Six Moon Summer by SM Reine Read Free Book Online Page B

boots and pushed a lock of hair behind her ear, trying to suppress a smile. “It sounds like you’re dodging the question to me.”
     
    “Maybe. They’re going to notice you’re gone soon, so you should go back. What are you doing after lights out on Thursday?”
     
    “Sleeping,” Rylie said.
     
    “Meet me down here,” Seth said. “I’ll see if I can get my hands on more books for you. There must be something we can do about this werewolf stuff. Sound good?”
     
    “Sure.” She felt light-headed. It wasn’t a date, but she couldn’t seem to convince her nerves of that. “I want to see the books myself. Will you bring them?”
     
    “I don’t think I can get them out.”
     
    “Then I’ll go to the library there,” Rylie said.
     
    His grin widened. “You’re more trouble than you look. Okay. We’ll go over together Thursday night.”
     
    Seth started to walk across the beach, but she called out to stop him. “You never told me why you’re helping me!”
     
    “I said I’m a crazy guy, didn’t I?” He laughed and broke into a jog.
     
    Rylie watched him disappear before returning the recreation hall, a persistent smile stuck to her face. Nobody noticed she didn’t have the same lanyards and milk carton candles as everyone else when they left.
     
    Amber and her vicious clique kept talking about her at dinner, but Rylie barely registered it. She didn’t care anymore. Her head was swimming with visions of Seth—their walk around the lake, his slanted smile, the way his muscles flexed when he skipped the rock across the water.
     
    He was cute. Very cute.
     
    But she was scared, too. She touched the faint ridges of scarring on her shoulders. Was she really going to become a monster?
     
    She was grateful to find the cabin empty when she got back that evening. Rylie wanted nothing more than to spill her thoughts onto the pages of her journal. Scaling the ladder to her loft, Rylie froze at the top.
     
    Someone had been through her stuff.
     
    Her bed was torn apart. The drawers were pulled open and spilled across the floor. Her clothes were everywhere, and the package her mother sent was laid out as though someone had examined each individual item.
     
    She hurried to pick it all up. Everything looked like it was intact, so the intruder hadn’t found whatever they wanted. Rylie stroked Byron the Destructor’s red nose with a frown. What did she have that someone would try to steal?
     
    Only one way to find out.
     
    Rylie stalked out of the cabin. She found Amber chatting with another girl by the campfire, who fled as soon as she saw Rylie coming.
     
    Amber covered her bandaged nose as if to protect it. “What do you want?”
     
    “Why did you go through my stuff this time? Looking for something new to torture me with?” Rylie demanded.
     
    “What?”
     
    “I saw what you did! Why can’t you leave me alone?”
     
    “I didn’t do anything,” Amber said. She looked genuinely confused. “God, you’re such a
freak
.” There wasn’t much venom in her tone this time. She looked afraid Rylie would attack her again.
     
    “Then who was it? Patricia? Kim?”
     
    “We didn’t do it, okay? Leave me alone!” Amber hurried to follow the other girl out of camp. She shot Rylie a frightened look over her shoulder.
     
    Rylie believed her. The intruder wasn’t Amber. She was too scared to talk to her, much less invade her privacy again.
     
    But if it wasn’t them, then who?
     

Seven
     

Golden Lake
     
    Waiting to see Seth again made the days drag. Rylie tried not to stare at the clock, but she still found herself wasting too many minutes watching the second hand creep around the face of the wall clock in her cabin.
     
    Evenings were the worst. She lay awake in bed most of the time, unable to sleep. Her mind spun with images of wolves and claw marks and full moons.
     
    She wished she had some way of talking to Seth when he wasn’t around. Rylie felt completely alone at camp.