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“You weren’t kidding when you said shifting makes your family weird. Are you sure this party is a good idea?” She watches me warily, as if I’m going to shift any moment.
“Morgan, I have hours left before my shift. I’d like to be a teenage girl a little longer.” Considering how few opportunities I’ve had to feel like a normal teenager.
“Okay,” she concedes uneasily, “but I’m going to stick close. Your scent is still drawing a lot more attention than usual.”
My eyebrows shoot up in surprise. Only then do I take a good look around us. I recognize pack members on sight by this point, which means I can tell with no more than a quick glance that it’s all shifters staring at us. A few guys we’ve gone to school with forever have predatory gleams in their eyes as they take me in.
Yeah, that’s definitely not normal.
Still, friendship instincts manage to override everything else. “I’m fine, Morgan, really. Spend your time with Rory while you can, okay?” Because in just a few days, Rory’s leaving to join summer training for college cheerleading. And there’s a chance the two of them will never get to be together again.
“Tess…”
“I’m just going to go to the bathroom, and then I’ll go dance with Jade. No one’s going to bother me, and I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”
“I don’t think—”
“Go!” I snap a little harder than I mean to. “I’m sorry. I just want to enjoy this, you know?” I ask, my voice much softer this time. Morgan’s been my best friend practically our whole lives; she’s only looking out for me.
“I get it,” she answers so softly I almost can’t hear her over the noise. “Just don’t go anywhere alone with any of the pack, okay?”
She squeezes my arm and disappears back the way we came, leaving me with a squeezing sensation in my chest. There are always rumors about wolves who mark non-mates before their true mates find them, sometimes even against a new shifter’s wishes, but I never imagined myself at risk of anything like that.
I tilt my head down and sniff, desperately trying to smell whatever it is the rest of the pack is smelling, but nothing seems different to me.
The bathroom finally clears, leaving me next in line. I step in and slam the door closed behind me, locking it quickly now that Morgan has inadvertently managed to spook me.
My chest heaves as I look at myself in the mirror, studying the flush of my cheeks. The weight of the day is finally starting to sink in, and with it, bringing back the pain from earlier. I wince as I try to shake out the tightness of my limbs.
I can feel more than just my body preparing to shift as I stare at myself. The dark circles under my eyes are barely concealed by Morgan’s makeup job.
Something bigger inside of me feels different. More intense. Sharper. But I can’t even begin to put a name to it.
“Hurry up!” Someone bangs on the outside of the bathroom door, startling me.
I rush to do my business and get out of there, not wanting the kind of attention that comes from being a bathroom hog at a party. And then—because I’m the most predictable teenage girl ever—I do exactly what I said I would do and go find Jade on the dance floor.
Chapter Three
Tess
Tasha is waiting, hunched on the front stoop, when Morgan pulls up in front of my house. I sink down a little more in the back seat. The sun is starting to peek over the horizon, and for the first time since I woke up yesterday morning, my body doesn’t hurt at all.
It’s almost time to shift, and I’m cutting it really close.
My face flushes as I watch Tasha stand. Even from here, I can see the disappointment in the tensing of her shoulders. I can already imagine how much crap she’s going to give me for being this careless.
The thing you don’t understand about high school parties until you’ve truly been to one is that they exist in a sort of time vacuum. Like there’s no outside world left and no clocks to keep track of. My feet are practically numb from hours spent dancing with Jade.
I don’t think anyone besides us was even sober as they danced. I also don’t think they were having nearly as much fun.
For the first time, I felt like a real high school student. Like I wasn’t the girl who lost her parents. The quiet wallflower with her nose in the books. Too bad I waited until I wasn’t actually a high school student anymore to feel like one for the first time.
“Someone’s in trouble,” Rory jokes from the front seat.
Morgan snorts, knowing the truth about my sister waiting up. Neither of us says anything back to her.
“Call me later,” Morgan says, meeting my eyes in the rearview mirror.
