There were days when I wanted to strangle the three Bennett wolves, listening to Carter and Kelly snap at each other in their grief. They were callous and mean, and on more than one occasion their claws popped out and blood was shed.
Sometimes we slept in the SUV, parked in a field, rusted farm equipment buried in overgrown vines sitting off in the distance like hulking monoliths.
The wolves would shift on those nights, and they’d run, burning off the almost manic energy from having been trapped in a car all day.
I would sit in the field, legs crossed, eyes closed, and breathe in and out and in and out.
If we were far enough away from a town, they would howl. It wasn’t like it’d been in Green Creek. These were the songs of sorrow and heartache, of anger and rage.
Sometimes they were blue.
But most times, they burned.
OTHER TIMES we’d be in a shoddy hotel off the beaten path, sharing too-small beds. Carter snored. Kelly kicked in his sleep.
Joe often sat with his back against the headboard, staring down at his phone.
One night a couple weeks after we’d left, I couldn’t sleep. It was the middle of the night and I was exhausted, but my mind was racing, my head pounding. I sighed and turned over on my back. Kelly was next to me in the bed, curled and facing away, hugging a pillow.
“I didn’t think it’d be like this.”
I turned my head. On the other bed, Carter huffed in his sleep. Joe’s eyes glittered in the dark as he looked at me.
I sighed as I looked back at the ceiling. “What?”
“This,” Joe said. “Here. Like we are. I didn’t think it’d be like this.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Do you think….”
“Spit it out, Joe.”
Christ, he was so fucking young. “I did this because it’s the right thing to do.”
“Sure, kid.”
“I’m the Alpha.”
“Yeah.”
“He needs to pay.”
“Who are you trying to convince here? You or me?”
“I did what I had to. They—they don’t understand.”
“Do you?”
He didn’t like that very much. There was a low growl in his voice when he said, “He killed my father.”
I pitied him. This shouldn’t have happened. Thomas and I weren’t exactly the best of friends—we couldn’t be, not after everything—but that didn’t mean I wished for any of this. These boys should never have had to witness their Alpha fall under the weight of feral Omegas. It wasn’t fair. “I know.”
“Ox, he… he doesn’t understand.”
“You don’t know that.”
“He’s angry with me.”