“After Christmas?” I exclaimed, aghast. “But…but what about our traditions? What about baking Christmas cookies together? What about our gift exchange? I’ve already gotten something for both of you!”
Madison looked down her nose at me.
“If you think expensive gifts can make up for always ditching us, think again, Ani.”
“I didn’t ditch you tonight!” I pointed out. “I had to sneak out to get here! If you guys only knew—” I stopped, shaking my head.
“Knew what?” Ashley demanded. “Ani, is there something bad going on? Are they messing with you? Abusing you somehow?
“No.” I shook my head miserably. I couldn’t tell them what was really going on. Couldn’t admit the embarrassing truth about the weird cult my mom had somehow gotten herself sucked into and tell them how she had dragged me into it with her. How do you tell your two best friends that your stepfather thinks he and his son are the last of the “Royal Line” descended from the “First Wolf?”
It just sounded so crazy, I didn’t even know where to start.
“It’s…it’s just a family thing,” I said again, lamely. “Please try to understand. I love you guys, you know that!”
Ashley stooped and gave me a quick hug.
“All right, we love you too, Ani,” she said.
Madison gave me a grudging hug as well.
“We do love you, but what are we supposed to think? Everything has changed since your mom got remarried.”
“I know,” I said, my throat tight. “I wish I could explain—I really do. But, well…I just can’t.”
Ashley stepped back and gave me a sad look.
“We used to tell each other everything—remember?”
“It was part of our friend-pact,” Madison chimed in.
The friend-pact was a contract we had written up in middle school, back when we’d decided we would all be friends for life. And apparently now I was breaking it.
“Come on guys, that was a long time ago,” I said weakly.
“That doesn’t make it any less important.” Ashley frowned, her manner growing markedly cooler. “Look, we’d better get going. We promised Gillian she could have your spot in the Airbnb if you didn’t want it. I need to call her and tell her to start packing. Bye.”
She gave a little wave, which Madison duplicated.
“See you later, Ani,” she said carelessly. “Have a good Thanksgiving.”
It was the way you talked to a casual acquaintance—not even a friend. Her words made my heart grow cold, like there was a layer of frost creeping over it.
It felt like I was losing them forever.
TWO
As I watched my two best friends walk out of my life, I wanted to jump up and shout,
“Wait, come back! I’ll tell you everything!”
But I just couldn’t. And it wasn’t just the fact that it sounded crazy, I had also been sworn to secrecy by Marcus when my mom and I moved into the big white mansion on Songbird Hill…
My stepfather had taken me down in the basement and—with Jake as a witness—poked my finger with an ancient silver instrument that looked like a cross between an ice pick and a dagger. Then he pricked Jake’s finger as well.
He held my bleeding finger to Jake’s so that our blood could “mingle” as he put it. It reminded me of something I had done with Madison and Ashley when we were kids and wanted to become “Blood sisters forever.”
I might have been crazy, but it seemed to me that when my finger touched Jake’s and our blood “mingled,” I felt a kind of tingle run up my arm. I bit my lip and yanked my finger away from his as soon as Marcus allowed it.
Jake said nothing—just put his hand down by his side and squeezed it into a fist—I could see how white his knuckles were getting in the light of the single candle flame Marcus had lit for this weird little “ceremony.” His jaw was clenched, too and his eyes were blazing as he looked at me and then looked away.
“Now, Anastasia,” Marcus had said to me. “Your blood is Jacob’s blood and his blood is yours. I am your father by adoption but Jacob is your brother by adoption and by blood. Do you understand? He is truly your brother—as though the two of you were born of the same parents.”
“Uh, yeah—I guess so.” I was feeling pretty nervous about this whole strange thing. I wondered if all “Weres” as they called themselves, did this kind of adoption ceremony when they welcomed new members into their family. Or was it just some batshit crazy idea my stepfather had come up with on his own? And why was it so important for Jake and I to “mingle” our blood?
“Will you swear to keep our secrets now that you share our blood?” Marcus asked me.
Well, what could I say—No? I didn’t want to imagine the consequences if I did that. So I just nodded and said yes, feeling weirder than ever.