Chapter Thirty-Five: Dancing in the Moonlight

We get it on most every night
When that moon is big and bright
It’s a supernatural delight
Everybody’s dancing in the moonlight
- Toploader, Dancing in the Moonlight

Jeffrey was buried on a mild, wet morning in late March. The werewolf hunter’s funeral was attended by every member of the Fairfield pack, including Hannah and David (who had astounded the doctors with his progress and been released from the hospital after only a week), as well as their parents. Sean got no such send-off. His body had remained in wolf form – it was a myth invented by Hollywood that a werewolf’s body changed back to human form after death – and was unceremoniously buried in the woods by the RSPCA. As far as the humans were concerned, the mystery of the wolf prowling the outskirts of Fairfield had been solved; as for Sean, the police believed he had run away from home. It was better all round if they continued to think that.

Jeffrey’s funeral was a small, sombre affair, conducted in Fairfield’s tiny eighteenth-century church. Stephen got up and said a few words, speaking of Jeffrey’s bravery and loyalty, and how he would be forever remembered by those present in the church – he couldn’t go into details as the vicar was there, but the implication for the pack was clear: they owed Jeffrey a great debt, werewolf hunter or no.

And then it was Hannah’s turn. She stood up and slowly made her way to the front of the church, passing Stephen as he returned to his seat. He gave her a reassuring smile, but she couldn’t make herself smile back, although she tried. She gave Jeffrey’s closed coffin, its highly polished surface shining in the weak sunlight filtering through the stained glass windows, a wide berth.

The sound of her heels echoed on the stone floor, reverberating through the building, as she walked to stand behind the podium. She took a piece of paper from her pocket and smoothed it out, wincing as her shoulder twinged. The wrist Sean had broken had already healed completely, but the cut from the silver knife on her shoulder was taking longer – in fact, it was taking as long to heal as though she was human.

Hannah took a deep, shuddering breath before regarding the people assembled before her: Andrew, who was looking incredibly handsome in his black suit and tie, seated between his parents; Summer and Matthew, who were sitting so close together she was practically on his lap; Adam, who somehow still looked a little wild despite the fact he was wearing a suit and had actually bothered to shave; Sean’s father, Peter, his expression sad and far away; Stephen, looking every inch the Alpha, his family clustered around him; and Hannah’s own family, a little united front that she felt so privileged to be a part of.

She cleared her throat and tugged uncomfortably on the hem of her black skirt, before saying softly, “Jeffrey was a wonderful person and a great friend. He experienced a lot of grief in his life, far more than most people should have to bear, but he never gave up – he never stopped fighting. He…” Her voice faltered for a moment. Her eyes were blurry with unshed tears. “He saved my life. There are no words to describe the debt of gratitude I owe him.” Her gaze shifted to the piece of paper she was holding. “I would like to read a poem in his honour.” She took a deep breath and recited:

“Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann’d:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.”

The funeral ended shortly afterwards, and the pallbearers – Stephen, Adam, Andrew and Matthew – carried the coffin to a plot in the graveyard outside while the others followed behind. There was a steady drizzle falling that dampened Hannah’s clothes and made her hair frizz, but she barely noticed. She couldn’t be bothered to use an umbrella like everyone else. She watched in silence as the coffin holding Jeffrey’s remains was consigned to the ground and covered with soil.

She remained standing beside his grave long after everyone else had left, gazing at the bare patch of earth. There was so much she wanted to say, even though it was too late, but she couldn’t find the words. Instead she just stood there, hoping her presence was enough. There was no gravestone in place yet, but she had already decided on what it would read:

Jeffrey Sanderson
Devoted husband, father and friend

No birth or death dates, because she didn’t know when he had been born. To be perfectly honest, she hadn’t known much about the details of his life, and she regretted not having asked him about it when she’d had the chance. But she knew he was a good person, that he had experienced real pain in his life which had left its mark, and she knew he had saved her life. Those were the things that really mattered.

