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Back The First and The Last Save as PDF
Chapters (25)
  1. The First and The Last
  2. 1. One
  3. 2. Two
  4. 3. Three
  5. 4. Four
  6. 5. Five
  7. 6. Six
  8. 7. Seven
  9. AFTERWARD
  10. 9. Nine
  11. 10. Ten
  12. 11. Eleven
  13. 12. Twelve
  14. 13. Thirteen
  15. 14. Fourteen
  16. 15. Fifteen
  17. 16. Sixteen
  18. 17. Seventeen
  19. 18. Eighteen
  20. 19. Nineteen
  21. 20. Twenty
  22. 21. Twenty One
  23. AFTERWORD
  24. ABOUT THE FIRST AND THE LAST
  25. A LITTLE ABOUT ME

When it was late and we were sure the pack was running deep in the forest, we made our way home, picking our steps carefully in the dim light of the moon.

“Hey, big boy,” Jules said, cocking his head to the side and giving me a lopsided grin. “I bet I’m still faster than you.”

He was. He took off up the hill and I couldn’t get close to him. I lost him completely. I was standing on my own in the dark at the top of the hill, searching the bushes for his silhouette, looking around with no idea where he was. He came out of nowhere, growling and snarling like a rabid dog, and tackled me down to the ground. I laughed helplessly as I fell. I struggled and wrestled against him, giggling like I always did when he got hold of my wrists and pinned me down. It was nothing new. It was something that had happened more times than I could count. It was just that that time, for the first time, I let him win.

4. Four

4

As we walked to school on the first day of the year, I pumped Jules for more information on the Cedar Key pack. I was obsessed with understanding the differences between our pack and theirs. Jules had only been back for a few days, but we were already at the stage where he was having to re-tell me some of the details.

“So, how old did you say they are when they first shift?” I asked.

“I told you, they’re like seventeen or eighteen.”

That blew my mind. In our pack we were at least twenty before we shifted for the first time. “God, that’s our age. Can you imagine if that was us? We’d be fixing to shift any day now. Can you imagine? Imagine wolfing out in the middle of math class? How do they handle that?”

“I asked Auggie about that. He said it isn’t a problem. They teach their kids about shifting as soon as they can talk, and apparently that makes it easier for them to control it.”

That gave me pause. I was curious by nature. Being in a pack that relished mystery had always been hard for me to swallow, but as I got older, it was getting harder and harder. “What do you think? Which way is better?”

“I don’t know. I mean, obviously, it would be nice to know. It sucks to know that we’re part of something so awesome, and that we have something so big coming our way, yet we have no idea what it will be like. At the same time, Dalton’s right. I mean, when isn’t he? It really is the biggest and best surprise of our lives and why would we want to ruin that?”