"Wrong. Benjamin Harrison is our twenty-third president. Apparently you haven't either listened or studied the lessons this week."

"It was President Cleveland last year," Stefan objected. "How do you expect me to remember if they keep changing presidents all the time?"

"They do not change 'all the time'." Mr. Mathewson's voice rose. "The term for a President is four years, as you should know. You don't seem interested in learning, Stefan. Is there anything you're interested in?"

Stefan shrugged. "Hunting, I guess."

Mr. Mathewson's eyebrows rose and Samara winced, expecting him to launch into another lecture about the necessity of education and Stefan's ignorance. He didn't. After a long silence, Mr. Mathewson said, "All right, Stefan. In an effort to interest you in studying, I'll assign you one wild animal per week. At the end of the week you will turn in a paper on that animal, detailing its zoological classification, its habits, range, and physical characteristics. This week you will research the wolf. Do you understand?"

Stefan nodded and Samara thought she detected a spark of enthusiasm in his eyes, encouraging her to believe he might actually do the assignment.

After school let out, Stefan hurried off with Arno and Ivan as he'd been doing lately, leaving her to walk with Tanya and Druse.

"Did you start?" Tanya asked as soon as they were away from the schoolhouse.

"Start what?" Samara asked.

"Bleeding."

Samara's eyes widened. It hadn't occurred to her that her stomach cramps could be related to what Liisi had told her happened to all girls when they were ready to become women. She bit her lip, not liking the idea one bit. She wasn't a woman yet--she wasn't even thirteen.

Tanya laughed. "You look scared to death. It's not so bad." She smiled condescendingly. "I ought to know. When we get to the house I'll show you what to do."

Samara glared at her. "Liisi already showed me. And maybe it's not that."

But it was.

"It's time you and Stefan had separate bedrooms," Liisi decreed when Samara told her. "While boys and girls can share sleeping quarters, men and women do not. At least not until they marry."

"But we're twins," Samara wailed. "And Stefan isn't a man."

Liisi put an arm around her. "You're already becoming a woman--it won't be long before Stefan becomes a man."

"I've never slept alone in a room. I don't want to." "You'll get used to it. You can have the room next to Druse and Tanya, if you like."

Samara realized it was useless to protest any further--Grandmother never changed her mind. "No," she said. "If I have to be by myself I don't want to be next to anybody." Stefan wasn't any happier about the move than she was. "They can't stop us from talking at night, just like always," he said belligerently.

Two nights later, Stefan startled her from sleep by shaking her shoulder. Samara sat up in bed.

"I didn't hear you come in," she whispered. "How late is it?"

"Nobody hears me when I don't want them to," he said smugly. "And it's not late, it's not even midnight. Come on." He tugged at her hand.

Samara, self-conscious about the sanitary apparatus under her nightgown, slid awkwardly from the bed. "Where to?"

"Don't you remember? The moon's full. It's a shifter's moon and I think he's about ready."

Samara shuddered. For months after Grandfather had told them about Volek shapeshifters she'd been uneasy when she was near Ivan or Arno but as time passed and nothing happened, her nervousness passed.

"How can you tell?" she demanded, fearing she wouldn't like what Stefan meant to do.

"They've both been acting different. Restless. Like I feel inside sometimes."

"It won't be both of them."

"Yeah, but you know how they've always been--what affects one bothers the other. The way I see it, they both feel the change coming. Only one'll change into a beast but the other senses it. Like you sensed the stalker all those years ago."

Samara froze. She'd pushed that awful time from her mind and she meant to keep it out. "I don't remember anything that happened--I was too little."

"I don't either, but I listen. Grandmother told Grandfather that she was sure you had a special talent for sensing stalkers. She said she'd like to develop your talent."

"I don't want to remember! I won't!"

"Ssh, keep your voice down. You can do whatever you want, I don't care. Only that kind of talent might come in handy sometime. Think about it. You ready?"

"Ready for what?" She was still upset and her voice shook.

"To go spy on Ivan and Arno, what else?"

She'd rather do practically anything else but she'd always followed where Stefan led. "It could be dangerous," she reminded him. "Grandfather said only the beast's twin is safe."

"We'll be hidden. Come on."

Devoutly hoping this full moon wouldn't be the one to bring on the change, Samara trailed along the hall after Stefan in the dim light from the bulbs in the wall sconces. Last year Grandfather had bought an electric generator and had the house wired for electricity. To her surprise, Stefan led her into his new bedroom.

"I picked this room 'cause it's next door to theirs," Stefan said, "and both rooms have closets, back to back. Instead of turning on the electric light, he lit a candle and, holding it, opened his closet door. "Voila," he whispered.

