And on the front, on a patch on the top right, was a name stitched in with black lettering.
Gavin.
“We talked about it,” Gordo said, filling the silence. “Me and the guys. Everyone agreed we should bring you on. If you want, of course. You don’t have to. It’s hard work, and you’ll get dirty. Your back will hurt even though you’re a wolf. And just because you’re my brother doesn’t mean I won’t still be your boss. I run things a certain way.”
“Actually, I run things a certain way,” Robbie said. “I just let Gordo think he does.”
Gordo sighed. “Yeah. That sounds about right.” He shook his head. “It’s just an idea. But I think you’d do okay. I’d pay you, and—”
“Yes,” Gavin said, already putting on the shirt. It fit him well.
Gordo looked shocked. “Yeah?”
“Yes. Please. Thank you.”
Gordo looked relieved. “All right, then. That’s… that’s good.”
“Told you,” Mark said.
“Yeah, yeah. Shut up.” But he was smiling.
LATER IN THE AFTERNOON, as the sky was beginning to darken, my mother said, “Carter. Gavin. Would you come with me, please?”
Gavin was wearing his work shirt over his shorts. He’d refused to take it off since he’d first put it on. He looked ridiculous and happy because of it.
The others barely noticed when we left, all wrapped up in their conversations and each other. We followed my mother down the hall toward the office. She motioned for us to close the door behind her. I did. She sat behind the desk. She nodded toward the chairs on the other side. We sat down. For a moment it was weirdly like I was a kid again and in trouble. I’d been in that position a time or two before. Gavin seemed to feel the same way, sinking down in his chair.
My mother said, “I made a mistake once. Oh, I’ve made many mistakes in my life. But this one… this one stays with me, especially on sleepless nights. Among other things, of course. I have much to think about. This mistake, however, I go over in my mind again and again. I was blinded by hope. And I allowed something to happen that should not have, at least not then. Can I tell you what I did?”
She wasn’t looking at me.
Gavin nodded.
She folded her hands on her desk. “Once upon a time, Joe was taken by a monster. I know some people try and blame themselves for what happened, but they shouldn’t. It was beyond their control.”
I gripped the armrests of the chair, claws digging in.
“This monster—this man was someone my husband trusted. Thomas, for all his faults, was desperate to see the good in people. But we had no reason not to trust this man. I will not say his name here. He has occupied enough of my thoughts and doesn’t deserve to have his name spoken aloud. In the end, he paid for his crimes.” Her eyes flashed. “If I had been his executioner, I would have drawn it out much longer than it was.”
A chill ran down my spine.
“Joe was returned to us. He came home. But he was…. He’d left. The light was gone from his eyes. I begged him to see me. I cried over him. I carried his limp little body, and it was like he was filled with sand.”
“Mom, you don’t have to do this.”
She ignored me. “Thomas howled at him, eyes red and bright. The call of the Alpha. There was a flicker in Joe, a reverberation, but nothing more. It gave me hope. It would take time, but when it’s your child, you give all the time in the world. We made the decision to return to Green Creek. To leave Michelle Hughes in charge of Caswell while we came home. It was Thomas’s idea, and I think he was relieved, in the end. That his crown was passed to another so that he could focus on his son. We came home, and Joe was still… still as he was. I worried what would happen to him. How we would explain to our new neighbors that our son didn’t talk. You see, a boy and his mother lived in the blue house. I’d heard of this boy from Mark. He said he’d met someone unlike anyone else he’d ever known in his life. Special, is what he said. Quiet, but there was something about him that Mark couldn’t quite put his finger on. I barely paid attention. I had enough to worry about.”
“Ox,” Gavin said.
“Yes. Ox. Upon our arrival, I was distracted. Busy. Trying to make this place a home once again. When I turned around, Joe was gone.” She flexed her hands on the desk. “The terror I felt at that moment. It consumed me. I thought that he’d been taken from me again. But then, in the distance, I heard something I hadn’t heard in a long time. He was speaking again. I thought I was dreaming while awake. Have you ever had that feeling, Gavin?”
He glanced at me, then looked back at my mother. “More than once.”
“We went outside onto the porch. And there, like a little monkey, was my son, sitting on the back of a boy I’d never seen before. There was something about that moment I can’t quite explain. It was as Mark said. This boy was special. And it had nothing to do with the fact that my son was speaking to him, although that played a part. This boy, Ox, he…. Have you ever been to the ocean?”
He shook his h
ead.