Page 49 of His White Moonlight
“Don’t hate your life, Wrenly.Fight to make it what you want until you love it.”
My seatbelt clicked into place, and he withdrew, closing the door for me.
I exhaled shakily and hoped Bennett’s words meant he understood and was on my side.I really needed someone on my side.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Silence reigned allthe way home.I thought maybe he was mad, but he grabbed my bags from the car and carried them up to my room.Then he left without a word.
Closing my door, I breathed a sigh of relief, grateful for a break from his mercurial mood swings, and went to put my new clothes away.They weren’t anything fancy, but they were one hundred percent my choice.I ran my fingers over the material, relieved it wasn’t a school uniform or something ridiculously expensive that would make people question who I was.I wanted to blend once I left here.Blending and escaping notice would be a nice change.
My phone buzzed with a new message.
Karter: What’s your favorite color?
Me: Any color except blue and white.Why?
Karter: You hate blue and white?Weren’t those your school colors?
Me: When are you going to tell me where you are so I can visit?I miss you!
My phone stayed silent.
Don’t hate your life, Wrenly.Fight to make it what you want.
I tossed my phone onto my bed and used my laptop to log in to the university portal and check for emails from my professor for the online summer class I had registered for.There weren’t any new communications after the introductory email explaining his expectations and requirements, which I’d already read.Bored and ready to take a step toward the future I wanted, I’d hoped for something more.
Unfortunately, the start date wasn’t until next week.
With a sigh, I logged out and went to change into one of my new outfits.Dressed the way I liked, I jogged down the stairs and crept down the hallway toward Bennett’s office.
I could hear the rumble of Bennett’s voice through the closed door and hoped whoever he was talking to was loud enough that he wouldn’t hear me.Being as silent as possible, I crept past to the back door, eased the handle down, and slipped outside.
The backyard had been my oasis as a child—a safe place I could play where the pack girls wouldn’t pick on me.It hadn’t changed much.A single swing still hung from the thick branch of an old tree.The lawn spread out around it, broken up by the occasional landscaping bed.The ones closest to the tree had flowers.The rest mostly had ornamental grasses and decorative trees.A dense body of trees defined the yard's border.
I walked toward the swing and gave it a test tug before sitting on it.
Bittersweet feelings surged as I reminisced about all the times I’d played right there with Aiden and Karter.Happy times broken by confusion and hurt.I still didn’t know what to think of my childhood.Back then, my six-year-old self had been so grateful the Wulfs had taken me in.But it hadn’t been easy.
From the start, Bennett had rejected each of my efforts to be his sister.He’d gotten so mad about it that Mom and Dad had sent him away to school at the start of the next school year.But it’d been too late.The pack girls had picked up on his standoffish attitude toward me.
Whenever I’d left the yard without Aiden and Karter, the girls had made my life hell.Hair-pulling, scratches, and name-calling had been a core part of my childhood and left a deep belief that I was unwanted, a belief that Mom had seemed to sense.She’d done her best to reassure me.The teasing had eased up a little after I told her what had been happening.During those first six years, I’d learned to avoid the pack girls.
Then, I’d been sent away for a new group of girls to bully me.
And why?
I’d broken their no-liking-boys rule.But in my heart, I knew it was also because Bennett had come home, and he’d seemed to hate me even more than he had before he’d left.I’d understood why.They’d sent him away because of his attitude toward me.I would have resented me for that, too, which was why I didn’t hold any grudges for being sent away myself when I was twelve.
However, seven years was a long time to be locked away.Longer than Bennett had to endure.
With a sigh, I held onto the rope and tipped myself back to look at the blue sky peeking through the leaves.
Our family was complicated, no doubt about that.But my relationship with Bennett was even more so.He wouldn’t acknowledge me as family, but other than that, he wasn’t mean to me.
Before coming home, he’d never talked to me.Now, Mom and Dad had stuck him with me.I knew it was probably their way to force us to figure out how to get along.After all, we were both adults now.We should be able to manage a cordial relationship at this point in our lives.
But Bennett wasn’t easy.Even Mom said as much.And after my attempted apology for hitting him in the face, I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep trying with him.
