Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
T hat night at work at Tex’s Grill, my best human friend, Alison, couldn't stop talking about a bonfire. "You should come! It's your birthday, live a little."
I shook my head, not in the mood to explain why I didn't want to go. I’d have to ask my mom, which really meant asking Curtis, and I’d probably be denied, anyway. There’s no point in making friends outside the pack…
"Come on, Amy," she said. "It'll be fun! Just a few of us hanging out around a fire, listening to music, roasting marshmallows...you know you want to!" She grinned at me, her blue eyes pleading.
I did want to go, and that was why I sighed. I’d always read a lot, but my favorites were books where heroines led normal, quiet lives filled with friends and families, the kind of books that let me soak in the details. The thought of making s’mores surrounded by teenage drunken revelry was delightful.
Then I thought about Nathan Longroad and my stepfather's words earlier that day. Maybe getting out of the house for a while would help me clear my mind. If I went with Alison and her friends, I should be the only shifter. Wolves didn't exactly hang around humans. Most of our pack preferred to stay close to home, venturing to town—and to this diner—only when they needed to.
Most of our pack felt they had everything they needed right on pack lands.
I didn't know why I struggled so much to fit in and just be happy. But maybe I could pretend to be like Alison for a night. "Okay. Let's go."
Alison squealed in delight and threw her arms around me in a hug before running off to serve another round of decaf.
I smiled as I watched her go.
Maybe this bonfire was just what I needed.
* * *
In the better-to-ask forgiveness-then-permission vein, I didn’t talk to my mother about the evening’s plans except to say I had to work late.
We arrived at the bonfire half an hour later, and my heart raced as I took in the scene. The fire was huge, casting an orange light into the dark sky. People huddled around the bonfire, talking and laughing; some of them had brought guitars and were playing music. I felt a grin come over my face at the sight. It was like something out of a book or a teen movie.
Alison grabbed my hand and pulled me closer to the fire. We sat down on a log and she handed me a stick, producing a bag of marshmallows with an expression of triumph. As we talked and laughed, I felt myself relax for the first time all day.
But then something changed. My skin prickled as if someone was watching us. I could sense another wolf’s presence nearby—a powerful wolf. I turned to look at the faces around the bonfire.
“What is it?” Alison asked, her eyes growing wide as I continued to search the crowd.
I shook my head and turned back to her. “Nothing. I thought I saw someone that I knew, but I was wrong.”
“Okay.” I could tell that she didn’t believe me. But she didn’t press, and we continued to eat our s’mores and chat around the fire.
"How come you never come out with us?" Alison asked me. "Isn't this fun?"
"It is fun," I said, thinking about how within a few weeks, the full moon would rise, and I'd probably never see Alison again.
I couldn't change what I was.
No matter how much I wished I could.
Then I sensed the wolf's presence again. I glanced around the faces around the fire. Even the boy bent over his guitar, playing beautiful music with his fingers moving deftly over the strings, seemed suspect now. The once-cozy firelight cast flickering shadows over the faces surrounding me and made them seem malevolent.
Had Nathan found me again? Nothing would surprise me. The man was insane. There were stories about the things he'd done to people who crossed him when he was just a teenager. I'd imagine the intervening years of being outcast from his pack in an unfriendly world hadn't sweetened his disposition.
Then I saw the boy who was watching me from the shadows. The moment his eyes met mine, a spark ran down my spine, and I stiffened. He had intensely blue eyes, a clean-cut jaw, a mop of dark hair. He pulled his hands free of his hoodie and raised them in a gesture of peace. It might have been more calming if he hadn’t been so big: tall and broad-shouldered, lean at the waist. His black hoodie and gray sweatpants just highlighted his athletic build.
When he sat down beside me on the log, Alison gave me a big grin and stood. Her face said she thought she was doing me a favor, and then I realized how everyone else looked at him in admiration. He carried himself like an alpha and even the humans reacted.
He leaned toward me, and his lips dipping near my ear made me clench and freeze in an entirely new kind of tension, one I'd never felt before.
"My name is Brennan," he whispered. "And I mean you no harm. We can both be... normal... tonight."
When I looked up at him, he gave me a small, certain smile. “You like pretending that you're normal.”
By normal, he meant human.
“And you do too?”
“I like it more than I should,” he said, finally looking away from me and gazing into the fire. I let out a breath, feeling light-headed from the way he’d looked at me. The flickering flames cast shadows over his perfect profile: a determined jaw, a long, straight nose, his pillowy lips.
If he were from a pack who were our allies… then meeting him wouldn’t get me in trouble. It might be the start of something good. I plucked at the hairband around my wrist as I asked, "Who are you?"
"I already told you. Brennan." He grinned at me as if I were an amnesiac and it were adorable.
"You know what I mean. What pack?" I lowered my voice, although it felt like we were having an intimate conversation right now with the guitar music drowning out most conversation.
“It doesn't matter tonight.”
“It always matters, Brennan.” Some packs were always at war. Our worst enemy could be sitting right beside me.
“You never told me your name,” he reminded me.
“Amelia.”
“Like Amelia, who showed everyone how to fly?”
Amelia Earhart was the first female aviator to cross the Atlantic and fly solo across the Pacific Ocean. She was only five feet tall, but she was fearless. I was short too, and I’d always wished I’d been named after her. I decided to let Brennan believe it.
The way he was looking at me made me feel like we were the only two people at the bonfire. The knot in my stomach unraveled. I could breathe for the first time all day.
I had to remind myself that I shouldn't be so attracted to him. I definitely shouldn’t feel safe around him. And yet…
He leaned forward, and he was so close that I could feel his breath on my cheek.
