“Or you?” he said, concerned.

Our foreheads touched and our arms wrapped around each other’s neck.

“It’s okay, Celeste,” he said. “Either way, I love you.”

I looked up at him again and paused as if I’d just frozen in the snow. The woods were eerily quiet. “What did you say?” I asked again, wondering if I had heard Brandon correctly.

He stared down at me. His intensely alluring gray eyes burned through me like ice. His wildly savage hair rested softly on his shoulders. His goateed face was unbelievably handsome, and his lips were magnetic.

“I love you,” he said.

His words sent fiery tingles dancing down my spine. I wasn’t sure if I’d just gone to heaven.

“I love you, too,” I said. It was like a huge weight had lifted from me. He smiled a brilliant smile.

Brandon cupped my face in his maimed hand. We gazed at each other. Our connection was hypnotic. I was irresistibly drawn to him.

I had to kiss Brandon because I knew that if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to breathe. I’d never loved someone or something as much as I did him, and I knew at that moment I had to let him know how much.

“I want to kiss you. Now. But I’m afraid of hurting you more—”

“You don’t have to be afraid,” he said. “I’m already a werewolf. What could be worse?” He finally took me into his arms and did what I’d been waiting for him to do since I first saw him standing by the tree in the woods. He leaned into me and kissed me with such desire and intensity it was like nothing I’d ever experienced.

His lips were full and tender. The kiss was electric, seductively shocking. My whole body was electrified as tingles ran down my flesh and inside my veins.

We broke away and I melted into his embrace. I gazed up and saw the full moon above me. Then Brandon noticed it, too.

He hid me from the moonlight and checked my hands and face.

“What have I done?” he asked. “I’ll never forgive myself!”

“But I haven’t been bitten. Maybe nothing will happen to me. I’m more afraid for you,” I said.

He held me in his arms again. It was the most magical kiss of my life, and I was still hoping for more.

I didn’t know if there would be consequences for not heeding Dr. Meadows’s warning. But for now, there were more hazards in not kissing this guy, this werewolf, the love of my life.

I was afraid to sleep. I dreaded waking up the next day with a beard and hairy legs. On Brandon, the werewolf traits were powerful and alluring. But I couldn’t imagine them being so attractive on a girl. My fate would be I’d end up traveling with a circus.

I lay awake all night long. Replaying in my mind was the kiss on the lips of a werewolf. When would we know the effects of that kiss? Did I have to wait for a full moon to turn or just any moon? Or would it be the end of Brandon?

The next day Brandon wasn’t in school. I waited all day, hoping at any moment he’d walk through the classroom door, I’d spot him in the hallway, or he’d show up in the cafeteria. But I knew better, and my stomach was filled with anxiety. I’d once again caused unlikely events to unfold, the effects at this point unknown. I’d defied once again Dr. Meadows’s warning. This could only mean one thing — trouble.

Nash and Ivy were concerned with my being distracted.

“Why are you so miserable?” Ivy asked. “You didn’t even eat your lunch.”

I was worried sick.

“I think I should keep an eye on you,” Nash said. “You aren’t yourself.” He did his best to follow me around school, but no amount of silly jokes could break my distressed mood.

I was so afraid I’d hurt Brandon by our kiss underneath the full moon. I could think of nothing else.

The sun hovered over the treetops as I raced to Brandon’s house. I called out his name and searched his small guesthouse, but I didn’t hear or discover him. Then I headed for his hilltop. I couldn’t wait to see him again.

I stepped over trees and trudged through the snow.

“Brandon,” I called. “Brandon! Where are you?” My heart was aching. Where had Brandon gone? I feared that there were consequences to our kiss — and since nothing had happened to me, surely something had happened to him. Was he hurt, or worse? I couldn’t bear to think about it any longer.

Suddenly a figure stepped out from behind a tree.

“Brandon?” I froze.

But was this the same Brandon I’d kissed the night before? Or was I being met by a menacing werewolf? Maybe it was foolish or even unsafe of me to have come here without knowing.

“Brandon?” I asked again, breathless.

“I still can’t believe it,” he said. He stepped out of the shadows in his handsome human form, but I still wasn’t sure if it was safe to approach him.

“Believe what?”

He took my hands in his. His fingers were cold, but he seemed somehow refreshed and happier than I’d ever seen him.

“I told you something last night,” he said. “Do you remember?”

“Yes,” I said.

“But more important you told me something.”

“Yes.”

“Something that comes from the heart? That only real lovers say?”

I nodded exuberantly.

“Then it’s true,” he said, and gave me a hug. “This time it wasn’t a dream I could barely remember.”

“You remember?”

“Everything!” he said.

“I remember everything from the first night I was turned,” he said, ecstatic. “I remember our first official date, with the snow glistening in your hair and Champ and the wolves playing together. I remember wanting to kiss you every time I saw you and how it took all my strength not to.

“And most important, Celeste, I remember the words you told me last night and the best kiss of my life.”

We hugged and laughed and kissed.

“Then why would Dr. Meadows warn me against it?” I asked.

Brandon thought for a moment. “There was something magical about that kiss. That you cared for me in werewolf form… it brought my two worlds together. I’m sure there are some werewolves who don’t want to remember anything that happens in the moonlight,” he said with conviction. “But I’m not one of those.”

We heard a car pulling into Brandon’s drive in the distance.

“I guess my grandparents are home,” he said.

Then Brandon ignored the car and kissed me. “I’m so glad I can remember,” he said. “Because you are too good to forget.”

We kissed again, and within a few moments the sun had set behind us. I heard a rustling in the woods. I thought I saw a pair of eyes watching us. “I think a wolf is following us,” I said.

Brandon perked up. “It’s not a wolf. I think there’s someone watching us,” he said, concerned.

“Then we’ll leave,” I said. But it was too late. I saw an odd look in Brandon’s eyes.

“I’m burning up,” he said.

“No—” I cried. “Not now. What if it’s your grandparents?”

I gazed back into the woods, hoping I’d see who or what was staring at us.

“It can’t be them,” Brandon said, frazzled. “They would have said something by now.” He retreated deeper into the woods. “I’m changing.”

“You can’t — not if someone’s out there!” I warned. I trailed Brandon farther into the brush. But Brandon was already taking off his jersey.

I heard branches cracking as if someone was following us.

I tried to hide Brandon behind a tree when I heard a branch snap a few yards away.

“Please,” I begged Brandon, who was wincing in discomfort. “Not now!”

Brandon’s eyes had turned red.