Full Moon by Rachel Hawthorne

even attempting to be nice, to help her with the selection of her mate? It wasn’t really my business.
    “Lindsey?” she called out hesitantly a few minutes later.
    I almost didn’t answer, almost pretended that I’d already fallen asleep. “What?”
    “What if…what if I’m not a Shifter?” she said in a small voice.
    I bolted upright, too stunned by the concept to respond. Hadn’t Connor wondered the same thing about her?
    “What if that’s the reason none of the guys can connect with me?” she continued. “What if there’s something wrong with me?”
    “Oh, Brittany, that’s…that’s just…” I didn’t know what to say. “Of course you’re a Shifter.”
    “I feel like all the guys just look through me. Even Daniel smiles at me the same way that he smiles at the Girl Scouts—like I’m cute, but nothing special. There’s never any fire.”
    Fire? Was she referring to the scary thing I felt whenever Rafe was near? For the long term, wasn’t it better to feel comfortable with someone, to feel in sync? Fire could burn you to a cinder. It was just lust, not love—wasn’t it?
    But my insecurities weren’t what she needed. She needed reassurance.
    “Look, Brittany, I’m sure it has nothing to do with you,” I said, even though I wasn’t sure at all. Even Connor had doubts, but this close to the first full moon after her seventeenth birthday wasn’t the time to reinforce these crazy ideas. “We only have a small pool of guys working as sherpas. It stands to reason that eventually there’s going to be a disconnect. God, your true mate could be…I don’t know. In California, maybe, or Florida. And this year, so few came for the celebration. Any other time, you might have connected with someone there. It sucks, totally. But maybe Daniel could be a surrogate until the real thing comes along.”
    “The first time we shift is supposed to have an element of romance about it. I don’t think I can settle for a guy holding my hand when I want him holding my body. I’d rather just go through it alone.”
    “You could die.”
    “Or maybe I’d liberate us from this archaic tradition.”
    You only think it’s archaic because you don’t have a mate. Personally, I didn’t want to go through it alone. I wanted the magic of the transformation and the wonder of bonding that followed.
    “Anyway, I’ve got two weeks to decide what to do,” she said. “I’ll figure something out.”
    She was back to sounding like the same defiant Brittany I knew. Everything would be okay. As I drifted off to sleep, I felt certain of it.
     

    The night was dark. The moon had yet to rise. A slight breeze was blowing my hair around. Connor came up behind me, wrapped his arms around me, and kissed the nape of my neck. A tingle traveled down my spine. I leaned into him.
    “Soon,” he whispered near my ear. “Very soon.”
    I turned within the circle of his arms and welcomed his kiss. It was heated with passion. He skimmed his fingers up my bare arms, and wherever he touched, I felt scalded.
    I heard crackling and popping. I grew so hot, I thought I would melt. Drawing back, I found myself staring into Rafe’s brown eyes, not Connor’s blue ones. Somehow, without me noticing, he’d changed. I could see him clearly now, because the trees surrounding us were ablaze, and great orange and red flames were leaping into the sky.
    Ignoring the danger we were in, Rafe pulled me back into his arms and lowered his mouth to mine until we became the fire and were consumed….
    I woke up breathing heavily and sweating. I scrambled out of my sleeping bag and stumbled from the tent, welcoming the feel of the cool night air against my face. I’d slept in my clothes, so all I was missing were my shoes, but I was accustomed to going barefoot so I wasn’t bothered by the ground beneath my bare feet.
    Connor was standing near the fire. He took a step toward me. “You okay?”
    Nodding jerkily, I started to comb my fingers through my