He nodded, and I finally recognized that my someone-to-talk-too stood right in front of me.

“I’d like to know what’s going on in my head sometimes, too.” If only I could figure out those lights. “Let’s make dinner while I talk. Let me know if you hear Rachel or anyone else.”

He nodded, kicked off his shoes, and put them in my room before joining me in the kitchen. He took the lead on dinner prep and gave me busy work so I could talk. I started to peel a potato while he clanked pans on the stove.

“That was Elder Joshua at the door. He stopped by because I haven’t talked to Sam lately, and Sam asked him to check up on me. I guess he was worried after that challenge.” I picked up a second potato. “Something was odd about him, Clay.”

When I was quiet for too long, Clay nudged my chair on his way to the sink with the potatoes I’d peeled. His way of saying I should keep talking, but I struggled with how to tell him everything.

“I’m different,” I said abruptly.

He turned from the sink, looked at me, and shrugged as if to say it didn’t matter.

“No. Really different. It’s kind of hard to explain. Sam told me I was different when he met me, but he doesn’t know all of it. He said that I was rare because I was one of only a few humans compatible with werewolves, just me and Charlene.”

I sighed and ran my hands through my hair. Based on my mom’s reaction when I’d told her the truth, the idea of telling someone everything scared me.

He picked up two more potatoes and handed them to me. I started peeling again as he went to the stove. I spoke slow, essentially thinking aloud.

“Since as long as I can remember, I’ve seen lights. Not with my eyes, but in my mind. When I was younger, I had to close my eyes and concentrate to see a relatively small area around me. As I got older, I didn’t need to concentrate as hard and could see a much larger area. Now, I can see these lights at will, briefly, with little effort, and over a longer distance. And I don’t need to close my eyes.

“These lights are people, Clay. I can see the neighbors moving around in their houses right now. It’s not an aura I’m seeing.

“To put it in perspective, I can see a square mile around us, but in my mind, the area looks like an inch. The lights within that area are small pinpricks, but I can see them so clearly, they could be the size of quarters three inches from my face. And all those dots are the same color. Every human around us has the same yellow light with a green halo.”

Clay handed me a glass of water, breaking my train of thought. He rescued the potatoes I’d cubed into tiny pieces.

“Thanks.” I took a drink and studied the glass for a moment before continuing. “You and I, in the middle of those dots, stand out. I have the same yellow light as everyone else, but my halo is orange. I’m different from the people around us. Even from you. Werewolves have a blue core with a green halo. At least, that’s all I ever saw in the past two years, until the night you were challenged. That werewolf had a blue-grey light. Now, imagine my shock when I opened the door and saw a man, who introduced himself as Elder Joshua, with the same color light. Only the difference in the color of their eyes kept me breathing.

“I’ve been like this my entire life, and I have more questions than answers about this second sight. Why are all humans green and yellow except Charlene and me? We’re human. Why does Charlene have a red halo? Or me an orange halo? The only similarities are the yellow cores. I’ve been thinking it means human, but don’t know what the halos mean.

“And I’m sure that you’ve caught on to the whole guy situation. I call to them somehow, as if I’m a beacon or something. Do I really send out some kind of signal?” I looked up at him questioningly.

He held a plate in each hand. Both loaded with some kind of chicken skillet dinner. He handed me a plate and studied me for a moment before shrugging and shaking his head.

“So nothing as far as you can tell. There’s got to be a reason, a connection to it all.” I sighed and played with the food on my plate for a minute, thinking.

“I’ve never told anyone all of this. People figure out there’s something different about me if they’re around me long enough. But no one knows about the lights. I’m torn. Do I call Sam and tell him everything? Do I tell him the light of the guy who challenged you is the same light as Joshua? There’s nothing concrete I can offer about the coloring or why I’m so worried about it.

“Why would a werewolf I’ve never met challenge you? And why does he share the same coloring as Joshua? So far, the lights have had a category: humans, werewolves, and compatible Mates. I don’t think the challenger and Joshua can be compatible Mates because Charlene and I are uniquely colored from each other.” I shook my head to try to clear away my frustration at my inability to solve the puzzle.

Taking my first bite, I struggled to swallow the cold food. I looked up at Clay in surprise and saw his empty plate.

“Bet you’re wishing you hadn’t asked.”

He shook his head slowly still watching me. I started to doubt the wisdom of sharing so much with him. What if he started to treat me differently? I didn’t want to lose his friendship. It devastated me to think I could lose the one person with which I might have had a chance to be myself. When he didn’t say anything, I forced myself to eat.

He waited until I finished eating, took both our plates, and cleaned up the kitchen while I sat at the table and did my homework. The spatter of running water, the soft clicking of dishes, none of it distracted me as much as my own doubts. Uncertainty over what I’d just shared and his lack of response ate at me. Granted, he hadn’t spoken to me at all before my announcement, but still.

When he finished, he left the room for a few minutes. His nails clicked on the kitchen floor as he padded back in. I didn’t have time to wonder why he’d changed to fur. He nudged my arm with his head and looked toward the living room. The tightness in my chest, which I hadn’t even noticed, loosened slightly. He watched me expectantly, and I ran my fingers through the fur at his neck, hoping he wouldn’t ever act like a real dog and run away from home.

Deciding I’d done enough, I packed up my homework and followed him. We watched some sitcoms then called it a night.

When he curled up on his usual spot at the foot of my bed, I sighed and closed my eyes. He hadn’t seemed to treat me any differently after I’d told him everything. I hoped it would stay that way.

Rachel came home after a very late evening shift at the hospital. I knew she was alone because Clay only shifted on the bed to acknowledge he’d heard something. The nights Peter stayed, Clay grumbled a bit. They probably did keep him awake. Poor Clay.

Chapter 13

September passed in a blur, taking most of October with it.

While on campus, I still struggled to fend off a few stragglers who hadn’t yet grasped the concept of no. Thankfully, those stragglers didn’t include Scott.

At home, Rachel and Peter were inseparable even though they made a big fuss about giving each other their own time. It just meant they only did overnights three times a week. It limited my quiet time with Clay, but we managed.

On Rachel nights, Clay-the-dog usually waited for me by the back door. Occasionally, I came home to an empty house. Those absences explained why he no longer consumed five books a week, but they did make me wonder how he spent his time when we weren’t together. When I tried to ask where he went, he never answered.

I began to notice things, though, like he now owned more jeans—I’d only bought him one pair—and had a few new shirts. Despite the extra clothes, he still seemed to favor the ones I’d gotten him, especially the flannel shirt.

On nights we didn’t expect Rachel home, Clay-the-man waited for me. He was never missing for those nights. Tuesdays, still one of the nights Rachel stayed over at Peter’s, Clay did laundry for me if I forgot to do it before then and always had dinner ready when I came home.