I’m not strong or smart, but I am fast. And somehow, I’m faster than I’ve ever been because my life depends on it. My family howls behind me, chasing me. I don’t want to know what’ll happen if they catch me. We can’t talk it out, not on a full moon. Our emotions are high, and right now mine are screaming GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE.

  So that’s what I’m doing. I’m running recklessly, carefully maintained trails be damned. I’m dodging roots and trees with perfect precision. I hear some of my family stumbling, and that pushes me to go faster. My muscles are twitchy with electricity from the lightning, and they’re responding to every dodge and leap I need.

  Still, I hear them at my heels, panting, growling, excited yips and barks. The terror is so palpable, I can taste it; it’s a sickly sour taste at the base of my tongue as I run for my life. I feel so sorry for every deer I’ve ever seen. I’m gonna become a vegetarian if I live through this.

  I rocket past the second safe house and some barks turn to alarm. I’m getting close to the edge of our territory. I can’t tell where I am and who I’m gonna piss off by doing this, but I can’t slow down to find out.

  “Stop!” Aunt Magnolia bellows. “Malia, stop!”

  Not falling for that. I keep running and running, my paws sore, my ribs aching with each breath, my heart screaming with effort.

  “Kudzu!” Fern screams as I leave the cover of the trees. Moonlight blasts on my fur from above, illuminating my one black paw as it stretches out before my eyes. “Don’t! You’re in the Bonecrusher’s territory!”

  I look up in horror. I am, oh goddess I am. I see the dying plants, the felled barbed wire, the ominous, decrepit three-story house in the distance. I skid to a stop, narrowly missing a string of sharp wire. I look back, gasping, and my family is crowded at the edge of the tree line, green and golden eyes glinting in the dark.

  “Get back here,” Uncle Alder commands.

  “Seems like…a bad idea,” I gasp between heavy breaths. Now that I’ve stopped, my body is shaking with adrenaline and leftover terror. My tail is tucked completely under my belly.

  “This is enough,” Aunt Poppy urges. “We can simply do exile.”

  “We weren’t just doing exile?!” My voice is high pitched with fear. My brain can’t keep up with this. I thought—I thought they were just chasing me away for now, and then we could talk. But if it’s not exile, then—

  Uncle Alder ignores me and speaks to Aunt Poppy. “And let your soft heart allow her back when I’m not looking?” Uncle Alder snarls at Aunt Poppy and snaps at her. She whines and backs away, her tail tucked too. He turns his malicious gaze to me. “We’ll have to risk the wrath of the Bonecrusher. This is a problem we can’t risk getting out of hand.”

  And Uncle Alder rushes out of the trees, fangs bared.

  “No, no, no—” My paws scramble for purchase on the grass as I resume my flight for my life. But I’m exhausted, and there are so many hazards around the filthy yard. I’m not paying attention to what’s in front of me, so I trip up wooden porch steps. I should have gone around the house, fled into unknown territory, but I’m at the front door. I look back at Uncle Alder with his fangs glinting in the moonlight, at the rest of my moon-drunk family, and Fern and Aunt Poppy watching in horror from the trees and I decide Uncle Alder’s right. I have to risk the wrath of the Bonecrusher.

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  “Help!!” I scream. I claw at the door, so frantic flakes of wood tear off into my claws. “Help me! Help me, he’s coming, help!!”

  My ears catch the sound of nails on the wooden porch, the harsh pant of my uncle. I scream one more time and tear a paw-sized hole in the door. I stick my snout into the hole and rip it open. I don’t even feel the pain, because my brain has no other thoughts except GET AWAY.

  But it’s too late. My whole head is inside the doorway, but my uncle’s teeth grab the scruff of my neck and yank me backward. I scream and he shakes me violently, the world tipping and jerking like I’m in an earthquake. My brain is so scared I can’t think, just HAVE TO GET AWAY but I’m trapped and my family’s coming and I’ll be ripped apart piece by piece—

  My uncle suddenly drops me. My head hits the ground with a horrible crack and I have to blink several times to comprehend what I’m seeing. Uncle Alder and the rest of my family backing away, whimpering and crying. I’m bathed in yellow light, not of the moon but…from inside the house. A human-shaped shadow looms over me. My muscles lock up in terror.

  The Bonecrusher.

  “Who the fuck is out here making all that racket?!” A woman’s voice screeches above my head. I’m too scared to look back. The Bonecrusher steps out and I hear a wet gasp.

  “My door! Who the—and a pack of stray dogs on my lawn? Oh, you fuckers are dead.”

  The Bonecrusher steps into my field of vision. I blink again, shocked. The Bonecrusher is…an old lady? She’s relatively short, but that could be because her posture is stooped with age. She has gorgeous, clear dark skin and tiny moles dot the space under her eyes. She’s wearing a tattered gray bathrobe, granny slippers, and a black silk cap. She’s also holding a wooden baseball bat. This woman has to be at least seventy years old. This is the monster everyone’s terrified of? Why were they scared of an old lady?

  But they are. I’ve never seen Uncle Alder cower to anyone, but he’s fully on his belly, ears back.

  “Mrs. Bonecrusher, ma’am,” he stammers. “I’m terribly sorry for trespassing, but we have a personal matter to deal with—”

  “Then you should have dealt with it in the woods. I thought the terms of our agreement were clear.” The Bonecrusher’s voice is lethal despite her age. She taps the head of the bat against her slipper. “Seems like you doggies need another lesson in boundaries.”

  “No, ma’am,” Aunt Magnolia hurries to say. “We just need to collect my niece and we’ll be on our way.”

  “You’ll be on your way right now if you know what’s good for ya.” The Bonecrusher reaches down and grabs my neck. Not by the scruff, but just her whole hand stretched around my neck. Her grip is an iron vise. She lifts me with one hand like I’m no heavier than a feather, and before I can register what’s happening, I’m dangling three feet off the ground. I glance at her out of the corner of my eye, muscles frozen in fear, and she meets my gaze. Her eyes are bright red.

  She’s not just an old lady.

  “You the one who destroyed my door?” She shakes me when I don’t answer. “Huh? Speak up, I can’t hear worth a damn.”

  “Yes,” I squeak. “I-I’m sorry.”

  “You better be more than sorry. Who’s gonna fix this shit? It ain’t me.”

  I don’t say anything. I think I’m dissociating. I can’t be being manhandled by a stupidly strong old lady in a bathrobe like a stray kitten. My brain can’t comprehend it.

  “You fucks get off of my property before I skin you alive,” the Bonecrusher snarls at my family. The moonlight glints off a gold tooth. No—a fang. She looks at me. “And this fuck is staying with me. You can have her back after my door is fixed.”

  “But—”

  It happens so fast, I barely see it. One second, the Bonecrusher is holding the bat, and the next, it’s whizzing through the air at high speed. It crashes next to Uncle Alder’s foot and explodes into wooden shrapnel on impact. He yelps and high tails it away, back toward home. The rest of the family follows. No one looks back except for Fern. She meets my eyes, hers devastated, but turns and joins the rest of the family. I watch them disappear into the trees.

  The Bonecrusher drops me unceremoniously onto her porch. I yelp in surprise and she shuffles toward the doorway, stifling a yawn. Sharp fangs shine in the moonlight. “Come on, pup, I ain’t got all night. Can’t believe I still gotta break up dog fights. Unbelievable.”

  I watch her go inside the ancient, rotting house. I look over my shoulder, at where my family disappeared. And I limp after the Bonecrusher into her home.