Chapter 4
Selene woke up when Allie gave her a gentle shake. Blinking in the morning light, Selene asked, “What time is it?”
“Seven forty-five. I’m headed to school.”
It took Selene a moment to get her bearings. School. Right. They weren’t in Los Angeles anymore. Yesterday was moving day, and today was day one of a new house, new town, and new life, which also meant new routines.
“Do you need a ride?” She sat up and rubbed her tired eyes. She felt like someone had poured sawdust into them, and her body ached like she’d been hit by a bus. But why? Her mind didn’t seem to want to answer the question—it was currently filled with dust bunnies.
“Josh is picking me up,” Allie told her.
Josh.
The previous night came rushing back. Selene peered at Allie, hoping it had all been a delusion. “Josh the werewolf?”
She hoped Allie would laugh and call her crazy.
“Auntie Sel,” Allie sighed. “Are you going to be weird about who Josh is? I really need you to not be weird.”
The world is still upside down and inside out. There’s your answer about why you’re so messed up this morning.
“Not weird,” Selene lied through her teeth. “I just needed to make sure I didn’t dream it.”
But maybe if I go back to sleep and wake up a second time, it will be a dream.
“Nope.” Allie smiled. “No dreams. It’s all real.”
Allie made that declaration like it was the best thing ever.
“Great.” Selene tried to return the smile but failed. “And we’re having dinner with his . . . pack leader Saturday night?”
“Yep.” Allie nodded. “I’m so excited! I’ll see you after school.”
Allie hugged her and skipped out of the room. Selene had never seen someone so excited to go to school. No doubt it had little to do with returning to class and a lot to do with the wolf-boy giving her a ride.
As much as denying this strange new reality was tempting, Selene didn’t slink back under the covers. The best remedy she could muster for too much weird was balancing it with a normal routine. And she liked getting a morning jog in whenever she had the time.
Today she had nothing but time and a shaky grip on her sanity. There was still the U-Haul trailer to unpack, but that could wait until after hard pavement and sweat cleared her head.
A cup of coffee and a change of clothes later, she was outside, charging along the three-mile route she’d mapped out on her phone.
The fast clip she forced herself to keep up as she ran through the neighborhood helped some but failed to completely quell her anxiety.
She couldn’t stop herself from imagining that a werewolf might bolt from behind some bushes and chase her down the block.
At least the bright sunlight guaranteed she was safe from vampires.
Vampires?
Slowing to a walk because the abrupt surge of her heartbeat came from a bolt of panic rather than her pace, Selene tried yet again to wrap her mind around Allie’s confession and Josh’s revelation.
She wasn’t sure how to accept any of it.
The world she’d always known was a lie .
. . Well . . . maybe not a lie, but a half-truth.
Now the curtain was drawn back, exposing what still seemed impossible.
Magic. Monsters. Apparently they’d been here all along.
And Allie was dating one of them. Selene pulled in a deep breath and let it ease out of her lungs.
Her gaze roamed over the colors and contours of the neighborhood.
She got why Emma adored this town with its gingerbread Victorians and cozy bungalows, every street canopied by ancient oaks and towering pines, abundant in parks and hiking and biking trails. Almost too good to be true.
It is, she mused as she walked.
Avondale was ruled by forces Selene couldn’t begin to understand. Its perfection wasn’t an accident.
Did that mean it wasn’t safe? How could it be when Allie was dating a werewolf? Should they move? Allie would hate her, and Emma had made this town their home, but would Emma have changed her tune about Avondale’s perfection if she knew Allie was involved with “the other side,” as she’d put it?
First love. Talk about a force of nature.
Selene knew trying to forbid Allie from seeing Josh would only make things worse.
Nor could she turn back time and prevent Allie and Josh getting together, but she could and would do everything in her power to keep Allie from harm.
The tricky part would be doing that without driving a wedge between her and Allie.
They were still sorting out the changes in their relationship.
She couldn’t only be “fun Auntie Sel” now that Emma was gone.
As Allie’s guardian, Selene needed to make rules and stick to them.
She remembered what it was like to be a teenager.
Emotions volatile and unpredictable as a cyclone.
Being a parent meant that sometimes Allie would see her as the bad guy.
Moving away might be the right solution, but she wouldn’t make that decision until she understood why Emma wanted to raise her daughter in Avondale despite its supernatural baggage.
