“Hey, Natalie!”
Nat turned her head at the whisper as the teacher droned on about plants in Biology class, a required course for high school freshmen.
The girl in the desk beside her was leaning down with her book propped up in front of her.
“Does your brother have a date for the homecoming dance yet?” she whispered.
Nat shook her head and turned back to pretend to pay attention to the teacher.
It had been a crazy few months, and there were so many times Nat had been afraid they would get caught. Stopped. But her mom had really come through for them when Nat had explained the situation. Not all of it of course, but enough to work on her mom’s heartstrings. Nat felt a little guilty about it though, since half the time she seemed to think Caleb really was her son.
But she’d needed her mom to get him in the system. Nat had asked her to pretend that Caleb’s late father had taken him away from her when he was little to live out in the woods somewhere. She had wanted to keep the story as close to the truth as possible, since lies were easier when you didn’t have to memorize too much.
Except between the lies and the drugs, her mom had confused Caleb with a baby she’d lost late in a pregnancy before Nat came along, so she had a tendency to cry and apologize to him every time she saw him. When she wasn’t passed out, of course. And aside from the first few weeks when she was searching for a new supplier and getting Caleb in the system, she seemed to have checked out of life even more than before. Nat and Caleb managed everything in the house now except her drugs.
They had worked all summer together. Raking leaves, running errands—whatever they could find in the nearby neighborhoods. And Nat had never had so much fun in her entire life.
They laughed together constantly. Figured out how to do new things. He couldn’t remember his exact birthdate, so they’d celebrated his sixteenth and her fifteenth on her birthday in June. She explained what she knew about the world, and he learned so fast that soon he was the one getting them jobs. People liked him so much better than they liked her—and paid him so much better.
They finally had enough money between them to buy everything they needed, from food to clothes. Her mom’s disability checks just went to pay the household bills and for her prescriptions—including the ones that weren’t actually prescribed. Nat wanted so much to just hide the money so she couldn’t buy them anymore, but she’d tried that before. It was the only time her mom ever got really angry.
The bell rang, and Nat grabbed her books to hurry to the door, pretending not to hear when some girls called out to her. Her popularity hadn’t suddenly increased. But Caleb’s…
“Natalie, wait up!”
Nat closed her eyes for a brief moment as a swarm of girls surrounded her.
“Who is your brother asking to Homecoming?”
“Is he seeing anyone?”
“Since he made varsity, will he still go out with freshmen?”
Nat kept walking to her locker, staring straight ahead.
“Why don’t you go ask him?” Her full lips thinned as she pressed them together, trying to keep her cool.
The girls tittered.
“Oh my god, I would die if he talked to me! Can you talk to him for me?”
It was the girl who used to yell at her for being in her way at Nat’s own locker. Nat didn’t answer her, and suddenly the chattering around her grew silent. She looked up.
Caleb leaned against the locker beside hers, staring down at her with a light in his eyes and that cocky half smile she kept telling him a brother shouldn’t use on a sister. His body had filled out more, and the muscles strained against his t-shirt and hoodie. He was sixteen now, 6’2”, and pure muscle.
It didn’t matter how many times she saw him. Her body always responded.
His lips parted as he stared down at her for a moment before looking away, his hand on his stomach. He leaned his back against the locker, facing the group of girls who were still staring up at him in awe.
“Are—are you going to the dance?”
The squeak came from the girl who used to yell at her, and Nat shoved her books into her locker a little too hard.
“I don’t know. Are we going, Nat?” He turned his head to her once more, tying her stomach in knots for a moment.
“You don’t go with your sister!” The girls all giggled. “You have to take a date!”
He frowned back at her.
“Then no.”
Nat closed her eyes again, wanting to whine in misery for being so desperately happy about his answer. He’s mine. You can’t have him.
She closed her locker at last and leaned her head on it for a moment. Caleb needed her to be a friend. A real friend. Someone who would help him do what was good for him. Not what was good for her.
But how could she do this when every time she looked at him…every time he looked at her…every time she had gone to sleep with him as a wolf only to wake up in his arms with him stroking her… She groaned quietly into the locker as a shudder went through her and felt him look over.
