Quinn
I woke up the next day feeling like a new person. I was dirty and still wearing the ruined dress from the night before, but for the first time in a long time, I woke up feeling like me.
After untangling myself from Cody’s arms, I went straight for the shower. Humming along to some silly love song in my mind as I scrubbed dirt out of my hair, I felt something along the lines of flowers and cheesy love notes and couples dancing on the streets.
Even more, I felt like I was alive. It felt like I’d found some part of myself that I hadn’t realized I was missing. Not in Cody, though he was more incredible than he had the right to be, but in what I’d become the night before.
A shifter.
I was a shifter.
More than that, I was a wolf.
A smile pulled at my cheeks and turned into a grin so massive that it actually hurt. My memories of running through the forest were so filled with joy that I didn’t really know how to comprehend it. Being a wolf was more than a change, it was a breath of fresh air that I hadn’t realized it was missing.
It had felt so right, so complete and perfect. Being a wolf was the answer to my problems. I’d been drinking and sleeping around because I felt lost after my future in the Olympics disappeared, and being a wolf was the identity that I needed to find myself.
I heard Beth rummaging around in her room, even with the shower on. That was my wolf side seeping through into my human side, I knew it instantly and without question. I couldn’t hear Cody, so he was still asleep, but I could hear Beth.
Her footsteps got louder as she hurried down the hall and into the bathroom.
“Quinn?” she stepped inside and closed the door behind her.
“What?” I sang the word, and then rolled my eyes at myself. I was a wolf, but that didn’t mean my personality would change.
“Your mom says she’s just going to keep calling me until she can talk to you.” The apology in Beth’s voice was thicker than the steamy bathroom air.
My grin disappeared.
“What does she want?”
Nothing about the conversation to come was going to be good.
“What do you think?” Beth poked her head around the corner and held up the phone, which I glanced at but didn’t take. I wanted to ride out the high that had followed running as a wolf with Cody.
She took one look at my expression and disappeared for a second. “Hi, Mrs. Longhorn, it’s still me. Quinn is in the bathroom, but she’ll be out in a few minutes and I swear she’s going to call you back.”
I left the shower on but stepped out of the water and wrapped a towel around my waist.
Beth shot me a quizzical look, and I shrugged.
“He has wolf hearing.” I gestured with my head toward my bedroom, and understanding filled Beth’s eyes. Leaving the shower on wouldn’t cancel out the noise from us speaking, but it would make it much harder for him to interpret our words. “How bad is it?”
“How bad do you think? You’re all over the tabloids. It’s a miracle you weren’t engaged to Travis yet, because if you had been, both of your dads would be in really hot water right now.”
“I know.” I leaned back against the wall of the bathroom. “But the only other option was to let him beat Travis into a pulp, and have you seen the size of those muscles? Little ole Travis would’ve been wrecked.”
“Your dad isn’t going to see it that way.” Beth warned. “You’re going to have to put on your big girl panties and stand up for yourself and your man.”
I bit my lip. The odds of me standing up to my dad for a man I’d just met… they were slim. Even with my newfound wolfy peace and empowerment and livelihood, he was my dad and all I’d ever wanted was for him to be proud of me.
“Oh, no.” Beth dropped her phone on the counter and put her hands on her hips. “Don’t you even think about it.”
“You have no idea what I’m thinking.” I protested, though I knew she knew exactly what I was thinking.
“You’re thinking that you’re going to do whatever your dad tells you to do whether you like it or not. What if he threatens to send Cody to jail, Quinn? What if he tries to whisk you off to some remote island where you’ll be forced to marry Travis or pay with your life?”
I held up a finger.
“You read too many books, Bethie. The public already knows that Cody and I are soulmates, so a remote island wedding to Travis Childers is off the table. Plus Cody could find me anywhere, so that’s not really plausible. Jail isn’t in my dad’s plan for him either, okay? Just trust me.”
Beth’s mouth parted.
“You wouldn’t.” She accused.
I rolled my eyes.
“What is this, the inquisition? What wouldn’t I do now?”
“You’re going to make him hate you.” Beth said, her voice filled with disbelief. “You’re going to hurt that big old marshmallow of a man so badly that he won’t want to chase after you, and your dad is going to come up with some kind of dirty document where he can sign away his right to be your soulmate. That’s a new low, Quinn.”
