Chapter One
Luna
The grandfather clock bonged twice as Luna Sorelle descended her large farmhouse’s stairs in the dark. In the bedrooms above, her three sisters slept. They’d lived in the house their whole lives, and she could easily navigate the home without lights.
She entered the kitchen, where she found a half-full bottle of wine from the previous evening’s dinner. Pulling a glass from the cupboard, she poured with shaking hands. She’d awoken with butterflies in her stomach and hoped a glass of wine would calm her nerves. She also hoped her sisters wouldn’t wake up and catch her drinking in the middle of the night—they might find her behavior odd or concerning. Her behavior was odd and concerning to her, but tonight she’d try anything to smooth the anxiety that had been building in her stomach over the last several weeks.
Luna glanced through the window over the kitchen sink into the backyard and mused on possible solutions to her nervous disposition. Maybe she’d ask the doctor for sleeping pills stronger than—
Her thoughts stopped, and she straightened.
What was that?
Something in the garden outside had moved.
Luna lowered her wine glass. What she’d seen didn’t make sense, and one sip of wine didn’t make a mind play tricks like that. She blinked hard. She was in her early sixties and wore contacts during the day, but she saw well enough without them to know this wasn’t her imagination.
She’d seen something.
Something big.
The figure she’d seen in the garden moved again.
Animal? Human?
She wanted to say animal. It stood near the edge of their enormous tomato garden, staring back at her with luminous yellow eyes. Impossibly bright eyes—
Luna felt something splash on her toes and jumped. Mesmerized by the beast outside, she’d spilled her glass. Wine streaked down her nightgown, splattered her feet, and pooled on the floor.
“Shoot,” she muttered, righting the glass.
She set it down and returned her attention to the garden. The animal remained there, staring back at the house. Large, brown, more wolf-like than dog—she’d never seen anything like it before.
Her heart pounded in her chest.
Am I going crazy?
The dog glanced to its left at their neighbors’ house. Was it a dog? Did it belong to the neighbors? Mrs. O’Hara had a cat, but she hadn’t seen it in a while...
Luna went to the back door and opened it to peer through the screen.
“Shoo!” she hissed.
The monster dog began to dig, and Luna shook her head.
No.
She couldn’t let him dig up the garden. A beast of that size could destroy half their prize tomato crop in no time. They were locally famous for their Four Sisters’ sauces—all made with tomatoes from that well-tended garden.
The dog kept digging.
No!
Without thinking, Luna threw open the door and ran outside toward the animal. The dog looked up at her, its face, mouth, and fur covered in red tomato stains. It was worse than she’d feared. It looked as if it had been marauding through the garden for hours.
The beast growled and continued its rampage, tearing at the plants, crushing the precious tomatoes—
“No, stop! Mia! Elena! Vally!” Luna shrieked.
As she called for her sisters, she reached the brute. Her hands plunged into the dog’s coarse fur, searching for a collar. Finding none, she did her best to grip its body, tugging it from the garden. It planted its paws, fighting her, too big and too strong to move.
The dog ripped a plant from the dirt with white teeth and shook it before tossing it aside, dirt flying everywhere. Luna howled. She released the dog and grabbed the plant, desperate to save it, hoping the roots might take hold again if she replanted it fast enough.
Suddenly, the dog’s face was in hers. She felt its hot breath on her face—saw the red drool dripping from the white fangs.
“Why did you do this to me?” it said.
Luna couldn’t move. The dog’s mouth hadn’t moved, but she’d heard it speak clear as day.
A sadness washed over her.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m sorry—”
“Luna!”
Luna heard her sister call out. The voice came from the direction of the house. She heard the screen door slam as the second-oldest sister, Elena, appeared on the porch and started down the stairs.
She felt a flash of relief and then realized Elena was heading for the dog.
“No! Go back!” she screamed.
Elena ignored her. Behind her, Luna saw the other two, Mia and Vally, following. The three sisters glowed beneath the moonlight in the monogrammed white sleeping tees she’d bought them all the previous Christmas as they ran barefoot across the yard to her.
Luna turned. She needed to grab the dog. She hadn’t seen a collar, but she’d grab it by its fur if she had to—
The dog was gone.
She was alone in the garden.
Luna looked down at her own nightgown, covered in dirt and—
Is that wine?
Some of the stains appeared redder than the others. They didn’t look like wine. They weren’t purple. They looked like—
Blood.
She gasped as the feel of hot breath on her neck made her skin prickle.
“Luna!”
Her sisters kept running.
They’d be here soon.
Luna turned to meet yellow eyes, inches from her own.
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