“Ready for lunch?”
Her sigh floated through the air, lost in the cacophony of trampling feet, loud voices, and banging lockers. She nodded up at him, and they headed to the cafeteria and the next group of kids who would spend the entire period trying to get Caleb’s attention while she jabbed her food and avoided his eyes.
“Are you mad at me?”
Nat’s gaze darted up to him in surprise as they walked home, her backpack slung over his shoulder, and she shook her head. They didn’t take the bus home anymore since Caleb had to stay after school for tutoring and football practice. He’d wanted her to tutor him, but the school had required something more formal. As fast of a learner as he was, he hadn’t been in school since he was six and there was a lot to catch up on before sports scholarships began rolling in, they’d said.
“Then why are you avoiding looking at me?”
Because I want to go to the dance with you.
Her gaze fell again.
“I just think you should go to the dance. With someone. Else.”
“Why?”
“Because…it’s expected. It will look weird if you don’t.”
She peeked up to see him frowning at her.
“Are you going with someone else?” he demanded.
A helpless laugh bubbled out of her.
“No! Nobody would want to go with me.”
“I want to go with you!”
“That’s because you don’t know what you’re missing yet.” A weight settle in her stomach, but it was time to stop being selfish. “I’m serious, Caleb. Ask someone. Someone pretty. Someone you like.”
“Okay. Will you go to the dance with me?”
She laughed up at him, her eyes full of helpless happiness, and a smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. But his eyes were serious.
“Someone who isn’t your sister,” she added.
“Will you go, too?”
“I can’t! I don’t have anything to wear. And I told you—no one would want to go with me.” She quickly stopped and covered his mouth before he could speak. He rubbed his lips against her palm and leaned into her hand, staring down at her.
Heat rushed through her body. Everything stilled around them as she looked up into his deep amber eyes looking at her so steadily. Open. Serious. His gaze fell to her lips, and he leaned in further.
The sound of a car approaching broke through her fog, and she dropped her hand quickly and turned to continue walking. She saw his brow furrow out of the corner of her eye.
“Is your stomach hurting?”
“Yeah.”
“Have you considered that you might be…allergic to me?”
His eyes snapped to hers again, but with a glare this time.
“I’m not allergic to you.”
“How do you know? You don’t,” she cut him off. “And you should go with someone to the dance and…and…see if it happens with them.”
She walked faster when his steps faltered, trying to breathe through the sick feeling settling in her stomach.
Her breath left her lungs when he grabbed her arm and whirled her around.
“You want me to touch someone else?”
The air stuck in her throat, so she only nodded. A very small nod.
He stared at her intently, his lips in a hard line. She felt like squirming under his gaze, but she forced herself to be still.
“Fine,” he said at last, and the knot in her stomach grew. “But only if you go, too. We can get you something to wear.”
Her lips parted to argue, but he was looking a little dangerous so she just nodded again.
He held her gaze a moment more and then turned back to walking. But he kept his hand on her arm, keeping her with him.
“Caleb…sister,” she reminded him in a whisper.
“I’ve seen how other boys treat bratty little sisters.” He glanced down at her, anger in his eyes. “I think this is fine.”
And he marched her the rest of the way home without speaking to her again.
Nat stood against the farthest wall from where Caleb danced with yet another girl, never even looking her way. Her dress actually had flowers on it, tiny little daisies on a faded blue background that Caleb said reminded him of the forest. The soft, thin fabric fell just above her knee, so light she worried each time a breeze stirred when she walked. But old clothes were like that sometimes, and this had to have been made twenty years before.
Aside from when they’d gone shopping, Caleb had barely spoken to her all week, only thawing the smallest bit when he shifted into his wolf form at night and let her curl up to him. He was always up by the time she woke, though, getting breakfast for them and plopping down to eat in stony silence once she emerged from the room.
He hadn’t asked anyone to the dance. They could all think what they liked, he said, but if she wanted to see if he was affected by other girls, he was going to test all the girls. He’d made it through about half of them so far, and some of the senior girls were really, really bold.
