Page 44 of Who Let The Wolves Out?

“I came back!”

“Too late.”

That one stings. Deep.

He shakes his head and looks away, hands on his hips like he’s trying to hold himself in place.

“I thought what we had—” I start, but the words catch in my throat.

“Yeah,” he says, flat. “Me too.”

There’s a pause. Long and awful.

Then he picks up the rope again.

I stand there, heart cracking open in slow motion.

“Was it ever real?” I ask, and my voice breaks at the end.

He doesn't answer.

And the silence says everything.

I walk away.

I don’t remember getting back to my cabin. Don’t remember if anyone saw me or spoke or tried to stop me.

I just remember sitting on the floor, back against the door, hands shaking.

And feeling like I’d just lost something I hadn’t even let myself believe I could keep.

CHAPTER 16

JASON

Something’s wrong.

I know it before I hear Zak’s footsteps pounding toward me through the soggy field, before the clouds crack with thunder overhead. The air’s gone tight, heavy with pressure. The kind of pressure that sets my instincts snarling.

It’s full moon tonight. I can feel her rising already. Clawing up my spine.

And then Zak appears, pale and panicked, yelling my name like he’s already in trouble.

“Jason! Jason, man—we have a problem.”

I drop the logs I’ve been stacking. “What kind of problem?”

Zak skids to a stop, panting. “Mira’s missing.”

Time stalls.

“What do you meanmissing?”

“She was with my group—we were doing the pond trail hike, the easy one. She said she had to go pee, so I let her duck off. I thought she was right behind us, but... she never showed back up.”

My jaw tightens. “You left a kid alone in the woods?”

Zak flinches. “I waited! I doubled back twice. I thought she was playing a joke or?—”

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