She heard someone come up behind her, and a moment later Stephen stood at her side. He didn’t speak immediately, but spent a long time staring at the grave, just as she had. She wondered what he was thinking. Eventually he said, “He was a good man. He went out fighting, just as he would have wanted.” He shifted his gaze to Hannah, but she kept her eyes lowered; she couldn’t bear to look at him. “He thought very highly of you, you know. You were like a daughter to him.”

“I know,” she whispered. She thought of his real daughter, who had died eight years ago, along with his wife. She didn’t know much about life after death, but if there was such a thing as Heaven, she was sure Jeffrey was there, reunited with his family. He deserved to find the happiness that had eluded him in life. “I…I owe him my life.”

“And don’t you think he would have wanted you to celebrate that life, rather than spend it wallowing in grief?” said Stephen gently. His hand came down to rest comfortingly on her shoulder. “I know you blame yourself for his death, but you shouldn’t. The truth is that Jeffrey went into the woods because it was what he did. It was his job – his…calling – to hunt down the bad guys among us. You know he would want you to be happy. It’s just like it says in that poem you read: ‘Better by far you should forget and smile / Than that you should remember and be sad.’ Honour his memory, Hannah, not mourn his passing.”

It made sense, but it was one thing to say it and another to actually do it. But there was more to the situation than Stephen or anyone else was aware – no one knew that Hannah had been the one who killed Sean. When Stephen had found her shortly after firing the final shot, all she had been able to say to him was “Jeffrey saved my life.” He, and everyone else afterwards, had assumed she meant Jeffrey had shown up and shot Sean just before the rogue had ripped his throat out, and Sean had bled to death moments later from the gunshot wound – they didn’t realise Hannah had been referring to the fact Jeffrey had shown up at all, bringing with him the shotgun she would use to kill Sean.

It was too late to tell them the truth now, and a large part of her didn’t want them to know; she was afraid they would look at her differently. More than that, she had yet to come to come to terms with it entirely herself. Yes, she had gone into the woods with the intention of stabbing Sean with the silver letter opener, but intent and deed are two very different things. Sean had done unspeakable things, but what Hannah herself had done was still murder. Better that she was the only one who knew about it.

“There’s something else I wanted to talk to you about,” said Stephen after a long silence. “It has been brought to my attention that I may have been a little…harsh…in telling you to choose a mate by the next full moon. I’m not saying you don’t have to decide between Adam and Andrew, but you don’t have to formally accept one of them as your mate yet. Apparently it isn’t fair of me to make a seventeen-year-old girl choose who she wants to spend the rest of her life with,” he concluded dryly.

This made Hannah crack a small smile, the first in what felt like weeks. She had a feeling Stephen’s words were code for “My wife told me off for giving you an ultimatum”, although of course he would never admit it – not only because he was the Alpha, but because he was a man and they hated to admit out loud that they were under their wife’s thumb.

A week ago she would have welcomed the reprieve she was being given, but things had been put into perspective for her now. “Thank you,” she said, “but I know who I want to be with.”

He peered down at her curiously. “Who?”

She shook her head and smiled. “I think I owe it to him to tell him first.”

The only problem was working up the courage to actually do so. Hannah reflected wryly that, despite everything she’d been through, she was still afraid to lay all her cards on the table and tell a guy that she loved him. She thought that part of the problem was that, whomever she chose, there would still be one loser. Telling the loser was going to be even more difficult than telling the ‘winner’, and so she was putting that off, too.

The day after the funeral was a Sunday, most of which Hannah spent alone in her room. She lay on her bed on her stomach, her mobile phone on the duvet in front of her. She had dialled Adam and Andrew’s numbers a dozen times each, but had chickened out before actually pressing the button to make the call. She regarded the phone apprehensively, as though it would suddenly come alive and try to bite her. She picked it up to make another almost-phone-call, but at that moment the doorbell rang downstairs. Her keen hearing picked up the sound of her mother opening the door, and then the sound of a very familiar voice.

“Hannah!” her mother called up the stairs. “Adam’s here to see you!”

She had already got up from the bed and crossed the room as soon as she’d heard his voice, and now she padded down the stairs. Adam was leaning against the front door, the picture of nonchalance, although Hannah could see that his shoulders were tight with tension. He was dressed in a pair of worn jeans with a hole in the knee, and a faded T-shirt with The Rolling Stones’ Forty Licks album cover on it.

