Wolfsbane

Table of Contents
Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Epigraph

PART I - PURGATORY
ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT NINE TEN ELEVEN

PART II - INFERNO
TWELVE THIRTEEN FOURTEEN FIFTEEN SIXTEEN SEVENTEEN EIGHTEEN NINETEEN TWENTY TWENTY-ONE TWENTY-TWO TWENTY-THREE TWENTY-FOUR TWENTY-FIVE TWENTY-SIX

PART III - PARADISO
TWENTY-SEVEN TWENTY-EIGHT TWENTY-NINE

AcknowledgementsPHILOMEL BOOKS A division of Penguin Young Readers Group. Published by The Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.). Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England. Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green,Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd). Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd). Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110017, India. Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd).Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa. Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England.

eISBN : 978-1-101-51710-9 http://us.penguingroup.com

For Will, for always

Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

PART I
PURGATORY
I was exhausted; with the two of usuncertain of our way, we halted on a plateau lonelier than desert paths.

Dante, Purgatorio

ONE

I COULDN’T SHUT OUT the screams. Darkness
surrounded me. A terrible weight pressed into my chest, making me struggle for each breath as I lay drowning in my own blood. I sat up with a gasp, blinking into the shadows. The screaming had stopped. The room became still, flooded with silence. Itook a couple of painful swallows, trying to moisten my parched mouth. It took me a moment to realize that the screams had been my own, each cry clawing my throat until it was raw. I brought my hands up to my chest. My fingers moved along the surface of my shirt. The fabric was smooth, with no sign of rips or tears from the crossbow bolts. I couldn’t see well in the dim light, but I could tell thisshirt wasn’t mine, or rather, wasn’t Shay’s borrowed sweater—the one I’d been wearing the night everything changed. A blur of images rushed through my head. A blanket of snow. A dark forest. The pounding of drums. Howls calling me to the union. The union. My blood grew cold. I’d run from my own destiny. I’d run from Ren. The thought of the Bane alpha made my chest tighten, but when I dropped myface into my hands, another figure replaced him. A boy on his knees, blindfolded and bound, alone in the forest. Shay. I could hear his voice, feel the brush of his hands on my cheek as I’d slipped in and out of consciousness. What had happened? He’d left me alone in the dark for so long. . . . I was still alone. But where? My eyes adjusted to the low light of the room. The cloudy skies filteredsunlight through tall leaded windows stretching the length of the opposite wall, tingeing pale shadows with a rose-hued gleam as I scanned the room for an exit, finding a tall oak door to the right of the bed. Ten, maybe fifteen feet from where I sat. I managed to slow my breathing, but my heart was still pounding. Swinging my legs over the edge of the bed, I tentatively put weight on my feet. I hadno trouble standing and felt each muscle spring back to life, coiled and taut, ready for anything. I’d be able to fight, and kill, if I had to. The sound of booted footsteps reached my ears. The knob turned and the door swung inward to reveal a man I’d seen only once before. He had thick hair, deep brown like the color of black coffee. The contours of his face were cut at strong, chiseled angles,...