Dark of the Moon by Rachel Hawthorne Read Free Book Online

what this means for the rest of us? We don’t have to choose our mate before the transformation. Your courage has given every girl freedom!”
    My courage? Was she kidding me? I hadn’t been alone because I wanted to be. I was alone because the only guy I’d been interested in was interested in someone else at the time.
    “How bad was it really?” Jocelyn asked hesitantly, and I knew it was because she was aware that Shifters didn’t openly discuss the first transformation with someone they weren’t tight with. It had a mystique.
    Jocelyn’s reddish brown hair hanging straight down her back reminded me of autumn leaves. She and Samuel had their fingers laced together. He’d claimed her during the summer solstice when our kind always got together to celebrate our existence. She wasn’t going to be going through it alone.
    I looked back over at Mia. Would I be condemning her to death if I made light of things? I truly had no idea how bad it might be.
    “I thought I was going to die. I don’t recommend going through it alone.” At least I’d spoken the truth.
    Mia’s jubilant face fell. “But you survived.”
    “Just barely.” I felt mean saying that but what choice did I have? I didn’t want her death on my conscience.
    “But if I started to prepare like you did—”
    I cut her off. “You’ve got another year. You might have a mate by then.” Hadn’t Lindsey said almost the same words to me, trying to reassure me that I’d be okay? I hated being deceitful. It was only a few days ago that I had been making the same arguments as Mia. But now I knew better. Or, at least, that it wasn’t that simple.
    “I think it’s archaic that we have to have mates,” Mia said stubbornly, jutting up her small chin.
    “Gee, thanks, Mia,” Samuel said. “Some of us like the traditions.”
    “And some of us don’t. Look at all the technology we have. Get with the program.”
    “Enhancing our security using technology has nothing to do with how we should uphold our traditions.”
    “It has everything to do with it.”
    “Guys, now isn’t the time,” Jocelyn said with obvious irritation as though she’d been forced to sit through the debate a thousand times. She smiled at me. “We just wanted to stop by and talk to you. We think you’re awesome. It would be kinda creepy to just…touch you, wouldn’t it?”
    The next thing I knew they’d be auctioning mycrumpled napkin on eBay. “Definitely creepy.”
    With a last nod at me, they walked away, laughing and tittering, and glancing back as though they still couldn’t believe that I was breathing the same air as they did. There were so many ramifications to what I’d done that I hadn’t given any thought to most of them. Who would have thought that anyone except me would have cared that I went through it alone? And how was I to know that by lying about all that had happened, I’d suddenly be carrying a heavy responsibility on my shoulders?
    I was a Dark Guardian. I was supposed to protect these people. I should stand up in my chair, get their attention, and announce the truth of what had happened. I was debating the pros and cons of that action, considering how mortifying it would be, when a shadow fell over my plate. My heart hammering, I jerked my gaze up, hoping to see Connor. Instead I saw Daniel, the guy with whom the elders had tried to set me up. He gave me a warm smile. I smiled back. No hard feelings. He was a nice guy, but we’d both accepted from the get-go that we weren’t going to make it as a couple.
    He set his plate on the table and pulled out a chair. “Glad to see you didn’t need me after all,” he teased.
    “Everyone keeps looking at me like I’m a freak.” Or maybe that was just my imagination because I knew I was one.
    “You’re a legend. Although I have heard that a few guys are worried that the need-a-mate myth might be challenged by other girls.”
    “Yeah, I got a taste of that a few minutes ago when some of the novices