Silver Moon (A Women of Wolf's Point Novel) Read Online Free PDF Page B

inside, things felt even worse. It was like she’d never seen the place before, though that was a ridiculous notion since she’d been coming here for ages. It was just that she’d never noticed the way it smelled like pine or the little creaks and groans that the wooden walls made around them. Tonight there was something new and sinister about the shadows, the lit candles on the tables, the expressions on the faces of her own neighbors that made it new and even a little terrifying. Why weren’t the lights on? The candles gave the place a spooky look.
    Even Shelly seemed mysterious and scary tonight. She gave Becca what seemed like a long-toothed smile, predatory though clearly intended to be welcoming.
    As Erin had promised, there was a cake and a couple of pitchers of what looked like margaritas on the table, along with some cans of soda, but Becca no longer felt like it was a simple celebration. The atmosphere was charged and while she was thinking about it, where was everyone else? The club had more members than this, and while she could hear movement in the next room, only Erin, Molly and Shelly were in the front room. Erin poured her a margarita and she gulped down half of it before she realized what she was doing.
    Shelly sat on one of the padded benches and pulled her down to sit next to her. “Look, Becca, we weren’t sure about what was going to happen tonight until a little while ago. Sometimes the change comes on really suddenly and we don’t have a lot of time to prepare. It brings on new feelings and…transformations, physical and emotional. I know you’re going through a tough time and I’m sorry that we haven’t talked about it. Between my mom’s illness and the Nest coming back here, I haven’t been paying as much attention and preparing you the way I should have.”
    Becca wondered if she looked as puzzled as she felt. What was “The Nest”? Did Shelly mean the “warriors” from the website? If they included that couple by the river, that would make sense, given the logo and her general bad feeling about them. What didn’t make sense was why Shelly would care about them. Did they pose some kind of threat?
    Before she could ask, the front door opened and other women began trickling in by twos and threes. Shelly sighed and patted Becca’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about a thing. We all went through it our first time too. It’ll be hard to get used to at first but we’ll help you.” She stood and walked away to greet the others, leaving Becca staring after her in complete bewilderment.
    It looked like Shelly standing up was some kind of signal. Molly came over and ushered Becca into the other room and into a large cushioned chair surrounded by a circle of other chairs.
    All the other women followed them in. Becca sat down nervously, the silence in the room making her twitchier by the minute. “So am I being initiated or something…” her voice trailed off. Erin gave her a reassuring smile that made her think of a wolf’s grin and it was all Becca could do not to run for the door.
    She made herself look around as the others, all twenty or so of them, sat down. She recognized women she had seen around town, even though not all of them lived in Wolf’s Point proper. There was Mrs. Hui, whose family ran Wolf’s Point’s only Chinese restaurant and Carly Simpson, the Baptist pastor’s wife. Her neighbor from around the corner, Gladys Sherman, nodded from her seat. Adelía Rodríguez from the gas station on Central gave her a shy smile.
    She didn’t know the others by name but all were women of a “certain age,” as those stupid magazines put it, none under forty-five or so but all hale and hearty. There was something else that they had in common, too, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was.
    Erin set up a large mirror across from her so she could watch her own frowning, searching face and stiff body. This senseless gesture annoyed her and she found herself snarling