Wolfbane

Chapter 2

*** Present Day ***

Jasmine

After I spent the last hour putting together dinner that consisted of crispy, oven-baked chicken thighs, twice-baked potatoes, and a garden salad, my parents and I sat down to an early meal. We always ate early on Sundays so that we'd make it in time for the weekly temple service that started at six thirty in the evening. As I was cutting into my chicken, my dad looked over at me and asked, "So, Jasmine, have you given any more thought to your college major?"

It was mid-June, and I had just completed my freshman year of college a month earlier. Although I was quite clearly an adult now, my parents still treated me the same way they had in high school—micromanaging my life.

"Honey, she's going into biochemistry as we did of course!" my mom jumped in before I could reply. "Then she can work at the pharmaceutical lab just like us. I mean, clearly, there aren't many career options around here, so this would be perfect for a smart girl like Jasmine."

"Is that what you're planning to do, Jasmine?" My dad looked at me.

"We already talked about this," I replied, annoyed by the repetitive conversation. "I'd have to move onto campus if I go into biochemistry because it requires taking lab classes."

"That's okay, right? It's been years now since, well, you know," my mom said. She hated the topic just as much as I did. She couldn't stand anything that made anyone in our family anything less than perfect.

"Yeah," I agreed. "I'll think about it." Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to live on campus during the school year. My parents still treated me like a kid, never allowing me to do anything. I honestly thought my dad would never even allow me to get my driver's license! After begging him for almost three years, he finally agreed to it after I graduated from high school. I was now actively saving to buy a car. Hopefully, that would give me some of the freedom I was currently lacking in my life!

The problem with going to school in person was that we lived in the middle of nowhere northern Vermont, not far from the Canadian border, so I would have to move onto campus. That would require me to be incessantly vigilant at keeping up the ruse of being human, something that wasn't always possible for me; something I felt so ashamed about but couldn't control. Most other werewolves had no problem blending in with human society, and many werewolves went away to human colleges. But I had a flaw. Yes, it had been a couple of years since it'd been an issue. Maybe if I could go another year, I'd finally feel comfortable enough to move onto campus and follow in my parents' footsteps.

For now, it was better that I just stayed a remote student. Yes, it sucked—I was still under my parents' thumbs as an adult. But it just wasn't worth the risk.

Werewolves generally preferred to live in sparsely populated regions, and we naturally felt at ease in the cold weather. There were even more werewolf packs up in isolated parts of Canada and Alaska. In fact, my mom's original pack was in Alaska, although we rarely saw that part of the family—we'd only ever visited them a few times and they never came here. I was much closer with my paternal grandparents since they lived down the street from us and always watched me growing up.

My parents met in college, and, upon graduating, moved back here to my dad's pack to work at a pharmaceutical research lab owned by the neighboring Autumn Moon Pack. To afford the upkeep, most packs ran large, lucrative businesses. Our pack's business was the only casino in the state, which was a popular tourist destination for humans, especially during fall foliage and ski season. It was located about twenty miles away, near a human town.

We ate quietly until my mom spoke again. "So, I heard tonight's service should be more interesting than usual!"

"Why's that?" my dad asked.