“Sylvia,” Mom said, breathless as she appeared in the living from the swinging shutters that led to the kitchen. Her face was drawn and pinched, worried, but like she was trying to hide the expression from me. Not good. “Did you find a dress, honey?”
“I did,” I said, lifting up the bag at my side and smiling at the silly Valentine's Day apron that my mother was wearing. It was rainbow colored, dressed in vibrant stripes with little black hearts interspersed throughout. On the front, there was a big, black silhouette of a kissing couple. Love Comes in All Shapes, Sizes, and Genders it said. “What's up?”
It was a loaded question, of course, but we couldn't talk with the little demons around.
“Josiah,” Chase asked, standing in front of me with a Nerf gun in his hand. It was shaped like a crossbow, and he had a red foam bolt in it with a white heart shaped rubber head. Hah. If he took a shot at me, I swear, I was going to murder him. “Are you going to ask Sylvia to be your Valentine?”
“They're already each other's Valentines,” Trevor said matter-of-factly, his cherubic little face hiding some of his demonic prowess. “They've kissed each other.”
“And they were hanging out in their underwear,” Chase supplied, like this was indeed further proof that his big brother was telling the truth. Josiah just laughed, but I gave the boys my best glare. Well, I glared at Trevor and Chase, reserving a smile for my youngest brother. Little Edwin was tucked up on the couch with a Harry Potter book in his hand, even though I knew he was too young to be able to read it. Dad had been reading him a chapter a day and he was hooked. Personally, I was addicted to J.K. Rowling's Twitter account, but that was a whole other story altogether.
“Speaking of underwear,” I started with a smirk, and Chase's face contorted into a squinched up red mess. “Did your friends on the bus like your Moana underwear?”
“They aren't mine!” Chase yelled, and then he shot me right in the boob with a rubber heart arrow. I pretended to chase after him as he and Trevor squealed and darted up the stairs, locking themselves in a bedroom and barricading the door. Good. At least I'd gotten rid of them.
“He has Frozen underwear with Elsa and Anna on them, too,” I stated proudly, flicking brunette strands over my shoulder and following my mother's subtle head tilt toward the kitchen. Josiah chuckled as he followed after me, pausing only to ruffle my littlest brother's hair with a grin. Edwin smiled up at him with teeth that looked suspiciously canine to me. Or maybe I was just projecting? If I were a betting woman though, I'd say total werewolf. I know Mom had said it was only a girl thing, passed from mother to daughter, but Edwin was the only boy in the family with dark hair and yellow eyes like mom. Made a person think.
“Your dad's working on some stuff in his office,” Mom said as she smiled and welcomed us into the sugary smelling kitchen. Like at Josiah's place, the table was covered with sweets—pink cupcakes with white frosting and red sprinkles, a cake shaped like a big red pair of frosted lips, a couple of boxes of homemade chocolate. Wow. I knew that Mom and Dad had each signed up to help host one of my little brother's school parties for Valentine's Day, but this was crazy over the top. I sensed some of Dad's handiwork in the whole mess. “I made a pot pie,” Mom said, gesturing at what she considered her prized recipe. Today, the crust had been decorated with little heart cut outs. I could see the ooey gooey filling bubbling enticingly through the holes. “Sit down and I'll serve you up.”
Josiah and I squeezed ourselves together on the same side of the table, like we couldn't bear to be separated. But god, it was sooooo nice to finally be able to see him outside of school. I'd missed hanging out with him.
“Your Dad told me about what happened,” Mom said, but at least she was smiling as she served us each a bowl of savory chicken-y goodness. Josiah dove right in, despite eating five slices of pizza at The Square. He was getting so muscular, totally filling out. It … well, it made me all hot and bothered in a weird way that I wasn't quite used to yet. “I don't know how comfortable I am with you using your powers yet, but I'm glad nothing got violent.”
“What are we going to do?” I asked as Josiah and I exchanged another look. “They can't take him away to boarding school.” I heard the urgency in my voice, and so did Mom. She gave me a sympathetic smile over her shoulder.
