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When do you guys want me to meet you there? ~ Tessa

We’re leaving McDonald’s right now. We’ll come pick you up.

K. ~ Tessa

I sat my phone down on my nightstand, shocked it was already 1:37 in the afternoon. I’d practically slept the entire day away. No wonder I’d gotten fired.

* * *

“
I can’t believe this is the closest thing we have to a lingerie shop in this town.” Rachel grumbled in disgust.

“
Oh, wait a minute. Here we go,” Gina said, pointing to a rack near the back. “Look at this little thing.” She squealed, holding up a royal blue see-through tank top and thong set.

“
Tessa, this would look awesome on you!” Rachel gushed, holding it up to my chest.

I felt my cheeks catch fire as I shook my head. “Um, no, I don’t think so.”

“
Why not? We’re all getting something so it’s not like you’ll be the only one dressed
a little provocative
,” Gina said, wiggling her eyebrows.

“
Oh, my God! Kyle would shit if he saw me in this!” Rachel held up another see-through outfit. It was red, but had a pattern of flames that made it up.

Gina scrunched up her nose and flipped her red hair over her shoulder. “I’m not sure that’s exactly what you want him to do.”

I laughed out loud, and it felt so good. I’d missed this—hanging out with friends, girl time.

“
I’m getting this one,” Rachel said, rolling her eyes.

I began leafing through the skimpy outfits that crowded the rack, trying to find one that wasn’t too revealing. A gold camisole with matching boy shorts made out of satin caught my eye.

“
How about this one?” I asked, holding it up for them to see.

“
Hmm, do they have it in any other colors?” Rachel wondered. “Gold will look good on you, but it just reminds me of something a grandma would wear.”

“
I like it. I think it’ll look cute,” Gina said.

“
We’re not trying to go for cute. We’re trying to go for sexy and gold is not sexy.”

“
Well, they have it in light pink, black, baby blue, and purple. Take your pick, Rachel,” I said, flipping through them all.

“
I vote for light pink.” Gina smiled. “With your skin it will look great.”

“
Oh, here! This one has satin and lace,” Rachel said, holding up another outfit with lace along the bust line and satin everywhere else. “It comes in light pink
and
has boy shorts.”

I smiled and took it from her hand. “That’s the one.”

“
All right, now that you two have your outfits… let’s find me something,” Gina muttered.

After we left Sassy’s Boutique Rachel insisted that we all head over to Wal-Mart to get nail polish that matched our outfits.

* * *

Later that night I sat at home on the couch watching an old movie called
The Craft
and wishing Jace had opened my life up to witchcraft instead of werewolfism. Mom sat in the recliner either focusing really hard on her crossword puzzle or really hard on not talking about the full moon last night.

Tires scrunching over random little bits of loose gravel on our concrete driveway caught my attention. Dad was finally home from work. I shifted on the couch and propped my head up with my palm.

“
Hey, honey, how was your day?” mom asked without looking up from her crossword puzzle when he came in through the door.

“
All right,” he replied, sounding tense. He walked straight to the kitchen and sat his lunch box down on the counter.

“
You don’t sound like it was all right. What happened?” mom questioned, concerned.

Dad walked into the living room and stopped in between me and mom. “Well, my day would have been a whole lot better if I hadn’t had to listen to Dewey rant about how irresponsible Tessa has become lately, and how he had no choice but to
fire
her today. Did you know anything about this, Elizabeth?”

My heart rate spiked. I glanced at my dad, meeting his heated gaze reluctantly.

“
Yes, I knew,” mom said, shocking me completely.

“
And what, you’re okay with this? I thought we’d agreed that if she wanted to drive a car, then she had to hold a job in order to pay her own gas and part of her insurance.”

“
We did,” mom said. I kept my mouth shut, confused by my mother’s calmness, and waited for her to continue. “But sometimes situations change,” she said softly.

“
And just what about her situation changed so drastically that would make her getting fired seem okay to you?”

Mom’s eyes flickered to mine, and I swallowed hard wondering if this was the moment when she would reveal everything to him. “Tessa, honey, do you have some place you can spend the night tonight? Rachel’s house maybe?”

“
Uh, yeah. I could text her and find out,” I muttered.

“
Bill, there’s a lot that we have to talk about tonight,” mom insisted, and I saw my father’s face fall.

Dad swallowed hard, obviously taken aback by her demeanor. “Okay.”

I stood and walked to my bedroom, wondering what sort of things my mother had planned on telling him and how he would take it. From the look on his face, he’d already figured out that it was something horrible.

I sent Rachel a text, asking if I could spend the night at her place, and she responded back instantly with a
hell yes!
Fifteen minutes later I’d packed myself a duffel bag, switched from sweatpants to jeans, and was pulling out of my driveway headed toward Rachel’s house, wondering what type of home life I’d be returning to tomorrow.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I waited until around 10:00 the next morning before I decided to go back home to pack for my cabin trip, hoping that neither of my parents would be there. When my house came into view I noticed my mom’s van parked in the driveway. Dread filled my stomach as I came to the conclusion last night must not have went so well if mom was saying home from work today.

The front door slowly creaked open into a silent house. Adrenaline laced my veins and the sound of my heart pounding in my ears became deafening. Worry creased my forehead as I wondered what state I’d find my mother in.

A rustling of blankets and a nose being blown into a tissue sounded from down the hall. I tip-toed to my mother’s bedroom door and knocked lightly.

“
Mom?” I asked in a hushed whisper.

“
Come on in, Tessa.”

