“Sorry. I did not think you would be up.” She looked at the television. “Are you watching that?”
Claire nodded. “Yeah.” Under her breath, she muttered, “What a total bastard.”
Her mother smiled, her hearing good enough to catch what Claire had said. “The cowardly choice is often the easiest. At least there will be no investigation by the police—you should be grateful for that.”
“I guess.” Claire scooped up a heap of laundry and tossed it onto her bed.
“Tonight we gather,” her mother said quietly, checking over her shoulder to make sure Lisbeth was still downstairs. “I am anxious to see everyone. We will leave at midnight and not a moment later. Please be ready.”
Claire stopped sorting the laundry into piles and looked at her mother. “Yeah, I will. Be ready, I mean.”
A smile darted across her mother’s face so quickly that Claire wasn’t sure she’d seen it at all.
“I think you will enjoy this gathering more than you anticipate. But you must trust me.”
Claire looked down at the dirty T-shirt in her hands. “I do trust you. But I don’t really trust Beatrice. Not after everything that happened.” She looked up at her mother. “I know I’m probably not supposed to say stuff like that, since she’s the Alpha and all, but it’s true.”
Her mother nodded slowly. “I understand that. But it is not Beatrice’s fault, Claire. I blame myself—if I had been willing to teach you sooner, perhaps you would better understand our ways, perhaps you would not have been so surprised by Beatrice’s decisions.” She sighed. “But mostly, I blame Zahlia. Her stupid, selfish actions have seriously hurt the bonds of our pack. It will take some time to rebuild them.” Her mother was quiet for a long moment. “Still, I believe something will happen tonight that you will like.”
“If you say so.”
Her mother smiled, slipped back into the hall, and pulled the door shut behind her.
Claire hated it when her mother got all mysterious like that. When she’d found out what her mother really was—that she’d been living a hidden life all those years—Claire had thought maybe that explained it. She thought that the cryptic little comments and secrets would stop. Guess not.
One of the piles of laundry in front of her started to ring, and Claire dug through the clothes until she found her cell phone.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Claire.” Matthew’s voice was unusually quiet.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, my dad’s just on a megarampage, and I’m trying to stay out of the way.”
“I saw him on TV. I thought he was at his lab. Where are you?”
“I’m with him. They finally moved the body today, and he needed help. He and his lab tech weren’t strong enough to move her, and I figured if I helped, then it wouldn’t look suspicious if they found my fingerprints there later, or something.”
“Smart.”
“Thanks. Anyway, he dragged me over to the other lab for his latest interview, and they’re almost done asking questions, so I thought I’d call while I had a chance. Listen, if I can get out of here later, do you want to do something tonight?”
Claire sighed. “I wish I could, but I’ve got some, uh, girl stuff to do later. I think I’d better stick around here tonight.”
“‘Girl stuff’? Is that what we’re calling it now?”
The teasing in his voice made Claire warm all the way down to her toes.
“You got a better idea?” she shot back.
“Nah. Oh—they’re finishing up. Okay, not tonight, but tomorrow, then?”
“Yeah, tomorrow’s good,” she said.
“Good. I gotta go. I’ll call you later.”
When she’d flipped the phone shut, Claire sat between the mounds of laundry, turning the phone over and over in her hand, and smiled to herself.
Claire carried a basket of dirty clothes downstairs and found Lisbeth pulling a load of clothes out of the dryer.
“Hey.” Claire tipped the basket of laundry into the empty washer and grabbed the detergent. Lisbeth smiled but didn’t say anything. Something about her eyes looked funny too. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Lisbeth pulled a pair of jeans out of the pile and started folding.
Claire hesitated. Something was going on. “Are you sure?”
Lisbeth sighed. “Yeah. I guess it’s time I told you. Do you remember Mark—the guy I met a while ago, the one from yoga?”
Claire nodded.
“Well, we’ve been seeing each other. A lot. And it’s getting pretty serious. He wants me to move in with him.”
Everything clicked into place and Claire felt her mouth drop open. The late-night phone calls, the weird outings after dark—Lisbeth had a secret boyfriend. Delight flooded through Claire. If Lisbeth moved in with him, everyone would be happy. She’d have more freedom. Lisbeth would finally have a life of her own. And maybe her mom would be forced to buy her a car after all. It was perfect.
“So, why do you look so worried? Don’t you want to live with him?”