“No, they can't. Not to a school full of werewolf hunters.” Mom snorted and turned back to whatever the bowl of pink batter was that she was stirring. “And even a hunter should know that you can't separate a mated pair. It's just cruel.”
My cheeks flushed a little as Josiah reached over and squeezed my knee; he'd already finished his chicken pot pie.
“But how do we stop her?” Josiah asked, looking almost like he was resigned to the situation. That scared me a little, I'll admit. “How do we convince her that what she's doing is wrong? She tried to cast a spell on me this morning.” My mother's perfectly arched brows rose at that one, but she didn't comment on it, stirring the wooden spoon in her Valentine's Day themed bowl slowly and methodically.
“I've been thinking about this all day, and there's no easy solution. On the one hand, Elsie is your mother, but … she's also a hunter and you're a wolf. It's a conundrum to be sure.” Mom sighed. “Give me another day or two to work some things out and I'll see what I can do.”
Josiah nodded, like he was satisfied with the answer, but I could see in his eyes that he was nervous. That was okay though, because I was, too. Somehow, someway, we'd get through this together.
Josiah called back to his place before going home, to make sure his dad was there first.
It was getting late, and a storm was brewing up so Mom decided to drive us over there, even though I had my license and would've been totally fine on my own. On the way over, she made us listen to a bunch of stupid, sappy love songs on the radio—most of them older than I was. And if Mom was going out of her way to embarrass me, she definitely did that when she started singing NSYNC and doing nineties dance moves. Things got even worse when Josiah joined in and did it with her. Of course, by the time we got back to his place, we were all laughing.
“You know,” Mom said as she paused behind Elsie's minivan and looked over her shoulder at Josiah and me, “I could not have picked a better son-in-law myself.”
“Mom!” I blurted, putting my hands over my face for a moment to catch my breath. “Josiah is not your son-in-law.”
“Not yet,” Mom said as I dropped my hands to my lap and Josiah chuckled from beside me. “But you're mates. That's a lot more binding than some piece of paper from the human government.”
“The human government?” I said with a raised brow and Mom shrugged. Guess werewolves operated under their own laws in a way, huh?
“I'm walking Josiah to the door,” I declared and although Mom didn't look thrilled about that, she didn't say anything. I mean, it's not like I wasn't nervous, too. Having a boyfriend with a mom who casts anti-werewolf spells with holy water and tries to cut down my family on New Year's Eve with a silver flail was bound to make any girl nervous.
Josiah and I walked quietly through the dark and the rain until we were standing under the eaves on his front porch. When he turned to face me, his brown hair falling softly across his forehead, I activated my magic, freezing the world around us so we could have a private moment.
I was the first one to reach out, putting my palms on either of his cheeks as I leaned in for a kiss.
Josiah reached out, wrapped his long fingers around my wrists, and bent down.
When our mouths met, I swear I could feel waves of magic pulsing around us like the winking eyes of stars. Maybe that was my teenage imagination going into overdrive with hormones or maybe it was our werewolf powers flickering, but it didn't matter. When Josiah and I kissed, I saw fireworks behind my eyes.
He guided my body over to the railing and helped me up onto it so I was sitting with him between my legs, all the while never breaking our lips apart for longer than a single breath.
I savore
d the warm, hot flick of his tongue, parting my lips and loving the way he tasted like cupcakes and sugar from my mom's baking. My entire body went hot, even though it was starting to rain again and little drops of water were being blown against my skin by the wind, hitting us even under the eaves.
My ankles locked together behind Josiah's back, and I squeezed him tightly against me, savoring this moment and hoping beyond all hope that this wouldn't be something that was stolen away from me, that Elsie would come to her senses and let her son just be who he was.
Because even though I'd technically infected Josiah with lycanthropy, his wolf felt as if it had always been there, crouching with hard muscles and ebony fur, waiting beneath his skin for the right moment. My own wolf reared up and shoved against my rib cage, making me gasp, and I nearly screamed when I felt these popping sensations on my head and lower back.
