When I was a little girl, I used to absolutely hate the day after Christmas. It seemed like the worst day of the year. All of the magic was gone, and we would have to wait a whole 365 days until it was Christmas again. The older I got, the less exciting Christmas became, and it didn’t really bother me that much anymore. It was just another day. However, the day after Christmas was hard for Brice since this had been the first year he’d actually gotten any presents or gotten to celebrate. He was mopey all day, even when Raven heated up the leftovers from the day before and set them out for us.
“Brice, what’s the matter?” Melanie asked, biting into a piece of turkey. “You look so sad.”
“I’m okay,” he said. “I just wish it was still Christmas, that’s all.”
“What’s the matter, Sam?” I asked, once I realized he really was standing in front of me, and it wasn’t just a part of the meditation I had been experiencing for the last few hours.Sam let out a loud sigh and sat down beneath a tree near where I was sitting on the stump I usually occupied whenever I was communicating with the forest. He shook his head slowly from side to side but didn’t say anything. I continued to stare at him, waiting.It took a long time before he finally opened his mouth. When he did, he was waxing philosophical, and I didn’t know what to make of any of it. “You ever think maybe this damn universe don’t know what it’s talking about? Like maybe all of this is just in our heads, and we aren’t really being controlled by anything?”
I’m not sure how long I sat there staring at Sam with my mouth hanging open. I didn’t know how to respond to what he’d just said. I wasn’t sure there was a fitting response. A wave of emotions rolled through me. Confusion, followed by shock, followed by hurt, but by the end, after I’d had a few seconds to process, the feeling that settled in my gut was nothing but anger.“What?” I spat at him, shooting up from the stump so that I was standing in front of him. “What in the world are you talking about, Sam?” I demanded. “You think that Ben and I aren’t meant to be together?”“Jeeze, Harlow, calm down,” he said, shaking his head. He didn’t get up. He just sat there, shaking his head slowly like I was out of line. “I’m sorry to upset you, but, yeah, I don’t t
Ben was sitting on the couch watching the television with Joshua, downstairs, when I came in. He didn’t look perturbed at all, but then, it takes a lot to bother him--unless, of course, someone says the words, “Finch Twins.” I sat down next to him, and he took my hand, but he didn’t say anything until the show they were watching was over. Then, Joshua said he was going to go check on Melanie, leaving us alone.“What’s up?” Ben asked me, knowing there was something going on. I hesitated to tell him because I didn’t want to rat Sam out and make Ben mad if he really didn’t know, but I had the feeling he did know, and he was just waiting for me to tell him.“Do you know what’s going on with Sam?” I asked him.Ben nodded his head. “Don’t
Talking to Starla was the last thing on earth I wanted to do, but I knew it had to be done. I was the leader of the pack, after all, which meant it was my responsibility to make sure that all of the members were doing what they were supposed to do and being kind to one another. I could hardly justify letting Starla get away with the way she was treating Sam, even if they were in a relationship, and it was theoretically being nosy to bud my way into it. She had some questions to answer for me as her mage and Luna.I headed over to Sam and Starla’s house the next morning, having decided not to mess with it that night, after I’d spoken to Joshua about the situation with the baby. I wanted to sleep on it and see if my mind was any clearer in the morning. It wasn’t, but that just assured me that I needed to talk to Starla.I hoped Sam wasn&rs
“How did your conversation with Starla go?” Melanie asked as we all sat around the breakfast table. Raven had outdone herself. I’m not sure why she decided to go to so much trouble that day, but I was glad she did. I needed it. Pancakes, bacon, eggs, biscuits… it was all delicious.“It didn’t go well,” I admitted, taking another bite of bacon and chewing it before I added, “she wasn’t exactly happy to see me.”“That figures,” Raven muttered, shaking her head. “Did she throw you out?”“Of the house that I built?” I asked, realizing Starla might be right, and it was getting a little old hearing me remind everyone that I made that house for them. “No, she didn’t throw me out, but she didn’t act very hospit
“She honestly wants me to come with her?” Ben was asking. We’d taken the conversation upstairs to our room as soon as it was possible, as soon as breakfast was over and people started to split off to do whatever it was they had to do that day. Personally, I was looking forward to spending some time in the forest, but it seemed like I would have to at least watch part of the football game to make it seem as if I wasn’t just asking to ask earlier in the day.“That’s what she said,” I told him, sitting on the edge of the bed next to him. It was always easy to get distracted when we were in our room alone, so we were both trying to keep some space between us as we discussed the crazy woman who lived behind us. Why was there always a crazy woman living behind us…?“But… that doesn’t ev
“I don’t know about this, Sam,” I said, trying my best to wipe that viscous smile off of his face. “It doesn’t seem like something the rest of the pack could possibly appreciate.”“What are you talking about, Harlow? Of course they’ll appreciate it. They’ll think it’s brilliant. And since she hasn’t fully committed to the pack yet, she won’t know. Even if everyone else in the pack knows what we’re up to, Starla won’t know.”“Unless she can tell the difference between my even tempered boyfriend and her angry boyfriend,” I pointed out. “Not to mention, don’t you think this could build trust issues between the pack mates? I mean, how will anyone know that I’m not doing this all the time? Switching people’s faces and pretending that one pers
Asking your boyfriend to let your ex-boyfriend walk around with his face on is never an easy thing to do. Not that that’s something a lot of people have to contend with on a daily basis. As I sat next to Ben on the couch downstairs, after the football game was over, waiting for him to respond to my request, I hoped I never had to ask another question like this one again.“Do you really think this is a good idea?” he asked me, the expression behind his eyes telling me more than the question itself.“Of course not,” I said, meaning it. “I think it’s a terrible idea. I think there’s a good chance that it will have devastating consequences that we will never recover from as a pack. I think someone might actually die because of it.”Ben’s eyebrows