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Bjorn stood up straight and ran his hand through his hair. He did that any time he was nervous. “I’m not so sure that’s the truth.”
“What?” This was a turn I was not expecting. “I don’t understand why you’d even bring that up.”
Bjorn looked at Stephanie, who’d just appeared in the office doorway. She handed him a thick manila envelope. He nodded in response and removed the contents.
My thundering heart was the only sound in the room.
“Maybe we should give them some privacy?” Bibi suggested.
“No.” I still had no idea what was on those papers, but I didn’t want to be alone right now. Even though I assumed she meant Bjorn would stay to tell me whatever horrible thing he’d unearthed about my family. But everyone I cared about, who’d held me up and helped me succeed since I’d come to Sunset Springs, was here. Soon, Bjorn’s family would be my family. We would know the good, bad, and ugly about each other in no time at all. “You’re my family now. My pack. I need you.”
Bibi nodded. I had this sinking feeling I was the only one in the room who had no idea what happened next.
Bjorn slid the papers across the desk. “When I got the Hudaknocker back from your mom, something about her seemed different. Maybe because I was no longer caught in the vortex ofThe Scoop, maybe because I’d spent so much time with you. Every time I mentioned shifters, she got nervous. Not something a human would pick up on. She might not have even realized what she was doing. Besides giving me the Hudaknocker, she didn’t give me any answers. In fact, I left with a lot more questions than I came with. And I had a feeling that answering those questions would tie this whole thing together.”
My brain wasn’t fully processing what I was reading. It was a certificate of adoption. My mom’s name was on it, along with Michael’s. The baby mentioned on the certificate had a different name from mine, but my birthday was listed. Under gender, there was another designation. Human or shifter.
The shifter box was checked. And then, on the fill-in line, someone had addedwolf.
I scanned the room, looking for a clue as to where I already knew this was going. Everyone’s eyes were glued on me. I took a deep breath and looked at the next piece of paper, which was a certificate of name change.
The State of California officially recognized that the adopted baby girl’s name had been changed to Marissa Marie Marlowe. Suzanne and Michael Marlowe had both signed the certificate as her legal guardians.
I knew those signatures well because I’d learned to forge them like a fucking pro in high school.
“How?” I could barely form words or thoughts. Feelings. It was like I’d stepped into someone else’s life. I literally felt like I didn’t know this person. But it was me who’d been born as Caryn Nicole. Which I had to admit seemed like an awfully pretty name. I was born to a very young mom who trusted my parents with the most precious thing she could ever give them. Me.
Caryn was a wolf shifter, and like me, she had no idea. I looked up at Bjorn. “How did I not know?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to tell you like this.” He dipped his head, and his hands were knotted together. “I meant to tell you in private before our ceremony. If it makes you change your mind about me, I understand. This is a lot, and it wasn’t what I was expecting to discover when I started looking. But something about you…always seemed a little more than human. That night in the woods, I thought you were gonna shift. You started acting like you would, and when you didn’t…”
He shook his head. “I think this is why Suzanne’s been gunning so hard for all of us since you told her that you became a contestant onThe Mating Game. She knew you’d discover her secret, and she’d do whatever it took to stop you.”
Bibi came around to my side of the desk and put her hands on my shoulders, kissing me on the top of my head. “I keep debating what I should say. Welcome, congratulations. I’m sorry…none of it seems right. This can’t be easy. But we’re here for you, Marissa. We won’t be able to answer all your questions, but I, for one, am certainly willing to try. I’m sure Bjorn is too. And if you choose to shift, we’ll be there with you.”
“That’s what I don’t understand.” Words were coming easier, but this wasn’t going to just sink in. A revelation like this would hit me like a ton of bricks when I least expected it. “How can I be thirty-two years old and have no idea that I’m not human until now?”
“We had that same question when we discovered this,” Bjorn said.
“There are places that can train toddlers and little kids to ignore their shifter instincts,” Stephanie added. “They’re expensive and controversial. Some think they’re completely bogus, that there’s no way to train a shifter not to be a shifter, but in your case, it must have worked.”
I remembered those trainings. My mom had called the teacher my tutor, and it seemed totally normal. We lived in a bougie neighborhood, and pretty much everyone had some extra help—or lessons, as we called them—as soon as they started talking. We were expected to be exceptional. I never considered I had been perfecting pretending to be human.
Forget ton of bricks, this hit like a baseball bat to the face. “What do I do now? I don’t even know who I am.”
I buried my face in my hands. All I could think about was Caryn Nicole. Me. A little girl who was never allowed to find out who she really was.
Bjorn came around to the other side of the desk and knelt beside me. “You don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to,” he said softly. “I know you’re in shock. I debated even telling you, but you deserved to know who you really are. Of course, you’re amazing as Marissa, but there are so many things you have yet to learn. It’s easy for me to say this is really fucking exciting, but I know how scary it must be.”
“Scary isn’t the right word. I’m pissed off, sad, like I found out someone died, and weirdly it’s me. I’m sorry if that was insensitive.” I looked up at Bibi.
“No. We’ve all had a lot of shocks today.” She gave me a sad smile.
“I have no idea what the hell I’m gonna say when I see my mother. I mean, Suzanne.” I stared at that adoption certificate and then again at the name change. It didn’t become any less surreal.
“You don’t have to figure it out now,” Bjorn said. “It’s probably something you won’t be able to do on your own. But I’ll be here for you, Marissa, every step of the way. That is, if you still want me after this.”
I chuckled sadly. “And I thought the worst thing that could possibly happen today is that you would ghost me.”
