Moon Glamour by Aimee Easterling (books to read to be successful TXT) 📕

instantly. My stepfather’s ratty little head nodded up and down so quickly he once again lost his balance.

“You’ll receive one third now,” Tank continued, as if he brokered deals with greedy fathers every day of the week. “The remaining two-thirds will come when you sign the final custody paperwork.”

“Of course.” Nick’s voice sweetened. Now he sounded like he was toadying up to rich parents at Highlands.

I turned away, disgusted that I’d let myself lose sleep over such a small, small man.

Then Harper was sidling back under my arm, her cop minders left behind for the moment. Her words, when they emerged, were mouse-like. “I don’t have to go to Highlands if it’s too expensive....”

I winced. Harper had seen what I’d been hoping to shield her from. If her father was willing to sell her to the highest bidder, of course she’d consider her place with anyone else threatened by thin ice.

But there was no ice beneath her feet when it came to me. And the assurance of continuing at Highlands, at least, I could offer her.

Or, rather, Tank could offer it to her. I risked a single glance in his direction, my head cocked in question. He rolled his eyes as if to say, Didn’t I already make that clear?

Smiling, I hugged Harper a little closer. Then I told her: “You can go wherever you want to go. You’re my sister.”

Harper’s body tensed rather than relaxing. “Half sister,” she whispered, low enough so the police officers couldn’t hear her. “Tank gave me the idea to hunt for the birth certificate, but I’m pretty sure Nick’s my father.”

I was too...and that made exactly zero difference. “You’re my sister,” I repeated. “And I would do anything to give you what you want. I can talk to Clara if that’s the hangup....”

“Naw, she already texted.” Harper shrugged, but this time her cheeks bunched up into a half-squashed smile. “We’re going to ask to room together again next year. If you can afford it, I want to go back.”

I swallowed against the lump in my throat. Soon, Harper wouldn’t need me. She was already starting to fight her own battles.

So instead of asking more questions, I hugged her closer. For this instant, at least, my sister was all mine.

Epilogue

Seven weeks later....

Frosty leaves crunched beneath my paws. The red fox in front of me—Kira—turned her head to glare backwards. Then she gestured with her chin toward Harper, who had managed to stay completely silent despite walking beside us in clunky human form.

I rolled my eyes at the two of them. Yes, I got it. I was a slow learner. I hadn’t spent much of my life four-legged, so there was plenty left to pick up on.

Still, it wasn’t as if we were in any danger. We were out for a solstice stroll on Gunner’s land, a prelude to the wild and crazy party I’d heard would take place that evening. I inhaled a deep breath of cold forest and trotted after Kira’s receding tail tip, trying a little harder to keep quiet.

Harper didn’t try so hard. She giggled at our exchange, and neither Kira nor I glared at her. Instead, I grinned and the scent drifting off Kira suggested she did as well.

This was what it had been like ever since we arrived for my sister’s winter break. Tank had broached the topic during one of our ill-fated fae-hunting trips, and as soon as my sister heard about the offer to spend winter break among werewolves she’d insisted I accept. Her instincts had been good. The gruff, growly alpha I’d spoken to on the phone turned out to be a cuddly teddy bear. Mai, his mate, was a font of knowledge about raising a teenaged sister. And the rest of the pack fell all over themselves to make us both feel at home.

Only Tank remained strangely standoffish. That first day, he’d shown me and Harper to a two-bedroom house in the middle of the pack village, one that appeared to have been emptied out just for our use. He dutifully checked on us once a day. Otherwise, though, he left us to our own devices. He’d even taken to dipping his chin around me, as if he was afraid of being judged for his new scars.

Which was why Kira had decided we were going Tank hunting. “I watched him yesterday,” she’d told me and Harper over breakfast. “He heads out into the woods every morning. Doesn’t come back until after sunset. We should follow him. See what he’s up to.”

I’d agreed because of the way Harper’s eyes lit up at the prospect of hunting. But also because a few hours alone in the forest sounded blissful. Gunner’s pack was almost too welcoming. I hadn’t enjoyed a moment to myself since we’d arrived.

And I wasn’t fated to enjoy a moment to myself now either. Kira, despite her chiding over my loud footsteps, wasn’t able to restrain her mischievous nature. As Harper and I rounded a boulder, my sister shrieked as a fox landed atop her head.

They spun in a tight circle, my sister lunging at Kira and Kira dancing from head to shoulders and back again. Add in teenage emoting and the result sounded like a massacre.

No wonder Tank came running. A flannel shirt hung half off his lupine body as he barreled toward us four-legged....

Of course, there’d been no need to run. Because Harper had grown into herself over the last seven weeks. No longer did she default to her friends’ wisdom. Now she made one final grab, this time connecting with the ruff of the fox’s neck. Then she shook Kira just hard enough to get her attention before dropping the smaller creature to the ground.

“Shift back. Now.” Harper’s furrowed brows made her look an awful lot like the pack’s alpha during one of his rare growly moments. And, despite her lack of shifter blood, the effort worked.

A two-legged Kira peered up at us from where she’d landed, buck naked