New Moon Summer (Seasons of the Moon) Read Online Free

headed toward the barn.
    She ducked her head and didn’t look at him.
    The silver bullet sat next to her lamp as she wrote.
     
    Dear Seth,
    Hard to believe the end of the school year is already here. Finals made the last couple of weeks fly past.
    It’s always kind of bittersweet when summer comes around: on one hand, I’m deliriously happy, because it means I get to see you; on the other hand, knowing that I’m leaving all my friends and teachers for a few months is sad, too.
    Now there’s an added dose of melancholy when I walk the halls of our high school. It’s been empty without you for two years, but it was something we had shared together. Being there made it easy to retreat into thoughts of you and your arms around me.
    But once the bell rings on the last day, that’s it. I’m never going back. A chapter of my life is ending and I don’t think I’m ready for it.
    There’s so much I’m leaving behind. Memories of being friends with people like Tate—I still miss him, even if I still can’t meet his eyes after what happened to his mom. Watching you at football games. Studying together in the library.
    I worked so hard to finish high school. I had to make a lot of sacrifices.
    I should be happy, right?
     
    Rylie hesitated, pen hovering over the page. She bit her bottom lip.
    She didn’t want to worry him with the bullet yet—there was no way to know who had sent it anyway. But a million other things were on her mind, and didn’t know how to approach those, either. The werewolf that didn’t show up at the airport. Gwyn’s worrying secrecy.
    And worst of all, The Abel Thing.
    What could she say about that? “Hey Seth, I’ve been having funny feelings for your brother lately. My wolf wants to rub him. What do you think I should do about that?”
    Yeah, right.
    She sighed and propped her chin on her hand. Abel was gathering the rest of the werewolves at the bottom of the hill. They were knee-deep in long grass, and butterflies and bees flitted through the air around them.
    Rylie had worked at his side enough that she could imagine the way the summer heat would make his sweat glisten on his shoulders, the smell of his perspiration, the pleasant baritone thrum of his voice.
    As she watched, he stripped off his shirt and tossed it onto the rocks by the pond.
    Her cheeks heated. She turned back to finish the letter.
     
    I miss you. Come back soon. Please.
    All my love,
    Rylie
     
    She folded the paper, stuck it in an envelope, and took it down to the mailbox.

F IVE
    Changing
    Twenty werewolves.
    The number went up and down as months passed. The previous summer, there had been thirty at the sanctuary; over Christmas, it had been only a dozen. But twenty was what they had on the night of the new moon.
    The werewolves were volunteers, not prisoners. They were strongly encouraged to spend every moon at the ranch, and many of them did. But they had jobs, families, friends—lives that they couldn’t all leave.
    Twenty werewolves meant a lot of families missing their daughters, fathers, and brothers.
    There was nobody to miss Abel. He hadn’t spent a single moon away from the sanctuary since they opened it.
    Bekah and Levi had already stripped naked and waited by the pond, talking quietly about mundane things. A couple of others began to follow suit, but most people stayed dressed until their changing forms ripped through their clothing. It was hard to let go of human modesty.
    Abel would have stripped too, but it embarrassed Rylie. Instead, he waited with her on the back porch of the ranch house wearing nothing but sweatpants.
    Rylie surveyed her pack from the back porch of the ranch, hands gripping the wood railing.
    Everyone was spread over the hill. Watching her. Waiting.
    She drew in a breath and let it out slowly. From a few steps away, Abel watched her shoulders rise and fall under the straps of a white linen dress. The gown was laced together with loose threads that would fall apart when she shifted.