Still Waters hide the deepest secrets

Information Overload

Nixie

My dad leads me upstairs a couple floors into a huge apartment that is clean, spacious, and nice, but feels cold and un-lived in. If I had to pick a design style, I'd call it industrial farmhouse. Warm and inviting with wood, metal, and simple lines.

He grimaces as I look around. "I pretty much only sleep in there." He points to a room down the hall.

"That's ok. I pretty much only go home to sleep and shower."

"Do you want to go home and get your stuff or just move in? I have a room for you," he points to another door, "and I can buy you all new clothes."

I smile at my dad. He is unknowingly offering me my dream. "I'd rather just stay. Mother will not take my leaving well." I fidget for a minute then burst out. "Can I trust you?"

He looks at me, "I just called the witch council and told them your mother is back to her old tricks."

My eyes blink. "I guess you really do believe that trust is earned." I'm sure some might think I should be mad or angry at him. But I'm not. I'm strangely relieved. For the first time in forever, I feel at home. "I tried to leave once before." I confess.

"She hurt you?"

"She spelled me. Told me that would teach me." I raise my hands, palms up, fingers splayed. "But nothing much happened."

He frowns. "Nothing you could feel, anyway. It could be why you can't talk to your wolf, even if she is trying to talk to you and why you smell so strange."

"You can smell me?" I ask. I put my arm up to my nose and sniff. "I don't smell anything. What do you smell?"

He rattles off the brand of my soap, shampoo, and conditioner along with my laundry detergent.

"You smell all that?" I shake my head and sniff at myself again.

He nods, "Yup. She locked your wolf down. Regardless of the spell, you will shift on the full moon, which is less than two weeks away. No magic is able to stop that. It's who you are."

"So, what now?" I ask even as I try to process his bombshell. If her spell locked down my wolf, did it lock down anything else? Is that why I feel this strange power inside me now?

"Did you text your mom?"

"I never call her that, except to her face," I tell him. "And I don't think of her as that. She's my mother only because I came out of her womb, nothing more." Then I wince as I remember she was his mate, he loved her once. "Are you ok with that?"

"Believe it or not, it makes it easier for me, Nixie. I only use her name when it's absolutely necessary and I never use the word mate or wife for her."

"Good to know we are on the same page with that, Dad. But back to the topic, I shot her a text while Shay and I were eating. I told her I was sleeping at Shay's. But she didn't reply, which means she probably won't be home tonight anyway." Then my face gets serious. "But Dad when she does find out, it's not going to be pretty."

"Look at you, Little Miss Understatement." He shakes his head. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Let's just worry about the full moon for now."

"When is it?
"Not this coming Thursday, but the next one."

"Do I still go to school?"