Selena Gunner settles into her chair, her voice taking on a quality that has thousands of people tuning in to her radio show every morning. My mom knows how to captivate an audience, and I’m not immune.

“Your grandfather was a friendly man. I’m sure if you ask anyone in town who knew him, they’d say the same. He was on the town council. He was a volunteer firefighter. He played with a band at the local bars. And some weekends, he would take his bike out of the garage and go on long rides with the local motorcycle club.”

“Grandpa was a werewolf?” I clutch my chest, as if expecting to find a sudden growth of hair there, displaying my supernatural lineage.

Mom chuckles. “No, he wasn’t. But back then, there wasn’t as much of a separation between the wolves and the townspeople. Back then, everyone knew. They all got along just fine.”

Strains of music drift in from the front porch, my brothers smoothly sliding into some bluegrass. The sound is naturally soothing and has my muscles relaxing without thought. But it does nothing to stifle my curiosity.

“What happened?”

Mom takes a sip of her drink before powering on. “The night before my sixth birthday, your grandfather went out on a ride. He didn’t come back. Around midnight, Minnie got a call. Apparently, there was an accident with a tractor trailer. It ran multiple bikes off the road. Of course, all the other riders were werewolves. They were hurt but healed quickly. My father was the only one who died.”

I try to imagine my mom as a girl, small and vulnerable. But she’s so much larger than life that I struggle with the idea.

“By all accounts, it wasn’t the club’s fault. But your grandmother got it in her head that they were responsible. That the love of her life would still be alive if it wasn’t for the pack.”

“But it was the truck⁠—”

Before I’m done speaking, she’s already nodding.

“Yes. Still, when you lose someone you love, you don’t always react rationally. Minnie went into overprotection mode. She had two people in her life she loved, and one was gone. So, she clutched me closer. She cut off contact with everyone who wasn’t necessary. Homeschooled me. Forbade trips into town if she didn’t accompany me. Her anger and distrust of the wolves affected some townspeople. And later, I learned the pack leader felt responsible. He also pulled his people back, not wanting to be the cause of any more civilian deaths.”

The knowledge of this hits me hard. My family is the catalyst for the lines drawn through Pine Falls. The divide traces back to this event, the night my grandfather died on the wolves’ watch.