He said without preamble, “Can we talk?”

Her stomach turned several nervous somersaults. It didn’t take a genius to guess what he wanted to talk about. She wasn’t sure she was ready to have this conversation, but as much as she wanted to hide under her duvet and not come out, it was time to step up and become a man. Metaphorically speaking, anyway. “Um, okay.”

He breathed an audible sigh of relief. “Would you be okay with going to the woods?”

She nodded slowly. She didn’t exactly relish the thought of going there after all that had happened, but she would have to fact it at some point; after all, the pack would be meeting there on the full moon regardless.

“Good.” Adam waited until she’d put on a pair of trainers before he led the way to his car. Once they were both settled in the worn leather seats, and he had pulled out of the driveway, Hannah – desperate to break the uncomfortable silence that had descended – commented, “You got your car fixed, I see.”

“Yeah. Turns out the carburettor had crapped up.”

“What on earth is a carburettor?” Hannah wondered aloud.

Adam grinned wryly. “I have absolutely no idea. That’s just what the mechanic told me. The point is, he fixed it and my baby is now as good as new.” He patted the dashboard fondly. He gave her a sideways glance, and if Hannah didn’t know better, she would have interpreted his expression as being close to wariness. “You seem…better…than you did yesterday.”

She nodded guardedly. “I am, I think. Stephen and I had a little talk. He…he told me Jeffrey would want me to actually live my life, not spend it mourning his.”

“He has a point. Jeffrey was a good bloke. He would have wanted you to be happy.”

“I thought you didn’t like him?” she pointed out.

Adam grinned, and shrugged. “He turned out all right in the end, didn’t he? As far as werewolf hunters go, I mean. We’re here,” he announced suddenly, startling Hannah. She discovered he hadn’t driven them to the clearing where the pack met, as she had expected, but to the section of road nearest his special place – the one he had first shown her almost two months ago after her first day of school, and where they had woken up both times after the full moon.

“Just a little walk now,” he said cheerfully, hopping out of the car. The ground was wet and muddy from yesterday’s rain, and squelched beneath his feet, almost immediately turning his trainers and the bottom of his jeans brown. He didn’t seem to care, or even notice. Hannah, on the other hand, took a few careful steps, trying not to splatter herself with mud, but her efforts were in vain. With an exasperated sigh, she gave up and followed Adam through the woodland, resigned to the fact that she would just have to get muddy.

When they finally reached Adam’s special spot, it looked even more beautiful than Hannah remembered. Spring had most definitely sprung, as the saying goes, and they were surrounded by a riot of different shades of green. The leaves on the trees had exploded from their buds, creating a dense canopy overhead, and everywhere was the melodious sound of birdsong. The air was filled with that peculiar fresh scent unique to a forest after rain. It seemed to Hannah like a magical place, like somewhere not of this world.

She realised Adam had begun to pace up and down in front of her, treading the same five feet of woodland over and over again, getting entirely splattered with mud in the process. She remained in silence, watching him as he paced and sorted through his thoughts.

At length he stopped abruptly and faced her. “First of all,” he began, “I just want you to know that you were fucking insane for going after Sean on your own. If you’d only told me what you were planning, I would have cheerfully gone with you and strangled the little turd for you. I have never been so frightened in my life as I was when I found out you’d gone after Sean yourself. Remember when I told you that if you ever did anything stupid and reckless again, I’d lock you in my house and never let you out? Well, I’m strongly tempted to enforce that promise. The only thing that’s stopping me is that I’m fairly certain your parents would have the police arrest me for kidnap, and I think my turning into a wolf on the full moon would be a little difficult to explain to the prison guards.

“So instead I’ll just say that if you ever put yourself in danger like that again, I will never forgive you.” The tone of his voice said he meant it. “I don’t think my heart could stand the torment; I’d die of cardiac arrest. Are we clear?”

She nodded mutely.

“Good. I’m glad we’ve cleared that up.” He exhaled noisily and ran a hand through his hair; he almost looked nervous. “As for the other thing… Well, you can probably guess what that is.”

