“Thanks, Mom.”

“Love you, baby.”

“Love you, too.”

She opens the door for me, then closes it behind me, giving me my moment alone.

I sit on the steps and take a drag. My gaze follows my exhale across the yard and out to the street. Across the street.

Where there’s a car parked.

Ian’s car.

Only he’s not in it.

Because he’s coming up the driveway. Smoking a cigarette. He’s in the same clothes as yesterday. He’s got his head down, but I can see that his glasses are broken. There’s a crack in one of the lenses.

I stand up. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he says. He doesn’t make eye contact.

“I was looking for you,” I tell him. “I went everywhere. I’m glad you’re okay. You are okay, right? Are you okay?”

“I’ve been driving around, looking for you,” he says, his voice so low, I can barely hear him.

“You . . . you want to go for a walk?” I ask. “I’m not . . . It’s not a full moon. So . . .”

“Uh, yeah,” he says. “Okay.”

We walk along the sidewalk in complete silence for a few blocks.

“I would have called,” I say. “I didn’t have my phone.”

“It’s in my car.” He lights another cigarette. His hands are shaking.

“Look, I’ll just give you the out,” I say. “I understand. Nobody goes into a relationship thinking, ‘Hey, so what if they turn out to be a supernatural monster?’ So I just want you to know that if you don’t want to do this anymore, I get it. It’s not what you signed up for.”

“Signed up for?”

“I was planning on telling you,” I say. Now that I’ve started talking, I can’t seem to stop. “Well, not at first. That’s why I wasn’t being responsive. I thought maybe I’d just spare you, but then it was too hard for me to be away from you. It’s all new to me. I was back and then I saw you again and then I got bitten and then we kissed on Halloween and then I had my first full moon. And then—”

“Rory.”

“I’m trying to explain.”

He’s looking at me now. His eyes are bloodshot behind his glasses. “There’s no explaining. What happened last night, what I saw, there’s no explaining that. There’s no rational explanation.”

“I know there isn’t. I know that,” I say. “I know it makes no sense, Ian. But the logic doesn’t really matter. It’s real. It’s my reality. I have to live with it. And I don’t blame you if you don’t want to. Live with it. After last night, which, by the way, I’m really sorry about. I’ll pay for your glasses.”

“Let me just . . .” he starts. He takes a breath. “So you’re . . . ?”

“A werewolf.”

“Every-month-full-moon kind of deal?”

“Yep,” I say. “Every month, the night of the full moon. Yeah. Just that night.”

“I don’t . . . I can’t. I’m trying to . . .” He sighs.