[BOOK ONE] When hunter-gatherer Adele Shepherd comes across an injured werewolf in the woods, it's up to her to take him in and save his life: in a remote town dedicated to killing the creatures, she's the only one left who wants to help no matter t...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
________________________
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
________________________
WHEN THE SKY darkened and the streetlights flickered on, the upbeat Christmas soundtrack was exchanged for a playlist of coffeehouse songs, gentle acoustic tunes filling the café. The soft strum of a guitar filled the air along with the tantalising smell of coffee and pastries, the sound of mothers and their children unwinding with a treat after a long day at school. The windows were decorated with festive decals, stickers of Christmas trees and reindeer on the glass that was sprayed with fake snow; baubles hung from the lights and an artificial tree stood in the corner dripping tinsel and plastic ornaments.
The song changed. A melodic voice filled the air and Adele idly listened to the music as she sipped her second drink. A flat white this time: she needed the caffeine, exhaustion rolling through her after an intense few days, but she wasn't sure the energy buzz would help much with the short circuit in her brain. She was too close to the situation, struggling to look at the facts from an objective point of view. It didn't help that no matter her perspective, she couldn't get her head around anything at all.
For a full hour, she had sunk into a deep state of contemplation, turning over in her mind everything she had learnt and everything she already knew, but she couldn't get the facts to add up in a neat stack that she could tie a bow around. There were too many pieces of the puzzle still missing and she couldn't even tell where they were supposed to go, let alone what they were.
"I don't get it," she said at last.
"What?" Caleb asked, his attention momentarily torn away from his second hot chocolate.
"Why Nana would suddenly want to forget about Katherine. You said maybe it was her who needed to forget but I don't understand why." She made an effort to lift the frown from her features but that was impossible: it was deeply engrained by now, set into her forehead.
"I don't know," Caleb said. "I'm just trying to help but I don't capisce any of this."
"Me neither," Ainslie murmured. "It's weird. I mean, I know it makes sense that Katherine disappears so she stops writing about her, but she went from being in virtually every chapter to completely vanishing from your nana's notes. That just seems weird."
