Blackmailing A Werewolf

Chapter 24:

"Guys," She heaved in a breath, "You will never guess what I saw on my way over here."

"Witches."

"Zombies."

"Vampire." Walter, Tessa and Otto said in rapid succession. With a half smile, Walter looks to Rye, "What's your guess?"

Frowning, Rye looks between them, not expecting to be included and then answers.

"Banshee."

"Ooh, that's an interesting one." Otto flops onto the love seat nearest the fire, grabbing Walter's jacket dragging him into the limited free space next to him. "Keri's never seen one of those. And if you now say you saw a banshee I know you are lying."

Tessa accepts her chocolate, Rye's fingers meeting hers around the mug and the same fizzing sensation appears in her fingers. Ducking her head, she stares at the whipped cream and marshmallows, not sure why the fire is so hot against her cheeks. The marshmallows are arranged in a smiley face. She peeks at him to see his grin. He didn't do this for anyone else's hot chocolate. Tessa doesn't know where to look, the extra effort put into hers shouldn't make her warm and tingly all over but it does. With a smile, one which almost definitely looks like a cross between a grimace and bad gas, Tessa thanks him.

She plops into the overstuffed armchair, leaning her head against the wing of it. The fabric is a rough tweed and the fibres tickle at her chin. The warm fire cocooning her makes her eyes heavy, but she forces herself to listen to Keri.

"No, I saw it again. My monster. In the woods, when I was walking over."

"We are not mind readers Ker, although I'm sure you've found a couple of those too lurking around the library, so you need to tell us what monster you are on about this time." Wriggling in his seat Otto shucked his boots off and kicked his feet into Walter's lap, flexing his socked feet until Walter put a hand on them. Absent-mindedly Walter stroked the arch of Otto's foot, which Tessa knew pained him on a daily basis due to a bone deformity. Tessa smiled at her brother from behind her hot chocolate.

"A werewolf. I saw a werewolf in the woods."

"Sure you did and I'm Peter Pan, I just couldn't find my ruddy green tights this morning or my wee hat."

"I'm serious Otto! I heard this growling and then a flash of yellow eyes, but they had disappeared by the time I got down the stream. It was a werewolf."

"I hate to break it to you," Tessa leaned forward ignoring the sweat beginning to gather at the base of her neck. "But there's no full moon. Isn't that sort of the basic criteria for werewolves."

It took everything in her not to meet eyes with either Walter or Rye. The thrums of their heartbeats echoing in her ears. There is no way Keri could have seen Tessa's eyes, one of them would have smelt her, or heard if she was that close. The wind was too strong and the ground too damp for them not to smell her. It's Keri, she tried to remind herself, she accused Mrs Monroe of casting spells on them during exams - she can't be a trusted witness for anyone.

Tessa can't be trusted to keep the secret anymore.

The thought is bitter in her, like Walter's black coffee. She can barely keep the secret and yet her pack expects her to lead them in a few short months? She is never going to be the alpha her pack deserves.

She doesn't miss the sideways look Otto gives her either. As if Keri's mention of yellow eyes suddenly makes the plausibility of Tessa having yellow eyes more likely. This is bad.

Keri chucks her rucksack on the sofa, emptying the contents; books, papers, pencils, her laptop spill over the sofa. She rummages through them, shoving one paper at the older boys, the next she hands to Rye, and then Tessa gets an annotated book with a cracking spine pushed under her muzzle. No. Nose. She reprimands herself. No thinking in wolf terms today. She reads the title.

Chapter Six ~ The Life of the Werewolf Outside of the Full Moon:

Tessa's stomach plummets.