Nat looked away again as another one slid her hands down his body and pressed her chest against him. He didn’t seem to feel sick. Not with any of them. The weight that had settled in her stomach days ago threatened to choke her, and she barely noticed a tall, lanky boy approaching her until he was only a few feet away.
“You look nice tonight, Natty,” he mumbled, looking down at the ground.
Nat’s eyes widened in alarm. What new game was this?
Preston cleared his throat nervously as she flattened herself against the wall and watched him. His eyes darted up to hers before dropping once more.
“I’m sorry—for last year. I was still…you know. A kid.”
A kid who Caleb had thrown from the bus into the snow the first day he’d waited for her at the bus stop. He’d told him if he ever so much as looked at Nat again, they’d never find his body. Nat didn’t know if he was serious or not, but Preston had stayed far away from her since then. Until now. Now with a thin line of fuzz above his lip after hitting a growth spurt over the summer.
“Sure. It’s fine,” she said, looking around for his buddies who were probably in on the gag.
“Do you…want to dance?”
So that was it. Get her on the dance floor and then make fun of her. Maybe worse.
She wrapped her arms around her body more tightly.
“No thanks. I’m good.”
Preston stood shifting back and forth for a moment before walking to the wall beside her and leaning back to watch the crowd. What was he up to now?
“Dances are dumb,” he muttered, scuffing his shoe on the ground. When she scooted away from him slightly, he looked up. “I wasn’t the one who used the rocks—I didn’t know he’d been doing that. I wanted to tell you sorry, but your brother’s always around…”
His eyes looked almost like Caleb’s when Caleb had done something to upset her. Her lips parted in surprise…an instant before Caleb’s arm smashed into Preston’s neck, pinning him to the wall.
“What did I tell you,” he snarled, pressing harder when Preston grabbed at his arm, trying to breathe.
“Caleb, stop!” Nat wrapped her arms around him, trying to keep him from pressing any further. “He was just apologizing! Don’t hurt him!”
His muscles strained beneath her hands, and Nat could see a teacher approaching out of the corner of her eye. The kids on the dance floor had largely stopped dancing and were staring their way.
“A teacher is coming and everyone’s watching,” she whispered. “Let him go! Please…”
The music blared loudly around them, the bass sending pulsing vibrations through her chest, accelerating her already rapid heartbeat. Caleb’s eyes were narrowed and deadly, showing no sign of having heard her, and Preston was turning blue.
Her hand slid up slowly to wrap around Caleb’s wrist, tugging gently.
“I don’t want them to take you away from me,” she breathed, hoping he could hear her. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye a moment before finally stepping back, watching while Preston doubled over, gasping for breath. The teacher’s voice called out to them, but Caleb grabbed her and pulled her out into the hall, ducking into the open doorway of a nearby dark classroom. He closed the door and pulled her against his chest to lean back on the wall, waiting until the sound of advancing footsteps disappeared.
Nat’s heart hammered against her chest so hard she knew Caleb could feel it. This was the first time he’d held her as a human all week, and she ached to smooth her hands over the muscles of his chest beneath her palms.
Her lashes lifted to see his head still turned toward the door, listening, and her breath caught at the sight. His wild dark locks fell in disarray on his forehead, more tousled than usual from too many hands Nat had wanted to tear away from him. She reached up to brush them back but froze when he jerked his gaze to her. He was furious.
“Is that why you wanted me to go with someone else? So you could talk to him?”
Her eyes blinked multiple times.
“What?”
“I saw you. You parted your lips for him.”
Her lips parted again, and she couldn’t seem to stop blinking.
“You…you think—you think I like Preston?”
The revulsion in her voice was unmistakable, and doubt crept into his eyes.
“But you parted your lips…”
“Caleb…people do that sometimes just from surprise.”
He stared down at her and swallowed.
“Oh.”
Her hand still hovered by his head, and she tentatively reached out to brush the thick strands back from his eyes. Their faces were so close to each other, she could feel his breath with every rise and fall of his chest, his scent earthy and warm.
“Are you surprised now?” His tone was husky, and she realized her lips had parted again. She swallowed and shook her head, her pulse racing when his own mouth opened slightly.