Mom was in bed with her blue comforter bunched up underneath her chin and a mountain of used tissues beside her. Her eyes were red and swollen, and her hair was stuck to her face by tears on one side. My heart broke seeing her like this.

“
What happened?” I asked hesitantly.

She sat up a little and patted the side of her bed. “Sit.”

I took in a deep breath and moved to sit at the edge of the bed. “Did he leave you or something?” I asked, praying that wasn’t the case.

“
No, he just doesn’t know what to think right now. He doesn’t believe me, but then again, why would he? I wouldn’t believe me either if I were him.” She paused to blow her nose one more time. “This is why I never said anything to him.”

“
I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say.

“
It’s not your fault; you didn’t know anything either. I feel like such a liar.” She sighed.

I shook my head. “Don’t, you had your reasons for not telling either one of us.”

“
I sure did.” She frowned.

Minutes ticked away between us while I contemplated what I could say that would make her feel better. And that’s when it came to me—a wild idea that just might fix things between them.

“
What if I showed him?” I asked seriously. “It’s the only way to prove to him that what you told him was the truth.”

“
No, absolutely not! I don’t want him frightened of you, Tessa. He could react… badly.” She hesitated in her words as though searching for the right ones, ones that wouldn’t hurt my feelings. I was reminded of my talk with Jace.

“
He’s not going to hurt me… he’s my father,” I insisted without breaking her stare, because it was true—biological or not, he was still my father. “I can come back after the ceremony and prove it to him.”

I watched as a single tear slid down my mother’s flushed cheek. “I’ll think about it,” she said.

I sat with her for a while longer before finally getting up to gather my things for the cabin trip. After saying a murmured goodbye to her, I climbed back into my car and drove over to Jace’s house to pick him up.

* * *

“
You seem on edge. What’s the matter?” Jace asked, throwing his blue Nike duffle bag into the backseat.

“
My mom told my dad the truth about me.” I sighed, looking straight ahead and cranking the engine.

“
I guess I can understand why she did, but I’m assuming from the look on your face right now that he wasn’t too thrilled with the idea, huh?” Jace said, slipping into the passenger seat beside me.

I shook my head. “Not at all. I’m not sure what he had to say about it. All I know is that he didn’t believe her, and she’s spent the entire day lying in bed crying.”

“
I’m sure they’ll work things out. He may never believe her, but I doubt it will be a topic of discussion often,” Jace offered.

I bit my bottom lip, nervous to say what I’d decided to do in order to make things between them better.

“
I’ve decided to prove it to him.” The words came from me in a hushed whisper, but I knew he’d hear me perfectly clear.

Jace’s head snapped to face me. “What? No, we’ve already been through this once. Humans don’t understand about us… he’ll fear you, Tessa.”

“
That’s a risk I’m willing to take if it will make him believe my mom,” I said firmly. “And please don’t try and talk me out of it, because it won’t work. I’ve made up my mind. I’m doing this. If you want me to follow through with everything else you’ve crammed down my throat, then you at least owe it to me to be able to say my goodbyes the way I choose.”

“
Fine, then I’ll be right there beside you,” he said with a growl. This was something he truthfully did not want me to do, but as far as I was concerned… with this situation, what Jace wanted didn’t matter.

I shifted my gaze from the road to him for a split second. “You’re okay with it, then? You’re not going to try and stop me?”

“
I wouldn’t say I’m okay with it, but I can tell that you’ve obviously made up your mind and I’m not going to let you do this alone,” he said, staring straight ahead. “When were you planning on revealing yourself to him?”

“
I guess after the Wolf Moon Ceremony.”
If I live through it
, I added mentally. “On the next full moon.”

“
After the Wolf Moon Ceremony it is then,” Jace agreed. Tension emanated off him in waves, and I wondered how much of it was due to the reminder of the ceremony and how much could be attributed to my sudden decision.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“
Isn’t this place great?” Rachel asked as she led me and Jace around the three bedroom cabin tucked into the woods beside Lake Ever.

The scenery on the way up here had been breathtaking, but it was the view from the large back deck that overlooked the lake that shocked me. It was post card perfect, making me wonder how much money Gina’s family actually had.

Inside, there was not a single throw pillow out of place, and I came to the conclusion that Gina’s parents must have paid an interior decorator loads of money to get everything so magazine like.

“
My mom’s not anal or anything, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Gina said, obviously noticing the look of amazement plastered on my face. “She’s an interior decorator.”

I chuckled a little at how spot on I’d been. “Awesome.”

“
Isn’t she fabulous at it?” Rachel asked in awe.

“
So, which room do we get?” Jace asked unfazed by the décor. I wondered if he was still slightly miffed by the conversation we’d had on the drive up here.

“
Um, whichever one you guys want.” Gina smiled. “It doesn’t matter to me.”

Jace and I chose a room that was off by itself with sort of a rustic feel to it. Browns, blacks, and deep reds seemed to be the color theme.

“
Are you mad?” I asked unable to hold my tongue any longer. This weekend was supposed to be fun, and if he was going to be pissed at me the entire time I figured I should at least know about it up front.

Jace slung our bags on the bed and flashed me a completely forced grin. “Nope.”

I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Stop, okay? I want this weekend to be fun. I need
fun
!” I whined, hoping to get at least a little chuckle out of him.

“
Change into your bathing suits; there’s a hot tub!” Rachel shouted into our room as she passed by in the hall.

“
All right, let’s just drop it and attempt to have some fun this weekend,” he said, wrapping his arms around my waist and drawing me into him.

I grinned up at him and stood on the tips of my toes to peck him on the lips. “Agreed.”