Full Moon by Rachel Hawthorne (best biographies to read .txt) 📕

wondered if he planned to keep watch over the ex-Bio-Chrome employee all night. Kayla and I had a group of bird watchers to take out the following morning. Lucas had decided that he and Connor should go to Wolford and talk with the elders.

“We’ll leave in the morning,” Connor told me. “Want to catch a movie tonight?”

I nodded, trying to sound enthusiastic when I said, “Yeah.”

I needed some Connor time, desperately, but I was so afraid that he was going to discover my lapse in loyalty the night before. Even if adrenaline had brought on the kiss, I should have been strong enough to resist. My problem was that I wasn’t sure I’d wanted to resist.

It was with a sense of relief that I walked into my cabin, as though four walls could somehow protect me from myself, from these never-before-felt feelings I had toward Rafe. It didn’t help that Kayla had been studying me all day as though she expected me to break at any moment.

“Something happened last night when you went to talk to Rafe, didn’t it?” she asked as she dropped her backpack on her bed.

“Don’t have time to talk about it. Connor and I have a date.” I walked into the bathroom and took a hot shower. Starting tomorrow, I’d have a couple of days without Connor or Rafe. Alone with my thoughts, maybe I could figure things out.

Meanwhile, I wanted to look my best for Connor, but for some reason I wasn’t satisfied with anything I did. My hair was flat, my makeup boring. The saving grace was my outfit: a short white skirt, a purple strapless top, and my white denim jacket. I even wore sandals with short heels. They made me feel sexy.

Judging by the low whistle that Connor gave when I stepped outside, he agreed. It made me feel a little less guilty about what had happened the night before.

The moon was a little larger and brighter tonight. Connor and I decided to walk to town. It would mean catching a later movie, but I was more interested in our being together than in what movie we were going to watch. Holding hands, we walked along in companionable silence. I tried not to think about Rafe but I was worried about him going off to find the Bio-Chrome lab by himself. Well, not totally by himself, of course. Dallas would be with him, but I didn’t see him as being much of a fighter if they got into trouble.

“What if this thing with Dallas is a trap?” I asked. “If they need one of us…we’re handing them Rafe on a silver platter.”

Connor’s fingers tightened around mine. “Major rule tonight: We can’t talk about Bio-Chrome or any of this other stuff that’s happening. Just for a few hours, let’s pretend everything is normal.”

It hadn’t occurred to me that I wasn’t the only one craving the safety of the world we’d lived in before. But he was right. We were trying to escape from reality for a few hours.

“Okay, then. What movie is showing, anyway?” I asked. Tarrant had a small theater that showed only one movie at a time.

His smile flashed white in the near darkness. “Something with Reese Witherspoon—which means a chick movie. You’re going to owe me big-time for this.”

“Going to a movie was your idea,” I felt the need to point out, punching his arm playfully.

“Ow!” He rubbed his arm, then pulled me off the road into the shadows of the trees, until my back was pressed against bark. “You know, Lindsey, you’ve shared every moment of my life, big and small.”

“Not your first transformation.”

“You would have been there if it were allowed. I want to be there for you, for your first time. I love you.”

My heart slammed against my ribs, but not for the reasons it should have. I should have felt joy, but instead I was hit with terror at the enormity of what Connor had said and at my inability to return such a heart-felt sentiment. Either Connor was aware of my inner struggle or he wasn’t expecting a reply from me because his mouth covered mine. His kiss had never seemed so important, so significant, because it had never followed those three little words that were so monstrously huge.

I fought not to compare it to the unexpected kiss I’d had last night—the one that had stolen my breath and left me trembling.

Connor pulled back. I could sense tenseness in him as his hands closed around my arms. “You’re thinking about Rafe.”

“What? No.”

“Tell me you love me.”

“You know I do.”

He released a short burst of hard laughter and stepped away from me. “Do you love him?”

I felt tears burning my eyes. “Connor, let’s not do this.”

“Do. You. Love. Him.”

I’d always been able to talk to Connor about anything. Suddenly it was so hard to force out the words. “I don’t know.”

“God, Lindsey, your transformation moon is coming up and you don’t know? Don’t you think you need to know?”

“What do you suggest? I go to the movies with him?”

A heavy silence descended as though I’d dropped a bomb and we were waiting for it to explode.

“How do you know that I’m the right one, Connor?” I asked, hating that my voice sounded so small, so unsure.

“I just know.”

“That’s not an answer. How do you know?”

He took several steps away and then came back toward me. “Yeah, okay. Maybe you do need to go out with him.”

My heart thumped; I was panicking with the possibility that we were breaking up. Was this what I wanted? I honestly didn’t know any more. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah, I think I am.”

He started to walk away.

“Connor, wait!” I hurried after him. “I don’t want things to end—”

I came to an abrupt halt. The hairs on the nape of my neck began to prickle with the weird sensation you get when something just isn’t right.

“Connor!” I whispered harshly, loud enough for him to not only hear me but to detect the dread