Teegan barges into my room her face looking like thunder.
“What the hell is that dude’s problem running into the house like that?” she asks shaking her head. “I mean seriously who does he think he is?” she asks again pacing up and down.
“He has a key Teegan he usually comes and goes as he pleases,” I tell her wiping my tear stained face. Her head whips around and her eyes find mine.
“Crap I’m sorry Emery I just wanted to protect you” she says much calmer now, coming over she sits on my bed. “Sorry” she sighs again.
“Don’t be it was nice of you to stand up for me,” I smile at her.
“Yeah what else are cousins for” she smirks, wiping my face with her hand. “I think you need some fun.”
“We tried that remember,” I remind her of the wall climbing and the party last night, “maybe I need to hide away for a while,” I laugh.
“What’s the story with that guy from the party?” she asks looking at me.
“Which guy?”
“The one you danced with, the one who lover boy fought in the yard,” she raises an eyebrow at me.
“Oh Ty, he went to school with us but I haven’t seen him since and he just appeared last week” I shrug.
“Do you like him?”
“Hell no, how could I like him he tried to drown me the day he came back” I scoff. She lets out a slow whistle, “yeah Asher saved me though.”
“Is that the night he hooked up with Barbie?”
“Yeah” I swallow hard, rubbing my hands over my face.
“So where is your mom this year?” Teegan changes the subject.
“Some wildlife reserve,” I shrug because I don’t really know where she went just that she is following her dream of spending a summer with wild animals.
“Okay weird” Teegan laughs slapping my leg. “We can go see your dad in work” she suggests making me laugh at her.
“My dad works from the kitchen or dining room,” I smile.
“Really?” I nod yes, “what the hell does he do from there?” she sounds confused.
“He writes books,” I smile waving one of his in the air, she snatches it out of my hands reading the back cover then glances at me.
“You don’t believe in werewolves but you read about aliens invading earth?” she questions giving me a dubious look.
“I never said I don’t believe in them,” I say snatching the book back and marking my page.
“Right so if I told you I was one what would you say?” she asks rolling her eyes.
“I’d say prove it or are you going to eat me?” I smile.
“No I don’t eat humans stupid, I’m not damn vampire.” She sighs opening the lace of her boot and retying it.
“Are you really a werewolf?” I ask inching back a little.
“See your moving away already and I’m still in my human form,” she looks sad and gets up to leave.
“Wait!” I grab her hand, “sorry I didn’t mean too.” She sits back down beside me looking a little fragile now.
“Can we go somewhere more private to talk?”
Nodding I climb off my bed slipping on some shoes, I grab some water and apples and we drive out to breakers point. A quiet part of the beach with a high rock face, Teegan and I sit quietly for a while.
“This is you guy’s place isn’t it?” she asks looking at me.
“Yeah how do you know?” my curiosity piquing, I am sitting on the place where Asher carved our names into the rock last year.
“I can smell him here,” she says smiling at me, my eyebrows shoot up as I look at her. “Yeah I have great sense of smell, sight and hearing” she waves her hand dismissively.
“What does he smell like to you?” I ask biting my lip, I watch her take a few deep breaths and smile.
“Like you mixed with chlorine and musky scent,” her eyes meet mine shining a bright green.
“Like me?” she nods, “yep your scent is sweet not vanilla sweet but a subtle kind of sweet, one you have to search for to find. That’s a good scent to have.”
“Teegan” she looks at me, I feel bad for asking but I have to know, “are you messing with me?”
“No I swear Emery I am not, has your mom ever told you about our grandparents?”
“No not really why?” she sighs and watches the waves crash against the wall for a few minutes.
“Well when they died, they were the last Alpha leaders of our pack. You and I are only children, it’s hard for wolves to have kids, but if they do it’s usually only one. Most families hope for a male to take over but both of us are chicks so I think we disappointed the pack a little.” She snorts a laugh.
