Chapter 1 - Emma
I pushed back into the kitchen with a load of dirty plates, my notepad tucked beneath my chin.
“It’s packed out there,” I told Alexis as I dropped the plates next to the sink.
“I know,” Alexis grumbled as she kicked the pipes beneath the sink, glowering. “And the hot water is on the fritz again.”
“Again?” I asked. “I thought they fixed them.”
“You would have thought,” Alexis said. “But you know how cheap Leonard is. Otherwise, he would have fixed the damn dishwasher instead of making us do it by hand.”
“Cheap, among other things,” I mumbled.
Alexis snorted in agreement.
I looked at the sink, filled with soapy, dirty dishes in lukewarm water. Dishes that wouldn’t get cleaned until tomorrow that we desperately needed right now. I wrestled internally before coming to a decision.
“If you wouldn’t mind taking care of my tables for a few minutes, I’ll see if there’s anything I can do,” I said. At Alexis’s surprised, dubious expression, I shrugged. “I’m good with these sorts of things. You know that.”
“All right,” Alexis said. “I’ll come check on you once I’ve gotten rid of some of the rush.”
The instant the door closed and I was alone, I got to work.
Checking to make sure no one was coming in, I dipped my hand in the grimy, gray water and closed my eyes.
At first, nothing happened. Then, I felt wet heat press against my face.
I opened my eyes to see steam rising from the water.
My still-submerged hand should have been boiled red from being in it, but instead, it felt pleasantly warm, as if I had been in the pool on a hot summer day.
I started scrubbing the dishes, moving quickly but meticulously as I cleaned plate after plate.
I had never known where these powers came from, and it wasn’t as though they were particularly impressive to begin with.
The most I could do was make large splashes and heat up water, neither of which was particularly useful, except in situations like this.
I had kept it a secret even when growing up.
My pack had hated magic. Though I wasn’t in the pack any longer, I still had to keep it secret because I was surrounded by humans who didn’t even know the supernatural world existed.
If it weren’t for how desperate we were for clean plates or for how cheap the diner owner was when it came to maintenance, I wouldn’t have even risked showing them here.
At least my powers were subtle and weak enough to explain away.
Alexis’s eyes went wide as she stepped back inside, just as I was finishing up the last plate, sticking it on the drying rack.
“Wow,” she said. “How did you manage to get it so hot?” She tapped the surface of the water and hissed as she shook her hand.
I shrugged. “Got lucky. But it’s not working any longer. At least it lasted for a bit.”
“Well, you’re a miracle worker,” Alexis said.
Not a miracle worker, I thought.
“I’ve got to get going,” I said, glancing at the clock. “It’s—”
“I know, I know.” Alexis flapped her hand dismissively. “See you tomorrow!”
***
I waited outside my car, basking in the fall sun as I stood on the sidewalk. Idling cars lined the road, everyone waiting for the same reason. I watched the large brick building, waiting for the front doors to open.
A bell rang. A minute later, the doors swung wide and a deluge of small children spilled out like a breaking dam, breaking out into mostly ones and twos as they raced toward their respective cars.
My eyes snagged on a tiny girl with my features as she flounced out.
She saw me and broke into a bright smile as I waved at her.
Grace hurried toward me, her auburn hair spilling out behind her.
“Hi, Mom!” she said as she stumbled to a halt, seconds before she would have barreled into me.
“Hi, sweetie,” I said, beaming down at my daughter. “Did you have a good day?”
Grace, the one good thing that came out of my time at Silver Falls. I hadn’t realized I was pregnant until a couple of weeks after I had left. I knew the second I started throwing up in the mornings who the father was. There had only ever been one option there.
No one else knew. Not Grace, not my parents, though they had demanded to know. When I refused to tell them, they threw me out. I hadn’t spoken to them since. And I didn’t regret it for a moment.
The evening went by as normal. I fixed Grace her snack, then let her eat as I did some chores.
A couple of hours later, I fixed dinner, keeping an eye on Grace from the tiny kitchen as she played with some dolls on the living room floor.
I wished I had the funds to get her more toys.
The ones she had were battered and well-loved, some barely holding together at this point.
I shoved those thoughts away as I finished the final preparations for dinner. Grace dropped her toys and scrambled to the table before I had even called to her.
“Hungry?” I teased.