“The ultimatum,” she whispered, her eyes on the ground and the dead leaves that covered it like a golden blanket.

“Yes.” She could feel his eyes on her, watching her intently. “I know there’s still two weeks until the full moon, but I was wondering…if you’d made a decision yet.” He sounded unusually subdued, but hope was audible in his voice, too.

“I have,” she admitted, and with a great force of will, lifted her gaze to his face. Her heart was pounding like the persistent beat of a drum. It was now or never.

He misinterpreted the expression on her face. “Oh,” he said in a very different tone of voice. “I see.”

“Adam – ”

“It’s okay,” he said quickly, cutting her off. “I should have guessed you would choose Andrew. I mean, he’s a much better choice. He’s closer to your age, and he’s not as likely to go all He-Man on you. Really. I understand.” He began to turn away, but she laid a hand on his arm to stop him. He glanced down at her hand, confused, before meeting her gaze. She could tell he was trying very hard to conceal his expression, but she could see the hurt and disappointment in his hazel eyes.

“Adam…” Just do it, girl! “The truth is that I’ve known for a long time who I want to spend the rest of my life with, I’ve just been too afraid to admit it until now.” And she stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his. It was the most gentle kiss they had ever shared, tender and sweet. Adam’s hands moved to rest lightly on her hips, keeping her anchored against him. His tongue probed her mouth gently, searchingly, and she sighed against his lips longingly.

Even after the kiss was over, both of them breathing heavily, they were reluctant to separate; their foreheads rested against each other’s, and Hannah clutched a handful of his T-shirt while Adam’s hands still gripped her hips possessively. They exchanged a smile that was almost tentative.

“Wait,” said Adam, suddenly assailed by doubts. “You did mean me, right?”

Hannah laughed. “Of course I meant you, you muppet.”

He gave her a broad grin. “Just checking.” His expression became abruptly more serious. One of his hands left her hip and stroked her hair away from her face in a gesture that was surprisingly tender. “I do love you, you know. I wasn’t lying when I told you that last week.” He smiled again, this one mischievous. “In fact, from the moment you kicked me in the balls,” he laughed, “I knew it was true love.”

She smiled shyly at him. “I…I think I love you too,” she confessed. “It just took me a little longer to figure it out. I’ve never done this before.” “What, and you think I have? The truth is, Hannah, when it comes to love we both only have provisional licences.” His driving analogy made her roll her eyes, albeit good-naturedly. “But,” he continued, his voice deepening as his lips hovered over hers again, “the great thing is, we can figure it out together.”

“David, hurry up, Adam is here!” Hannah bellowed up the stairs impatiently, peering out the window in the hall to see Adam’s green MG pulling up outside. It was the night of the full moon, and her skin was itching with the need to transform, to assume her wolf shape and run through the woods. It would be her first full moon in Fairfield without having to worry about the rogue, and David’s first full moon, period.

“I’m almost ready!” he shouted back.

“What’s taking you so long?” she demanded grumpily. “You’re going to be turning into a wolf, not going on a date! Hi, Adam,” she added in a softer tone as she opened the door to let him in. He was dressed much as she was, in an old T-shirt and a pair of jogging bottoms. There was no point in wearing clothes she cared about when the odds were good they would only end up dirty or be misplaced in the woods. She had instructed David to wear something similar, but God only knew if her brother was actually heeding her advice.

“Hi,” Adam responded with a cheeky grin, and ducked his head to plant a quick kiss on her lips – heedless of the fact her parents were present. She laughed and gently shoved him away.

“Wait a minute,” said her father, confused, watching them with a frown. “I thought you were dating that Andrew fellow?”

Her mother gave him an exasperated look. “Oh, Russell, try to keep up.” She fixed her daughter with a stern look. “We’re going to have to talk about this, Hannah. I’m not sure I like the idea of you dating someone so much older than you are.”

Adam gave her a charming smile. “Oh, don’t worry, Mrs Madison,” he reassured her. “I’m pretty immature for my age, and Hannah is pretty mature for hers, so the age gap is negligible, really.”

