Jessica crouched on the sidelines, white fur rippling across her hunched shoulders, her muscular legs—normally her greatest weapon—useless from fractures that knit together too slowly. Broken bones ground together like crushed glass as she watched Mark charge across the field toward Tiffany, his massive red form eating the distance between them with each bound.

  "No!" Jessica howled, the sound tearing from her throat with nothing human left in it.

  Her night vision caught a glint in the trampled grass yards away—the antidote. She must have dropped it during the fight. She dug her claws into the turf and dragged herself forward, each inch sending splinters of pain through her shattered legs. Her fingers closed around the syringe, its glass cold against her fur-covered palm.

  "Mark! Stop!" Tiffany's voice cracked as she scrambled backward, tripping over the white yard lines.

  Jessica didn't think. She hauled herself upright, balancing on fractured bones. Muscle memory from a thousand cheerleading practices guided her as she cocked her arm back and hurled the syringe with lethal precision.

  The needle struck Mark's calf mid-stride. He roared—a sound belonging to no known species—and stumbled, momentum carrying him several more yards before he crashed down just beyond Tiffany's feet. His body seized once, twice, then went still as the antidote claimed him.

  Jessica collapsed onto the grass, her healing finally accelerating now that the danger had passed. She watched Mark's body shrink—the unnatural crimson bleeding from his skin, muscles contracting to human proportions, his features softening into the familiar face wearing the quarterback's crown at Moon Valley High.

  Footsteps crunched on the grass near the field's edge, snapping Jessica's attention away from Mark. A crowd gathered—students and faculty who'd fled the gymnasium when Mark's transformation began. Kevin led them, followed by Salina, Mia, Amber, Camella, and others. Behind them, moving with the unmistakable stride of authority, came her father, Sheriff Daniel Tumblerlee.

  Jessica's stomach hollowed out, her claws digging into the earth. Every eye at Moon Valley High now fixed on her lupine form, her secret laid bare under the merciless moonlight.

  "Anyone hurt?" Kevin called, jogging toward Tiffany, who knelt beside Mark's unconscious body.

  "He's breathing," Tiffany whispered, tears cutting trails through her mascara as she cradled Mark's head. "Will he—God, Kevin, what if the antidote—" She clutched his limp hand tighter, unable to finish the thought.

  Kevin pressed two fingers to Mark's neck. "Pulse strong. The antidote's working." He glanced up at Jessica, the whites of his eyes visible all around his irises. "Hell of a throw."

  But Jessica barely heard him. All she registered were the dozens of gazes locked on her—classmates, teachers, her father—all witnessing her true nature. The secret she'd guarded since that first full moon last year lay exposed like a nerve.

  Jessica winced as she closed her eyes, her concentration tightening like a vise around her feral instincts. Forcing back her wolf nature felt like stuffing all her bones through a keyhole, each nerve screaming as the moon above seemed to physically pull at her DNA. She pushed through it, feeling claws retract into fingernails, fur sink beneath skin, her skull reshaping with a series of tiny pops until she was just Jessica again—the popular cheerleader, the sheriff's daughter, the girl everyone thought they knew.

  When she opened her eyes, silence pressed against her eardrums. Everyone stared—jaws slack, foreheads creased with confusion or disbelief. Camella's hand covered her mouth as she whispered to Amber. Mia's eyes had widened to perfect circles, her prom queen tiara slightly askew.

  "Jessica?" Salina knelt beside her, keeping a hand's width of space between them. "Are you hurt?"

  "My legs will mend," Jessica said, her voice raw from the transformation. "They were broken, but they're fusing already."

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  "You're a werewolf," Amber said, the words flat and hard.

  Jessica nodded, tongue too thick for speech. She braced for the screams, the disgust, the rejection she'd rehearsed in nightmares.

  Instead, Daniel stepped forward, carving out space around Jessica, Mark, and Tiffany with nothing but his presence. "Back up," he ordered. "Give them room." He unclipped his radio. "Sheriff Tumblerlee. Need an ambulance at the high school field now. One male unconscious, condition stable."

