Page 27 of Chasing The Alpha's Son
And it is what I wanted—it is.
I shake Jericho’s hand, grinning from ear to ear.
“I’d love to!”
“Very good,” he says, and winks at me, which should be the coolest moment of my life but is actually a little disconcerting. “Enjoy the blood moon. I hope you make the most it.”
When he releases my hand I have to wait a moment for the blood to flow back into the tips of my fingers.
I didn’t win the race, but I’m still going to the Rocky Pack. I’m going to spend the holidays with Jasper!
“Congrats,” Aisha says, and it only bugs me slightly that she sounds kind of skeptical.
“Max, this is so cool!” Katie says, rushing in and hugging me before I can remember that I’m kind of pissed at her.
When I glance over, Jasper has already stood up. I think he might come over and say something, but instead he turns and walks away. He nods at Clayton, who leaves his buds and joins him. Together they snake their way into the crowd and disappear into the shadows.
I WON’T BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
The house is dark when Aisha drops me off. I give her a little wave and she gives me a halfhearted thumbs-up before driving away. Figuring my parents are asleep, and not feeling much up to attempting the ten-foot-high jump back into my bedroom, I head for the front door.
Inside, I creep through the darkness up to my room, gently closing the door behind me, and am about to slide into bed when I see them.
A shadowy figure is sitting in my desk chair.
I scream as the person swivels to face me.
“MOM! You nearly gave me a heart attack.”
Needing to fully convince myself I’m not about to become some serial killer’s next victim, I flick on the light. I spin back to Mom, expecting her to make a quip about me nearly giving her a heart attack too and then shouting about how worried she was, but she doesn’t say anything, just stares at me.
She isn’t crying but she definitely doesn’t look happy.
“Were you at the race?” she asks, as if it’s hard to get the words out.
“Yes, but Mom before you say anything you’ll never believe—I didn’t win but this other guy, he tried to drown me, and so Jericho is letting me go with the envoy to the Rocky Pack to see the blood moon and—”
I stop. She’s wringing her hands, twisting her mouth in a way that breaks my heart.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I’m sorry I snuck out, I know you must have been worried but I—”
“Was it something I did?” she asks. “Something to make you think you can’t talk to me?”
“Something you did? What? No. I just really want to see the blood moon is all.”
She scoffs. “You may be keeping some part of yourself secret for whatever reason, but I know you well enough to know that’s a lie.”
Her shoulders are slumped forward, like she’s tired, like she’s giving in.
“I just don’t know what else to do.” Her voice is all choked up. “I feel like I’m failing you but I don’t know how to stop it.”
I can’t bear this. Mom and I have always been close. We have the same sarcastic sense of humor, we love watching singing competitions, and every Halloween she asks me what I want to be and makes me the most amazing costume. I drop to my knees and grab her hands in mine.
“You aren’t failing me,” I say. “You could never fail me.”
My words hit me as I say them. She could never fail me—I know that—but there’s another reason why I’m just not ready to come out to her, and I’m only just beginning to realize what that is.
“You could never ever fail me, Mom. The truth is”—part of me desperately wants to tell her everything and part of me knows that I can’t, not yet—“there is something I’m going through. But I haven’t quite figured it out for myself. And I know I messed up tonight but you need to trust me.”
