Page 12 of Bad Moon Rising

Brooks rolls his eyes so hard I’m honestly afraid they’ll get stuck in the back of his head. Lily casts him a scathing glare—one that wordlessly seems to say, “Shut up, and don’t make a scene”—before turning towards the newcomer.

Mrs. Dean hurries into our yard, her brows lowered and a concerned expression etched across her face.

“Is everything okay, sweetheart?” she asks, ignoring both me and Brooks in favor of her daughter. “I heard yelling.”

“Everything’s fine, Mom,” Lily rushes to reassure her. She drops her trembling finger back to her side and flashes a soft smile in her mother’s direction.

Mrs. Dean is nearly identical to her daughter in appearance. If I had to hazard a guess of what Lily would look like years from now, then I’ll say she’ll be a reflection of Mrs. Dean. The older woman’s orange hair kisses her temples, stopping just above her shoulders. That’s one of the most obvious differences between the two of them—Lily’s hair is longer, coming nearly to her waist, while Mrs. Dean’s is shoulder-length. Another striking difference is their eye color. Mrs. Dean’s eyes are a shade of muddy brown, while Lily has her dad’s gold-flecked dark orbs.

Prominent wrinkles mar Mrs. Dean’s face, though I knew the majority of them come from laughing. She may be hard on her daughter, but I know it’s only because she wants the best for her, same as me.

It’s what we all want.

But in Mrs. Dean’s eyes, my brothers and I are nothing but the unruly orphans next door threatening to corrupt her sweet, innocent daughter.

If she only knew the truth…

“Are you sure everything’s okay, Lily?” Mrs. Dean asks softly. She casts furtive glances in first my direction and then Brooks’s. The skin around her eyes tightens marginally.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Dean,” I say cordially.

“Orion. Lovely to see you,” she responds, and I’d like to believe she sounds sincere, though I imagine that’s only in my head. Out of all my brothers, I believe she likes me the most. I’m not saying that to toot my own horn. I’ll often come over and help their family with miscellaneous projects around the house—trimming the bushes, painting some of the rooms, and cleaning the gutters. Lily’s dad had an accident a few years back and he now needs a wheelchair, so I know they’re grateful for the extra help.

“Mrs. Dean,” Brooks greets curtly, and I swear her eyes darken, the brown turning to obsidian.

“Mr. Bellua,” she replies.

Brooks is definitely Mrs Dean’s least favorite Bellua brother. I have no idea why. She seemed to like him somewhat…until he left town after Lily’s sixteenth birthday. Ever since that day, she referred to him as the devil child when she thought we weren’t listening.

“Lily.” Mrs. Dean twists to address her daughter. “You got some more college pamphlets in the mail. Your dad and I want to talk with you about your choices.”

“Yeah, I’m coming.” Lily smiles softly at her mother before shifting to offer a penetrating glare at Brooks. He matches her scowl with one of his own. Lily then turns towards me, and her entire demeanor changes before my eyes. A timid, genuine smile tugs up her lips, and she pulls absently at a loose curl cascading over her shoulder. “I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”

“Of course,” I promise her. Where else would I go? I have no intention of ever leaving her side.

Her smile broadens, and I swear my heart stops beating at the sight. Not to be all poetical, but it’s like in a movie where the heavens open up and illuminate her face in an unearthly glow. Beside me, Brooks sucks in a sharp, almost strangled gasp of surprise, but when I glance in his direction, his face is as impassive as ever.

Lily spins on her heel and stalks back towards her house with her mother, the two of them whispering about colleges and future plans in hushed tones. It’s only when they’re out of sight—in the safety of their own home—does Brooks lose some of the tension riding him. His entire body seems to sag as if a heavy rainfall washed away the majority of the weight pressing down on his shoulders. The angry glint in his eyes dissipates, replaced by a fathomless loneliness that breaks my heart.

“Brooks?” I begin tentatively, but in the time it takes me to blink, my brother has hardened himself once more. His jaw sets, his eyes turn to steel, and his lips compress in a perfectly straight line. I wonder if I imagined that moment of vulnerability.

“We need to find that damn werewolf before she can hurt anyone in our town,” he snaps, ignoring my probing, questioning gaze. He begins to stomp back towards our house, his windbreaker billowing around him. I have no choice but to follow.

“Do we have a plan?” I want to ask him why he looked so sad when Lily left and what happened between them on Lily’s birthday, but I bite my tongue, knowing that my digging will only cause my brother to shut down more.

“Can you hack the library system?” Brooks demands.

I give him a narrowed-eyed look. Did he really need to insult me like that? I’ve hacked FBI databases, CIA sites, and even fucking NASA for my parents before I was twelve. I can hack a small town library system.

“If we find the library card owner…” I begin. It only has an ID number, no name.

“Then we’ll find our monster,” Brooks finishes. A muscle in his jaw twitches. “And then we’ll kill it.”

6

LILY

I’m still reeling from seeing Brooks again as I follow Mom into the house. I can’t believe he acted like that. We’ve butted heads our whole lives because he acts like he’s the boss of everyone, but this is different. He’s always respected me and treated me the same as he treats his brothers. Never in a million, billion years did I think he’d talk to me like that, like I’m nothing but a useless little kid who he wishes would stop annoying him—

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