And maybe, just maybe, for the briefest of moments, I could understand Joe and the choices he’d made.
I FELT Gordo’s wards before anything else. They stopped ten yards before the covered bridge. We weren’t trapped. We could leave Green Creek anytime we wanted to. This wasn’t about keeping us in. It was about keeping all others out that intended to do the pack harm. And if anything was strong enough to push through, supposedly we’d know. Gordo had said he didn’t think anyone could get by them, not even his father, but they were mixed into the pack bonds, a sort of alarm system.
They hummed just under my skin the closer we got. It felt like I was warm and vibrating, and it whispered little songs in its own way. Gordo’s magic was tied to us, maybe more to Joe, but they were gone and the wards remained. I spared a thought for him, then pushed it away. I didn’t have time for memories. Not now.
He had stretched them far around Green Creek, deep into the woods. They didn’t cover the entirety of the territory belonging to the Bennetts, but enough that we were safe.
There were wolves standing in front of the bridge outside the wards.
I approached first, the others out of sight. I knew the wards were messing with the Omegas’ senses, so it didn’t seem likely that they’d know how many others were with me. Maybe they were even stupid enough to think I’d come alone.
Violet eyes watched me. I counted ten pairs tracking my every step.
I didn’t see Jessie. I’d forgotten, briefly, that I couldn’t feel her like the others. I remembered that day in my room when she and I had ended and I’d tried to do the same. She wasn’t pack. I couldn’t feel her like that.
I stopped just before the wards. Somewhere off to my right, Gordo had burned a rune into one of the trees. The invisible line before me thrummed. I took a breath. It stank of ozone.
“You come alone, human?” a familiar voice growled from in front of the b
ridge.
The wolf from the phone.
I said, “What is your name?” I could only make out his Omega eyes.
He said, “Where are the others? The remains of what you once were.”
“I asked you a question.”
The Omegas around him laughed as he stepped forward. He was still mostly hidden by the shadows, but I’d gotten used to the dark.
The wolf didn’t look that much older than I was. His beard was patchy, his hair pulled back and tied off with a leather strap. His fangs had dropped and were dimpling the skin of his bottom lip. I thought maybe he was smiling.
“You,” he said, voice filled with gravel, “asked me a question.”
The wolves laughed again.
“Your name,” I said.
“Humans don’t get to ask anything,” he growled. “You are the scum beneath our feet. The fallen king made a mockery of the wolf pack. And look where that got him. Filled with holes, his blood spilled upon his own ground.”
Easy, I told myself. Easy.
Because there was a very real chance I was about to launch myself at him, not giving a shit about how many there were of them.
He’s goading you, Thomas whispered. He doesn’t understand what you have become.
I didn’t understand either. I didn’t know what I was. Not anymore.
I didn’t think most humans felt like I did, even if they’d belonged to a pack.
Thomas had said I didn’t need to be a wolf. That I didn’t need to be more than I already was. He hadn’t been wanting that for me. He’d offered me a gift not because he’d wanted me to change, but because he’d wanted me to be more connected to him. To the others.
Even though I sometimes heard his voice, even though I sometimes walked with him and my mother, they weren’t there. These were just memories, pieces of them I’d stored away that clawed their way out of me when I least expected it.
I wondered if he’d known. What I would become.
I’d never get to ask him.