“Of course it was.” Nothing was ever Jennifer’s fault.
“And then Grant’s father said he was going to kill me if I had the kid. So Boone found this rich werewolf who wanted him – but I heard him talking on the phone. He was going to let Boone come take me before I even had Jeffrey, and then they’d kill me afterwards. That’s why I was hiding from him.” Jennifer gave her a miserable look. “And I tried to be a mother. It’s hard.”
Celeste’s lip curled in scorn. “Yeah, you did a real bang-up job.”
“Hey!” Norman shouted, his gun wavering between Jennifer and Talbot, who was moving.
Talbot sat up. “You should have used a silver bullet on me,” he wheezed at Jennifer. Blood ran from his mouth. “Regular bullets don’t work on me. I’m a werewolf, bitch.”
And he shot Jennifer in the head, at the exact same time Norman shot him. “That’s for killing my men. Ididuse silver bullets,” the guard snapped as Talbot fell over.
“Oh God.” Celeste sank to her knees, choking on a sob. It was finally, really over. And Jennifer was dead. And the guards were dead.
“I’m going to be sick,” she said.
Chapter Twenty
A month later, on the eve of the full moon…
“I feel it,” Celeste said quietly to Grant. She was standing with him and a group of her pack members on the edge of the woods behind the enormous house where she lived now. Grant had claimed her right after the previous full moon, with a bite to the shoulder that had left behind a scar. A claiming mark, they called it.
All month long, she’d spent hours every day meditating, visualizing herself turning into a wolf, watching other wolves turn…
And now she was ready. A healer named Anita was standing by in case she was needed. The first turn could be physically debilitating, so she’d been told.
She could feel the moon’s pull pulsing through her body.
She was the only one who was clothed – sort of. She had a towel wrapped around her body, reaching down to her ankles. Her legs had gotten really hairy over the past week and she was embarrassed.
“You’ll get used to it,” Taylor had assured her. “I went through the same thing. I cried the week before my first turn.”
Jeffrey was dancing with excitement. “My first full moon with Mommy!” he sang. Her heart sank. She had to tell him the truth. They couldn’t live their whole life based on a lie.
“Are you nervous?” Grant asked Celeste.
“A little. Okay, a lot. But you’re here with me, so I know I’ll be okay.”
Jeffrey bounced up and down impatiently. “Why did Aunt Mandy have to leave?”
“She’ll be back,” Celeste assured him. “She has to travel for work, but she and Truman promised they would come visit.” Truman had officially joined Mandy’s pack, and he was also working for the Network, finding placement for lone wolves throughout the country.
She stroked Jeffrey’s hair. “You believe me, right?”
“Yes. I know you and Daddy don’t lie to me.”
She took a deep breath. “Speaking of that. Jeffrey, there’s something we have to tell you. It’ll be hard to hear, but you have to know this.”
He looked at her. “You mean that you’re not my real mom? You’re really her sister? I know that.”
She and Grant exchanged glances of shock.
“How long have you known?” she asked Jeffrey.
He avoided her gaze. “I always knew. You didn’t smell like her. And you looked a little different. I just saw you cleaning up the house and then you asked if I was hungry, and I thought maybe you would take care of me and not leave me alone. I just pretended I didn’t know. I thought if I called you Mom, you’d have to stay with me.”
“You knew all along,” Grant repeated, astounded.
Jeffrey stared into the distance. “She tried to take me one time,” he said. “She came to the ugly orange house in Somerville when I was playing tag with Reynaldo. She was in the bushes. I didn’t tell you because I thought you would make me go with her.”