At first she didn't see anything except his clothes hanging on the rod to either side with a space between. He pointed to the rear wall, holding the candle closer. Samara drew in her breath. Irregular lines showed where a opening had been cut in the wood of the wall.

"I borrowed the saw from Chung and cut it myself," Stefan said proudly. He eased the piece of wood from the opening, set it to one side and she peered into darkness. Putting his mouth close to her ear, Stefan whispered, "We can't talk after we crawl into their closet, okay?"

She nodded but immediately grabbed his shirt to hold him back. Leaning close, she whispered, "If you really think one twin will shift tonight, shouldn't we tell Grandfather?" "It's only a guess. Anyway, he never goes to bed when the moon's full, didn't you know? If it happens, he'll find out soon enough."

Stefan blew out the candle and closed his closet door, shutting them into total darkness. She heard him wriggle through the opening. A sick excitement vied with apprehension as she followed. She wanted to see what would happen and yet she didn't. When she was through the hole and inside Arno and Ivan's closet, she groped for Stefan's arm and clutched it nervously.

He eased her fingers off. So slowly she didn't at first realize what he was doing, Stefan inched the door open until a needle-thin ray of silver light filtered into the closet. Moonlight. Samara swallowed. The draperies in the twins' bedroom must be fully open. Perhaps the windows as well. Were Arno and Ivan inviting the shifting?

"My stomach hurts," one of them said. Since their voices were so similar Samara couldn't tell which twin spoke. "How about yours?"

"Mine's okay, Arn."

So Arno was the one with the stomach ache. It didn't seem very important to her and she relaxed a little.

Stefan widened the crack of the door a bit and she inched forward to look through it. One twin stood by the open window looking into the night. She couldn't see the other. The twin in the moonlight stretched, raising his arms over his head.

"Let's go outside," he said.

"It's too late, Arn." Samara detected a touch of uneasiness in Ivan's voice. Though she still couldn't see him, she thought he stood near the bedroom door.

"I need to go outside. I need--" Arno broke off and suddenly stripped off his nightshirt. "I need to be free!" he cried as he tossed the shirt aside.

Samara clutched at Stefan again. Arno's voice was different--hoarse and sort of growly. She didn't like the sound. Arno turned from the window and she swallowed a gasp. His face wasn't Arno's, it was changing, growing a muzzle.

"Blood. I smell blood." Arno's words were barely understandable.

She heard a door open. "Grandfather!" Ivan yelled. "Hurry!" The door slammed shut. "Arno?" Ivan's voice quivered.

The snouted beast that had been Arno raised its muzzle to sniff the air. Its glowing golden eyes fixed on the closet as it flexed taloned paws. Fangs gleamed when the mouth opened. A long-drawn-out howl chilled Samara's very bones.

"He's coming after us," she warned, yanking Stefan away from the twins' closet door and pulling it closed.

She scrambled through the opening, hearing Stefan behind her. They tumbled one after the other through his closet into his room. Stefan kicked the door shut. In the dark, she clung to his arm as they listened to a loud thud, then a scrabbling.

"He's trying to get into the closet," she whispered through trembling lips. "He knew we were there."

Remembering the last words Arno had said before he shifted completely, she shuddered. Blood, he'd smelled blood.

"What if he breaks through the closet door and finds that hole?" she asked fearfully.

Stefan pulled free of her. A moment later the hall door opened and in the shaft of light she saw him peering into the hall. He turned to her. "Don't worry. Grandfather's coming. Grandmother, too."

If she hadn't seen the beast his words might have reassured her. How could anyone challenge the beast and live?

"I'm scared," she whispered, fighting something inside her that wanted to scream and scream and never stop.

Stefan shut the hall door and turned on the electric light. His eyes gleamed with excitement. It shocked her to realize he wasn't frightened at all.

"I wish I was Arno," he said. "I'd jump from the window, scale the wall and run into the hills. I'd run and run and never come back. Never change back."

She stared at him. "But--but you'd be a beast. A horrible beast. How could you ever want to be like that?" Stefan examined his hands as though looking for talons. "I'd be a beast among beasts--bigger than a wolf, more ferocious than a mountain lion, more dangerous than a bear." Samara shook her head, rejecting his words. What was wrong with Stefan? He sounded truly envious of Arno. She listened but heard no more howling, no sounds at all from the next room.

"What do you think's happening?" she asked.

"They're changing him back, I suppose."

"Grandfather and Grandmother? How can they?"

"Some noita spell, I guess. The twins weren't sure exactly what Grandma would do."

"You mean they told you about this?"

