Kiss of the Silver Wolf by Sharon Buchbinder Page A

had to work while she was in college. The year she entered her doctoral program and moved out of the house, the letters began to take a darker turn.
    Dear Jessie—
    I miss my darling Charlene. As long as she lived here, I could focus on her, on her perfection. When it was that time of the month, I took the injections to control my urges, to protect her from the knowledge of what her mother really was. But now the moon calls to me, and I want to run, run, run. It is getting harder to resist. Poor Fred tries to understand, but how can he? Do you think you could come visit?
    I miss you, and some nights, I confess, I miss the family and Eden, too. Sometimes I think I made a mistake by running away. But then I remember my perfect daughter.
    Love, Joanna
    So Joanna had misgivings about Eden, after all. But why keep warning Charlene away from the town, when she herself was homesick and lonely?
    Dear Jessie—
    Joey's urges have become difficult to control. He's gotten so big, so strong, so aggressive , the sedatives don't hold him now. Fred was able to bring some experimental genetic treatments home from the lab. But Joey doesn't have Gorlin-Chaudry-Moss Syndrome. The charade has worked for over twenty years, but how long will I be able to keep the truth away from Fred? What do the other mothers do with the boys Oblis sired? How do they control them when the moon is full? Call me. Please. I am desperate. I fear Joey will hurt someone.
    Love, Joanna.
    Charlene had to re-read the letter three times.
    "Joey doesn't have Gorlin-Chaudry-Moss Syndrome?” She blinked once, twice. No, there it was in her mother's own writing. “Oblis.” “The other mothers.” “When the moon is full.” The words ricocheted around in her head, and she thought of the night of the accident, the boys’ distress and Joey's snapping teeth.
    She set the letters down and wandered back to the parlor. The photos of Joanna, Jessie, Jethro, and Rebekkah stared back at her—their gazes now heavy with meaning. She looked at each of them, and tried to piece the story together.
    Joanna was raped by a predator—Oblis—who carried a mutant gene of some sort. Jethro killed Oblis—but terrified his daughter so much she ran away. Jessie kept in regular touch with Joanna—and colluded with her to fool poor Fred into thinking the family carried Gorlin-Chaudry-Moss Syndrome. But it wasn't Joanna's genes that caused Joey's condition. The mutant gene Oblis carried caused Joey's problems. Joanna's final letter to Jessie, was angry, desperate.
    Dear Jessie—
    Fred has gone and done something foolish.
    His boss called to tell me that his NIH funding is being pulled because he has gone off the deep end. Fred has been harassing psychiatrists to give him their patient records for cases of people who think they're werewolves .
    I can't believe he's doing this, risking his funding and our lives. Why couldn't he have just stayed with genetic diseases? I can't do anything about Joey or me, but I'll be damned if I'll let him ruin Charlene's life. I have to stop him.
    Love, Joanna
    Fred's love for Joanna and obsession with finding a cure for Joey led him to the last place Joanna wanted him to look. When Hoffman called Joanna, she became terrified all would be exposed and her “perfect” daughter's life would be ruined. Charlene picked up Joanna's photo as a pretty woman in the bloom of her youth.
    Her mother a werewolf? She scoffed out loud. Not possible. Look at her. She'd been beautiful. Perfect. She closed her eyes, thought back to happy times in high school—and flashed back to her mother and father fighting.
    It had been in the middle of the night and she'd gotten up to go to the bathroom.
    Her mother's voice sounded uncharacteristically whiny. “I really neeeed that medicine, Fred."
    "The moon won't be full for another week."
    "Noooo. I neeeed it now.” Her mother was crying. “Please, please, please."
    "You're becoming addicted, Joanna. If I give it to you now, you'll