In a single moment, I made a decision.

With the last strength I had left, I blew open the opaque barrier between us. In an instant my wolf and I snapped together as one. My fingernails shot to sharp points and my canines dropped within the span of a heartbeat. Power shot through my senses like a lightning bolt as my muscles coalesced and fur sprang to the surface.

“What is she doing?” Ray yelled, dropping one of my arms.

“She’s fighting it; that’s what she’s doing,” Danny said. “Stand back. This could get ugly before it gets any better.”

On a thread of consciousness I put my wolf in control. As the energy shifted to her completely, she let out a fierce snarl, and as she did it, my mouth opened and I could hear the sound reverberate in my eardrums. It was terrifying.

“Holy shit.” I barely heard Tyler’s voice over the rushing in my ears.

Instead of snapping at the lines, my wolf closed her eyes, gathering as much power as she could to her. I understood what she was doing and, as my muscles pulsed and grew, I threaded all the energy to her as fast as I could. You have to hurry. I can’t keep it up. It’s too much. Her eyes snapped open and she lifted her muzzle to let out another grating howl. The power streamed out of her mouth in one huge mass of energy and exploded through my senses like a fireball. My body jumped like it’d been defibrillated. The power manifested itself in a shock of white and annihilated the red lines like a nuclear blast, racing through my veins, wiping everything clean in a single sweep. As the energy wound its way through every cell in my body, I felt exhilarated.

My eyes flashed open.

It was dark and I was on my back.

The red haze was completely gone. I sat up in my Lycan form, half wolf, half human.

“Jesus Christ, Hannon,” Ray breathed. His voice held both awe and revulsion. “What are you?”

“I’m a Lycan, Ray.” My voice sounded like rocks bouncing around a garbage disposal as air grated over my distorted throat.

Danny stepped forward first. “You turned completely red this time. That was too close for comfort.”

There was movement in the tree line. My head shot to the noise, my senses still on high alert.

My wolf growled and it came out of my throat, loud and scratchy. We were still connected, like two eyes peering out of the same body.

Naomi stepped out of the woods first. She stood in a weak pool of moonlight. I must have been out for longer than it’d felt, because it had gone from twilight to full night. Her steps were tentative as she came near. Eamon approached behind her. From their expressions, it was clear they had both witnessed my episode from the forest. They must have landed right as the spell took me over.

“You were fighting Selene’s death spell. I could tell by the red lines. It’s highly potent,” Eamon said with slight accusation in his voice. “By all rights you should be dead.”

I glanced down at my hands, no longer red but full of claws and smoky gray fur. “I’m clearly not dead.” I stood to my full height, which was considerable. Beating Selene felt fantastic. “And, just so you know, the spell won’t be coming back.”

“She is the strongest of her kind, possibly in the world. You should not be able to rebuff her mastery so easily.” Eamon glanced around, seeming confused. “That spell is made out of her essence, not just conjured. There is no cure.”

“Eamon,” I said patiently. “It’s very apparent you know a lot about this Goddess, but you just witnessed firsthand what happened. It doesn’t matter if it was her ‘essence’ or not. It’s clearly not impossible to ‘cure’ the spell, because I just did it.” I knew without a doubt the spell was gone. My blood hummed with clarity.

“What my brother is trying to say,” Naomi cut in, “is that if one of us was hit with the same spell, we would surely die. It does not make sense to us why you still live. It should not be so.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I have no idea why I’m alive,” I ground out, my vocal cords straining to be precise. “But I’m not going to argue with the results.” It was time to let this conversation go and regroup. I turned away, taking in deep breaths, trying to ease myself out of my half form and calm down my stressed wolf. Okay. The crisis has been averted. Let’s get back to normal. My wolf growled, hesitating. We can’t stay in Lycan form and hike up a cliff; plus our clothes are falling off. It’s time to shift back and change. My Lycan form did not support skinny jeans. They were still on, but completely split up both legs. From here it looked like I’d survived the zombie apocalypse, but just barely. My shirt had fared a little better, because it was stretchy, but it had still split up the seams. It was time to switch to spandex.

As we both calmed, I realized my wolf and I were still sharing a common space in my mind. The barrier had been completely obliterated. I checked my mind further, but there was nothing opaque for her to stay behind. If she didn’t listen to me, it would be a fight to erect a new blockade and I was tired. We should stay merged, because it feels stronger when we’re united. But you have to agree on the parameters or it won’t work. I make the human decisions and you take the dicey fights. It’s an easy choice if you think about it. I felt a moment of hesitation, but then she eased back willingly. Our features shifted back. Perfect.

