His dark eyes filled with pride. “Want to come in? You can wait in the office.”
“No, thanks.” She’d stand out here all day if she had to, but she wasn’t moving from this spot until Aden arrived. If he arrived, she couldn’t help but add again. Knots formed in her stomach, twisting painfully. “The air out here helps me think.” When had she become such a fraud?
“Well, you’re welcome to come inside if you change your mind. I’ll leave the door unlocked.”
Alone again, she renewed her pacing. Her gaze continually strayed to the line of trees, looking for the wolf. She stomped her foot. No. Not the wolf. Aden. Looking for Aden.
An eternity passed before teachers began arriving. Finally, the students showed up. All but Aden.
Penny’s Mustang swung into the lot, the tires squealing a little. Her friend had no concept of speed laws and why they were important, which was ironic since she was usually late. Several people had to jump out of the way as Penny parked.
Today Penny wore a sapphire dress that matched her eyes. Eyes that were rimmed with red, Mary Ann noticed. Her pale hair was anchored in a ponytail, as though arranging it into the usual neat style would have taken too much energy. Her skin was pallid, her freckles stark.
Mary Ann met her halfway. “What’s wrong?” she asked, concern for her friend momentarily obliterating her worries about the wolf and Aden.
The question earned a strained laugh. “What’s wrong with me? Nothing. Tucker called me last night and this morning, wanting to know if I knew what was wrong with you. Said you’d acted weird after school yesterday. Said he’d called you all evening, but you didn’t answer.”
Tucker was of no importance right now. Especially the new Tucker who hurt people’s feelings and threatened her friends. “Tucker’s just going to have to wait.” She looked past her friend, watching the trees for any sign of life.
Finally, she was rewarded. Shannon cut through, big and beautiful. The entire world seemed to slow down, her skin tightening over her bones. Aden might be close. And it wasn’t disappointment she was feeling, she assured herself. Seeing the wolf should be last on her list of priorities.
“I’ll call you later, okay?” Off she rushed, Penny’s sputtering ringing in her ears. Her backpack slapped against her, the books inside nearly crushing her spine. “Shannon!” she called.
He spotted her and his eyes widened, a startling green against the darkness of his skin. Once again, those eyes reminded her of the wolf’s. Her wolf. Oh my God. Could he be her wolf?
The closer she came, the more he tried to swoop around her. Which wasn’t like her wolf. Frowning, she jumped in front of him, blocking his path.
“Is Aden coming?”
His brows drew together. “W-why do you c-care?”
Her wolf hadn’t stuttered, either. But then, he also hadn’t been using his mouth. God, this was confusing. And weird! Picturing a human morphing into a wolf was not normal.
But was Shannon or wasn’t he?
“I just do,” she finally said. “Is he coming or not?”
“He’s b-behind me.”
He’d reappeared, then. That meant he was alive and well. Her relief was so great, her knees almost buckled. She was grinning as she said, “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
Shannon didn’t respond, but he couldn’t hide the curiosity in his eyes as he finally maneuvered around her and headed into the school. Knowing Aden was out there made waiting that much harder, but she did it, stood there and waited until he came into view. When she saw him, her knees almost buckled again.
That same burning wind stabbed at her chest, there one moment, gone the next, and she would have sworn she’d been cut open, even though she knew otherwise. Before, that might have freaked her out and sent her racing away. Not this time. This time, she wanted answers. Aden was unlike anyone she’d ever met. His eyes changed color in the light, and he was able to disappear in a blink. How was any of that possible?
“Hello, Aden,” she said.
His step faltered when he noticed her. His expression became guarded, his gaze scanning the area behind her as if he expected someone to jump out and grab him. Someone like the wolf? Or an adult? She, too, glanced around. There was no other hint of life, the insects and birds strangely quiet.
“Mary Ann.” There was a bite to his tone he’d never used with her before. He stopped in front of her. “What are you doing here? With me, I mean.”
Whatever had happened to him, he hadn’t changed physically. He was just as tall, just as adorable with his black-dyed hair and swirling eyes. No cuts, no bruises.
“I want to know what happened yesterday,” she said.
He uttered a nervous laugh. “What do you mean? Someone’s dog escaped and scared you. I shooed it away and went home.”
Liar! “That’s not what happened, and you know it.”
“It is,” he insisted. “Your fear has just distorted your memory.”
