Evelyn's P.O.V. "Mom said if you tip the canoe she's giving you up for adoption!" Vega and I turned to look at her younger brother who stood on the balcony above us. "What?" She asked. Brennan nodded, confirming she had heard him correctly. "Can I have your room if that happens?" "Sure," she said sarcastically. Vega turned to me and rolled her eyes before we continued our trek down the hill behind her family's cabin. "He wasn't being serious was he?" I asked, narrowly avoiding stepping on a loose rock. Vega laughed nervously. "He wasn't, but my mom might have been." We reached the small dock which looked out over the half-frozen blue lake. Walking across the old wooden boards took courage. "Are you sure we can't just talk in your room?" I asked. She shook her head, causing tight black coils of hair to poke out from under her beanie. She readjusted it as she loosened the dock rope from the cleat. "Not with those two brats running around, they've gotten on my nerves all day. Hop in," she said pointing to the canoe. I sighed as I steadied myself and lowered my body down into the canoe. She threw the rope to me and got in a little less carefully than I was comfortable with. "You're going to tip us over one of these days," I said, firmly grasping the sides. Vega said nothing as she picked up the oars from under our feet and handed me one. Once we had paddled out a few hundred feet, she seemed satisfied with our distance away from the dock and laid the oar across her lap. I did the same and looked at her expectantly. "So?" I asked. "What did you want to tell me?" She chewed on her bottom lip nervously. "Well..." I said, prompting her along. "I'm going to break up with Shawn!" She said suddenly. I rolled my eyes and huffed. "This is what you brought me out here for? You've only been dating for three weeks. Why are you breaking up with him already?" Vega shrugged. "I don't know." I gave her a knowing look and she smiled. "I know you think it's stupid," she said laughing as I rolled my eyes, "but I still believe there's a chance." "Mates don't exist anymore," I said shaking my head. Mates, a term used to refer to soulmates amongst Lycanthropes, were around hundreds of years ago before interbreeding happened. Lycans hooked up with humans and their children hooked up with other humans until the entire population was more human than wolf. The entire bloodline thinned out so much it was impossible to have a mate as a modern-day Lycanthrope. "Don't be such a cynic," Vega said. "I think it could still happen. I heard it happened someplace in California last summer-" "-between two teenagers in the same pack there," I finished for her. "I know, you've told me that a thousand times." Vega shook her head and leaned back. "I'm perfectly happy choosing the person I want to fall in love with, thank you," I said. "And how's that coming along there, Evie?" She asked. I gave her a hard look and she smiled before shrugging. Vega began picking at the wooden oar's dents with her manicured nails. "I just think it would make our lives a whole lot easier if we were handed a husband," she said laughing. "I might have actually passed my Chemistry class last semester if I wasn't too worried about getting Shawn to ask me out." I rolled my eyes. "There's more to life than finding a boyfriend, Vega. Also, I can't think of too many people who did pass Chemistry on the first try." "Whatever," she said shrugging. "It's cold out here, do you want to head back?" I nodded eagerly and grabbed my oar. I'd been shivering since we left the house. - - - "Vega, do Vampires still exist?" Brennan asked. He was waiting for us in the doorway as we made our way across the patio and back into the house. "I don't know. You should ask Mom, Ethan," she said, pushing past him and taking off her beanie. Ethan? I thought that was Brennan... Vega and I had been friends since the twins were born, but I still didn't know how she could tell Ethan from Brennan. They even dressed alike. "Mom, when is Dad going to be home?" Vega called out, removing her jacket and hanging it on the hook beside the door. "He just called. The council had an urgent meeting called so he had to close up the shop early and head into town," Mrs. Chandler yelled from the kitchen. "We're eating dinner in five minutes, don't go too far!" We both took our boots off and I followed Vega into the kitchen. "Hi, Evie! Are you staying for dinner? We're having chili," Mrs. Chandler informed me. "Yeah, sure," I said, giving her a hug. "You should text your mom and ask her if she would like to join us as well, since your dad is at the meeting too," Mrs. Chandler said, returning the hug. "There's no point. You know how she is about being out after dark," I said, nodding towards the setting sun outside the kitchen window. Mrs. Chandler just shrugged, something I had noticed her daughter did often as well when she didn't want to argue. "What was the meeting for?" Vega asked, getting glasses and bowls out of the cabinet. "Yeah, it seems a little weird for them to call a meeting on a Tuesday," I said as I began to fill the glasses with ice. Mrs. Chandler just nodded. "I know," she said, "he didn't offer any information to me when he told me so I thought it best not to ask." Vega's father, along with mine and thirty-eight other men from town, were on Southern Utah's Council of Lycanthrope Affairs. The Lycanthrope population was very small in Utah and it was an hour's drive to each of the meetings so there were never more than three or four of them a year. An emergency meeting was certain to raise some eyebrows. "I don't think it's anything to worry about," Mrs. Chandler said when she noticed the two of us had gone quiet. She wiped her hands on a towel as she spoke, "If there is a problem, it's likely just a political thing." I, on the other hand, wasn't so convinced and judging by the look on Vega's face, she wasn't either. - - - Two hours later, we were all sitting on the couch watching sitcom reruns and talking about the upcoming semester. "Are you ready to go back to school?" Mrs. Chandler asked.