Once I was fully in my human form, I had to hold on to my jeans so they wouldn’t drop to my ankles. I looked up to see everyone staring at me. “What?” I asked. “What’s the problem?”

My brother tried to contain himself, but worry leaked around the edges. “It’s just… it’s a little strange to see you like that. I’ve never witnessed anything like it before. Being part wolf is sort of… incredible. Does it hurt?”

“It doesn’t hurt at all. In fact, it’s exhilarating. But it’s nothing I can help,” I reminded him. “Thank goodness I can do it, since I’m pretty sure it just saved my life.”

Danny swung a full pack onto his back as he came forward. “The power strumming from your body as you fought the spell was off the charts. When you ripped out that howl, every hair in my body jumped to attention. I had to hug myself not to change. Whatever you are, the Goddess will have her hands full trying to best you. It’s the first time I’ve felt like we might have a bloody shot of winning this.” He grinned. “Let’s get on with it then, shall we?” He directed his gaze to Naomi, who was still openly assessing me, her shrewd eyes missing nothing. No detail of my form or my fight with the spell had escaped her.

It was clear the vamps hadn’t known I was a Lycan. Or even what a Lycan was.

Their Queen likely didn’t even know for sure.

But they did now.

I had no idea how educated the vamps were about werewolves, but as sharp and as old as Naomi was, it was likely she knew enough to piece together what I was from what she just witnessed.

A buzzing noise echoed loudly in the air.

It sounded like an annoying car honk and was coming from the pack Tyler had just picked up.

He glanced at me with his head cocked. “You know who it is. He’s going to want a detailed report of what just happened, so feel free to explain it in full this time.”

I walked toward him, reaching down to grab my own pack, which was still by the bumper of the truck, slinging it over my shoulder. Tyler held his backpack out to me and I unzipped the main compartment with one hand to grab the sat phone, which was sitting on top.

As I plucked it out, it honked in my grasp.

I depressed the large red on button and maneuvered the long antenna away from my ear as I paced into the forest. I needed to talk and change in relative privacy. “Hi, Dad, I’m here.”

“Jessica? What’s going on?” My father’s voice was full of concern. “Your wolf called to mine briefly, and then, once again, the line snapped. I need to be able to communicate with you when you’re in danger. I’m getting tired of this,” he growled.

“I know,” I said as I entered the cover of the trees and found a downed tree. I set my pack down and sat. Everyone could hear me, but it gave me the illusion of privacy. “I never hear or feel anything from you when I’m in my Lycan form. I have no explanation. But I’m fine. I was fighting”—I paused for a moment, because I hadn’t told him about the spell, which was why Tyler was perturbed with me—“a residual spell from Selene. But it’s gone now.” I held my breath. I’d kept this information from him on purpose, fearing he would never have let me go had he known I was harboring a death spell. It was hard to admit, and I knew he was going to be angry.

Tyler grunted, yanking the side door of the truck open loudly in the distance. I’d made him swear not to tell our father what had happened the night before, and it’d taken everything I had to convince him I had it under control. After what everyone just witnessed, “control” had been an illusion on my part. I’d put Tyler in a precarious position with his Alpha.

“What you talking about? What spell?” The phone crackled and broke across the line, but his anger came through loud and clear. “Answer me.”

“Selene hit me with more than one spell when she took me down in the clearing.”

“And you knew about this other spell before you left?”

“Yes.”

“And how exactly were you planning on getting rid of it?”

“I was hoping I could reach her and kill her before it struck again.” The theory with witches and spells was that if you killed the witch, the spell died. No fuel, no fire. Before Selene achieved her “goddess” status, she’d been a witch. Most goddesses started that way.

“I’m assuming that didn’t happen, because you’ve barely been gone twenty-four hours and you’ve already been forced into your Lycan from.” The phone buzzed in my ear, the connection worsening.

I sighed. “I was hit again with the spell without warning when you felt the change. We’re right outside her boundary and it might have been triggered by the proximity, but I have no real clue. It could also be time release. But the good news is I handled it and it’s gone. I know you’re not happy with me, but nothing was going to keep me home. We both knew that. It would’ve been too much to tell you in the short time we had left and it was better to go without a fight.”