Wolfsong (Green Creek 1)

Robbie had said no one back East knew anything more. No one had seen them. No one had heard from them.

Elizabeth said all things happened for a reason. That we needed to trust that they knew what they were doing.

Mark was quiet on the matter.

I thought it was bullshit. I’d never felt anger toward Joe before, not really, not something that could plant roots into my skin and bones and grow into something else. But it was happening now. I thought maybe the growth was poisonous, because there were times that I told myself he’d abandoned us, that he’d only been thinking about himself and his selfish desire for revenge. That it was unfair, to me, to his brothers, to the rest of his pack. That he was putting himself in harm’s way for nothing. And apparently we’d been too much of a distraction to maintain contact with.

That’s what I told myself.

True or not, I didn’t think it mattered.

“Yeah,” I said. “College, and all that.” It almost sounded believable.

She squinted at me. “You guys still….”

I shrugged. I didn’t know how to answer that. Were we still… what.

Those were the other little thoughts I had. The ones that said I was nothing to him. That he didn’t just leave us, he left me. That other things mattered more than I did. That he was just a kid and didn’t know what he wanted.

Sure, my father was wrong most of the time, but he’d said I was gonna get shit.

And Joe was giving me shit.

“Huh,” Jessie said. “I always thought it was kind of a done deal.”

“Things change,” I said, forcing a smile. “We’ll see what happens when he comes back.”

If he comes back at all, that little voice said.

She reached out and took my hand in hers, squeezing my fingers gently. “He’ll come back,” she said, like she knew what I was thinking. And maybe she did. There was a time when we knew each other well. “You know that, Ox.”

Robbie growled again, fits and starts, like a motor trying to catch.

“Yeah,” I said. Because it was easier to agree than to argue with her about things she didn’t understand.

“We should get together sometime,” she said. “If you’re free.”

“I think I can—”

“We have that thing, Ox,” Robbie said.

“What thing?” I asked, trying to find my last bit of patience.

“That thing,” he insisted. “That will take up a lot of your time.”

“I don’t know what you’re—”

“You won’t be free. For a while.”

“Is he a Bennett?” Jessie asked, sounding amused. “Because he sounds like a Bennett.”

“He’s a Fontaine,” I said with a frown. I didn’t understand what she meant.

“Sure,” she said. “Anyway, call if you get a chance. The phone number’s the same.”

I nodded and she turned toward the office, where Chris was just getting off the phone.

I turned on Robbie. “What was that?”