IN THE FULL MOON

chapter 16

I didn't believe what I had just seen.

Brandon turning into a werewolf? In the back of

my mind, I kept thinking about the kiss. But how

could that turn him into a werewolf? When he

heroically saved me from the pack of wolves and

was bitten, it was a full moon. But it couldn't

be.... There had to be some rational explanation .

Every magician had a secret , and Brandon must

have had one, too.

Or perhaps I was dreaming.

I wasn't about to remain alone in the woods,

in a dream or not, on the lonely hilltop by his

house.

I grabbed Brandon's shirt and darted out of

the woods. I ran as fast as I could to my car. I

didn't look back until I was safely locked inside.

If this were truly a dream, then I wouldn't

have Brandon's shirt when I woke up in the

morning. Unfortunately, that meant our magical

kiss would have been a fantasy, too.

I was too shaken up to return to the

basketball game. No amount of gossip or giggles

with the girls could take my mind off of what I'd

just witnessed or distract me from the most

passionate kiss I'd ever had.

I managed to pull out of Brandon's driveway

and onto the narrow road. With every turn and

flash of my headlights in the lonely woods, I was

terrified that some creature would jump out of the

trees.

I tried to breathe slowly as I drove,

convincing myself there had to be a rational

explanation. It wasn't that Brandon had changed

- it was me. The shadows of the moonlight

distorted my view of his normally good-looking

features and transformed them into wildly

animalistic ones. Before we'd kissed, I'd

distracted myself with thoughts of Dr. Meadows's

prediction - Beware of a kiss under the full moon.

It will change your life forever - and it toyed with

my mind. And the other explanation - I'd been

studying werewolves and it plagued my thoughts.

How could I have seen him any other way? I'd

been eating and breathing werewolf folklore, so it

was only natural for it to have infiltrated my

mind. The moon was full, we were in a darkened

wood where wolves can lurk, and Brandon had