Sudden Reunions

Quinn

Jax was snoring softly behind me, his arms wrapped around my waist as if I were his favorite teddy bear. I was trying to muster up the courage to do something I’d been avoiding.

Text my mom.

My phone showed it was 10 p.m.

My mom was probably asleep by now. She was a creature of habit.

So, if I texted her now, she wouldn’t see it until morning.

I started a message.

I punched in her number since I hadn’t saved it.

Then I backed out.

Then I started again.

It was a never-ending cycle.

~Why is this so hard?~

~Just do it, Quinn~. I chided myself. ~Act like an adult and text your mom!~

The thought of going back home scared me. The image of that isolated cabin, and my mom’s furrowed brow when she was mad, stirred up a whirlwind of anxiety within me.

But this was bigger than me. This was for Shadow Moon.

My family who felt like a real family. The people who genuinely cared about me and trusted me to go on missions like this. The people who let me go, but also eagerly awaited my return.

I took a deep breath.

Determined to see it through this time, I typed in her number again.

Jeanette

Ever since Quinn vanished, the police station had become my second home. I couldn’t bring myself to go to work, or to sleep or eat.

My mind was filled with thoughts of where she could be.

Where was my daughter? What had happened to her?

Those were the questions the cops and detectives asked first, jotting them down in their spiral notebooks and yellow legal pads, the morning after.

My questions were more about why.

Because I knew who had taken her. It was the wolves who had stolen her in the night, right from the safety of her childhood bed.

Those evil, cruel, ravenous monsters.

Craving human flesh. Human blood.

For years, my husband had managed to shield me from their murderous nature. Hide their dark powers. But after this incident, I had cut through my blindfold like a thief.

No one suspected me. My disguise protected me and hid my passion as I slipped in and out of crime scenes. Under the yellow tape. Into locked filing cabinets.

Filing cabinets where the cops and detectives stashed all the notes they had taken; the papers they crumpled up as if they were worthless. They didn’t care about what had happened.

Then, after Quinn’s brief and unexpected call a few weeks ago, hope sparked within me. Maybe she’d finally come home, I thought, where she belonged—where she could be safe from all the horror and danger. Where my daughter knew and learned what was best for her.

But then…

Nothing. Worse than before. She couldn’t be tracked via phone.

She left no trace.

Everyone on the case, at that point, thought she was dead.

Drowned in a flooded river after heavy rain. Lost and starved in the woods. Killed by some wild animal.

Wild was an understatement.

Of course, I couldn’t tell them about the werewolves. Couldn’t show them the pages and pages I’d bookmarked from the library’s collections, or printed out from the Internet—off an old dusty computer I found on the side of the road. All my research about…their kind. Their strange and unnatural species.

If I did that, the police would lock me up and call it a closed case. They had already assigned me a psychiatrist who prescribed me more and more medications with each meeting. My weekly pill organizer could hardly close shut.

So, I focused my efforts on more convincing evidence.

“Hello, Cathy,” I said to the secretary at the station’s front desk as I breezed past. “Nice evening, isn’t it?”

“Um, Mrs. Michaels! Jeanette!” she called after me. “It’s pretty late. You know you can’t just barge in here! I’ve told you that before—”

I heard her stand, but I was already turning a corner and out of earshot.

I darted down the hall toward my lead investigator’s office.

It was unlike me to be so dismissive of authority. But there was a reason why.

Unlike the police, I believed my daughter was alive.

When my husband Brandon died, and when Jodie disappeared, I felt struck by an overwhelming bolt of grief. This time was different. This time, instead of sadness, I felt a manic energy.

An unexplained compulsion to keep trying. To keep going.

Some might have called it hope.

My therapist called it ~desperation~ and ~confused emotions~.

To all the inhabitants of our small mountain town, I was nothing but a basket case. A nervous wreck spending all her time badgering the police about a stale case with no new leads.

But I couldn’t help it.

This was all I had left.

I flung open the door to her office. At the unannounced arrival, my investigator only sighed.

Pushing her glasses up onto her head and leaning back in her chair, she said, “What is it now, Mrs. Michaels?”