Hannah smacked him on the arm. “That’s not helping.” She regarded her mother seriously. “We’ll talk about it,” she promised, although she had no intention of giving Adam up even if her parents demanded it, “but not tonight. We need to leave now if we’re going to be there in time. David!” she shouted suddenly, making everyone jump.

“All right, I’m coming,” he said sullenly, tramping down the stairs. “You don’t need to yell.”

“Clearly I do.” She got a good look at him and rolled her eyes. “You gelled your hair?” she asked incredulously. “What on earth did you do that for?” At least he was wearing an old pair of clothes.

“She’s got a point, kiddo,” said Adam, giving David a friendly pat on the back and pushing him towards the front door. “When you’re in your wolf form, it’s not going to make a bit of difference whether you gelled your hair or not. In the morning it’s still going to end up looking like you walked through a hedge backwards.”

After saying goodbye to Hannah and David’s parents – who were even more anxious tonight than they had been on Hannah’s first full moon with the Fairfield pack, if such a thing were possible – the three of them clambered into Adam’s car. Given that the car was only built to take two people, it was a tight squeeze – Hannah was wedged in the middle between Adam and her brother. She felt like a tinned sardine. The drive to the clearing was silent, but not uncomfortably so; although Hannah ached to make the change already, Adam’s hand resting lightly on her knee (fortunately he could drive well one-handed) kept her grounded. She wasn’t quite used yet to being able to touch Adam, to kiss him, and not have it be taboo; it still felt a little like a guilty pleasure.

She reflected on the conversation she’d had with Andrew when she told him she’d chosen Adam. It had been the day after she’d told Adam – she and Andrew were sitting on their usual benches outside at lunchtime at school. After everything they’d been through together, she didn’t know how on earth she could even begin to tell him she wanted to be with someone else. In the end, she had just blurted it out:

“Andrew… I know Stephen told you he gave me an ultimatum about choosing a mate by the full moon, and I just…” She wavered, but continued resolutely, “I thought you had a right to know that I’ve chosen Adam. I’m so sorry,” she felt compelled to add.

He gave her a smile that was sad, gentle, and a little wistful. “I know. After the seeing the two of you together in your kitchen, I sort of figured that would happen. It made a lot of sense, in a way, actually. I think a part of me knew it was going to happen.”

“You knew?”

“Well, no,” he amended sheepishly. “What I mean is… In the back of my mind, even when we were together, I always thought Adam and you would make a better couple. You’re better suited somehow – your personalities match.” He grimaced. “Don’t ever tell Adam I said that.”

Hannah smiled sadly. “I won’t.” She sighed and reached for his hand, taking it in hers, and he let her. “Oh, Andrew. I wish I could make you understand how truly sorry I am for everything that’s happened. You’re such a good person, and I treated you awfully. I never meant to hurt you, and I really did have feelings for you. That wasn’t a lie. Truthfully, I do love you, just not…not the way you want me to.” She hesitated. “This is going to sound so trite, but please tell me we can still be friends.”

He summoned a grin. “Of course.”

She gave his hand a comforting squeeze. “One day soon, Andrew, you’re going to find a wonderful girl who will love you as you deserve.”

“And we’ll live happily ever after?” he asked, arching one dark eyebrow.

“Of course,” she said lightly. “That’s how all the best stories end.”

Andrew laughed. His smile turned abruptly impish, and he said, “Didn’t you once tell me Kayleigh fancies me? Well, maybe I should ask her out. I’m sure we’d be just perfect together.”

They both cracked up, and just like that, everything was all right between them. Now, in the car with her brother and Adam, Hannah smiled at the memory. She really did hope Andrew found himself the perfect girl someday soon. If anyone deserved to be happy, it was him.

“We’re here,” Adam announced quietly.

The three of them prised themselves out of the car’s small space and made the short walk to the clearing, where the rest of the pack was already gathered on the logs scattered around. In the last few days the bluebells had emerged from their slumber, blanketing the woods in a thick blue carpet. Illuminated by the light of the setting sun, they looked particularly beautiful. It seemed to Hannah that the flowers had somehow purified the area, erasing her memories of what had occurred here with Sean.

