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“You don’t—” I stopped short, realizing my tone was accusatory. “I thought Colton and the goon squad were helping with that.”
“They are,” she said. “But it’s still hit or miss every month if I’m going to rage out or not.”
Since I’d been born with my wolf, I’d never experienced what she was going through, so I wasn’t sure if I could offer any help. But it seemed strange to me that she was still struggling with the change.
I pulled into the driveway and barely had the car in park before Celia opened the car door and rushed into the house. For a minute I sat there, staring at the front door wondering if there was anything I could do to help her. Though I had a feeling she wouldn’t accept help from me anyway.
There was so much anger in her. It practically radiated from her skin. And as I thought about that, I realized that was probably why she wasn’t melding with her beast. If she hated it, the beast inside would sense that, and there was no way for them to work together to make things easier on them both.
But I doubted that was something she wanted to hear. Especially from me. Maybe once she got to know me better, things would get easier between us, and I could show her how to make things easier between herself and her beast as well.
Then again, the beautiful Celia Warner really wasn’t my problem. I was only staying with my dad for a few weeks until I could find a place of my own. Once I’d graduated, I let the lease on my apartment lapse and had planned to move home to Fayshore. But I had the whole world to choose from, and maybe a town with my gorgeous, crabby-ass stepsister wasn’t the best place to settle down after all.
I loved the idea of living in a town where monsters didn’t have to hide who and what we were, but Fayshore was no longer the only option for that. Smyrna, Georgia was now fully integrated as well. Plus, I’d heard there were towns in Italy, Germany and France that were monster friendly, too.
It was actually amazing that with so many places monsters lived openly with humans, it hadn’t gotten out to the media. Then again, who would believe people? Eventually the whole world would know, but for now it was just a select few among billions of humans that were worthy of our secret. And it was probably safer that way for a while.
I went inside and was greeted by my dad and his new wife, Carol. They both hugged me then ushered me into the kitchen to sit with them while they worked together to make dinner.
“Thank you so much for picking up Celia for me,” Carol said. “How was she?”
“She seemed okay,” I answered hesitantly. “I don’t really want to be your spy or anything though.”
“Oh, no!” Carol insisted. “I wasn’t pushing for information. I’m just curious about her overall mood. It seems like she’s constantly forced into the company of adults, and I was hoping that having you around might help.”
“Because I’m not an adult?” I teased. To them twenty-three probably seemed impossibly young, so maybe they both did think of me as a child still. But that was a mistake, and if they were making the same one with Celia, I could understand why she was still struggling a little bit more.
“Well, of course you are,” Dad said, rolling his eyes at me. “But you’re a lot closer to her age than we are. Or any of the other shifters in town.”
“So you invited me to stay here so I could try to get through to her?” I narrowed my gaze at them. “Maybe if you stopped treating her like a kid, she’d respond better.”
“It’s hard,” Carol admitted softly. “She’s been through so much…I just want to protect her.”
“Plus, you two have a lot in common,” Dad added as he walked up next to Carol and wrapped an arm around her waist. “You’ve both lost parents, you’re both shifters, both young. It would be nice if you could become friends.”
It was true that Celia and I had a lot in common…but our experiences were miles apart. I wasn’t sure that was enough for us to really connect on. But I was willing to try. Though I’d have to be careful not to let the attraction that had lit inside of me to get out of control. We were kind of like family, and I couldn’t keep thinking of her as being sexy. That was just a recipe for disaster.
“We’ll see,” I said finally, giving them both a soft smile. “But I’m not going to push her. And you shouldn’t either.”
“That’s all I ask,” Carol said, beaming at me before turning back to the stove. “Dinner will be in about five minutes. Would you mind letting Celia know?”
I blew out a chuckle as I stood up and headed for the stairs. I could warn them off all I wanted to, but Dad and Carol had their own agenda, and I could tell they were going to push until they got what they wanted…or until it blew up in their faces.
Chapter Three
~Celia~
Sitting across the dining room table from Trevor was like some kind of next level torture. What right did any guy have to be that freakin’ hot? Seriously.
I’d never given much thought to boys in general. By the time I was old enough to be interested in the opposite sex, my life was falling apart, and dating was the last thing on my mind.
Trevor was the first man who’d ever sparked any sort of interest in me, but he was my stepbrother, and I wasn’t exactly in a position to consider dating anyway.
This shifter affliction had destroyed the last thread of normalcy I’d possessed. And maybe that was part of why I had such a hard time accepting it.
After living my whole life with an alcoholic father who liked to take his anger out on me and my mom, he’d managed to get himself killed in a single car accident driving home drunk from the bar one night.
I don’t think either of us ever missed him, or were sorry that he was gone, but that car accident had set off a chain of events that had turned my entire world upside down and led us to here. Fayshore. The town of monsters. Where I was currently fighting a crush on my stepbrother.
