Mirror Lake Wolves 01 - Moon Kissed

by Jennifer Snyder

  Today, I would only be able to eat fruits and vegetables.

  Starving myself was part of the cleansing process everyone went through before a full moon ceremony. It was another thing I hated about these nights. While I didn’t mind eating fruits and vegetables, I did enjoy meat. I knew some people could handle a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle, but I wasn’t one of them. Maybe it had something to do with the werewolf genes in my DNA. Not eating animal protein left me crabby.

  “Breakfast is ready,” Gran shouted down the hall.

  I draped the wet towels over the edge of the tub and dried my hands. “Coming.”

  My mouth watered as the scent of bacon intensified with each step I took toward the kitchen. My stomach grumbled painfully loud. I hoped Gran made something good for me this time. Last month, she’d given me a kale smoothie the color of dirt instead of the vibrant green I’d been expecting. It had tasted like grass, but she’d forced me to drink it anyway. I prayed for something better this morning.

  The instant I stepped into the kitchen, I knew my prayers had been answered.

  Apple slices of every color filled the bowl closest to me. Bowls of pineapple, every variety of melon, orange slices, grapes, strawberries, and pears were lined up beside it. A cluster of bananas sat beside a plate of kiwi cut into stars.

  Gran had been busy this morning.

  “Wow, this looks amazing,” I insisted. It was so much better than the nasty smoothie she’d made last month.

  “Thank you, dear.” Gran smiled as she handed me a plate. It was the same fine china she pulled out every month when the moon was full.

  Gran honored the moon goddess as much as possible. This was Gran’s favorite time of the month. It always had been. Even before I was of age to drink the tea concoction meant to trigger a reaction and awaken the werewolf gene within me, I knew Gran loved the full moon. She claimed there was raw energy that was easy to tap. To her, it wasn’t just about her wolf side; it was everything. She was a moon child through and through.

  “I still feel bad for last month when I forced you to drink that horrible smoothie twice in one day and wanted to make it up to you. There’s everything fruit you can think of, except for mangoes. I know they’re your favorite, but they didn’t look up to par. Not for today.”

  Gran had high standards when it came to the food we consumed today. Not just my food, but also everyone else’s. The entire day was meant to be celebrated. You celebrated the moon, even if you weren’t Moon Kissed. You were still a part of the pack.

  I grabbed a few kiwi stars and a banana before moving down the lineup she’d created. Gracie stepped behind me and grabbed a plate from the stack set out. She bypassed the fruit and reached for a strip of bacon. I knew what she’d fill her plate with. It was always the same. Bacon, eggs, hash browns, and toast slathered with butter. She’d eat some fruit after I’d eaten my share. It was the way things went on mornings of the full moon.

  “Where’s Dad?” I asked. Either he’d passed out on the porch due to another drunken binge and Gran had left him there, or he’d never made it home.

  “He’ll be here. Don’t you worry,” Gran said with confidence as she stirred the scrambled eggs.

  I wasn’t worried. I figured he’d show up at some point. He always did.

  “Hurry up and eat some fruit,” Gracie demanded. “It looks good. I can’t wait to get my hands on the honeydew.”

  “It’s all yours,” I whispered, hoping Gran wouldn’t hear me. She’d forgotten, yet again, I didn’t like honeydew. I didn’t like cantaloupe either. Watermelon was the only melon I cared for.

  The sound of a vehicle pulling up to our trailer made its way to my ears.

  “There he is,” Gran announced in a chipper voice.

  Was she up to something? If so, it had to be something that involved my father.

  “Oh, Mina, I forgot your drink.” Gran swung open the fridge door and my heart sank. I’d foolishly thought because she’d felt bad about the kale smoothie last month I’d get away without having to taste another this month.

  “What is it?” I asked as she stepped toward me carrying a glass with a milky liquid inside.

  “Pure coconut water.”

  “Oh.” I liked coconuts. While I’d never had coconut water before, it had to taste better than her smoothie.

