Claire winced. That used to be true. Now all of a sudden, she wasn’t telling Emily anything. She didn’t want to talk about Matthew, and she wasn’t allowed to talk about being a werewolf. Having so many secrets from her best friend felt totally abnormal, but what choice did she have?
“Well,” Claire conceded, “I will say that he’s an amazing kisser.” That much she could say without feeling squicky about it.
“He’s not one of those tongue-down-your-throat guys?”
Claire squirmed. “Um, no.”
“Well, that’s good. Jesus, do you remember Darren from last year?”
Claire’s embarrassment faded. “Oh, yeah. The one who kept licking your teeth?”
Emily nodded and shuddered. “Yep. God, I should never have kept dating him after that first kiss. I mean seriously, why didn’t you stop me?”
Claire settled back against the pillows. Now they were back on safe ground, subject-wise.
I just have to keep Emily talking about herself, that’s all. Like, for the rest of our friendship.
Claire re-sorted Emily’s piles of clothes as they rehashed Emily’s last two relationships. She felt totally fake—like an interviewer on TV trying to keep some movie star talking—but at least Emily seemed happy. That was something.
Sort of.
That evening, Claire lay on her still neatly made bed, exhausted. She’d spent the rest of the afternoon making sympathetic noises while Emily crammed things into her suitcases and vented about her parents. It had been a relief when Lisbeth finally came to pick her up, especially since Lisbeth was in a much better mood.
Claire’s cell phone rang, and she closed her eyes, hoping it was Matthew. But it wasn’t. It was Zahlia.
“Hello?” Claire answered, sitting up.
“Hey, Claire, it’s me. Is this a bad time?”
“No, I’m not busy. What’s going on?”
“I was wondering if we were still on for practicing tonight? It’s not that long until the next full moon, you know. If you’re up for it, I was thinking we could meet in the clearing, around eleven?”
Claire started figuring backward in her head. It wouldn’t work. She’d have to be ready to go by ten thirty, and there was no way her mom would be asleep by then. And she wasn’t exactly planning to tell her mom where she was going.
“It’s actually a little early. Is midnight okay?”
Zahlia laughed. “I take it Marie’s still not too keen on you learning things ahead of schedule.”
“I sort of haven’t told her about it,” Claire admitted.
“That’s probably smart. She’d just freak out, and then you’d be stuck waiting until you were fully transformed before you could so much as chase your own tail.”
Claire blinked. “Um—when will I get a tail?” Her voice sounded strangled.
“Dunno. Maybe this moon, maybe next. I was just using it as an example.”
“Oh. That sounds, uh … interesting. Yeah. Well, I’ll see you in the clearing, then.”
“Sounds good.” Zahlia hung up without saying good-bye.
Claire leaned against a rough tree trunk, still in her wolf-form, and panted into the darkness of the forest. She couldn’t even begin to smell the trail she’d been following. She’d lost the deer. Again. Behind Claire, Zahlia shuffled her feet.
“You seem like you’re having trouble concentrating.”
At the sound of Zahlia’s human voice, Claire jumped. She hadn’t expected her to transform back. Claire slumped against the bark, exhausted. They’d been hunting for hours, but Claire hadn’t caught so much as a squirrel.
“I know.” The misery in her voice embarrassed her. “I’m sorry.”
Zahlia pulled on the running shorts and tank top that she’d been carrying through the woods. “Why should you be sorry? You’re still new to all of this. That’s the whole point of practicing. You’ll get better, I promise. You just need someone to help you. That’s what friends do, isn’t it?”
Claire thought of Emily, her best friend in the whole world. Who couldn’t help her because she didn’t have any idea what was really going on. A whole lifetime of never being able to tell anyone the whole truth spread out in front of Claire and it was depressing as all hell.
“Are you all right?” Zahlia stepped closer.
Claire shrugged. “I guess.” She bit her lip. “It’s just hard.”
Zahlia cocked her head to the side. “We’re not talking about hunting anymore, are we?”
Claire shook her head.
Zahlia shrugged and sat down. “I promise you it gets better. You have the pack—we don’t have to keep secrets from each other.”
“I just can’t believe that no human ever knows, you know?”
“Well—” Zahlia hesitated. “There is occasionally a human who does.”
Excitement slid up Claire’s spine. “Really?”