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out to the barn. He didn’t feel comfortable living in the house any longer. And he never went back to school after that. As much as he loved learning, the price he paid simply wasn’t worth it.
    A few weeks later, he went to live with Eli and Amy. He didn’t return to school, though; he wasn’t strong enough to take the chance that he’d be rejected again. Amy enrolled him in a correspondence course, and he was able to get his high school diploma, but he never felt as though he measured up in his father’s eyes.
    When he was eighteen, Owen’s brother married his high-school sweetheart, and then promptly joined the Army and departed for Germany. Harlan was killed there ten months later in a bar fight that erupted over the favors of a prostitute. Owen returned home for the funeral, and his mother begged him to stay. Unable to turn away from her in the midst of her anguish, he did as she wanted. He slept in the barn, unwilling to give an inch to his father, who didn’t bother to hide his disgust at Owen’s presence.
    A few weeks later, their father dropped dead from a heart attack. The blows, coming in quick succession as they did, took a toll on Lucy’s health. She was never the same after that. After she was diagnosed with a heart condition, Owen reluctantly moved back into the house to help take care of her. Lucy went downhill quickly, suffering a series of heart attacks in just a few months. She knew she was dying, as much as Owen tried to convince her, and himself, she wasn’t.
    Many times, she’d tried to get him to promise her that he wouldn’t seclude himself after she was gone. “Darling boy, I can’t hold on much longer, and I worry about you so. Don’t stay up here on this mountain alone. Don’t punish yourself for what you are. Promise me, Owen. Promise me you’ll live. Find a woman to love and love her well. Let her love you.”
    Until that point, Owen had never lied to his mother, but he couldn’t promise what she was asking. He knew that once she was gone, he’d hole up in the house and become a recluse. It was the life he’d led since that fateful Christmas, and even if lonely at times, it was the life he was comfortable with. Regardless, he nodded, gruffly promising to live even though he knew he wouldn’t follow through with her wishes.
    Now, years after he’d learned the truth about himself, he was alone. If he longed for more from time to time, he told himself sternly that such a life was not for him, that he was comfortable in his solitude. If he needed a reminder, all he had to do was change into his natural beast, the menacing wolf, and look at himself in a mirror. No, he’d never subject a woman to his beastliness, and he certainly wouldn’t pass his condition on to his children. Owen was barely able to accept himself for what he was, and he wasn’t about to let himself be vulnerable enough to let anyone else know the truth.

Chapter Four

    S ARAH’S LEGS TREMBLED SO MUCH that she staggered as she tried to get home. Trying to keep from crying, she bit her lip hard enough to taste blood. She was hard-pressed to say what had shaken her most: that she’d almost been killed by a rattlesnake, that she’d watched that snake be torn to bits, or that she’d been saved by a wolf.
    When she reached the edge of the woods, she saw her father working in the garden. With a sob, she hurried toward him. “Daddy!”
    Her father looked up, alarm crossing his face. “Sarah? What’s wrong?” He dropped the hoe and hurried to meet her.
    Sarah’s legs finally gave out as he reached her, and she fell into his arms. She heard her mother call from the back porch, but couldn’t understand the words through her tears.
    “Honey? What’s wrong? What happened?” Ira asked again.
    “S-s-snake,” Sarah managed.
    He pulled back and started checking her limbs as her mother rushed over.
    “Did you get bit?”
    Sarah shook her head. “No. Oh, God. It was awful.”
    Ira pulled a handkerchief out of