Adam seated himself on Stephen’s left; Hannah sat next to him, their knees touching, and David took a tentative seat beside her. Andrew, Summer and Matthew were opposite them, and they all exchanged smiles. Although Summer was still treating Hannah more coolly than she had prior to Hannah and Adam’s secret trysts being exposed, she seemed to have forgiven Hannah for hurting her twin. Hannah strongly suspected the main reason for this was because Andrew had given Summer a lecture about it.

Stephen rose to his feet fluidly and cleared his throat; ten pairs of eyes turned to regard him solemnly. “The last few months have been ones of change,” he began softly. “We have lost one member of the pack, but gained two more. Hannah is already familiar with how we operate, but I would like to take this opportunity to formally welcome David to the pack.” He turned to regard David, who squirmed under the intensity of the Alpha’s gaze. “Despite the tragic circumstances surrounding your becoming a werewolf, I hope in time you will come to regard it as having gained, not lost, something. I think everyone here will agree with me that there is little to rival running through the woods with total freedom, the wind in your fur.” His lips quirked in a smile.

“As for the rules,” he continued, “the only one we really have is that you stay within the boundary of the wood – you can’t venture outside it for any reason, not even to chase prey. And don’t eat any people if you come across them,” he added, which had probably sounded like a joke until the words actually left his mouth. After what Sean had done – even if he hadn’t actually eaten the people – it seemed in poor taste. Stephen grimaced. “Which brings me to my next point.” His brown eyes swept the clearing, briefly meeting the gaze of everyone present, but lingering on Peter. “What happened with Sean was a tragic set of circumstances, one that must never be allowed to happen again. He was clearly a very…troubled boy. I would like to observe a minute’s silence for him, and for Jeffrey.”

Adam looked inclined to protest mourning a murderer, but Hannah put her hand on his thigh and squeezed the hard muscles corded there warningly. He scowled, but bowed his head with everyone else. Hannah wondered what the others were thinking; she was thinking about how she wasn’t sorry Sean was dead, although she wished she hadn’t been the one to kill him. Perhaps that was cowardly or hypocritical, but it was how she felt. She felt pity for him and what he had endured, but he had dealt with his pain in the wrong way and paid the price accordingly. She felt more sorry for his father, who had to live with the knowledge that his son was a murderer. Hannah doubted Sean had considered his father’s feelings once when he’d been getting revenge on the pack.

“There is one last thing,” said Stephen when the minute’s silence was over. He glanced up at the sky, which had darkened considerably; the full moon would rise in another couple of minutes. “I want to congratulate Adam and Hannah on becoming mates.” He gave them both a broad, genuine smile. “I hope before too long that they will undergo the formal ceremony.”

Adam grinned proudly and slung an arm around Hannah’s shoulders. She, on the other hand, felt like she was about to die of embarrassment, but there were murmurs of congratulations from the rest of the pack – even Andrew and Summer. David whispered, sounding stunned, “Mates?”

She had deliberately not told her family about that part of it yet, guessing her mother in particular would not be pleased, and she muttered back, “Tell the parental units and I’ll kill you.” After all, there was no urgency. While they hadn’t gone through the formal ceremony yet (which, from Hannah could surmise, was a werewolf version of a wedding ceremony) – or actually consummated anything – but as far as Hannah and Adam were concerned, they were mated. Hannah didn’t want to be with anyone but Adam, and she couldn’t imagine that ever changing now.

“I believe that’s everything,” Stephen concluded. “Happy hunting, everyone.”

The rest of the pack melted into the surrounding woods, shedding their clothes as they went, but the Alpha, along with Hannah, Adam, Andrew and David, remained behind. The latter looked small and frightened. He kept scratching his arm as though he had an itch, but Hannah knew it wouldn’t help; it was a mental itch, not a physical one. She felt it too, although after three years she had at least grown accustomed to it, even if it was still not pleasant.

She put a comforting hand on her brother’s arm to make him cease scratching. “You can feel it, can’t you?” she said softly. “That crawling feeling beneath your skin, somewhere between a vibration and an itch? It means the change is starting.” She hesitated. “I’m not going to lie to you. It’s going to hurt like hell. But it only lasts a couple of minutes, and then it’s over. You’ll be a wolf, completely free, and I promise you that’s the best feeling in the world.”