  The front door to our trailer opened and Dad stepped inside. I took in his appearance. He didn’t seem as though he’d spent the night drinking. In fact, he looked clean-shaven and well rested. I also noticed his limp was virtually gone as he walked to where Gran stood.

  “Looks like I’m just in time.” He grinned before placing a kiss on her cheek.

  “Grab a plate,” Gran instructed.

  “I will,” Dad said. He shifted his attention to Gracie and me. “Mornin’, girls. How are you feeling about tonight, Mina?”

  “Okay, I guess,” I said. I was so sick of being asked the same question each month.

  “I have a feeling tonight will be the one,” he said, same as every other morning of a full moon. “Which is why I went out and got you something.” He pulled a narrow white box from his pant pocket and laid it on the table beside my plate.

  “You didn’t have to get me anything,” I said, surprised.

  “I know, but I wanted to. I have a feeling this is going to be it. You’ll be Moon Kissed tonight. I wanted you to have something from me to commemorate it.” He nodded toward the box. “Go on, open it. It’s from Gran and me.”

  I glanced at Gran. A wide smile had stretched across her face. “I feel the same way your father does. The Moon Kiss will be upon you tonight. This moon feels different. There’s so much energy to it. More than any other.”

  I wanted to tell them they might be wrong, but I bit my tongue. They both seemed so sure of themselves. I didn’t want to be a downer, but I had my doubts.

  Maybe I was wrong, though.

  Gran had said this moon felt different. While I wasn’t sure how it felt any different from the ones before, I’d learned early in life never to question one of her feelings.

  “Go on, open it. They already said you could,” Gracie insisted, her eyes glued to the box.

  I reached for it. It was lighter in my hand than I’d anticipated. The hinges squeaked as I pried it open. Inside lay the most beautiful silver bracelet across a sheet of white satin. It was thick, but still delicate looking. The moon phases had been etched into its shiny surface.

  “It’s beautiful,” I gushed. “Thank you.” I stood to give them both a hug.

  “You’re welcome. I’m glad you like it,” Dad said.

  Gran pulled me into her arms. “You’re going to need it after tonight. I can feel it. There is some serious energy coursing through the air with this moon. I’m telling you.”

  Hope blossomed through my chest. Maybe this bracelet would be my good luck charm. Maybe it would draw the moon goddess’s attention to me so she’d allow me to become Moon Kissed.

  Silver helped keep us connected to the moon. It helped to keep our wolf on a leash, to maintain control over our wolf self throughout the month, and also to allow us to change when we wanted. Not just on a full moon. Once a person became Moon Kissed, they needed to wear silver. If they didn’t, and the connection with the moon was ever to become severed, I wasn’t sure what would happen but I knew it wouldn’t be good.

  “It’s pretty,” Gracie said, pulling my thoughts back to the bracelet. “Can I see it?”

  I passed the box to her, still unbelieving they had gotten me anything. Tonight’s full moon seemed to hold a lot of weight before the gift, but now it had doubled. I didn’t understand why. It wasn’t as though this was the last full moon of my eighteenth year. Everyone sure was acting as if it were, though.

  “I love it,” Gracie said as she continued to stare at the bracelet. Her fingertips grazed the smooth surface, touching each of the engraved moon symbols. “It looks familiar.”

  The second she said the words, I felt the same way
. I had seen it before. I couldn’t remember where though. Maybe not this exact one, but I remembered the engravings of the moon phases on a piece of jewelry.

  “I gave your mother something similar when we first started dating,” Dad said. His voice was low and pained. “It wasn’t a bracelet; it was a necklace with a long pendant charm on it that had the same moon phases engraved.”

  An image of it flashed through my mind. I could see my mom leaning over to give me a goodnight kiss and the pendant charm touching my face. “I remember that. She never took it off.”

  “No, she didn’t.” Dad chuckled as though struck by a memory himself. “The one time she did, you nearly lost it. We found it in Gran’s garden two days later.”

