twig. I shrieked and dropped to the ground, my vision blurring from the pain.
 
 When I opened my eyes, the moon was no longer visible through the
 
 trees. My body felt broken and wasted, like I’d been beaten to a pulp. I rolled
 
 onto my hands and knees, panting as sweat poured down my forehead,
 
 stinging my eyes.
 
 Everything was wrong.
 
 I’d seen werewolves transform. It happened in seconds, not minutes or
 
 hours. Had those bastards turned me into a freakish aberration? A half-human
 
 science experiment doomed to tear itself apart and die?
 
 Agony struck again, and my back arched as my insides rearranged
 
 themselves, my ribs popping. A scream tore from my throat, stealing all the
 
 air from my lungs. Then the bones in my fingers cracked and shortened. My
 
 wrists couldn’t bear my weight, so I rolled onto my side, wincing at the stabs
 
 in my chest.
 
 Another snap, this time my thigh bone. And then the other one. I cried
 
 out, my voice sounding distant and feral. The pain was too much. My knees
 
 were next, and then my ankles. I didn’t have the strength to scream, so I
 
 whimpered, my tears soaking the ground beneath me. Through my streaming
 
 eyes, I saw that my legs were twisted and covered in fur. My body quaked
 
 with fear and pain.
 
 What had I become?
 
 12
 
 Jaxson
 
 “What are you going to do about Savannah?” Sam asked as she crossed
 
 her arms and leaned back against the railing of Eclipse’s rooftop terrace.
 
 That was the question on all of our minds.
 
 Savannah was confounding. Too independent to do as she was told, and
 
 too mistrustful to let us protect her.
 
 When this had started, I’d thought that she was just an unlucky woman
 
 who’d gotten wrapped up in our business. Now it seemed the opposite had