Chapter Nine - Jessica

The silence in the house settled over me like a weighted blanket. It was bittersweet for the boys to leave because I found it hard to be around Mason for too long. The longing inside of me was pathetic. I’d just met this man and suddenly felt like a thirteen-year-old girl again. On the other hand, the house gave me the creeps. Maybe it was the fact I was alone in this giant house with man-size wolves roaming the woods. I still couldn’t grasp that a wolf could get that big. It looked so intelligent staring at us in the road. I'd never seen anything like it. Sliding my palms against my hair, I dared to walk upstairs to the second floor. Grandmother’s room sat at the end of the long hallway to my right. When I shoved open the room her perfume hit my nose. It brought tears to my eyes. I hadn’t seen her in over a decade but remembered her scent. It was flowery and smelled like an old lady, but I’d always loved it growing up. The scratchy comforter had a dark floral print that matched