So for now: damage control. In this new world, Selene didn’t have the knowledge required to make rules for Allie. Selene needed answers. But how was she supposed to find them? She rounded the corner and headed back toward home.
“Morning, Selene!” A friendly voice pulled her out of her thoughts. “Welcome to Avondale.”
Her next-door neighbor, Marley, waved to her with a dirt-covered hand. He was working in his enormous garden.
Grateful for a break from her existential crisis, she waved back as she started up her front walk. “Hi, Marley.”
“Omelets a la Tim with fresh herbs from our kitchen garden this morning,” he called. “Had breakfast yet? We’d love to get to know you better.”
Protein, strong coffee, and human beings sounded like the lifesavers she needed.
And Marley was right—they should get to know each other.
They’d met a few times while Selene was working through the logistics of her move, but she had yet to visit their home.
Having friends, especially right next door, might save her sanity.
Plus, she’d never had someone cook for her from their own kitchen garden.
“Are you sure I won’t be imposing?” Selene asked.
“We’d love to have you join us.” Marley beamed.
“Let me grab a quick shower, and I’ll be over.”
“Fantastic!” He snipped herbs in a few efficient, graceful movements and headed into the house.
“We’re in the kitchen!” Tim called when she rang the doorbell twenty minutes later.
She stepped into the house and saw plants everywhere. Hanging from the ceiling, spilling out of sconces, climbing wrought iron trellises. Along with the living flora were bundles of dried herbs—lavender, rosemary, others she couldn’t identify—that gave a pungent edge to the mélange of fragrances.
Selene wandered through the greenery of the living room to the kitchen. It was obvious Marley and Tim’s house was designed by the same architect as Emma’s—the layout was identical—yet she could swear their home was bigger on the inside.
“How’s our new favorite neighbor?” Tim smiled when Selene entered the kitchen, which also seemed larger than hers.
He was stationed at the stove, burly and bearded. The omelets he was preparing smelled divine.
Selene glanced around the fully stocked gourmet kitchen, admiring its gleaming Viking appliances. “I confess, I have kitchen envy. This is incredible.”
“We both love to cook.” Tim grinned and flipped an omelet.
Tim worked in real estate—he’d sold Emma her house, and Emma told Selene that knowing he and Marley lived next door was one of the reasons she’d purchased it.
According to Emma, they were the best kind of neighbors: friendly and helpful but never intrusive.
“Sit down, sit down.” He shooed her toward the kitchen table. “I’ll have these finished in a jiffy.”
“Yes, come keep me company.” Marley beckoned from where he was already seated.
He stood as she joined him, kissing her on both cheeks before pulling out her chair. The couple was a study in contrasts. Tim was all bulk, tall and built like a pro-wrestler, where Marley was lean, with the litheness of a dancer.
“Fresh-squeezed orange juice, my dear?” Marley asked.
Selene nodded, and he set a juice glass before her and poured the pulpy orange liquid from a pitcher full to near overflowing. “What do you have on tap today?” Marley asked.
Making sure my niece’s boyfriend has gotten his rabies vaccination.
“Not much,” she said. “Unpacking, mostly.”
“Ugh. Unpacking is so tedious.” Tim transferred the fluffy egg creations to three plates and carried them to the table.
Marley brought over a plate of bacon. “Do you eat meat?”
“I do,” Selene said. “Allie’s the vegetarian, but I suspect I’ll eat less meat now if I’m cooking for the two of us. God, this smells great!”
She grabbed a piece of bacon and happily crunched it.
“Are you settling in okay?” Marley asked. “How’s Allie?”
“Allie seems good,” Selene answered. “At least I think so, but . . . well, there’s this . . .”
Selene trailed off, not sure if she should bring up her new parenting concerns on her first visit. She might never get omelets and bacon again.
Tim laughed and sat down. “Worried about the new boyfriend?”
“You know about Josh?” She gaped at them. “But Allie told me they were dating in secret. Emma didn’t know.”
Marley and Tim exchanged a long look that made her skin prickle.
“We might have seen Josh sneaking out of Allie’s room one night when Emma was at the work conference in San Francisco,” Tim confessed.
“It was giving Romeo and Juliet vibes,” Marley said with a wink. In a more serious voice, he continued. “We confronted Allie about it, and she promised she was going to tell Emma as soon as she got home, but . . .”
“She never came home,” Selene said quietly, her chest tightening.