She pounded up the stairs, into her bedroom, and dropped her backpack on the floor. Usually she hung it in her closet, taking pride in the neatness of her personal space. Just then, she didn’t care about her routine. Tears burning her eyes, she threw herself on the bed and rolled to her side. She clutched her pillow to her chest. The shock was wearing off, replaced by a burning sickness in her veins.
She could have called Penny, screamed, ranted, cried, but she didn’t. That wasn’t how she wanted to handle this. Actually, she didn’t know how she wanted to handle it. Except maybe to go back in time, race past Tucker so he couldn’t tell her what had happened and she could continue on, unaware and happy.
Had she truly been happy, though?
Wolf suddenly jumped onto the bed, the mattress bouncing, and snuggled up next to her, soft and oh, so warm. His breath trekked over the back of her neck. Look at me.
“Go away.”
Look at me.
“Can’t you do anything I ask you? Anything at all?”
Please.
It was the first time he’d ever asked her for something nicely.
Absently, she rolled to her back, then her other side, and petted his neck. One of her tears spilled over, and she fought the rest back. No reason to add “sobbing like a baby” to her list of embarrassments today.
I’m sorry you’re hurting, but I can’t say I’m sorry he’s out of your life. You were too good for him.
“Him, I’ll get over.” Her voice shook, the vibrations affecting her chin. The trembling then spread to her jaw.
It’s the girl, then. Penny. She’s your friend?
“Was. Was my friend. My best friend.” Oh, God. So many years of love and trust, now ruined.
Why not still? People make mistakes, Mary Ann.
That was only the second time he’d said her name. She liked the way he said it, drawing out the A’s. “I know they make mistakes. I’m studying to be a psychologist, you know. I’m highly aware that some impulses are harder to ignore than others. I’m aware that fear of consequences causes us to guard our secrets. But it’s our actions when faced with temptation that define who we are. It’s our courage in admitting what we’ve done wrong that makes us forgivable. She slept with my boyfriend, and then pretended it never happened.”
And you’re perfect? You’ve never made the wrong decision? Never tried to hide your actions from your father?
She stiffened against him. “No, that’s not what I’m saying. But I have never lied to Penny or taken something from her.”
Wolf snorted. And what did she take? A piece of trash, that’s what. You should thank her, and then pity her, because she’s the one who’s now stuck with him.
“That doesn’t make it right.”
I know. You have been hurt and your sense of betrayal is warranted. But was the boy truly yours to begin with? The entire time I’ve watched you, you kept him at a distance. You were happier away from him.
Maybe he was right, but that didn’t lessen the pain of what had been done. “Penny should have told me.”
Did you give her the chance to confess? Not once have I seen you seek her out. And when she approached you, you dismissed her, other things on your mind.
Mary Ann slammed her fist against the mattress. “You are so irritating! You sound just like my dad and I—”
I am not your dad, he growled, planting his front paws on her shoulders and shoving her to her back. Those green eyes glared down at her.
She didn’t push him off; she didn’t want to. His shoulders were so wide he enveloped her, almost like a curtain that shielded her from all the world’s hurt. Dangerous as he clearly was, such a sensation amazed her.
“How do I know?” she threw at him. “You won’t show yourself. You could be anyone.”
There was a heavy pause. I can’t show you. He sounded as tortured as Aden had looked while making his confession that day in the forest. Were I to shift now, I would be naked.
“Oh.” Wolf, naked in human form. She’d never wanted to see Tucker that way, but Wolf…Would he be tall and muscled? Lean? Handsome?
Did it matter? What would she do with a naked boy in her bed? A naked boy who fascinated her? A naked boy who had helped ease her torment over what had happened, she realized, the ache now only a dull throb in her chest. Time to change the subject or he just might satisfy your curiosity.
“Why haven’t you spoken to me like this all week?”
The more I talk to you, the more I want to do so. And I think about you enough as it is.
“Oh,” she said again, a thrill of excitement blazing through her. Wolf actually thought about her. Yes, but what were his thoughts? she wondered, excitement draining.
“Mary Ann,” her dad suddenly called. The front door shut with a click that reverberated through the house. “I’m home.”
A gasp of surprise left her. What was he doing home so early?
“Mary Ann?”
“Uh, hi, Dad,” she called, cringing at the way her voice trembled. Much as he hated animals, he would probably call the pound at the first sight of Wolf.
“Hide,” she whispered, squirming out from under him. Frantic, she jolted upright. The mattress bounced her to her feet. She raced out of her bedroom to the staircase banister, where she peered down. Her dad had his head buried in a stack of mail.
“Why aren’t you at work?” Great. Now she sounded breathless.
“My last patient of the day called and canceled. I was thinking we could go out for dinner.”
“No! No,” she repeated more calmly. “I’m, uh, studying.” Please just retire to your office. Oh, please, please, please.
His gaze lifted, latched onto her, and he frowned. “You study too much, honey, and I don’t want you looking back on these teenage years, wishing you’d had more excitement. We’ve talked about this. So go get dressed in something fancy and we’ll go to the city.” He tossed the envelopes on the cherrywood wall table beside him and headed for the stairs. “I’ll shower and we can be out the door and stuffing our faces within the hour. Maybe we can even catch a movie.”
Of all the days to want to spend with her. She couldn’t get out of it, not without hurting his feelings. “Okay, sure.” No, no, no! “Yeah, that’ll be fun.”
His frown intensified and he paused, hand resting on the rail. “Are you all right? You seem jumpy.”
“I’m fine. Just eager to go get ready.” Without another word, she rushed back into her bedroom and shut the door, pressing against it and trying to breathe. “You have to—”
Wolf was nowhere to be seen.
“Wolf?”
No response.
Frowning herself, she raced through the room, searching for him. He wasn’t in the closet or the bathroom and was too big to be under the bed. The window was open—it had been shut before—the drapes wisping in the breeze. She hurried to it and peered out. And there he was, sitting in her lawn and staring up at her.
He nodded briefly when he saw her, then turned and headed back toward the woods.
CHAPTER 10
Aden sat at his makeshift desk and stared down at his homework, an English paper about why William Shakespeare’s plays were still relevant in modern society, wondering why he’d fought so hard to attend public school. He wasn’t spending any extra time with Mary Ann, he was no closer to finding a way to get the souls out of his mind and into bodies of their own, and he was more confused than ever about Shannon and the wolf, whether they were one and the same or separate entities entirely.
Since that afternoon in the forest, when Aden had bitten the werewolf’s leg, Shannon had been avoiding him, even glared and snarled at him despite their first-day-of-school truce—proof he had to be the angry shape-shifter. But Shannon hadn’t once walked with a limp—proof he couldn’t possibly be the shape-shifter.