Wolfsong (Green Creek 1)

“He gave you a wolf made of stone that essentially promised him to you forever,” she said flatly. “If that’s not a mystical moon connection, then I don’t know what is.”

“Sort of what it is,” Robbie said, wincing as I glared at him. “Sorry, Ox.”

“So you’re just going to sit here and do nothing,” she said, sounding strangely disappointed.

“I’m not not doing nothing.”

“Your English is so good,” Rico said.

“You’re not finding him!”

“He made his choice,” I snapped.

“And you’re just going to let it happen?”

“It’s already been happening. Just because you’re finding out about all of this now doesn’t mean the rest of us haven’t been dealing with it for years.”

“I don’t understand why you haven’t done anything about it. About him.”

“What could I have done?” I asked, voice harsh. “There were obviously things that were more important than others.”

For the first time since she’d walked into the shop, Jessie’s face softened. It was close to pity, and I didn’t want that from her.

“Look, it’s—”

“Ox, I don’t know that anything was more important than you.” She reached over and squeezed my hand. “Maybe you didn’t see it, but I did. The way he looked at you.” Her smile was sad. “You were everything to him. And I don’t think that’s changed.”

“You can’t know that.” I pulled my hand away. She frowned at me. “We don’t even know if he’s still—” I cut myself off and shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. He’s not here. They’re not here. We are. And I have a job to do. Something that I never thought I’d

have to do, but there it is. So yes, werewolves are real. Yes, apparently I am the… Alpha. Or something close to it. And I’m sorry you were hurt because of this. But I will make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

“How?” she asked. “You can’t promise anything like that.”

“No,” I said. “But I can do my best. And it’d make things easier if you were one of us.”

“I don’t want to be bitten,” she said quickly. “That’s not—”

“Even a possibility right now,” I said. “But if you agree, if you become part of this, you’ll naturally start to defer to me. I don’t even understand how it works, but it’ll happen.”

“Why don’t we just see how this goes?” Jessie said, but I could already see her agreeing, whether she knew it yet or not.

IT DIDN’T take her long to decide.

Not that I expected it to.

Elizabeth took her into the forest a week later, scolding us not to follow as she needed to talk to Jessie alone, woman to woman. Jessie looked slightly uncomfortable at the thought, but mostly intrigued, so I let it go. Elizabeth wouldn’t hurt her.

They came back four hours later, flushed and bright and happy. Jessie was laughing and Elizabeth was smiling, the lines around her eyes and mouth less pronounced.

“She’ll do just fine,” Elizabeth said to me, trailing her fingers along my shoulders as she passed me by.

And that was that.

OTHERS CAME that year.

After the Omegas had taken Jessie, it’d been quiet, though we’d been prepared. Robbie did his part and kept in touch with those above him. The gruff man. Alpha Hughes every now and then, though I think that was getting more and more infrequent given that he was my Beta now. She never asked to speak to me. I never asked to speak to her. I didn’t know how much longer she’d let this go on. Sometimes at night, I’d lie awake and wonder if she’d come and try to take them away from me. Because I wasn’t really what they needed.

She didn’t, though, even though every day I waited for the other shoe to drop.