Honestly, it wasn’t much. Probably nothing worth pursuing. A couple hunters had just spotted a girl alone in some nearby woods, two or so hours away.

Any report like this, anything possibly related to the case, I brought immediately to the station.

“It’s—” I started, ready to launch into my latest discovery when my phone chimed.

~Ping!~

That was the sound it made to alert me of a text.

Odd, considering nobody texted me besides my doctors and therapists, and it was far too late for that.

I slipped it from my purse and glanced at the screen.

A message from an unknown number.

Just two words:

UNKNOWN

Hey mom

My whole world froze. My universe hung in suspension.

My heart caught in my throat.

“It’s…?” prompted my investigator.

~It’s Quinn.~

~Ping!~

~Ping!~

~Ping! Ping! Ping!~

One, two, three, four, five more texts!

Frantically, I flicked across the screen to open them.

UNKNOWN

It’s Quinn. Your, you know, daughter

UNKNOWN

Just wanted to give you a heads-up that I’ll be coming by the house tomorrow afternoon

UNKNOWN

And I’ll be bringing a boy

UNKNOWN

Please don’t be crazy

UNKNOWN

See you soon

My investigator cleared her throat, exasperated.

“Mrs. Michaels?” she asked.

I’d totally spaced out. Forgot she was even there. In her room. Her office.

“Oh, um… Oops. It’s…it’s nothing.”

She rolled her eyes. “Jesus Christ.”

“Sorry. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t even be here right now. I should be at home. Just a crazy old grief-stricken mom!”

The detective gave me a look, her eyebrow raised.

I needed to leave.

“Catch you later!” I called out as I turned to go.

“Oh, joy,” she responded, her voice flat.

I had to get the house ready.

I had to get myself ready.

~But how?~

I didn’t know what to do, or think, or say.

~Quinn is…coming home? Tomorrow afternoon?!~

~And…she’s bringing a boy?!~

***

Jaxon

The next morning, at sunrise, I woke up. The light was filtering through the tent.

Quinn and I were still cuddled up.

And she was still sleeping peacefully, her body moving gently against my chest. It was probably only 5 or 6 in the morning.

I buried my face in her hair, which smelled like campfire and pine, just like it had last night.

We’d had such a nice evening.

I was planning to go back to sleep and was almost there when a strange sound caught my attention.

Was that...humming?

I tilted my head, listening closely.

Yes, someone was humming. A pretty, soft, delicate song. A woman’s voice.

Probably a hiker out for a morning walk. She had a beautiful voice, sure, but...

~Excuse me, whoever you are,~ I thought, grumpily. ~It’s way too early for such cheerful humming.~

I could have probably ignored it if I tried hard enough. But something deep inside me made me do the opposite.

Careful not to wake Quinn, I pulled my arm out from under her and shook off the morning stiffness. Then I sat up, sleepily pulled on my jeans and t-shirt, and quietly unzipped the tent, trying not to make a sound. Quinn stirred but didn't wake up.

I quickly crawled back to her and kissed her forehead, my lips brushing her soft skin.

Ever since everything happened at Shadow Moon, with Carl and Anthony and Quinn’s transition, I felt an intense need to love and protect my Luna.

The humming got louder.

What the hell?

Turning away from Quinn, I stepped out of our tent and into the bright, early morning and fresh, outdoor air. I stretched and took a deep breath.

~Now to find the source of that damn annoying, yet captivating voice...~

It was like a siren’s song. Like one of those mermaids who lured sailors with their music.

The moment I walked around the tent, towards the water, I saw her.

Her skin was so pale it was almost see-through, with a few freckles here and there. Like spots on a deer. Her long, red hair was floating around her face in the wind.

Her striking green eyes, flecked with gold.

Looking right at me.

~Through me.~

All the features I would recognize anywhere, even from miles away.

But she wasn’t miles away. She was standing by the pool at the base of the waterfall.

And, even more shocking, she wasn’t dead.

“Jax?” she asked, her voice timid, surprised.

In a whisper, I managed to say her name.

“Katherine...”