Wolf by Wolf (Wolf by Wolf #1)

by Ryan Graudin

THE ROTTEN BONES ARE TREMBLING, OF THE WORLD BEFORE THE RED WAR. –FROM THE OFFICIAL SONG OF THE HITLER YOUTH

Once upon a different time, there was a girl who lived in a kingdom of death. Wolves howled up her arm. A whole pack of them—made of tattoo ink and pain, memory and loss. It was the only thing about her that ever stayed the same. Her story begins on a train.

This man did not trade in heralds or blessings or miracles. He was an angel of a different kind.

Even at their most basic function, needles do two things: They give and they take away.

Red: the color of battle wounds and the Third Reich. Bitter, bright death.

Not alone. It was a cruel irony that this was the message she had been chosen to deliver. She, the loneliest of all. The girl without a people. Without a face. The girl who was no one. Who could be everyone.

ACT LIKE YOU BELONG NOT A HOLLOW STUFFED GIRL—

Did it matter? One life. A drop in a vast, vast ocean of hundreds, thousands, millions. Yes, pounded the hollow of her heart. Yes, cried her wolves. It mattered. All of them mattered. All of the hundreds, thousands, millions. Vast, vast… Would it ever end? Five, just five. Focus on them. Make it manageable. Babushka, Mama, Miriam—

“The ghosts will stay. Just like your numbers. Just like my scars. Just like our pain.” Vlad pulled his hand away. “But you don’t have to be afraid of them.”

Good-bye. It was always good-bye, wasn’t it? She never could say it out loud.

And the voice that whispered loud, louder, loudest—the oldest whisper of all—said only a single word: Monster. She feared it was right.

Babushka—the one who gave her purpose. Mama—the one who gave her life. Miriam—the one who gave her freedom. Aaron-Klaus—the one who gave her a mission. Vlad—the one who gave her pain. These were the names she whispered in the dark. These were the pieces she brought back into place. These were the wolves she rode to war.

The world was not just moving. It was alive. And it was ready to fight.