  Jessica stared at her father. Concern etched lines around his eyes, yes—but not shock. Not the horror she'd expected.

  "Dad?" The word escaped as barely a breath.

  "Home," he replied, his voice official but his eyes conveying something unexpected—worry mixed with what looked eerily like... pride?

  Kevin knelt by Mark again. "Breathing's regular. Pulse normal."

  Tiffany looked up at Jessica, her cheeks glistening. "You saved him," she said, voice breaking. "You saved all of us."

  Before Jessica could respond, Salina helped her up, supporting her weight as Jessica's half-healed legs trembled beneath her.

  "So," Mia said with a brittle laugh, "this explains why you always nail the high jump during competitions."

  Nervous laughter rippled through the crowd, puncturing some of the tension.

  Sirens wailed in the distance, growing louder. The sound seemed to jolt everyone from their stupor.

  "Anyone else hurt?" Daniel scanned the crowd.

  When no one spoke, he nodded once. "Good. Paramedics will handle Mark. Rest of you, go home. Prom's over."

  No one moved.

  "She's a werewolf," someone called from the back, voice cracking on the last word.

  "And she just saved your lives," Daniel replied, steel in his tone. "Now go home. All of you. Questions come later."

  Reluctantly, the crowd scattered, though many glanced back at Jessica with expressions ranging from naked fear to undisguised fascination.

  Kevin approached, jaw clenched and shoulders squared, the dimples from his usual smile nowhere to be seen. "We need to follow Mark to the hospital," he said. "Make sure that stuff really worked."

  "I'm going with him," Tiffany said, fingers still laced through Mark's.

  Salina nodded. "We stick together."

  The ambulance pulled up to the edge of the field, paramedics spilling out with equipment. They checked Mark's vitals before transferring him to the stretcher.

  "Family only," one paramedic said, preparing to load Mark.

  Tiffany squared her shoulders. "I'm his girlfriend."

  The paramedic nodded, and Tiffany climbed in beside Mark.

  "My car," Kevin said to Jessica and Salina, jingling his keys.

  The ambulance pulled away, red lights strobing across the field. Jessica stood facing her father, secrets hanging between them for a couple of years.

  "Dad," she started, voice small. "I should have told you. I was afraid—"

  Daniel held up his hand. "Not here." His tone softened. "We'll talk at home. Right now, go with your friends. Make sure Mark pulls through."

  "You're not... disgusted?"

  Something complicated crossed her father's face—regret, resignation, and a deeper emotion she couldn't name.

  "We have a lot to discuss," he said finally. "But disgusted? No, Jessica. Worried out of my mind, yes. Terrified for you, absolutely. But we'll handle this."

  "Sheriff!" Kevin called from the parking lot. "We're ready!"

  Daniel nodded. "Go." He squeezed her shoulder, his hand warm and steady. "What you did tonight—risking everything to protect them—that's who you are. Wolf or human, that's my daughter."

  Tears burned Jessica's eyes as she nodded, throat too tight for words. After two years of hiding, lying, dreading discovery, her father's acceptance felt like a miracle she'd never dared imagine.

  "See you at home," Daniel said, giving her arm a final squeeze before returning to the officers and paramedics.

  Jessica limped toward Kevin's waiting car, each step firmer as her accelerated healing sealed her broken bones. The night air tasted sharper somehow—cleaner, as though she'd shed an invisible weight.

  Her secret was out. Tomorrow would bring interrogations, fear, and changes she couldn't foresee. But for the first time since that terrible, wonderful night when the moon had first called to something ancient in her blood, Jessica Tumblerlee wasn't alone.

  As Kevin's car pulled away, Jessica looked back at the moonlit field where everything had changed. Whatever came next, she would face it not as the perfect cheerleader she'd pretended to be, but as herself—human and wolf, prey and predator, two natures sharing one skin.

  And somehow, that wasn't the catastrophe she'd always feared.