The wolves slept, dreaming their dreams of moons and blood.
And when I finally closed my eyes, all I saw was blue.
abominations
SIX MONTHS after I turned thirteen, I kissed Mark Bennett for the first time.
Seven months after I turned thirteen, hunters came and killed everyone.
BUT BEFORE then:
“She’s pregnant,” Thomas whispered to me.
I stared at him in shock.
His smile was blinding.
“What?”
He nodded. “I wanted you to know before anyone else.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re my witch, Gordo. And my friend.”
“But—Richard, and—”
“Oh, I’ll tell him. But it’s you, okay? It’ll be you and me forever. We are going to be our own pack. I will be your Alpha, and you will be my witch. You’re my family, and I hope my child will be yours too.”
Somehow, my heart was mending.
I WORRIED, briefly, when I breached the surface of my grief, what would happen to me. I was only twelve, and my mother was dead, my father was imprisoned in a place where he could never escape, and I was alone.
It’d been all over the news for weeks. This poor little town where a major gas leak had taken place, leveling an entire neighborhood. Sixteen people had lost their lives, forty-seven more injured. A freak accident, investigators said. It was a one-in-a-million thing. It never should have happened. We will rebuild, the governor said. We will not abandon you. We will mourn those lost, but we will come back from this.
My mother and father were counted among those deceased. My mother had been identified by her teeth. No trace of my father had ever been found, but the fire had burned so hotly that that was expected. We’re sorry, I was told. We wish we could tell you more.
I nodded but didn’t speak. Abel’s hand was a heavy weight on my shoulder.
And under the next full moon, I became the witch of the most powerful pack in North America.
There was pushback, of course. I was so young. I had just been through a significant trauma. I needed time to heal.
Elizabeth was the loudest of all of them.
Abel listened. He was the Alpha. It was his job to listen.
But he sided against those who would shield me.
“He has his pack,” Abel said. “We will help him heal. All of us. Isn’t that right, Gordo?”
I didn’t say a word.
IT DIDN’T hurt. I thought it would. I didn’t know why. Maybe it was because the tattoos had hurt, or maybe because all I knew was pain when I opened my eyes every morning, but I still expected more.
But underneath the moon, with a dozen wolves standing before me, eyes glowing, I became their witch.
And it was more.