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“What’s the matter, Little Red Riding Hood? Afraid of the big bad wolf?”
Anger flared at the way he mocked me, and I shoved all my latent fear and anxiety down in a box and locked it. I’d had enough of that bastard thinking he could push me around, making me feel things I didn’t want to feel.
“Fuck you!” I gave him a one-fingered salute before stalking off to my bedroom.
The look of surprise on his face cheered me up no end and I smiled to myself as I kicked the door shut behind me. Bet you weren’t expecting me to answer back, asshole.
After the events of this afternoon, I needed a moment. Now that the shock of seeing Silas shift had worn off, I realized it didn’t matter. He was still Silas. And he’d saved us - me - from the mountain lion. If he’d been a human, the mountain lion could have injured or even killed one of us.
It wasn’t like I could blame him for not telling me what he was; what they all were. They probably assumed, rightly, that discovering the truth would frighten me. And it had at first.
Watching a man shift into a monstrous wolf was fucking terrifying. Seeing him turn back into a naked man was…well… It might have been freezing out there, but the cold had had little effect on Silas.
He was…impressive. Not that I’d looked. Much… At least I’d tried not to. But honestly? It had been hard not to. Anyway, I wasn’t thinking about that. Nope.
I sighed, wondering if I should grab a shower to warm up, when there was a faint knock on the door.
It was Cole checking up on me. “You OK in there, sweetheart?”
“Yeah. I’ll be out in a minute.”
“OK, I made hot chocolate. And we have a tree to decorate.”
Hot chocolate! It had been years since I’d had it! And it had also been years since I’d decorated a tree.
Something settled deep inside. My whole life had been at the whim of others. First, my father, who had no business being a father. Then, when he finally checked out, I ended up with Brent. He pretended to care when, really, he never cared at all. I was just chattel to him. Someone to abuse whenever he felt the urge.
Maybe if I’d been stronger, I could have escaped sooner. I did try telling a school nurse about the abuse once, but she left and nothing happened. After that, I gave up.
Until the day I decided I couldn’t do it anymore.
That version of me had found the strength to leave. Coming here had changed everything. Shown me a different life. One where I was safe, happy, and cared for.
Maybe the guys planned to kick me out once the weather eased up, but that was a problem for another day. I’d deal with it then. For now, I was stuck here. I refused to continue being afraid of my own shadow.
Shifters existed. Yes, I’d never met one before, but they were just people like me. Born that way. Albeit with slightly different biology. Some would argue they were better than humans.
But all that was irrelevant.
The guys had been so kind and nice to me; it was unfair of me to judge them for being different. OK, so I had no issues judging Tanner for acting like a complete dick 99% of the time, but Cole and Silas didn’t deserve my ire.
Fuck it. I needed to woman up and get my butt out there. Hiding in here wasn’t doing me any favors. It was time to take my life back.
I jumped off the bed, straightened my spine, and headed into the living room to get some answers.
Cole
Eva strode in with a determined look on her face. She stood and looked at the three of us, her arms folded across her chest. What the fuck? Who was this woman and what had she done with our timid little human?
Silas glanced over at me in surprise, but Tanner just snorted with amusement. I had no idea what was going through his mind, but I wasn’t sure what to think.
This girl was not the same girl who’d trembled against me in the clearing, her face white with shock. Back then, I’d been worried Eva was going to have a breakdown. She’d clearly gone through a lot of shit none of us knew about. There was only so much a person could take before they broke apart.
The Eva standing before us wasn’t broken. She’d come in here looking for a fight and it felt like we were about to get our asses handed to us on a plate. It was unexpected, to say the least.
I’d been concerned, I freely admitted, that it would take months for Eva to trust us. There had been a few occasions where she relaxed enough to let us see who she was before she met that fucking bastard, Brent, and had all the fight knocked out of her. But until now, she'd still had her guard up.
It was a joy to see her standing tall and with fire in her eyes. I was proud that she could experience something as shocking as seeing a man shift into a wolf for the first time and not lose the plot completely. The moon knew it was a lot to take in.
