The Oracle screamed—no, roared was more like it—as the flames burned her body. The skin dissolved slowly, leaving her a creature of raw muscle and tendons for a split second before they flaked away to ash, leaving nothing but a skeleton suspended around a ball of blue flame. When the flame extinguished and dropped to the ashes on the ground, the wind came.

The shutters tore from the windows. The sun had set—at least that was in their favor—but being sliced in half with a piece of metal would be just as bad.

"Keep your head down," Max shouted over the howl of the wind. The last word had just left his mouth when a chunk of debris whacked him in the back of the head. His arms gave out and he fell onto Bella. A sharp pain in his shoulder a second later indicated another piece of flying something had taken a chunk out of him. "Son of a bitch!"

The Oracle's bones, still suspended, were surrounded by a cyclone of her own ashes. They eroded away as if being scourged by a superaccelerated desert sandstorm. And when they were gone, so were the ashes, and the wind.

"You guys okay?" Ziggy helped Max to his feet "Dude, are you okay?"

Max brushed him aside. "Bella, are you all right?"

"Yes. A little… dizzy." She trembled as he helped her into the chair. "I will be fine."

Max turned to Ziggy. "Yeah, we're fine."

"She's fine." Ziggy gestured to Max's shoulder. "You're bleeding."

Max touched his shoulder and winced. "Yeah, something hit me. And then something else hit me."

"Something bit you," Bella said quietly. When Max looked at her, questioning, she dipped her head. "It was the only opportunity I thought I would have."

Ziggy's eyes went wide. "Wait a minute, you're a—"

"Werewolf," Bella finished for him.

"And you bit him. That would make him—"

"A lupin."

Max froze. "My God. Bella. Why—"

"We will need a place to hide. To hide our baby. The clan will not accept you if you are not one of us." She stated it like he just had to accept it, like there was no other way. "They will know you are a lupin, of course. But the elder will understand the circumstances. She will let you stay. And if not, we will seek out Titus's sanctuary."

"What the fuck, Bella?" Max spun away, kicking a twisted chunk of what used to be a shutter. "What the hell happens now? When the full moon comes or the daylight gets me? What the hell happens now?"

He felt her approach, felt her at his side before she got there. It was so like the blood tie he'd shared with Marcus… but not violent or fearful. This was like…

Coming home.

She laced her fingers with his. "Whatever comes, we will figure it out together. The three of us."