  “Oh! I’d forgotten all about that! I wanted that necklace so bad. I’d put it on in the bathroom, but then Gran called me out to the garden and I couldn’t get it off. I didn’t want to break it or tell anyone I’d put it on, so I left it. Then I forgot about it. I don’t know how, but it managed to fall off when I was helping her. Gosh, I remember Mom being so upset while she searched for it.”

  “I remember too. It was mixed in with my lavender,” Gran said. “That used to be your favorite to harvest.”

  “It still is.” Not because it smelled good, but because there were so many uses for it. If I had retained anything from Gran at all, it was that lavender was good for just about any ailment.

  Gracie took the bracelet out of its box and held it out to me. “Can I put it on you?”

  I flashed her a smile and nodded. Our morning mishap over the soaked bedroom floor had been forgotten. “Sure.”

  She wrapped the bracelet around my wrist and her tiny fingers fumbled with the clasp. “There,” she said once it was secured in place. “It looks good on you. Plus, I like that it reminds me of Mom.”

  I made a mental note to get her one similar when the time came. “Yeah, me too.”

  “It does look beautiful on you,” Gran insisted. “But I think it’s time you focus on eating breakfast. You know how important it is to purify your system and fill yourself with as many nutrients as possible. It makes the first shift easier on your body.”

  I reached for one of the kiwi stars. My gaze drifted back to the bracelet. Another image of Mom wearing her necklace floated through my mind. God, I missed her. I wished she were here.

  Why had she left us?

  I knew why. She couldn’t handle Dad’s addiction to pain pills or alcohol. Didn’t she stop to think her leaving would only make those issues worse?

  “There’s still so much to do in order to prepare for tonight,” Gran insisted, pulling me from my thoughts.

  She was right. I picked up another piece of kiwi. It was time I prepared my body in case everyone was right and tonight ended up being the night I became Moon Kissed.

  16

  I reached for another cheesecloth baggie and scooped three teaspoons of the mushy herb paste inside. The salvia leaves had been harvested from Gran’s garden, dried in our pantry, and then added to a large mason jar where they were covered with water and set in a patch of bright moonlight overnight to become a lunar infusion.

  The musky, earthy scent I’d grown to detest wafted to my nose in the process of scooping the herbs into the cheesecloth baggie. I handed it off to Gracie next. She folded the opening closed, added a long piece of string, and stapled it shut before passing it to Gran. She wrapped it in wax paper and tucked it in a silver drawstring sachet. This was our process. Every month the three of us sat down and created the assembly line that would make enough tea bags for those who were of age to become Moon Kissed in the trailer park.

  This month there were five of us. Tate Vargas, Millie Hess, Davey Hess, Violet Marshall, and me. It was Violet’s first time drinking the tea. She’d just come of age on the eleventh of the month. I felt for her. It was never easy getting past the first taste of salvia tea. I remembered asking Gran once why she didn’t add peppermint or honey to tone down the bitterness. She’d told me it would dilute the potency of the salvia, which was something she wouldn’t dream of doing.

  Honestly, nothing anyone said could prepare Violet for the horrible taste she was about to experience. While the measuring of the tea was precise each time, the taste was different. Sometimes it was stronger; others it wasn’t.

  “And that’s that,” Gran said once she’d tucked the final tea sack into one of her sachets. She placed them in a ziplock bag and passed them to Gracie. “Try not to dawdle at the Vargases.”

  Gracie’s cheeks tinted pink. “I won’t.”

  I guess I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed she had a boyfriend. Gran seemed to have picked up on it too. Figured. Gran always seemed to notice everything.

  Gracie opened the front door and stepped out onto the porch. The sound of the weed eater blasted through the trailer along with the scent of freshly cut grass. This was the one time of the month Dad stayed sober enough to do stuff around the place. Whatever he did next, it would definitely be outdoors. When the full moon came around, his back always felt better than ever, and you could find him outside doing something useful.

  I wondered if I could talk him into doing some repairs on my car.

  “Okay, it’s time for you to eat some vegetables now,” Gran insisted the second Gracie was out the front door. She got up from the dining room table with more speed than usual. Normally, her old joints and bones popped and rebelled against sudden movement, but not today. It was the magic of the full moon. “You have a choice: cucumbers and tomatoes, or sliced bell peppers and radishes?”

