a coming to the rescue,” Gia shrieks in that ann

nd I’m momentarily distracted from sniffin

to chatter. Instead of trying to find out which one of the standby male wolves rang me up and told me to fetch m

d at her for making me do this shit on my birthday. Meanwhile, Cora is in silent mode,

up by your weave, Gia,” I

o, no, grandma. Go away. J

nd my neck. “I don’t give a shit who Jay is, but we need to get the hell o

e girl,” she sing-songs. She leans heavily agains

eat of my dad’s late-model

um, you have mi

car window, calling after

belongs to my dad, on the right. My traitorous wolf half bursts into guffaws inside my head. I curse myself for

er and she looks up instantly.

e to want fu- somebody since Jem won’t have sex with me? I want to fu—” She

omeone you don’t care about, you’ll mess your life up and lose the love you’ve been fighting for. If

ings her arms around me and squeezes m

with disgust. “Ug

remind you of this when you’re sober.” I say it

s I was about to get behind the steering wheel, I remember the other people ther

g their inebriated butts tha

. I end up going back to the group of kids, only to be ensnared by that scent once more. I rub

se shut to block out the potent scent and

I search their faces one by one, from the one dude leaning against his car to the other three next to him. Wait a minute, these are the same dudes I saw at the mall the other

d but from Alera yipping matematematemate. Body heat flows through me, heating me up, spreading to eve

ith a cartoon mallet. Our eyes meet and hold. Alera jumps around in excitemen

n forest, don’t stray from mine. Once again, I’m s

he metaphysical connection that will join us together for all time. My soul thrums like a tuning fork because I know this male is my divinely assigned perfect half, chosen for me by the moon goddess as m

we’d embrace like we mean to absorb each other and kiss nasty. With tongue. Lots of tongue. Then we’d never ever leave one another’s side and die next to each other. That’s what Alera is feeling, b

d it happen to people. I’ve seen complete strangers lock eyes with each other from across the room and

around him. Sniff him. Kiss him. That’s what my body wants me to do, to

looking at me, as if daring

’s ridiculous because I don’t even know him. I don’t even remember his name. And his girlfriend