Josiah pulled away, startled, and then laughed, reaching up to stroke his fingers across the fuzzy little protrusions of ears on the top of my head.
Holy crap.
I cringed and reached back into my jeans, popping my tail out so it wouldn't be so uncomfortably stuck inside the denim.
“Oh. My. God,” I groaned as I tried to cover my face with my hands and Josiah pulled them away, putting them … on the top of his head, right over a pair of furry black ears I hadn't seen in the dark.
“Guess we both bring out the animal in one another,” he said with a grin, a very telltale sort of a … you know in his jeans that I could feel before he stepped away from me. And it certainly wasn't a banana or an arrow that he had in his pocket, if you catch my drift.
I blushed again and suddenly time just caught up to us in a rush.
That gentle drizzle of rain against my back became a roaring downpour, and the breeze turned into wild, frantic gusts as Josiah helped me down off the railing and tugged me against his warm body again.
“You have the cutest ears,” he began and then reached around and stroked my furry tail, “and the most adorable little backside known to man.”
I smacked his hand away, slipped out of his arms, and then gave his tail a tug before I slid away, pausing near the bottom of the ramp that led up to the porch.
“Josiah?” I could hear his mother's voice from inside, and we both took deep breaths as we looked across the darkness at each other. When a car passed by on the street, the headlights made Josiah's eyes reflect back the light, just like a real wolf. One of his dark ears flicked in his mother's direction and I smiled. He smiled back, but the moment was gone and we weren't getting it back, not tonight.
“Be careful,” I warned him and he nodded, turning and reaching for the doorknob before pausing to look back at me.
“Good night, Sylvia,” he said and then, “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I told him, and I meant it with every beat of my heart.
The next day felt impossible to slog through. Josiah was missing again, and all my teachers seemed determined to cram in as much work as possible to make up for tomorrow since they knew nobody would be paying attention. To some people, Valentine's Day might've just been another day, but my school, my town, they embraced it like it was Christmas or something. We went all out over here.
Tomorrow, there'd be miniature parties in most of the classes, Valentine's Day themed assignments, and an air of excitement about the dance that'd be impossible to escape. It was an unspoken understanding that a good portion of the students would cut fifth and sixth period to go home and start getting ready, even though they were technically risking being banned from the dance. Usually, the administration looked the other way.
But Josiah? He'd been gone for two days now, not to mention the couple of extra periods he'd missed when he'd cut class to go running.
“Guess no date for me,” Deb said at lunch as we sat in the cafeteria, chased inside by the rain. Across the room, Lincoln was roughhousing with guys from the football team. Every once in a while, she glanced over at him, but mostly she pretended not to care. Today, she was back to looking like regular Deb, with her hair frizzy and wild around her face, her black framed glasses taped up the middle, no jewelry anywhere on her person. I liked her best like this, to be honest. “Anyway,” she said, waving her hand dismissively in the air, “it's not like Josiah would've been able to help, even if he were here. I just don't see myself going to the dance with a stranger anyway.”
“So you're going stag then?” I asked and Deb shrugged, her eyes flicking up to Linc and then away again.
“Hey Sylv,” she asked, lowering her voice and brushing bread crumbs away from her t-shirt. It was black with upside down broken hearts on it. Kind of morbid, but still holiday appropriate I supposed, even if most of the hearts were speared with arrows and spurting blood everywhere. Goth Valentine's Day anyone? “Tell me about … the thing with Josiah and his mom.”
Uh-oh.
I thought I'd escaped this conversation.
I chewed the inside of my cheek and stalled for time, picking at my food with a fork. On the menu today, we had paninis with cheese and roast beef, a small side salad with tomatoes from the school greenhouse, and sliced apples with a small cup of caramel dipping sauce.
“Um, what do you want to know?” I asked, trying to keep my blush down to a moderate pink level and not go all the way to fire engine red right off the bat. Deb was my best friend and I'd planned on telling her everything eventually anyway. If I had to spin the truth a little, so that she thought, you know, sex was the reason Josiah's mom hated me then so be it. I couldn't exactly admit to the lycanthropy, now could I?
