Page 13 of The Wild Moon
“It’s okay,” Jo said, the epitome of grace and class. “I don’t blame you.”
“But everyone shifts on the first Wild Moon after their twenty-first birthday,” I said. “That’s…that’s just the way it is.”
There was precedence about Soulbonds not forming right away. It happened with many of the men since they often ended up mated to younger shifters, so some of them waited years. I was the first woman anyone knew of where the bond had waited, but there was at least precedence in a way. This though…
“I know,” Jo said bitterly. “Which must mean I’m not yet twenty-one.”
“How the hell would that be possible?” I said, speaking before my brain kicked in.
There was a reason my mother had been a second mom to Jo. A reason why she’d practically lived at my house for the first ten years of our friendship.
“Jo, I’m so sorry, I wasn’t thinking,” I said, trying hard to pull out the giant clown shoe I’d just inserted into my mouth.
“It’s fine,” she said tiredly. “You didn’t have to live with the drug-addict mother or alcoholic father. It’s not the first thought that enters your mind. And I wouldn’t want it that way. I don’t wish that on anyone.”
“Still,” I said, “I’m your best friend. I should have known.”
“You should have known my parents somehow forgot my actual birthday and started celebrating it another time entirely? Seriously? Come on, Dan. No. You didn’t do anything wrong. Stop it, please. I’m already dealing with enough shit.” She sniffed, flinging her blonde hair out of her face. Half of it just fell forward again.
I remained silent while we drank some of the tea, and Jo pulled herself together a bit. She regained her composure eventually, and I braced myself. Now that we’d talked about her night, she would inevitably ask me about mine.
“Have you found anything?”
“Huh? Oh, no,” I said. That wasn’t the question I’d been expecting. “I’ve been trying. All my money goes to tracking them down. I’ve been in touch with every other pack I know about and even some I’ve only learned of since living in the city. Nobody has heard a damn thing. It’s like they just vanished. I don’t get it.”
“Me neither,” Jo said. “They didn’t leave anything behind?”
I shook my head. As I moved it, my eyes drifted to the hallway that led to my father’s study. I paused, staring at it, remembering back to that night. My father had come home unexpectedly from one of his expeditions, ostensibly to surprise me on my Soulshift night.
He’d told me he had a gift for me. A Shift Gift, it was commonly called. He’d told me it couldn’t be mine until after. Through his hints, however–my dad had been terrible at keeping secrets–I’d gleaned it was a book. Something he’d found or dug up during his expeditions. Straight from the past of our species. Yet when I’d tried to take a peek at it, he’d been unusually secretive.
After they’d gone missing, I’d gone into his study, and seen the wrapped package on his desk addressed to me. But I’d left it there. He’d said he wanted to give it to me in person. It had felt wrong to take it then. But now…
I got up from the couch without a word, nearly pushing Jo over and almost spilling her tea in the process.
“What? What is it?” she asked, but I didn’t respond. My mind was locked in the past on the night of my Soulshift.
The book was still there, sitting on his desk in the white paper just as he’d left it. My name was on it. I unwrapped it, forcing my fingers to tear apart the paper before I had the chance to consider what I was doing. If I paused to stop, I might not start again.
A note was stuck to the front of a leatherbound book, which was in unusually good condition for something that should be hundreds of years old. Too good of condition. This was something else. As I looked at the spine, I spotted a name embossed on it.
Thomas Wetter.
My father. I trembled. This was his journal. It had to be.
But why had he left it for me?
I opened the note with shaky fingers.
Dearest Little D,
Tonight is your Soulshift. Although you’ve been a woman in my eyes for a long time, tonight, you will take your next step. You will become independent of us and bonded with your wolf. You will find your mate, and together, you will start a family. I couldn’t be a prouder father. My latest trip was quite the time, and I think you’ll appreciate all that I’ve found. I wrote about it for you.
I love you,
Dad
I swiped at my eyes with my shirt, trying to find a dry spot to absorb the tears I was now shedding.