I pulled my wet hair over one shoulder and fluffed it out, trying hard to remain nonchalant.
Beth was right. The one-night-stands and the alcohol were one thing, but breaking someone’s heart? I could only hurt myself with the booze and the sex. If I went through with the plan I’d hatched the night before, I could destroy Cody.
“Not one inch of that man is marshmallow, Bethie. He’s pure rock. And even if that was my plan—which it isn’t—it wouldn’t be any of your business.”
“Really? Are you really going to say that to me?” Beth demanded. “Every time you think you’ve finally found a way to make your dad love you, I’m the one who puts your pieces back together when he breaks you again. Every time. We eat ice cream that I don’t like, we watch movies that I hate, we go to bars that I can’t stand and I drag you home half-naked and puking.”
Her words shocked me so thoroughly that I had no idea what to say.
Beth grabbed her phone off the counter and shoved it toward me.
“Cody is good for you, Quinn. He’s a good man. He already cares about you more than your dad has in all twenty-one years of your life. If you break his heart to make your dad happy, I’m not going be here to pick up your pieces again. This isn’t a healthy way for either of us to live.” She walked out of the room without a backward glance.
Her phone started vibrating before I could go after her. Even if it hadn’t, I wouldn’t have known what to say.
Was I really that horrible of a friend?
Guilt flooded through me as I realized that yes, in fact, I was.
And still, instead of chasing after her, I answered that stupid phone.
“I’m here, mom.”
“What were you thinking, Quintessa?”
My dad’s voice was colder and sharper than a dagger made of ice, and it pierced me to the very center of my soul.
“He was going to tear into Travis.” The words came out sounding like a croak. “If I hadn’t done what I did, you would never have had a chance at the Senate. It was my only choice.”
He said nothing, but his silence was more painful than any words.
“I’m going to get rid of him, dad. I swear.” I practically begged him to believe me. “I have a plan, it’s written out on my phone. I can send you a copy, you’ll see that—”
“I’m disappointed in you.” He interrupted me.
Something invisible but horribly painful clenched around my stomach.
“You have two months to convince him to sign a document giving up his right to claim you as his soulmate. If you can’t handle that, you will be publicly disowned.”
“What?” My mouth fell open. “You can’t just—”
“We expect you to leave town and stay out of the media until you convince him to sign.”
He hung up without saying goodbye.
Beth’s phone slipped out of my hand and crashed to the floor, and with my improved hearing, I could actually hear the screen shatter. I fell to my knees and choked back the shocked tears trying to make an appearance.
In the other room, Beth took a few steps toward the bathroom and then hesitated. She only waited a second before rushing inside.
When she saw me on my knees on the floor, she dropped down beside me and wrapped her arms around me.
“What did she say?”
“It was my dad. If I don’t convince Cody to sign away his rights in the next two months, they’re going to cut me off. They won’t even see me as their daughter anymore.”
My entire body was tight with horror.
“What are you going to do?” She let go of me and met my gaze. Her moment of anger was long gone, and she was back to being the incredibly supportive best friend she had always been. I wouldn’t forget what she said though; I would be a better friend if it killed me.
“I don’t have a choice.” I closed my eyes for a second and pushed away every romantic feeling I’d had for Cody Burgandeau. “I’m going to make him hate me.”
“You’re going to fall in love with him while you do it.” Beth warned me.
I could already feel regret for things I hadn’t even done yet filling up inside me.
“I already am.” I lifted my palms to my eyes and pressed them in, taking a few moments to let my heart break.
And then I dropped my hands and stood up.
“I’ll have someone bring you a new phone as soon as they can. I have to get out of town for a while, so you and Garrett will have the apartment to yourselves.”
I gave her the biggest fake smile I could muster. I’d always been good at fake-smiling, though the look in her eyes told me she could see right through it.
“Great.” Beth didn’t bother forcing a smile.
All wasn’t well in her love-land, but it hadn’t been for a while.
“We’re going to talk about why you’re not excited to be alone with your man for hours with your favorite ice cream tomorrow, but right now, I have to see a man about a tattoo.”
I stepped back inside the shower and turned off the water.
“Fine, but I’m not lying to Cody for you.” She called.
“Don’t worry, I’m perfectly capable of lying to him myself.”