His head lowered until his lips hovered right above hers, their breath mingling, and she breathed him in, a small sound escaping her. The line between his brow was as severe as she’d ever seen it, but he leaned in closer and touched his lips to hers.
Nat groaned into him, her hand dropping to tangle in the thick tufts of hair at the base of his neck. She stood on her toes, trying to get closer, and he made a sound of pain as his tongue reached out to lick the inside of her mouth, drawing a gasp from her. A sharp whimper came from deep in his throat, and he buried a hand in her hair and tilted her head to lick her more deeply, his tongue trailing her lips before sliding deep into her mouth.
The air felt empty and cold when he tore himself away, doubling over and turning to lean on the wall with his arms around his waist.
“Caleb! I’m so sorry!” she gasped, reaching for him but jerking away again when it seemed to make it worse. She stepped a few feet back as he turned and leaned his head against the wall, hitting his fist against it with a guttural cry of frustration.
Nat held her hands to her mouth, tears filling her eyes. She had known there was something wrong with her for a long time. Why had she let him anywhere near her?
“It’s not you, Nat,” he said hoarsely, his eyes closed while he leaned his forehead against the wall. “You’re not doing anything wrong.”
Tears spilled over her cheeks. She knew that wasn’t true. But he was so innocent, he just didn’t understand.
“It is,” she whispered. “I just…I’ve been selfish.”
His head turned toward her, still leaning against the wall.
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re the least selfish person in the world.”
She gave a small laugh, but the tears kept falling. It was time for her to be honest.
“You don’t understand…” Sickness clawed at her stomach. “I’m not…like normal kids.”
A frown pulled his lips down as he turned to face her fully, worry filling his eyes when he saw the tears. But he didn’t come closer.
“What do you mean?”
A shudder went through her.
“There’s something wrong with me. It…it makes boys my age…not like me. Just gross old men.”
His frown was severe now.
“That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard.”
Nat’s head dropped, and she wrapped her arms around herself while she stared at her feet.
“It’s true,” she whispered. “It wasn’t just…the creep you scared away. There was another one before him. It started when I was ten.”
“What started?” Caleb’s voice sounded dangerous, and she swallowed. Would he hate her for not telling him? For making him sick?
“He started…getting…stiff. And…you know. Putting it inside me.” Nausea roiled in her gut, but she pushed it away. He deserved to know what she was.
Silence filled the room as she stared at her toes, her breath catching with each inhale. She flinched as he walked over to her.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t know it could make you sick.”
His arms went around her and he pulled her close, putting her head in his neck and rubbing her back.
“Nat…” His voice was soft. “There is nothing—nothing—wrong with you.” She shook her head against him, and he kissed her forehead. “Hush…listen to me. There is something wrong with them.” For a moment, a snarl rumbled in his throat, fierce and terrifying, but he pressed his lips to her head again and it went away. “Not you. Never, ever you.”
Her tears spilled over again, and she leaned into him, letting him hold her close.
“And I’m not sick. I’ve been trying to figure out what’s going on, but I know I’m not sick. And I also know,” his voice grew husky, “that it only happens with you because you’re the only one who makes me feel anything good.”
“You didn’t…like any of the girls?” she whispered.
He did growl this time.
“No! Why did you want me to do that?” A bit of the anger from the week was back, and Nat looked up at him. His eyes softened again, and he stroked the tears from her cheeks.
“I was trying to not be selfish.”
His hand stilled.
“Are you telling me you did that for me?”
She nodded, her eyes earnest, and a flame seemed to grow in his.
“Nat, do you really think I would have left the forest and hunting and running free to wear clothes—to sleep boxed in—to go to school.” His volume grew as he continued. “For any reason except to be with you?”
A whimper escaped her, and she buried her head in his chest, wrapping her arms around him tightly.
“I need time to figure this out. Just…don’t push me away. Please.” His voice was husky, and she breathed him in, nodding against him.
His lips brushed her neck.
“Now will you look at me again,” he whispered. “So I can keep trying to figure it out?”
A shiver went through her, and she looked up, melting inside.
And he tried again.
