It was funny, now that I remembered it, that Roland had agreed to spend so much time with his cousins, especially Francis who was four years older than us. Roland and Francis had never gotten along and as far as I knew, they still didn’t. Francis didn’t like me and he never hid his feelings, which angered Roland. In fact, they had a huge fight – and I mean a bloody brawl – right before they started to hang out. We were at the farm when Francis came by and asked if I had a home to go to instead of always being underfoot. I would have told him where to go if Roland hadn’t punched him first. Next thing I knew, the two of them were tearing through Brendan’s cornfield, making a God awful racket like two wild dogs trying to kill each other. Then Peter’s father Maxwell showed up and roared at them until they slunk out of the damaged corn like scolded puppies.

My mouth fell open. No!

Do you smell that my friends?

It’s no wonder you were attacked with nothing but a pair of pups to protect you.

A large furry body jumping to catch me…

“It can’t be.” My hand clutched the seatbelt that suddenly threatened to choke me.

Roland glanced over at me. “Sara?”

I would know, right? All the days, the hundreds – no thousands – of hours together, I would have seen some sign. It wasn’t like I was ignorant of the real world. Sure I’d never seen a werewolf in person until tonight, but a person would never be able to hide the obvious drawbacks of lycanthropy from people close to them. That’s why most werewolves are reclusive. Like vampires, they can’t touch silver, and it would be pretty hard to explain how you got second degree burns from a silver fork. And werewolves are predators, they have to hunt. They can’t live among humans unless they transform and hunt live animals at least once a month…

My hand flew up to cover my mouth. “Stop the car.”

“What’s wrong?” Roland asked in alarm.

“Stop the car!”

Peter leaned forward. “Dude, I think she’s going to hurl. Pull over.”

Roland let off the gas and eased the car over onto the shoulder in front of a dark field. As soon as the car stopped moving, I opened the door and ran to the fence where I bent over trying to suck air into my lungs. Behind me, I heard car doors open and leaves crunch as my friends came after me.

My best friends, the werewolves.

Roland spoke hesitantly. “Are you okay?”

The worry in his voice penetrated the ache in my chest. I took a deep breath but I couldn’t face them. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?”

“I was in shock back there but my head is clear now.” I gripped the top fence rail and the rough wood dug into my palms. It was solid, more real than anything else tonight and I clung to it. The desperate words I had heard as I woke up came back to me. I couldn’t reach her. “It was you on the fire escape, wasn’t it Roland?”

Silence.

“Sara, I—“ Roland began weakly.

“Shit,” Peter muttered.

A breeze soughed through the trees and ruffled my hair, close by a small animal rooted through the underbrush. It was so dark and quiet here, and so calm compared to the city. I took a deep tremulous breath of the country air as I tried to think of what to say.

“Please don’t be afraid,” Roland said in a rush. “We would never hurt you.”

I turned to face them. “I know that, I’m not afraid of you. I’m upset because I had to wait for a vampire to attack me to find out the truth. And even then you tried to cover it up.”

I felt like a hypocrite as soon as the accusation spilled from my lips. I was yelling at my friends for keeping a secret from me when that’s exactly what I had been doing as long as I’d known them. My not-so-righteous indignation drained out of me and I sagged against the fence, cold and tired.

Roland walked toward me slowly. “I’m sorry,” he said softly, his voice heavy with regret. “We had to hide it from you. We were bound by our laws.”

“And when my dad lays down a law, no one disobeys,” Peter added earnestly. “We wanted to tell you but humans are not allowed to know about us.”

“Your father?”

Peter grimaced. “He’s the pack leader.”

Of course. Who else but Peter’s imposing father, Maxwell, would be alpha? “So both of your families, all your cousins, you’re all werewolves?”

“Yes,” Peter replied.

My breath came out in a whoosh.

“I know you’re upset but please hear us out before you hate us,” Roland implored.

“I could never hate you guys.” My voice cracked. “It’s just a lot to take in after…”

Roland reached for me but I put up a hand to keep him from trying to hug me again. Instead I took his warm hand in mine to let him know my feelings for him hadn’t changed. He was still the same Roland I knew an hour ago, nothing would change that.

“Guys, my dad is waiting for us and I bet he’s not alone. We should probably go.”

“Pete’s right.” Roland squeezed my hand. “You up for this?”

I nodded and we walked back to the car. The mood during the rest of the drive was subdued. Roland and Peter kept shifting restlessly like they wanted to talk but couldn’t. I had a ton of questions for them but it looked like I wasn’t going to get any answers until we saw Maxwell.

For the first time in my life, I was nervous about visiting the farm and I felt a stab of apprehension as we turned onto a narrow lane and I saw the large white farmhouse looming ahead. Every window was lit up and I saw Maxwell’s Jeep parked next to Brendan’s big Chevy pickup.