“Starving,” Grace declared melodramatically.
Just as I put her food down in front of her, Grace’s face twisted in obvious discomfort. Her entire body shivered. Alarm rippled through me at the motion.
“Are you all right?” I asked, frowning as Grace grimaced. I tried to keep the alarm out of my voice.
“My arms and legs have been hurting lately,” she said. “They feel all prickly and tingly, and I’m not sure why.”
Apprehension crept up my skin as the words sank in. “Prickly and tingly, how?”
Grace shrugged. “I don’t know, sort of like they don’t fit right in my skin.” She wrinkled her nose. “Does that make sense?”
I did. And it was a lot more problematic than she realized.
I forced a smile on my face. “It’s just a part of growing up, sweetie. Don’t worry about it right now. But if it gets any worse, let me know.”
I turned away so she wouldn’t see the dread and unease on my face even as my fingers curled anxiously.
Grace didn’t know what this meant, but I did. They were the earliest signs of her first shift.
It didn’t make sense. She was too young.
Most kids, if they could shift at all, had their first wolf transformation around ten, not before their sixth birthday.
What made the whole thing worse was that I had no idea how to help her through this.
I couldn’t shift. I’d never experienced the sensation Grace was describing.
For any other motherhood advice I had needed since Grace was born, I had been able to go online and look up information or ask a coworker.
But shifters were a guarded secret, kept away from the general public.
There weren’t any websites that I could access easily, and no one in Adobe Creek knew that the sleepy town of Silver Falls, not all that far away, was home to a pack of shifters.
I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t know what to do. I thought I had time. What the hell was I supposed to do here?
You could call her father, a voice in my head pointed out mildly.
I slammed it down immediately, a growl reverberating in my throat at the thought.
I wasn’t calling Elias. I had made it this far without him.
I wasn’t going to go crawling back to him, begging for his help.
Even if I wanted to, he didn’t even know Grace existed.
How the hell was I going to explain that he’d had a secret daughter he knew nothing about for the past five years?
He would probably just laugh and reject her, I thought. There’s no way in hell I’m risking that happening to Grace ever. She deserves better.
Still, that didn’t change the fact that I knew what was coming for Grace, far sooner than I was prepared for, and I didn’t know what to do or how to help her.
I’ll figure it out, I promised myself, taking a deep breath as my fingers curled and uncurled. I’ve figured things out on my own for nearly six years now. That’s not going to change now.
I threw a smile on my face, not wanting to alarm her.
I didn’t want to think about what it meant if she was already showing signs of early shifting.
And I wasn’t going to worry her right now.
She knew about shifting, knew about her heritage.
She had asked about it before, and I had given vague answers.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to approach it once she began shifting.
I thought that I would have a few more years to figure it out.
“Well, I’m sure it will pass soon,” I said. “If you notice any more of these symptoms, let me know. Okay?”
Grace nodded. I kept moving around as normal, even as those worries continued to swirl and plague me. We went through our nightly routine for going to bed.
I tucked Grace in and pushed her hair back as she nestled beneath the covers.
“Good night, sweetie,” I said, kissing her on the forehead. “I—”
A knock pierced through the tranquility of the house. I straightened, turning to look in the direction of the door. Apprehension prickled along my skin as I stared out, wondering who could be coming to bother me at this hour.
“What’s wrong?” Grace asked. Her eyes were wide as they searched my face. I tried to keep a calm, reassuring expression as I smiled down at my daughter, not wanting to alarm her any more than I already had.
“Probably nothing,” I said, smoothing down her hair as I plastered a smile on my face. “Why don’t you go to sleep? And no sneaking out of bed.”
Grace grimaced, telling me she had been planning on doing just that. I gave a knowing smirk, closing the door behind me as I stepped out and headed toward the front.
Dark shapes moved beyond. Unease twisted my insides as I stepped closer.
I opened the door, and the world seemed to stand still as I stared into the face of the shifter I had hoped I would never see again.
He was even taller than I remembered, his shoulders broad enough that they were almost too wide for the door frame.
He loomed over me, his muscles rippling, his dark, shaggy hair framing his attractive features, with a sharp square jaw and piercing blue eyes you could drown in.
My breath caught as I stared up at the man I had never expected to see again, had never wanted to see again.
“Hi, Emma,” he said. “We need to talk.”