Read Reflected (Silver Series) for Free Online

things, where no one was watching. This close to the full, the pressure of emotion and judgment brought a shift near the surface, yawning under her like a chasm under a thin bridge. She’d rather die than fall into wolf right in front of everyone.
    She strode into her room and shut the door on them all. She didn’t slam it, though. She wasn’t thirteen or something.

 
    4
    Felicia went running that night and slept in the next morning, purposely avoiding the time when the pack usually ate breakfast. They allowed her to avoid them, which did sort of drive home that she didn’t have enough to do, when she stopped to think about it. No one was nagging her about getting to school on time, or asking her pointedly if she needed help with her homework. Since it was the weekend, most of the adults weren’t at work, but everyone ignored her and went about their business.
    Around two o’clock, she slapped together a sandwich from what was lying around in the fridge and went in search of Tom. His room was empty, door open. Felicia peeked inside. It smelled vaguely of pain, but that was overpowered by the layered masculine scents of the two Were who shared the room. Tom’s side of the room was fairly tidy, considering: bed rumpled, but all his clothes in the closet, and his collection of Westerns on DVD stacked neatly on the shelf opposite his bed. His roommate Pierce’s side was scrupulously neat in a way that highlighted the decade he had on Tom. They shared because they were both single at the moment, and they seemed to get along well enough.
    John’s son, Edmond, a sturdy four-year-old, trundled past her at great speed from the direction of the bedroom used as the nursery. He was shrieking with laughter and clutching his stuffed puppy.
    “Edmond!” His mother, Susan, followed with his shirt in her hands. Felicia started to step out of the way, but Edmond paused and then darted for Tom’s room, so she scooped him up. Tom—and Pierce—wouldn’t thank her if she let the kid rampage around in their stuff.
    That left her face-to-face with Susan and her human scent. Even though Susan had been there all the time Felicia lived in the Roanoke pack house, it still sometimes came as a little jolt to find a human acting as if she was a Were. Felicia understood it was because she’d earned it, defending the pack, besides the fact that her son and husband were Were, but she never knew quite how to treat the woman. In Madrid, they killed any human who found out about them.
    “Thanks,” Susan said and took Edmond from Felicia. Susan always looked so put together, like an executive of some corporation on TV, brown hair kept professionally short. Edmond squirmed around to mock-growl at Felicia playfully, and she mock-growled back. “Tom’s at work, if you’re looking for him.”
    “Seriously?” Felicia frowned at Susan as if that would convey the expression to Tom. Werewolf healing was all very well, but today was the full. She wouldn’t want to be out dealing with annoying humans with a shift so close, so easy to lose control, even when she was completely healthy, never mind exhausted from healing. Back in Madrid, it was perfectly acceptable to stay home and not interact with any humans if you thought you weren’t up to it.
    “It’s hardly manual labor,” Susan said with a shrug.
    “Down!” Edmond was apparently bored with their conversation, so he pushed his arms out straight against Susan’s chest. She sighed and set him down but didn’t release him until she’d pulled on his shirt.
    “But he has to deal with so many—” Felicia caught herself at the last second. “People.”
    “Humans,” Susan corrected, expression unbothered, though Felicia caught a whiff of exasperation. “Movie theaters are generally full of them, you’ll find.” Edmond glanced one last time at Tom’s room, but when Felicia moved to stand more firmly in the way, he and his puppy headed for the stairs and whatever entertainment might