I turned slowly to look at Mark, who suddenly found the wall very interesting. “You did what?”
He was frowning. “Shut up.”
“No. Seriously. You did what.”
“Went all wolfy caveman,” Rico said. “I thought he was going to bite my head off when I knocked on the door. He clubbed you upside the head and then took you to his den. You should probably ask if he licked you while you were sleeping. You know, to clean you and stuff.”
“What happened to Dale?” Tanner whispered to Chris. “Is he still a thing we don’t talk about?”
“Would you stop saying his name?” Chris hissed back. “You’re going to ruin their mystical moon magic.”
Jessie sighed. “I really wish I hadn’t said that. It sounds so ridiculous now.”
“Ignore my son,” Elizabeth told me. “It was really rather sweet the way Mark wanted to take care of you. I highly doubt he would have licked you in your sleep.”
Carter opened his eyes. They were a normal pale blue. “You said once that you woke up and Dad was sniffing your hair.”
Kelly groaned, tilting his head back on the couch.
Robbie reached down and awkwardly touched Kelly’s shoulder. Surprisingly, Kelly didn’t try to shrug him away. Robbie blushed slightly, pushing his glasses up his nose, but he didn’t move his hand.
“Those clothes look big on you, papi,” Rico said to me. “As if they’re not your own. Kind of like a certain wolf gave them to you so you could smell like him.”
I scowled.
Mark preened.
I scowled harder.
“They’re out there,” Ox said, and we all fell silent. “I can feel them. It’s like… a shadow. Covering the earth.”
He was staring out the window, watching the snow fall. It didn’t look as if it was letting up. The light was already fading, which meant it was late afternoon.
Joe looked over at him, studying him in profile, but he didn’t speak.
Ox spoke again. “This… Elijah. Gordo. I’m told she is known to the Bennett pack. Those who came before.”
I nodded, though he couldn’t see me, as I tried to find the words to explain to my friend, my Alpha, this boy who had become more than any of us thought possible. “I… yes.”
“Okay,” Ox said, exhaling slowly. “I’ve already heard from Elizabeth. What she knows. Of what happened to your pack. I would hear from you now. Why.”
Ox was angry.
“He wasn’t—” Mark started, but I took him by the hand and squeezed tightly. He looked over at me, and I shook my head slightly. He frowned but didn’t speak.
This was on me.
Maybe Mark had been right with what he’d said in his room. About trust. About secrets. I was in this pack. I was the witch to the Bennetts. My family had been intertwined with theirs for generations. It was a long history twisted so deeply into my bones that even when I thought I could, I would never fully be free of it.
And I didn’t want to be.
Thomas Bennett was a wolf.
But he’d also been human.
He made mistakes, yes. Like his father. And mine.
The difference between Thomas and Abel and my father, however, was great. The wolves did what they thought was right.