All Hallows' Moon Read Free

fruit in the orchard if you want to find me.”
    She left. Rylie sank to the bed and buried her face in her hands. The empty room felt like it was crowding in around her.
    Nothing had been the same since camp. After her first real change, Rylie had woken up to find herself naked in the forest with no company but the squirrels, who weren’t too keen on having her around, either. It wasn’t until a park ranger found her and dragged her back to civilization that Rylie learned she had lost two full weeks of her life.
    She still didn’t know what happened during that time. Rylie suspected she must have transformed again since the moon was waning when the ranger found her. She wasn’t sure if she had become human again between the moons or if she had been a wolf for weeks.
    They declared her healthy but dehydrated at the town hospital, where Jessica picked her up. The city was even worse after her change. Rylie barely tolerated three days in her mom’s condo before calling Aunt Gwyneth.
    She had been sure she could make it to the ranch before changing again, even if she hitchhiked. But obviously she hadn’t.
    Rylie remembered riding with the trucker. She also remembered waking up with the cows.
    But between that... nothing.
    Was this her life now? A series of moments between blackouts? Rylie had floated through the last month in a dreamlike haze. The entire summer felt like a nightmare. Her dad’s death, almost getting mugged, Jericho and Cassidy’s attack on the camp, Seth...
    No, not Seth. He could never be a nightmare.
    The last time she remembered seeing him, he had been dragged off by the werewolf who changed her. When she woke up in the forest two weeks later, all traces of him were gone. She still didn’t know if he was dead or not.
    Rylie studied the corkboard. It must have been left by the previous owners, since her aunt wasn’t an artist and several pencil sketches had been pinned to its surface. They illustrated the house and the fields around it, including stables and a little pond. Boring. Safe. Ordinary. Three qualities Rylie’s life would never again possess.
    She ripped down the pictures and stuffed them under the bed.

     
    One minute, Rylie drifted in a dreamless haze, caught in the confusing place between asleep and awake. The next minute, her bedroom door slammed open and her room was flooded in light.
    She almost fell onto the floor. Rylie had her hackles up until she recognized her aunt’s silhouette. “Get out of bed!” Gwyn ordered, jerking the sheets off her bed.
    Swallowing a growl, Rylie glanced at her fingers—which were tipped with fingernails, not claws—and she squinted through the light at her aunt. She was already in Carhartts, work boots, and a sweater.
    “What time is it?”
    “It’s time to do chores. Why aren’t you getting dressed? I told you to get up!”
    The sun wasn’t even coming through the windows yet. Rylie rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “I thought I was going to school today.”
    That cruel grin winked at the corner of Gwyn’s mouth. “You are.”
    “Uh,” Rylie said. She couldn’t think of a better response.
    Aunt Gwyn left her to dress, but she returned after about fifteen seconds. Rylie pulled a borrowed pair of jeans over her hips and tried to get the belt tight enough to keep them above her underwear. Her aunt was muscular and much bulkier than she was.
    Gwyn carried a huge bag of feed over her shoulder, and she looked annoyed to see her niece half-dressed. “You might want a shirt before we start working.”
    “I’m not done getting dressed!”
    “Too bad. Move it!”
    She pulled a sweater over her head as she stumbled out the back door. Static made Rylie’s hair stick straight up. Even with a heavy bag of feed over her shoulder, Aunt Gwyn’s stride was twice as long as hers, and she swept through the garden toward the chicken coop. The sky was black and the soil was sodden with dew.
    Stuffing her foot into one oversized boot, then the next, she