Page 20 of Wild Thorns

"Please tell me you're calling to say you kissed one of them."

"I'm calling to say I feel like I'm losing my mind." I was curled on my couch, watching darkness press against my windows. "I can't stop thinking about them. All of them. It's like there's a thread connecting us, and every time I see one of them, it pulls tighter."

"That's called attraction, babe. Also possibly dehydration. Are you drinking enough water?"

"It's more than attraction." I struggled to find the words. "Attraction is wanting to kiss someone. This is wanting to be near them. All the time. Like being away from them is physically uncomfortable."

Tara was quiet for a moment. "Who's it gonna be? Eeny meeny miney moe..."

"It sounds insane. I barely know these people. I moved here to be alone, to heal, to hide."

"Maybe hiding isn't what you need." Her voice softened. "Maybe what you need is to actually live."

"What I need is therapy and time alone. Not complicated feelings for three brothers who are definitely keeping secrets."

"Secrets like what?"

"I don't know what to call it. They have meetings. Late at night. I hear them sometimes." I hesitated, knowing how it would sound. "Howling."

"Howling."

"Like wolves."

Tara was quiet for a long moment. "As in drunk and howling at the moon?"

"Big dogs. That howl in unison. Under the full moon."

"Okay, are the brothers howling or the freaking dogs?"

“I don’t know. "

Silence. Then, "Okay, you've been through a lot. Your brain might be filling in patterns that aren't there."

She was right. She was probably right.

After Marcus, I'd seen threats everywhere. Shadows that moved wrong. Cars that drove past too slowly. Every unexplained thing became evidence of something sinister. My therapist had called it hypervigilance, the brain trying to keep me safe by anticipating danger, even when none existed.

Maybe that's what this was. Maybe the Voss family was just eccentric, and I was projecting mystery onto them because my nervous system didn't know how to exist without something to worry about.

Maybe the pull I felt was just loneliness, dressed up in mystical clothing.

Maybe.

"I just want to understand what's happening," I said.

"Some things can't be understood," Tara said gently. "Sometimes you just have to feel them."

"That's very zen of you."

"I've been doing yoga. And you know I believe in powers." She paused. "Do you still have that charm I made you?"

"I keep it in my pocket, like I promised." I touched it now; that small bundle of thread and herbs. "It reminds me I have a friend who cares."

"I do care. Also, can I just say, you moved to rural Louisiana to escape your problems, and instead you found three hot brothers and a mystery? That's some serious energy. Could be the beginning of a horror movie or a romance novel, and I'm here for either option."

I laughed despite myself. "You're not helpful."

"I'm extremely helpful. I'm helping you see the bright side." Her voice softened. "Serena. You spent years with someone who made you feel small, scared and wrong. If these guys make you feel something else, even if it's confusing, maybe that's not bad. Maybe that's healing."