I picked at a little Valentine's Day pin that I'd stuck into my messenger bag. It was white with a pair of crossed red rose blossoms, the green stems making an X in the center of the design.
“So, um, you …” When I looked up at Deb, I found her blushing just as brightly—if not brighter—than me. After a moment, she steeled herself, pulled in a deep breath, and lifted her chin. “So you and Josiah did it then?”
I nodded, trying not to keel over with embarrassment.
“Why didn't you tell me?” she asked, and I detected the tiniest bit of hurt in her voice. I felt bad, really I did but it was so hard to explain the whole situation from Christmas and New Year's without going into the werewolf thing, too. And that, I knew, I could not tell Deb about.
“It happened on Christmas,” I said, looking Deb straight in the face. Her eyes were brown, too, like Josiah's, but lighter, more like peanut butter than chocolate.
“On Christmas?” Deb asked skeptically, raising a brow. It popped up above her glasses as she stared at me through the thick lenses. “How did you manage to pull that one off? Is that when you got caught?”
I shook my head, trying to figure out how to get as much truth as possible into my story; I really hated lying to my friend. If I could've, I would've told her everything from start to finish: how I opened an empty box, how Mom shifted right in front of me, how I accidentally infected Josiah by nicking us both with my new canines.
“Not exactly.” I stabbed a cherry tomato and put it in my mouth, chewing the bright fresh sweetness while I thought up a good enough explanation. Deb was smart. If I messed this up, she'd know. “I mean, my mom kind of caught us, but she didn't freak out too badly.”
Now both of Deb's bushy brows were sticking up above her glasses frames.
“Your Mom walked in in you?”
“After we were done,” I blurted and then yeah, I totally went from pastel pink to red velvet in an instant. “She sort of … you know how she married my dad when she was fifteen?” I rushed to explain before Deb could get the wrong idea. “Not that Josiah and I are getting married, of course, but it's just … she understands that not all young love is false. Some of it is very, very real, and sometimes, it does last.”
Deb nodded slowly, like she was buying what I was selling. Thank God.
“It was the second time, on New Year's Eve that … when Josiah's mom decided she hated me.” Ther
e, now wasn't that mostly the truth? Josiah and I did … you know, do it on New Year's Eve and his mom did try to kill me and my family that night so there you go. “And that's it. Just those two times.”
“Was it awful?” Deb breathed and I almost choked on a second cherry tomato.
“Um.” I chewed carefully and swallowed, grabbing my soda and twisting off the cap for a mega sip. I was so not prepared to discuss this stuff. Deb was looking at me like I was a sex/relationship expert when in reality, I was a total noob. “No, actually, it was … great. Like, really, really great.”
“Did it hurt?” she whispered and again, I blushed from head to toe. I think even my fingers were blushing. Can they do that? Blush like that? I curled them in my lap, right over my pink leggings with the red roses all over them.
“Not for me, but it's different for everybody. Everyone's experience is unique.”
“Sex is why Linc broke up with me,” Deb blurted all of a sudden and now it was my turn to raise my eyebrows. “I mean, we tried to have sex, but it was awkward and clumsy and he changed his mind halfway through. Like, before we even … we didn't exactly go all the way.” She looked down at the empty lunch tray in front of her. “I might've … suggested that if he wasn't ready, then maybe he didn't like me and maybe we should break up …”
“Debra!” I gasped as she pulled her phone from her pocket and passed it to me. On the screen was a text from Lincoln—what I was presuming was the text from Lincoln.
If you're not ready, we don't have to do this.
I scrolled down some more and saw Deb's response.
Do this? You mean date? Because it was pretty obvious you weren't interested last night.
Internally, I cringed. Crap. Did I say I liked other people's drama? I was kidding about that. What a mess! And one that Debra was staring at me like I was supposed to fix it. I'd had sex two times. Two! I was in no way qualified for this. Heck, I couldn't even figure out how to stop my boyfriend's mom from trying to kill me.
A Werewolf Valentine's Page 6
