It was too late for that. “That’s good.”
He took a step toward me. “I can take you away from here. Away from all of this.”
And the wolves growled around me.
I ignored them. “And go where?” I asked.
“Anywhere you want. We can leave Green Creek and never look back.”
Joe stood and moved around in front of me. “Back off,” he snarled, and I knew his eyes were orange.
“Joseph,” Thomas said, his Alpha voice rolling through us. “Stand down.”
Joe looked like he’d been struck. He said, “Ox. You can’t.”
Gordo said, “He can. He can do anything he wants.”
“Can I?” I asked.
“Yes,” Gordo said. “Anything.”
I turned to Thomas. “Can I?”
“Yes, Ox,” he said quietly.
“Good,” I said. “I want to hunt down Richard Collins and kill him.”
No one spoke.
Then, “Ox,” Gordo said, sounding like he was choking. He took another step toward me.
My hand tightened on my crowbar.
“This isn’t what she’d want,” he said.
And I said, “Don’t you tell me what my mother wanted.” My voice shook. I didn’t know if it was with sadness or rage. “Don’t you dare.” Because she was still lying in our house in a puddle of her own blood and he didn’t get to say anything about her. Elizabeth had told me she’d covered her with a blanket and I’d wanted to say thank you, but said nothing instead because of how inconsequential it was. A fucking blanket.
“Please,” Gordo said. “Let me take you away from here. Away from all of this.”
“I don’t run from things,” I said as cold as I could. “I’m not you.”
And he took a step back, eyes going wide.
A hand on my shoulder. I thought it would be Joe. Or Thomas. Or Elizabeth.
But it wasn’t.
It tightened with the barest hint of claws as Mark said, “Stop, Ox. I know it hurts. I know it burns like nothing you’ve ever felt before. But stop. This isn’t his fault. Don’t say something that you won’t be able to take back.”
I ground my teeth as I bit back words I knew would hurt. That was the danger with knowing and loving others. You always knew things about them to throw back in their faces.
I was capable of doing that. Most people were.
But it came down to a choice.
So I swallowed down the hurt (it’s his fault it’s your fault it’s all of you because you brought this here you made this happen why couldn’t you just leave us alone why did joe have to give me his wolf i hate you all of you) and asked, “Will you help me?”
Gordo said, “Ox. This is… this isn’t the end, okay? I promise. It seems like it. It feels like it. But it’s not the end. I swear to you.”