  I wasn’t a big fan of radishes. They were spicy and never failed to give me a stomachache. “I’ll take cucumbers and tomatoes, please. Can I have a little salt with them?”

  “Just a smidgen of Himalayan sea salt. Nothing more.”

  I cleaned up the mess we’d made while making the sachets as Gran prepared my afternoon snack. That was one of the perks to this day. Gran cooked for me and prepared all my snacks. I didn’t have to lift a finger.

  By the time I finished washing the tools we’d used and wiping off the table, Gran had an entire plate of sliced cucumbers and tomatoes waiting on me. She handed me a plain glass of ice water this time, and I gladly accepted. Coconut water hadn’t been my thing. I didn’t care how amazing the benefits of drinking it were, plain coconut water tasted gross.

  “I need to finish preparing your garments for tonight,” Gran said as she disappeared down the hall. “Time is running out, and I feel like I still have so much to do before nightfall.”

  “Do you want any help?” I called after her, even though I knew her answer would be no.

  She never wanted help. Not when it came to this. She preferred to do it all on her own.

  “Absolutely not, you know you’re supposed to rest and relax.”

  “In that case, I think I’ll head to the lake for a while. Clear my head. Prepare.” While stressing over the details of the ceremony and preparing everything was Gran’s ritual each full moon, mine was a quiet walk to the lake where I sat for a while enjoying nature.

  “Go right ahead,” Gran replied. “Make sure you’re back by dinner, though. You still have one more meal of veggies before you drink the tea.”

  “I’ll be back before then,” I promised as I headed for the door.

  Dad was refilling his weed eater string when I stepped out onto the porch. Sweat beaded across his brow.

  “Off to take your usual stroll around the lake?” he asked as he smacked the spindle of string into place with the palm of his hand.

  “Yeah, I’ll be back later. If I don’t leave now, Gran is going to stuff me full of more veggies or fruit. I can’t handle anymore fruit.”

  “I’m sure.” Dad chuckled. “Just remember to be back before dinner, or she’ll really be on your case.”

  I started down the stairs and headed toward the lake. “I know.”

  Hot air rolled over me as a gust of wind blew. The sweltering sun beat down against my bare shou
lders, warming my skin as I walked toward the woods. A dip in the lake would feel good.

  “Hey there, Mina,” the Bell sisters said in unison as I reached their trailer. They were on their porch, as usual, fanning themselves with gigantic paper fans. Tall glasses of lemonade decorated with tiny pink umbrellas sat on a table between them.

  “Hi,” I said with a wave.

  “You ready for tonight?” the older of the two sisters asked.

  “I guess.” I shrugged, not knowing what else to say.

  “Did you get a little something to commemorate this one?” the youngest sister asked, nodding to my bracelet.

  Nothing got by them, did it? They were worse than Gran.

  I held my wrist out so they could see my bracelet. “I did. It was a gift from Gran and my dad.”

  “Looks like quite a few people in your life have high hopes this will be the moon for you,” she said as she arched one of her drawn-on brows.

  “Yeah, they do.” I crammed my hands into the back pockets of my shorts, wishing this conversation would end. All I wanted to do was head to the lake.

  “I don’t blame them. This one feels important, doesn’t it? I think it’s going to be the biggest strawberry moon we’ve seen in years,” the oldest of the sisters said.

  They could feel it too? Someone always claimed each moon held a greater energy than the last, but I’d never heard so many agree about it at once. Something was different about this one. Something bigger. Everyone seemed to notice.

  My attention drifted around the trailer park. Everyone seemed to be out and about. Kids were running around playing. Some people were tending to their yards while others grilled food. The entire park was alive and buzzing with excitement.

  “Mina, hey! You coming or what?” Eli shouted from the edge of the woods. He’d startled me, but I knew what he was doing and I was grateful.

  He was saving me from the Bell sisters.

  “Yeah,” I yelled back and waved to him. “Just a sec.”