the road. “That was a choice you made.”

“I know.”

“Then accept the discomfort that comes with it.”

Aaron twisted toward me. “Would you stop them if they tried to attack us?”

“Yes.”

His shoulders sagged. “Thank you.”

“They are not going to attack you, though.”

“But if they did⁠—”

“Aaron.”

“I’m just clarifying the security arrangement.”

I sent him a deadly look.

He faced forward again.

The boys had spent the last two days moving between guilt, fear, and elaborate theories about what awaited them. None of those theories accounted for the fact that the Fletchers had no idea the wolfsbane attack had happened.

The council’s investigation identified the modified smoke bombs as homemade, but not especially sophisticated. The pranksters had worn gloves and covered their faces. Our cameras had captured only partial images.