“Anyway, my dad told me about our family history after I turned, about four years ago. Everyone is waiting to see if you turn or if you will take after your dad’s side, but our grandparents are from a long line of wolves called, Lupo they come from Italy originally but over the years they have settled all over the world. There is only three main families left and ours is one of them.”
“But how can you find each other?” I ask.
“We don’t anymore our blood is so diluted now it’s hard to find a mate and carry on the lineage. That’s why I came here really, to see if I could find someone who would be able to be my mate, and give me a child but I think your town sucks as far as mates go,” she sighs.
“Yeah you can say that again,” I mutter. Teegan laughs at me shaking her head.
“I think lover boy would be a good mate, he’s strong, protective and has a good scent.” Holding up my hand I stop her from going any further,
“I love you Teegan but if you touch him I will skin you alive,” I warn her. She laughs harder now tears springing in her eyes.
“Not for me Emery for you” she cries. “Damn you really know how to make a girl laugh.”
We sit watching the waves for a while as I mull over the information she just shared,
“Wait so my mom is a wolf!” I ask grabbing her arm and she nods, “but my dad, does he know?”
“I’d like to say yes because it’s kind of hard for us to be married to a human and not give away a few details.”
“Like?”
“Well tonight marks a new moon and the pull to change is very strong, on regular full moons we can resist it if we want but not tonight.” She looks at the sky wistfully.
“So can I see you in your wolf form? Or will you not know me,” I ask wondering how this is possible.
“Sure I’ll know you, I know your scent and I can still understand you but the wolf makes me her bitch for nights like tonight” she smiles.
We spend a few hours walking around the beach as I try to puzzle out what my family truly means, wondering why my mom never told me any of this. I am really annoyed with her right now for this and she ought to have said something but maybe she was waiting for me to change. Part of me finds all this werewolf stuff kind of crazy and unbelievable. I think I should hold off freaking out for a bit because lord knows I want too. My thoughts switch to Asher, wondering if he is having fun at Pine Lake. I am sad though, that he brought Emily to our special place, I remember last year when we spent a week up there just he and I.
He told me it was our spot, the place that friendship would last forever and no mater how old we got and if we drifted apart we promised each other that we would never bring anyone else up there, we even swore a blood oath.
“What are you smiling at?” Teegan asks catching my face.
“Oh just thinking about Asher and I last year up at the lake, making a blood oath” I laugh “you’d think we were in grade school again.”
“A blood oath?” she asks looking worried.
“Yeah when you prick your finger and make a promise to each other.” I trail off not finishing the sentence, trying to shake his face from my mind I turn to her.
“So do you eat when you’re a wolf?”
“Yeah she gets hungry, likes rabbit” Teegan shrugs.
“You talk as if she is someone else entirely.”
“They are, they are their own being but you have to learn to listen to each other and not allow them to dominate you, otherwise they won’t allow you to change back.”
My jaw hangs open as I look at her; shit now it doesn’t sound appealing at all. “So do you fight, mentally I mean?”
“Sometimes, depends on the situation, Rusty can be a little devious when she wants to be.”
“You call her Rusty?” I ask laughing at my cousin.
“Yeah she hates it too, can’t say her real name so Rusty it is.” Teegan smiles as we walk back to the car. At home we watch movies and stuff our faces with barbeque chicken while we wait for night to fall, my dad tells me he is going out with the boys and he will be back later. Teegan and I race up to my room to hang out.
“Is it painful?” I ask looking at her fit body.
“Yeah the first few times but you get used to it, it’s weird waking up naked out in the yard though” she laughs. “I had to fake being drunk a few times with that one.”
“What, how the hell do you come inside if you’re a wolf?”
“I don’t, I sleep in the shed out back, dad made a ‘doggie’ door in the side for me and put a mattress and blankets out there, he can change back when he wants but I am still learning.”
Standing she looks out of my window, watching the moon rise in the sky, “not long now” she whispers.
“Do you need me to stay up all night to wait for you?” I ask feeling a bit afraid for her.
“No just get up at five and let me inside, don’t worry no exercise for you tomorrow you can rest up.”
Fangs and fur