Stefan nodded. "Ivan and Arno know Grandfather explained to all of us about the shifting so why shouldn't they talk about it? Whichever twin didn't shift was supposed to call Grandfather and then keep the shifter in the room until he got there. Now Arno has to be locked up for five days each month in a special cellar room with no windows. They won't let him out until he learns how to control himself so he doesn't shapeshift when the moon is full."

"What if he can't learn?" Stefan shrugged. "I know one thing--they'll never lock me up, no matter what." His words, his behavior troubled Samara. It was as though her familiar Stefan had been replaced by some sinister stranger. "But why would they want to lock you up?" she asked at last. He smiled slyly and didn't answer, disturbing her more than ever. Dear God, wouldn't this awful night ever come to an end?

Finally someone tapped on the door and then Grandmother opened it. "It's safe to go back to your own room now," she said when she saw Samara. She turned cold gray eyes on Stefan. "As for you, young man, your grandfather will see you in the library before breakfast about that hole in the closet wall."

Safe or nor, Samara was glad to have Grandmother's company on the way to her room.

"I suppose you both saw the shifting," Grandmother said when they were shut inside Samara's room.

Samara nodded. "It scared me."

"Was Stefan frightened?"

"No."

"I didn't think he would be." Grandmother urged Samara into her bed, then pulled up a chair and sat beside her. "You realize you both might have been killed, don't you? You, especially, were in terrible danger because you were bleeding. Blood excites the beast."

Samara swallowed.

"You mustn't blame poor Arno for anything the beast tried to do," Liisi went on. "He has no control over and no memory of what the beast does."

Grandfather had said the same thing. After watching the shapeshifting, Samara understood what they meant--the beast was not her cousin Arno. "Does it hurt him to change?" she asked.

"It's painful, yes. We hope he'll soon learn to control the urge to shift."

Samara raised up on one elbow. "You mean Arno wants to change into a beast?"

"He can't help the urge--until he learns control. And even then the urge never goes away entirely. The shifter chooses not to change."

"But what if he learns control and doesn't choose to use it?"

"Then we'd have to keep him locked up when the moon was full. A shifter must never run as a beast--it's dangerous not only to him but to all Voleks. Terrible things would happen if a Volek shifter hunted in the hills. First of all, he'd frighten the neighboring ranchers. Sooner or later they'd form a posse and shoot him down. If that happened, when he died he'd return to human form and they'd know who he was. Do you think we'd be welcome in this valley if our neighbors even suspected the Volek secret?"

Samara stared at her wide-eyed, finally shaking her head.

"The other danger is that a shifter running under the moon might attract the attention of a stalker. Stalkers not only try to kill the shifter but every one of his kin as well. We might all die."

A silence fell while Samara considered such a terrible possibility. She didn't want to think about stalkers but Grandmother was forcing her to. She sat up in bed and hugged herself. "A stalker came to Volek House once," she said, her words barely audible.

"Yes, when you were three. She killed Tanya's mother and Druse's mother and two of your Grandfather's friends who were staying here. She tried to kill Grandfather but failed, thank God."

"She?" Samara asked in surprise.

"Stalkers can be men or women. Your screams warned us of danger-otherwise we might all have died. I know you don't want to remember the horrors of that night but we need your help, Samara. We need your ability to sense stalkers. If you'll let me, I can train you to refine your talent. But it means going back into your childhood and reliving the night when so many died from the stalker's silver bullets." Tremors shook Samara as the memory she'd held at bay for almost ten years surfaced. In all that time she'd never allowed herself to say his name. "He's gone," she whispered. Tears rolled down her cheeks. "Wolf is gone."

Grandmother sat on the bed and held her close. "Wolf may be gone," she said, "but he's not dead. He blamed himself for letting the stalker into the house and he was so distressed he ran away. We hope he'll come back to us some day."

Samara clung to Grandmother, sobbing, feeling as bereft as she had when she was three and first discovered that Wolf had left her.

Grandmother held her until she quieted, then stayed at her bedside until she fell asleep. Just before Samara drifted into slumber she made up her mind that she'd never run away, no matter what....

In the three years since Arno first shifted, things had changed at Volek House. He'd shifted only one more time before he mastered control, doing so well that he'd been able to go off to Stanford University with Ivan this past September. Samara missed them both more than she'd thought possible.

Grandfather decreed that whether Stefan intended to go to the University or not, until he was eighteen he had to attend Mr. Mathewson's classes in the schoolhouse on the grounds. The teacher and Stefan had finally reached an agreement--if Stefan did his assigned paper, the teacher didn't bother him.

Their grandparents took them on several trips after Arno and Ivan were gone. Tanya still talked about the night they saw Cecelia Kellogg dance at the Baldwin Theater in San Francisco. Though Samara didn't remember Cecelia being at Volek House, Tanya claimed that she did.