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“Trevor,” Dad said softly, pausing until I looked up to meet his gaze. “Are you in love with her?”
“I just met her,” I scoffed.
“Like that matters with monsters,” he teased. “It also doesn’t answer my question.”
“She’s not my soul mate,” I said, turning back to look at Celia again. “So what does it matter?”
“Not everyone has a soul mate,” he said gently. “Your mother and I weren’t soul mates. Twenty-five years together and not a single spark.”
“You never told me that.” I looked up at him again with wide eyes.
“Because it didn’t matter,” he explained. “We loved each other. I still love her. And I love Carol, too. A spark is just a spark. Some people are born with their souls intact and some aren’t. You can’t spend your whole life searching for something that might not exist, while ignoring something that does.”
“So you’d approve?” I asked him. “Even though she’s technically family?”
“She’s not related to you,” he said, rolling his eyes at me. “Celia is an adult whose mother remarried. The rest is just semantics.”
“It doesn’t change the fact that we don’t even know each other,” I argued.
“I’m not telling you to marry her tomorrow, Trevor. I’m just telling you not to put your future on hold to search for something that might already be right in front of your snout.”
He rubbed his hand across my shoulders a few times before turning and heading out the door, leaving me alone with Celia.
Did I love her already? Could such a thing happen so fast without Fate pushing it along?
I wasn’t sure. But I did know that I would do everything in my power to protect her from now on. Stepsister, friend or more, Celia was mine now.
The rest was just semantics.
Chapter Seven
~Celia~
I woke up groggy, sore and utterly confused. When I was able to blink my eyes open, I realized I was in a hospital and the night came flooding back to me.
Chasing after Trevor through the woods, getting scared and turning back then falling into some kind of pit and hitting my head.
I looked down and realized that Trevor was next to me, his head resting on the bed, his back rising and falling evenly as if he’d fallen asleep there.
My lips curved into a soft smile as I reached out and brushed a strand of hair from his forehead, a soft spark of static lighted against my finger and made me jump in surprise.
I pulled back and blew out a sigh as I closed my eyes again, frustration and anger boiling up inside of me. I was so sick of being scared all the time. Scared of my beast, scared of the thing that attacked me, scared of the woods and this town and my future.
For the millionth time I cursed my beast and what it had done to me. For a moment the night before, I’d actually considered Trevor’s words about embracing the beast and accepting that it was a part of me. But what good was that doing me? It had led me straight into an actual pit of despair in the middle of the woods.
“Hey,” Trevor whispered, sitting up and staring at me with a sleepy smile. “How are you feeling?”
“Sore,” I admitted. “Stupid.”
“Celia, I’m so sorry,” he said, reaching out to cover my hand with his. “I should have come back for you.”
“No, you told me to stay in the clearing, and I should have listened,” I insisted. “This is my fault.”
It was always my fault. My damned impulsiveness and stupidity shooting me in the foot again. It was what had gotten me attacked by that werepanther, and it was what had landed me in the hospital now.
“Your mom went to get you some clothes,” he said. “She should be back soon, and you can probably come home in a little while.”
“What happened?” I asked. “What the hell did you run after last night?”
