But I was distracted. The moon was crescent-shaped, framed by puffy clouds. If Brandon was indeed affected by the wolf’s bite, and Mr. Worthington’s story about the full moon was real, then we were safe from the crescent moon’s glow. For now.
“What are you looking at?” he asked.
“The moon.”
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it? I like it when there is that spooky glow around it. But I’d rather be looking at something else right now.”
Brandon moved close to me, so close, it took my breath away. He pulled me into him. We were standing face-to-face, our fingers entwined. He leaned into me and kissed me with such desire and intensity I thought I was dreaming.
But like all good dreams, it had to come to an end, because the next thought in my head was that our romance would have to stay a secret. And I’d have to find out if what I’d seen after our first kiss under the full moon meant that Brandon Maddox was, in fact, a werewolf.
Chapter Seventeen
So Many Secrets
For as long as I could remember, I hadn’t kept anything a secret from Ivy. Half the time it was because she squeezed information out of me, the other half because I blurted it out in excitement. Now I had been keeping several major events under wraps for quite some time. Besides discreetly seeing Brandon, I’d managed to keep three classified secrets: one, that Brandon Maddox had rescued me from the wolves; two, that I was in love with him; and three, the Westsider I was in love with might possibly be a werewolf.
The secrets burned inside me. If I told Ivy about Brandon, she’d be upset that I was in love with anyone other than Nash. And if I told her he might be a werewolf, she’d clearly think it was a prank. She’d be in as much disbelief as I had been and, like me, would want proof. Finally, the news of a teen werewolf would spread through the town faster than a flood. Brandon’s existence would ultimately be at stake. Before I told anyone anything, I needed to know for sure what was happening with Brandon—if his dreams and what I thought I’d seen meant that he was, indeed, a werewolf.
My calendar and my notebook became my best tools. As the days passed by, I logged all possible lycanthropic events—the three nights when the moon appeared full, Brandon woke up shirtless and covered in dirt. Brandon dreamed a lot during waning and waxing moons. He was ravenous during the day. And I noted the shapes of the moon and circled the date of the next full moon, which was several weeks away.
Brandon continued to be a loner at school—keeping to himself in the cafeteria while my friends and I gathered at the popular table. I was completely torn up about it. I wanted to go over and sit by his side. Every other table was crowded with friends and cliques. I’d be the only one to break out of the pattern that had gone on for years in Legend’s Run. Most important, I would lose my best friends if I chose the Westside over the East. Plus, I worried that Brandon could change his mind about me at any moment. He clearly had some strange things going on in his life. But I couldn’t get his kisses out of my mind, and of course, his saving me that day in the snow created a special bond between us.
Regardless, I watched Ivy and Abby chat and cuddle with their boyfriends as day after day I’d stare at Brandon and watch him eat alone, all the while wanting to be sitting beside him.
“Why so glum?” Ivy asked one day at lunch.
“It’s nothing.”
“You miss Nash, don’t you?”
“Now that you mention it . . . I—”
“You do?” she said.
I don’t, I was going to say. “Why don’t we invite Brandon to sit at our table?” I asked Ivy. I gestured to the handsome guy, who was pulling several über-sandwiches from his bag. “He eats by himself every day since he moved here.”
“Are you kidding?” Abby asked. “He’s a pig. Look at him eating. He has three sandwiches. If you sat next to him, he might take a chunk out of you, too.” My friends laughed.
“I just thought it would be nice to include him,” I said.
“Maybe there’s a reason he doesn’t have friends,” Abby said, tapping my shoulder.
I sighed. I didn’t know how I’d ever be able to make my friends accept the boy I was secretly in love with.
Nash had been on his best behavior toward me. Though I resisted, he insisted on escorting me to my classes and on buying me lunch every day. I wasn’t used to all this attention from him. Nash was turning into the boyfriend he should have been all along. However, I kept him at bay. I never kissed him or in any way considered a rekindling of romance.
The odd thing was that the more aloof I became toward Nash, the more he tried to win me back. Nash was like a wolf in the wild—his territory was being invaded and he was here to reclaim it. If I had been doting on him like I had in the past, I was sure he’d probably ignore me the way he had when we were dating. Whether Nash knew it or not, he was feeling the effects of my admiration for Brandon.