Chapter 1

Freya

If I had a choice to become an animal, it would likely be a wolf. Not just any wolf, but a lovely she-wolf with snow-white fur and sky-blue eyes. I'm sure I'd be OK. As much as my love life. If I'm fortunate enough to have one. It would not be as tragic and agonizing as my mother's.

Tears streamed down my cheeks from my eyes. It tickled my skin and drove me to respond by wiping it away from my face, but more tears streamed down as I did so. It was something that happened all the time before going to bed. It was similar to a bedtime routine. I'd stand by my bedroom window, staring out at the moon in the dark sky, and it would end with me begging the moon to turn me into a wolf, as if the moon had ears to hear before going to sleep. I used to laugh at myself for being crazy and having a big imagination from reading too many romance wolf-shifter novels. I believed it to be true.

Before heading downstairs, I got out of bed and went to the bathroom mirror. I would check to see if my eyes were puffy, and they were. As usual, I was red and swollen. I cleaned my face and began to apply makeup. I applied enough foundation, blush, and eye shadow to conceal the fact that I'd wept myself to sleep the night before. Before going, I took a close look at myself. I made sure my appearance was appropriate for a seventeen-year-old, not that my mother would notice. She was too preoccupied with her twentieth lover, whom she felt this time was the one who would never leave her. I laughed at the concept. When will she learn?

When I arrived downstairs, Mom was all comfy, sitting on her boyfriend's lap around the dining table. My eyes rolled, angry. She giggled as Jack fondled her and kissed her on the neck and down to her bosom.

"Teenager in the room," I felt embarrassed about their demeanor.

They made me feel like I was the parent in the house, and they, the adolescents, assumed they were madly in love with each other.

I dashed past them into the kitchen before Jack, whom I despised, could say anything to me. I stopped liking any of the men my mother dated after realizing they were all the same. Heartbreakers. They treated her well until they became tired of her. Forsaking me as usual to deal with her tears and the anguish of a broken heart.

I returned to my room after pouring a bowl of chocolate cereal and milk. That's how I spent the summer: hiding myself in my room while I ate and read werewolf romances about good men who never cheated on their mates. If only humans mated like wolves. I wouldn't be so depressed by my mother's miserable love life, and I wouldn't be so terrified to fall in love. My mother would have been content with her soulmate.

When I heard my mother chuckle downstairs, I got up and slammed the door. I couldn't wait for summer to end so I could go back to school; school was a type of escape for me. To avoid having to cope with my mother and her men. Unfortunately, school resumes in two weeks, and I couldn't wait that long.

I lay down and placed the empty bowl on my bedside table. As I turned to the next page in A.K. Knight's Werewolf Crush, I laughed at Jenny, the female lead character.

As I heard my mother yell, I tossed the book aside and bolted from my room. Jack was twirling my mother in the air when I arrived downstairs.

When he saw me, he put her down, and my mother hurried towards me.

"Honey, Jack has asked me to accompany him while he works!" she exclaimed, her face beaming.

"What!" The news shocked me.

"I'm sorry to say to you that you will not be completing your senior year at Castle High." You'll have to stay with your grandmother and grandaunt."

What I was hearing was unbelievable. I was left dumbfounded by the terrible news.

I witnessed my mother bounce with pleasure and return to Jack, kissing him.

My mother's comments were too difficult for me to grasp. There was no way she was going to put me off in a town so she could travel with her boyfriend.

"Mom, you can't do this to me." I started crying. "You can't let me transfer to a new high school when I'm almost finished with Castle High."

"Jack, please give my daughter and me some time alone."

I kept staring at Jack until he was out of sight.

My mother took my hand and led me around the dinner table. She sat right next to me.

"I know, honey, that this is a big change for you right now, but I have to do it because I love Jack."

"He's no better than your exes; he'll soon get bored with you as well," I replied as I withdrew my hand from hers.

"I'm sorry, Mom. I didn't mean to say that; I'm only trying to keep you safe."

"No, I'm the mother; you're the daughter; it's not your responsibility to protect me. It's my responsibility to protect you," she argued. She then went away, distraught.

"Mom, I didn't mean to." I wept.