“Try to keep your body relaxed during the change,” Stephen added. “It’s more painful if you fight it. You won’t be aware of yourself when the change is complete – the wolf will take over – but in a few days I’ll begin teaching you the meditation techniques that mean you’ll be conscious in your wolf form.” He turned to Hannah. “Will you be all right handling this?”

She smiled. “Yes. Thank you.” She meant for more than this most recent thing, but she didn’t know if he realised that.

The Alpha nodded in acknowledgement anyway, and followed the rest of the pack into the woods. David looked like he was getting a headache from the inundation of information. He regarded his sister with eyes that were worried but trusting. “You’ll be here, right? You’ll wait for me?”

“I promise,” she said solemnly. “I’ll be here while you change, and afterwards. The four of us will go for a run together. We’ll teach your inner wolf how to hunt!”

Adam snorted derisively. “You mean Andrew and I will teach him. You’ve got a way to go yourself, grasshopper.”

“Well, it would help if you didn’t keep getting in my way every time we hunt!” she retorted without any real rancour.

Andrew laughed. “She’s got a point.”

“Oh, shut up,” Adam grumbled, but he was grinning.

It was a physical effort for Hannah to postpone her own change for long enough to watch over her brother as he went through his, but she managed it. She watched as David transformed from a scrawny fifteen-year-old boy to a powerful brown-haired wolf before giving in to her own transformation. It swept through her like a tidal wave, stretching her bones and tearing her skin. She gritted her teeth against the pain, and then it was over. Panting, she regarded her brother the wolf. Her scent was obviously familiar to him; his tongue lolled and he wagged his tail, sniffing her curiously. He took a few bounding steps towards the woods, but she tackled him playfully and the two of them tussled while Adam and Andrew went through the change themselves.

Hannah regarded her three companions with pure, unadulterated joy. There was David, his fur short and brown like her own, his mind fully wolf but with some vestige of her brother still in there. His becoming a werewolf seemed to have brought them closer together in a way they hadn’t been before. Then there was Andrew, with his dark, shaggy fur, whom she loved as a friend and who didn’t resent her for what she’d put him through. And lastly there was Adam, with his thick golden fur. The wolf part of her mind that Hannah couldn’t quite banish in this form identified him with one word: Mate.

Adam gave an excited yip that translated as “Come on!” and took off into the woods. Andrew and David immediately gave chase, and after a moment Hannah followed them. She allowed herself to fall behind, content to let them take the lead, and as she ran through the woods she reflected on how much her life had changed in such a short time. When she’d first arrived in Fairfield, a little over two months ago, she would never have been able to predict all that would happen to her: The obnoxious werewolf who had told her she’d have to choose a mate and whom she’d kneed in the groin was now the love of her life; the rogue werewolf had turned her brother and been killed by her own hand; the blonde bitch at school had become her friend; and the pack she’d once feared now felt like members of her extended family.

She was Hannah Madison, no longer a lone wolf but the member of a werewolf pack. She had a permanent home with her family for the first time in three years. She had made several fantastic friends she would trust with her life – and, more importantly, her heart – and she had a boyfriend-slash-mate who loved her and would do anything for her. Life didn’t get any better than this. She threw back her head and howled her triumph to the moon.

Thus concludes Bad Moon Rising. I want to thank everyone who’s ever read and reviewed this story, particularly those of you who have stuck with it from the beginning (two years ago!). I’m especially grateful to certain people for their continuing support – you know who you are. But without the encouragement of all my readers, I would never have been able to keep writing. Thank you so much!

To answer everyone’s persistent questions, there is indeed a sequel. It’s called Hunter’s Moon and the first chapter will be on here in a couple of weeks. I’m really excited about it. ^.^ If you want a sneak peek of what it’s about, the synopsis can be found on my website.

Lastly, I’ve started a website called Fiction With Bite that’s dedicated to showcasing the best supernatural stories on FictionPress. The link to it is on my profile. If you want to find a good supernatural story to read, check it out; and if you have any suggestions – either your own story or someone else’s – drop me a line.