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stood up, wrapping her arms around herself, and turned toward her bedroom.
    “Elle, I can’t say how nice it is to have someone be so great without knowing me. But I’m going to leave Echo Falls as soon as I can get everything packed. I have to keep moving.”
    Elle smiled. “He said you’d say something like that.”
    She turned around. “Who?”
    “Aidan.” Before she could say anything, Elle held up her hand. “He’s not a bad guy; he just wants to make sure you’re okay.”
    She frowned. “He spends a lot of time making sure I’m okay.”
    “He should.” She stood up. “Your back is bleeding.”
    “What?”
    She moved over to Phoebe and gently turned her around to examine her shoulder. “I’ll make you a deal. I help you take care of your back, and you come shopping with me after.”
    She looked back over her shoulder, trying to get a glimpse of the bleeding. Treating your own back wounds lead to only halfway decent bandaging and a lot of frustration – not to mention pain. Shopping seemed like an arrogant show of confidence considering the murders and the attack.
    “And I promise: no talk about the murders or the attack.”
    “Or anything paranormal.”
    Elle froze for a moment, her eyes wide. Then she swallowed and nodded. “Or anything paranormal.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

    Aidan flipped through the files of the murder victims again. The corners of the pages were creased and dirty from all the times he’d flipped back and forth between them. Though this time he couldn’t seem to focus on any of it. He sat at Sophie’s in the back corner booth with the files spread in front of him, a mug of coffee in his right hand and Phoebe’s business card in his left hand.
    Maybe I’ll see you before I leave. Phoebe’s voice chimed in his head, the mystery of her a lot more appealing than murders that had no new leads.
    Something about her still didn’t add up.
    Echo Falls didn’t see a lot of werewolves turned by bites. Though the city had quite a lot of people, their pack had always been large, tightly linked and respected. Only outsiders ever ‘infected’ others, and many more wolves wandered in already turned. Still, he’d been able to be there for a few recently turned. He’d spent the time with them to answer the questions they always had.
    “Do I have to change every full moon?”
    “Does it hurt?”
    “How will I keep the secret?”
    “What if someone finds out?”
    “How do I tell my boyfriend… girlfriend… best friend… parents…?”
    “Is there any way to reverse it?”
    They all had questions, and many of them had a lot of anger – anger they let loose on him until they learned to accept their new lot in life. He stayed with them on their first full moon when the confusion of having their physical body change into something so completely different threatened to overwhelm their minds. As the wolf threatened to overwhelm the human. The experience could be terrifying, but it could also be the most exhilarating experience they would ever know.
    After their first full moon, they had the choice to join the pack. So far most had joined, but if someone refused, he never tried to force him or her. An unwilling pack member would be a pack member who caused trouble.
    New pack members always welcomed his guiding presence as they learned to accept the wolf and the wolf accepted him as their alpha.
    But then there was Phoebe.
    Phoebe didn’t ask questions. She didn’t want his ‘guiding presence’. She didn’t appear to care at all that she’d been bitten by a supernatural creature that wasn’t supposed to exist and that the bite would transform her life. He couldn’t quite imagine her submitting to his authority as alpha, though he had to admit the idea appealed to him more than it should have. Her warm brown eyes staring up at him as he vowed to protect her in his position as leader and friend…
    He cleared his throat. She wanted nothing to do with it and he had to remember that. But