I imagined that we'd known each other for a very long time, that he was the boy next door or the popular boy in our school, that I was in a movie. I let my eyes drift shut, hoping he would kiss me.
With my eyes closed, my senses were even more intense, and I could feel him shift until his lips were a breath away from mine.
Then there was a loud popping noise from the fire, and the sound of logs tumbling. Flames burst toward us.
His arm swept around me, yanking me from the log, and it seemed as if we were a dozen feet away from the fire among the dark shadows of the trees in seconds. His sweatshirt sleeve briefly blazed with sparks, and he beat them out with the other hand. He barely winced, his face stoic.
"Are you burned?" I asked.
He shrugged, gave me a slight grin. "Sorry. I might have overreacted."
I couldn't help smiling back. We were standing in the shadows of the pines, and everyone else was settling back in around the fire. But the cool air on my face felt welcome. Wolves ran hot, and I could tell I was pink-faced from both the flames and from flirting with Brennan.
"You saved me," I said, only half-mocking. "Now take off your sweatshirt so I can see if you’re hurt."
He rolled his sweatshirt up obediently. His t-shirt rose with the hoodie, and I glimpsed his hard-edged abs, of the cut of his hip bones just rising above his jeans. There was the faintest suggestion of a dark happy trail below his belly button, and I memorized his perfect torso before he had pulled the sweatshirt off and his shirt had fallen back into place.
He grinned like he had caught me looking, but he didn't say a word.
“Oh, it burned you.” As I saw the burns on his arm, I grabbed his wrist. “Why didn't you say anything?”
"I was trying to look tough," he returned. "Please be impressed."
It was so unexpectedly honest, such self-deprecating humor that I never heard from men in my pack, that I laughed, and he looked at me as if he enjoyed hearing me laugh.
"I'm very impressed," I promised him, although it had nothing to do with his stoicism or even his protective impulses.
I just... liked Brennan.
"Let me get you some bandaids," I said. "Alison is a Girl Scout. I'm sure she's got a first aid kit in the car."
Sure enough, I found the first aid kit in Alison's tidy trunk. I carried it back to Brennan.
He was still waiting in the shadows. The two of us sat down on a log, intimately close.
There were no other people around us, no more parties in the woods. The only sounds were the trees creaking in the wind, and I could feel the night closing in.
I hoisted the first aid kit. “Let me see.”
He showed me the burns on his arm. It felt strange, but nice, to take his arm and rest it in my lap. I was keenly aware of his body so close to mine, of the way he closed his eyes and relaxed into my touch as I spread burn salve over the wounds.
“You’re an excellent nurse. It feels nice to be taken care of.”
It felt nice taking care of him, which was odd when I felt so tired from taking care of Aiden and Rose, trying to protect them from Mom and Curtis. Aiden was so hot-headed and required a lot of protecting, and Rose was desperate for their approval.
"Anytime," I said, sounding cool despite the wild beating of my heart. "Anything else?"
"You could kiss me," he suggested. “I’ve heard that kisses are very healing.”
I laughed to cover my surprise… and the sudden rush of desire I felt. I’d never had such a visceral reaction to a man. I wanted to fall into him, to feel his arms wrap around me.
“You want me to kiss it better like you’re a child?” I asked archly.
He gave me another flash of a smile. I wrapped my fingers around his wrist and raised it to my lips, carefully pressing a kiss to his inner wrist.
“I feel better already,” he promised me.
I felt a little silly, wondering if he would think I was a dork.
Then he leaned in and kissed me.
It was a delicate kiss, softer than I would have expected, his lips just brushing against mine. His body leaned into me, and I pressed back against him.
When his arm settled around my shoulders, I didn't want to stop.
Brennan's mouth moved across mine in a way that reassured me, his lips soft as the two of us slowly explored each other. He pulled back just slightly and let me set the pace. He smelled delicious, like the pine of the forest itself.
I could stay here kissing him all night, but I wasn’t even supposed to be here.
I pulled back, breaking the kiss. This was a mistake, maybe even a dangerous mistake. I had never felt like this before, and I felt confused by how my body ached to keep kissing him.
This felt like the stories I’d heard about the mating bond. I’d always assumed they were nonsense.
"I have to go," I said. "I'm sorry."
I stood up and handed him his sweatshirt. Brennan looked up at me with startled, intense blue eyes. Then his face shifted into a faint smile as if he was about to make a joke, trying to put me at ease again.
I wanted so badly to stand there and keep flirting with him. Instead, I turned and fled back to the campsite.
Alison leapt up when she saw me, her eyes sparkling. "How was it?" she gushed, grabbing my arm. "Everyone has a crush on Brennan. Even the guys, I think... he's so..."
She sighed, as if she didn't have words, but I knew what she meant. Brennan exuded a sense of power and confidence that was intoxicating even to humans who didn't realize the wolf lurked just under his skin.
And the handsome face and easy smile didn't hurt, either.
Even though I had said nothing, Alison must have noticed my expression because she flipped, suddenly turning fierce. "You seem sad. Did he do anything to you? Are you alright?"
She craned her head, turning as if she was about to find him and fly at him.
"I'm fine," I promised. "I just....it feels weird with him."
"Weird how?"
"Weird like I... like him." I shook my head. "It's complicated. I have to get home, my mom is going to kill me."
"Um. Okay," she said, clearly not understanding my wild moods but willing to go with it anyway. "Did you get his number?"
"There's no point," I said.
"There's no point," she muttered, as if she couldn't believe me. "All right. I'll be right back, you can meet me at the car."
As I waited in the darkness of the parking lot, able to hear the music and laughter and see the flickering firelight through the trees, all I wanted was to walk back into the light.
And I felt more alone than ever.