He glared at me.
I stared right back.
He looked away first. Then, “Then Joe probably would too.”
And he had me there. “For which one of us?” I countered.
“You going to fix this?” he asked, ignoring my question.
“You’ve been home for less than a week,” I said, “after three years. Things change.”
“We noticed.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning we came back and you had your own pack. With people we didn’t know. It sucked, Ox.”
“I made do with what I had. You left us in pieces. I had to try and put us back together. You don’t get to blame us for anything. Not after what you did. All of you.”
“And you did good, kiddo,” he said. “It’s just going to take a while to get used to it all again. We don’t blame you, Ox. None of us do. You made the choices you had to, and no one can fault you for that.”
I almost believed him.
I TURNED down his offer for a ride.
I walked home.
Joe was waiting again in the shadows on the dirt road.
I couldn’t do this now. I’d already been through too much today.
I made to walk past him again and—
He reached out and grabbed my arm, stopping me.
His nostrils flared.
“My brothers,” he said. “And Gordo.”
I said nothing.
“You can’t do this,” he growled. “With them. And not with me. Not forever.”
“Not yet,” I spat out.
He let me go.
I didn’t look back as I walked away, though every step was harder than the one before it.
THAT NIGHT I ran along the edges of the territory, making sure we were safe.
Thomas said, You’re different, Ox. I don’t think even I know how different. It will be truly a sight to behold. And I, for one, can’t wait to see it.
My mother popped a soap bubble on my ear.
Somewhere on the other side of the territory, a wolf sang a song for all the forest to hear.
It was blue, everything about it was blue.