1. Radley

The night is dark, with the fog hiding the moonlight.

So, why am I walking through the forest in the middle of the night, especially since it looks like something out of a scary movie? Your guess is as good as mine.

I keep seeing red eyes and sharp teeth in my dreams. Somehow, I feel like they're calling out to me. Put all that together with this scary-as-hell night, and it makes me a complete idiot. But I need to know why I feel such a pull to find them.

I push my way past a low-hanging branch and finally break out into a clearing. I can see a cabin in the distance, and I frown, looking around trying to get my bearings. Why am I at my grandma's house?

"Radley." My name breaks through the fog like a whisper, and my heart rate spikes. What the hell was that? That wasn't my grandma.

I'm about to turn around and run when I hear a twig snap behind me. That kicks my ass into gear, and I take off running toward the cabin. It feels like it's taking me forever, and when I feel like I'm finally getting close, it's still in the same spot like I never moved.

"Radley." I hear my name again, and this time, it's distinctly masculine with a slight rasp. I can feel the fear race down my spine, making the hair on my arms stand up. That was really fucking close to my ear. "Don't be afraid, Little Red."

"Who's there?" I ask, my voice tight. I stop running and spin around, only to realize I'm still at the beginning of the clearing.

"The big bad wolf," the raspy voice answers, and I hear several laughs echo around me. Oh my God. Is there more than one? "We don't bite."

"Hard," another voice answers. This voice is deep and dark.

When I hear rustling behind me, I take off running again. This time, I'm able to make it to the front porch and bust into the house. "Grandma!" I yell, shutting and locking the door behind me. "Grandma!" I call again when she doesn't answer. I desperately search through the house and start to panic when I can't find her. "What the fuck?" I whisper, edging toward hysteria. Did they hurt her?

I push my long red hair back from my face and take a deep breath, trying to think logically. Grandma could have decided to stay with her sister in the city and forgot to tell anyone. She's been known to do it, so it's not completely out of the question. But what the hell was in the woods? Were my dreams making me imagine stuff now? I've always had very vivid dreams, making it hard to tell what was real and what wasn't.

My parents sent me to several shrinks, not willing to accept what my grandma always said. "What we see while we sleep will come to light while awake, Radley." I never believed her until now.

I make my way back through the house to the little bedroom I stay in while I'm here. There's no damn way I'm going back out there to go home, at least not until morning. I always keep essentials here in case she asks me to stay, so I change into an oversized T-shirt and shorts. Before I go to bed, I check every lock on the windows and double-check that the doors are locked.

When I slide under the covers, I can still hear those voices in my head. There were at least two, but it felt like there were more. They felt like they surrounded me. "Stupid," I mutter, pulling the blanket to my chin. I had no business coming out here in the middle of the night. Creepy voices aside, wild animals roam this area and have been known to attack unprovoked. My grandma is going to give me an epic lecture when she finds out. My nerves finally start to settle at my grandma's familiar scent, and so I roll over on my side.

Only to see two red eyes staring back at me.

I sit up in bed with a gasp and wildly look around, only to find myself in my bed, not at my grandma's.

What the hell was that dream? You can drive straight to Grandma's, so why the hell was I walking in the woods in the middle of the night? I need answers, and the only person willing to talk about it is Grandma, so I swing my legs over the side of the bed and head to the bathroom in the hallway of my small apartment.

I turn the shower on so the water can warm up and go back to the sink to brush my teeth. I'm mid-brush when I notice what I'm wearing. The oversized band T-shirt that I stole from an ex and black shorts. The same pajamas that I keep at Grandma's. I've never brought them home because she washes them for me after I stay.

I rush through the rest of my morning routine and shower. Twenty minutes later, I'm pulling into her driveway. I get out of the car and look around, but everything looks the same. I see the clearing that I came out of in my dream, and that fear I felt comes back.

Swallowing past the lump in my throat, I walk slowly toward her house, keeping an ear out for anything unusual. When I finally push the front door open, I take a deep breath. "Grandma!" I call out.

"In the kitchen!" she answers. I was half expecting complete silence. I walk that way and find her at the counter, making her famous bread. She turns around when I approach and gives me a kiss on the cheek. "You haven't been sleeping." Leave it to her to call me out.

I flop down at the kitchen table with a groan. "I've been having dreams again."

"Which one?" she asks carefully, turning back to her task.

"The one with the eyes, but this one was…different."

"Different, how?"

Normally, I just see the eyes and teeth in random places—the grocery store, my horrible job at the diner, or on my way home. I've never sought them out. So, I give her the condensed version, and by the time I'm finished, she's completely still. "Are you okay?" I ask.

Grandma finishes kneading the dough and lays a towel over it so it will rise. She quickly washes her hands, all without looking at me. When she finally does, her eyes are tight with worry. "Radley. I don't think these are dreams."

I'm half tempted to roll my eyes like I normally do, but this dream felt real—more so than any of the others. "What are you saying?"

"I stayed at your Aunt Darlene's last night. I came back early this morning." My stomach bottoms out, and I feel like I can't breathe. "There's more." She rushes over to the table, sits in front of me, and grabs my hands. "I noticed some things out of place. Like your bed was slept in."

It's on the tip of my tongue to tell her about the pajamas, but it feels like saying it out loud will make it completely true. "What else?"

"There were these…prints around the outside of the cabin. I followed them, and they were all around it. Several different ones."

"What kind of prints?" My voice is barely above a whisper because I already know what she's going to say.

"Wolf prints. Large ones."

"The big bad wolf."

Those laughs echo through my head, and I clutch Grandma's hand tighter. "Radley. I need you to tell me everything." I fill in the blanks, and she nods even as her face starts to pale. "It's time."

She pats my hand, stands up, and disappears into the living room. I scramble after her and find her pulling a book from the bookshelf. It looks old and like it could fall apart at any second. "What's going on?"

"Sit." She points to the couch, and I sit without question. She sits beside me, with the book balanced in her lap. "There have been rumors surrounding our town for centuries. But I haven't heard anything for many years."

"What rumors?"

She takes a shaky breath and opens the book, flipping through the pages. "I didn't think anything of it when you first started talking about the red eyes and sharp teeth from your dreams. But I should have looked closer since you started having these dreams as a child."

"I don't remember that."

"Your mother made sure that you didn't, and she wouldn't let me feed your imagination. Her words, not mine. Your mother never had the gift."

"Grandma. You're confusing me."

"Some of the Baxter women have been known to be clairvoyant. The things that we saw in our dreams sometimes came to life. Your mother never experienced it. Almost like it skipped her generation."

"Wait. Are you saying we're psychic?" She hears my doubtful tone and gives me a hard look.

"Not psychics. I know you've never wanted to believe me, Radley, but now you need to." She sits the book in my lap and points to a picture of a man with fangs and bright red eyes.

"What is that?" I squeak, feeling fear settle over me like a blanket. She points to a picture on the next page. This time, the fangs and bright red eyes are on a giant wolf.

"The rumors are that there are people who have the ability to shapeshift. That humans turn into a different species."

I swallow the bile rising in my throat, unable to look away from the man and beast. "What species?"

"Wolves."