No. No, no. He wasn’t going to convince her the entire thing had been a mind-trick brought on by the intensity of her emotions. She’d spent too much time replaying the scene through her head last night. Too much time wondering about that wolf.
“Tell me what happened, Aden. Please.”
For a moment, he didn’t speak. Then he sighed. “Just let it go, Mary Ann.”
“No! One thing you’ll learn about me, Aden. I’m stubborn to a fault. You’ll give me the answers I want or I’ll get them another way.” Not that she knew what that other way would be, but still.
“Fine.” His stare was penetrating as he gave her his full attention. “What do you think happened?”
Going to play that game, was he? Let her voice her version of events so he could tailor his own recounting to either fit or discredit hers. Her dad had used a similar technique on her many times, like the day he’d given her the sex talk. Tell me what you know, he’d said, and then blushed when she had.
“Look, I haven’t told anyone what I witnessed.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “And I won’t. It’s our secret, yours and mine. But you have to tell me what’s going on. I’m in the middle of something I’m completely clueless about, seeing things I once thought were impossible.” She was babbling, she knew she was, but couldn’t stop. “I don’t know what to do or how to protect myself. Actually, I don’t know what I need to protect myself from or if I even need to be worried.”
His gaze flicked pointedly to the school. “Maybe now isn’t the best time to discuss this. We’ll be late to first period.”
“Let’s ditch.” She’d never uttered those words before and had never thought to do so. In fact, in the past, when she’d even considered them, she’d gotten sick. Now, all she wanted to do was talk to Aden. Nothing else mattered. “We can go to my house, my dad’s at work. We’ll have privacy for the rest of the day.”
For a moment, his expression was so tortured she had to glance at his nails to make sure pins hadn’t been shoved underneath them. “I can’t,” he said. “If I ditch a single day, I’m—okay, look, I have a confession to make. I do live at the D and M Ranch and if I ditch, I’ll be kicked out. I don’t want to be kicked out. Besides, this is my first day. My teachers are expecting me.”
A dejected breath left her. “Then we won’t ditch. But we will talk.” Please, please, please.
He nodded reluctantly. “Come on. Walk me to school. We’ll talk along the way. Just be careful what you say, okay? You never know who, or what, is lurking nearby.”
Though she wanted to stay right where she was to prevent their conversation from ending before she was ready, she pivoted and they ambled toward the school side by side. Thankfully, they had a while yet until they reached the masses blithely going about their day. As she once had, she thought.
“You don’t have to start at the beginning or anything like that. Just tell me something,” she pleaded.
There was a heavy pause. Another sigh. “What if I told you there was an entire world out there you had no idea existed? A world of—” he gulped “—vampires and werewolves, and people with unexplainable abilities?”
A whole new world, the wolf had told her. “I—I would believe you.” But she didn’t want to. She wanted to deny it. Despite everything she’d witnessed, despite the fact that he was saying exactly what she’d expected him to say, denial was her first instinct. The thought of bloodsuckers and shape-shifters was abhorrent. The people with unexplainable abilities she didn’t yet understand—but she would. She was determined.
“And what if I told you there was a boy who was somehow a magnet for those things, drawing them closer and closer to him? A boy with strange powers of his own?”
She licked her lips. “Can this boy disappear in the blink of an eye?”
He shook his head, a single jerky motion.
“But I saw—”
“Not disappear,” he said, stopping her. “You saw him possess someone else’s body.”
Dear God. Aden could possess other people’s bodies. Just step inside them as if they were an elevator and he needed a ride. She shuddered, fighting the urge to dart away so he couldn’t do such a thing to her.
He’d ground to a halt, she realized, no longer seeing him at her side. She whipped around. He was regarding her with that tortured expression again, this one mixed with fear and dread. He expected her to run screaming from him.
She might have done so, had she continued to think about him possessing her. This was just so much to take in. Too much, probably, for a girl who had always relied on science to explain the unknown. He didn’t deserve that sort of treatment, though. He was giving her what she wanted, what she’d demanded. What he hadn’t—and clearly still didn’t—want to give.
He must live with a constant fear of discovery, afraid of what people would do to him if they knew. Such stress would have destroyed the bravest of men, and that he was standing there, unmoving, expectant, waiting, proved the depth of his strength. That he’d told her anything at all proved the depth of his friendship.
