The Wild Moon by Riley Storm

Chapter Two

I hesitated.

Not because I was scared. No, how could I be? The house in front of me was my best friend’s. She and her family lived there, and I had been coming since I was a young kid. I knew it inside and out, from every nick on the giant wooden porch to the hidden crayon stains behind the old couch where we’d colored as kids. It was as much my home as hers.

And it didn’t come with the bad memories of that darkened, abandoned place I’d passed by earlier.

No, I wasn’t scared. I was hesitating because I needed to build up my energy. This was about to be the most close contact I’d had in twenty-eight days. Since the last time. Normally, I could suck it up, but tonight was different. This Wild Moon was going to be a special one, and I wasn’t going to let my usual dour mood affect my best friend in the entire world.

Moment taken, I strode up the three rickety steps attached to the wrap-around front porch and went straight to the storm door, pulling it open and rapping firmly on the old wooden door behind. The knocks echoed on both sides of the door, followed seconds later by the hammering of footsteps.

I braced myself.

A short bundle of blonde in a teal sports bra and black athletic shorts came flying out the front door in a squeal of excitement, picking me up and spinning me around.

“Dan!” she cried, squeezing me tight.

I grinned and bore it like a good friend, ignoring the unusual short form of my name. Joanna Alustria was the only person who could call me that and still make it sound feminine, so I let her get away with it.

“Hey, Jo,” I half-grunted through her squeeze. “You’re feeling strong today.”

The diminutive blonde dropped me. I landed easily, legs bending just a hair to absorb the landing.

“I know, right?” Jo said eagerly. “I feel strong today. Maybe it’s just me imagining it. I don’t know. Did you feel stronger the night of your Soulshift?”

I shuddered internally, trying not to think about that night. “No, not really,” I said quickly. “Other senses, yes. But not strength. That only came after.”

“Weird,” Jo said giddily, acting as if we hadn’t seen each other in hours instead of a month. “My other senses are fine, but I feel like I’m stronger today. So maybe that’s my thing.”

“Maybe,” I said with a shrug. “I really don’t know.”

Jo smiled up at me. While she was short and thicker, I was the opposite. Tall and without a curve to my body. We were the perfect counterparts, which had probably helped fuel our friendship.

She was also the only reason I was back in town.

“I take it you’re excited about your Soulshift?” I teased.

“Are you kidding?” Jo said with a long exhale. “I’ve been waiting eight whole months to catch up to you! I can’t wait for it. My wolf and I, united. Oh, hey, you changed your hair!”

Laughing at her mile-a-minute mind track, I flicked my hair forward, showing off the newly dyed chunky blue highlights. I’d done it on a whim a few weeks earlier, feeling the need to change something. The plain black tresses had simply become too boring.

“Yeah,” I said. “I wanted to change it up. What do you think?”

“I’m digging it!” Jo said, playing with a lock of blue. “It suits the new you.”

The new me. She wasn’t wrong there. A lot had changed in the past eight months. A lot. Except for Jo. She hadn’t changed a bit. She’d never judged me before, and she never judged me now. If I needed to become a new person, she accepted that immediately. After all, to her, I was just Dan, and that was all she needed.

And it was all I needed. Our childhood innocence was an eternity ago, but our friendship was something I held onto with more than a bit of desperation.

“Well, are you going to come in already?” Jo said, pulling the storm door open and holding it for me. “No bag, I see.”

“As usual,” I said with a laugh, playing out our familiar byplay about my monthly visits.

“How’s life in the big city?” she asked, following me inside and closing the door behind her. “Are you still loving it there?”

“It’s great,” I said. “Wonderful. I’m really starting to find my place there, actually.”

I didn’t want Jo to worry about me.

“By Vir’s Oath,” Jo said, uttering a familiar shifter curse. “You have got to be the worst fucking liar I have ever met, Dan. Seriously. How do you expect me to believe that?”

“Blind hope and faith?” I replied deadpan. Okay, maybe I should have expected better of Jo.

“Tell me the truth,” she said in a more serious tone. “How are you doing? I know these visits aren’t enjoyable for you. But I care about you, Dan.”

“Thanks, Jo,” I said, flopping down on the old wooden couch covering the crayon marks, my usual lounging spot when I crashed at the Alustria household. “And the truth is, it’s been hard. Really hard. Making ends meet is tough. Some of my jobs have been rough.”

That was an understatement, I thought to myself, thankful that my shifter healing meant Jo would never know the truth. I didn’t want her to worry about me more than she already did.

“You know you can come back,” Jo said quietly. “You can stay here. With Dad and me.”

She didn’t mention her mother. We never did. It was easier that way.

“You know I can’t,” I said quietly. “Not here. I can’t be here anymore, Jo. It’s too painful. The memories. Ever since they disappeared, Jo, I … I can’t stop thinking about them. I can’t stop blaming myself.”

“Dan,” my best friend protested gently, telling me with that one word that I shouldn’t hate myself for what had happened. She didn’t need to say more to get the point across.

“I know,” I said. “But still. I have to try and find them.”

Jo nodded silently. She didn’t press me for more information. Like I said, BFF. She knew I didn’t want to talk about my search for my missing parents. After all, there was nothing to talk about. They were gone, and there wasn’t a single clue about what had happened to them. I’d spent thousands of dollars over the past eight months trying to track them down to no avail.

I bit my lip as everything started to come back. Not now. I couldn’t handle the thoughts right now. I needed a new subject. Something that wouldn’t threaten to overwhelm me and send me into a spiral of depression and sadness.

“I’m excited to see you tonight,” I said, switching back to the big topic. “Finally, both of us will have shifted.”

“Yes!” Jo cried. “Me, too. Being eight months younger than you has never mattered more until now. I’ve been dying to shift. To run with you under the moonlight, Dan.”

“And maybe find your Soulbound mate?” I teased.

“Maybe,” Jo admitted sheepishly. “You’re going to be there, though, right?”

“The entire way,” I promised.

Unlike me, Jo would not go through her Soulshift alone. No shifter should. That first meeting of wolf and human, transforming into the animal form, it was scary. Terrifying even. But I couldn’t speak to the part after. The forming of a Soulbond with another shifter.

After all, I’d been denied that particular pleasure. Eight months running now. Unheard of for a female shifter. They never went Unbound past their Soulshift. Only the males did that.

Not me.

I was determined that Jo would have someone there for her. Her Soulshift would not be traumatic.

Unlike my own.

“Thank you,” Jo said a bit sheepishly, clearly embarrassed but appreciative of my support.

“That’s what best friends are for,” I said. “Now, tell me what you’ve been up to since I last saw you!”

It would be best to distract her for the last few hours until the sun fell. At which point, we, and every other shifter in Seguin, would head to one location.

The Alpha’s house.

Isn’t life grand sometimes? Once a month, I get to come back to the place I hate and spend it in the company of the people who destroyed it.