Page 28 of Secret Wolf Baby

Now, however, it seemed she had come out of her shell. She practically glowed with a confidence I had never seen in her before.

“Come in, come in,” I urged her. “This is so great.”

“I know, right? We have eleven years of catching up to do!” As she entered, her eyes landed on a pair of Claire’s shoes by the door, kicked off absent-mindedly, one still on its side. “And you really have a kid?” Mira asked, her eyes turning wideas saucers as she turned to look at me again. “Again, I thought Jackson was bullshitting. I thought the whole thing was a giant practical joke.”

“No joke.” I pulled out my phone and held up a picture. “This is Claire.”

Mira practically snatched the phone from my hand as she looked at the photo. Her eyes went wide as saucers. For a wild, panicked moment, I wondered if she would notice the similarities between her brother and my daughter.

“She’s so cute!” Mira exclaimed, handing over the phone again. She broke into a wide grin. “Almost as cute as mine.”

My mouth dropped open. “A kid? You have a kid?”

“Kids, technically,” she said. When I looked even more dumbfounded, Mira laughed. “One is technically my stepdaughter, the other is a baby. I can’t wait for you to meet them. Oh!” She clapped her hands together in excitement as her eyes lit up. “You should bring Claire over. I’m sure she and Dani would get along. Dani can be a handful, but she loves kids her age. I mean, I’m assuming Claire is around her age.” She shot me a questioning look. “How old is she?”

“Ten,” I said, trying to keep a straight face as I prayed that Mira wouldn’t do the math and make the connection.

“Hmm,” Mia mused. “Well, Dani’s a little younger than that, but I think it’ll be okay. But enough about the kids! I want to hear about everything you’ve done in the past ten years.”

“It’s pretty boring,” I said, laughing as we walked to the couch. “You go first.”

The next couple of hours flew by. For the first time since this entire fiasco began, I found myself smiling and laughing. It only took a few minutes of being around Mira for me toremember why she had so quickly become my best friend back in the day.

“Why did you leave without telling me?” she asked.

I stiffened, though I knew the question was coming. “It’s complicated,” I said, struggling to come up with a lie as I realized Jackson hadn’t told her what had happened. “I had to leave because of an emergency. And when I found out I was pregnant, I went home.”

“You could have just come back to our pack,” Mira said. “I would have helped.”

“I wasn’t thinking straight,” I lied.

I didn’t know if Mira believed me, but she nodded. “It doesn’t matter. I’m just glad to see you again.”

“I’m glad to see you, too. Even if the circumstances are… weird.”

Mira nodded in understanding. “Are you settling in?”

“Yeah,” I said.

I must not have sounded particularly convincing because Mira gave me a skeptical look. “I know all of this has to be a huge shock,” she said. “But this is a great town. And Jackson’s a good guy. I don’t know everything that’s going on, but I know he’s trying to help.”

My mouth went dry. I wanted to tell her the truth about everything, including from back when we were kids. But I didn’t know where to begin, and I was terrified of how she would react when she learned I had slept with her brother. And Mira was the only thing keeping me mildly sane through this bizarre situation, the only person besides my daughter who I wanted to spend any time with. I couldn’t risk her friendship. Not right now.

“It’s not all bad,” I said, nudging her. “After all, I got my best friend back.”

She grinned and gave me a side hug. “And you aren’t getting rid of me that easily this time.”

We’ll see about that, I thought through a forced smile.

Chapter 9 - Jackson

“Hey, Audrey?”

Audrey glanced up from where she was reading her book. “What’s up?”

“I was about to go on a hunt,” I said. “I was wondering if you wanted to come along.”

“You want to hunt together?” she asked, not bothering to hide her skepticism.

---