“Hanna!”
Heavy footfalls came up the stairs and Hanna braced herself. She could guess what this was about, and as much as she’d rehearsed it in her head, she still dreaded the conversation.
The knob twisted and her father stepped into the room. “What’s this I hear about you sitting with the mutt pack at lunch?”
Yep, Conner had finally made good on his threat. There was really no point in denying it since her parents could confirm it with any of the other werewolf kids at school. And Hanna didn’t want to deny it.
She stood up. Even though her father still towered over her, it was a little easier to face him on her feet. Not that she could quite look him in the eye. “They’re—” Her throat closed as sweat dampened her armpits. Instinct screamed for her to apologize.
I can be strong. I am strong.
“They’re my new pack.” A shiver of fear went through her.
“What is wrong with you?” He growled, the sound turning her legs to jelly. “Dating a fae boy, dating a dragonkin, and now you want to hang out with a vampire and a ghoul?” The last word dripped with disgust.
Hanna reminded herself to breathe. “I needed a pack, and I couldn’t stay in Conner’s. He hit me.”
“This isn’t about Conner, young lady. You have a pack, our pack.”
Frustration bubbled up through the fear. “You know I need more than that. I need people my own age.” Young werewolves had their own little packs within the larger one. Even toddlers established groups and worked out hierarchies whenever there was more than one of them.
“If you want your own pack, then take it from Conner.”
She was so disgusted she almost looked up at him. “I don’t want any of them.” They were too much like Conner, bullying jerks who enjoyed picking on everyone else. She’d spent years standing by while they tormented other kids.
Her father sighed. “Then at least take the two wolves and leave the others out.”
It took her a second to realize he was talking about the mutt pack. Brooke, the girl who’d been turned into a werewolf through a bite, and Gavin, who’d been born one. “I’m not going to… to steal them. I like Marisa.” She was a vampire but had ended up the de facto leader of the pack when the previous alpha graduated and left town. “And I like Carter too.” The ghoul boy. Saying their names was like a talisman, making them people.
“It’s unnatural. You’re not going to sit with them anymore. You’re not going to talk to them anymore.” Her father took a step closer, his chest like a wall blocking out everything else.
“No.” She meant it to be bold, but the word came out as a whisper.
“What did you say, young lady?”
She started to tremble. Her father hadn’t ever hit her like Conner had, but she’d been spanked before. The last time had been years ago, but she wondered if she was going to get a spanking now. It would be so easy to agree and do anything to make her father happy.
But she’d broken up with Dylan so she could find herself. Find her strength. She balled her fists. Dylan is brave. Even sweet, gentle Aiden is brave. I can be brave too. Hanna pictured her new pack. Her friends. She’d never felt that with Conner’s pack. The outcast group of kids she’d sat with at lunch over the past few months felt more like her friends than the werewolf boys she’d grown up with.
“I said no.” Her voice shook but was louder now.
His hand thrust out and she flinched. “Give me your phone. You’ve lost your privileges. And you won’t be leaving this room unless you’re going to school. You want to defy me? Then you face the consequences.”
She pulled her phone from her pocket and dropped it in his hand. It felt like giving up her only connection to the world. “It’s not like I go anywhere anyway.” Since breaking up with Dylan, she didn’t even have dates to look forward to.
Why am I doing this to myself?
But there was something inside her, like the pull of the full moon, urging her down this path. She had to believe it led to somewhere better.
Father’s fingers closed over the phone. “This is for your own good, Hanna. You can’t be mixing with those… creatures. You need to stick with your own kind. When you leave Shadow Valley, the pack will be all you have.”
Now there was a frightening thought. She had a little over a year before she graduated, which meant that was all the time she had left to find her own way.