Authors: Naomi Clark
“
Where’s Oscar?” I grappled
with the door handle, terror and guilt surging through me. “I’ve
got to see him.” I stumbled out of the car, back into the bitingly
cold night.
Shannon leapt out too, running round the car
to intercept me.
“
Ayla, stop! Oscar’s gone
to the hospital with Moira.”
“
He’s alive though?” I
gripped her arms, searching her face for the truth. “He is
alive?”
“
He’s hurt, but he’s
alive,” she confirmed. “And we need to get you home and rested,
alright? You can visit him in the morning if you want.”
“
I did it,” I said, the
words falling heavy from my tongue. “Sly made us… He drugged
us…”
“
Ayla.” Shannon pressed her
fingers to my lips, silencing me. “Please.” Her voice shook;
exhaustion, or perhaps fear. Fear for me, not of me. I slumped my
shoulders and got back in the car.
Tomorrow
. Another thing to deal with
tomorrow.
***
It was close to dawn when we got home and I was looking forward to
falling into bed. Of course it wasn’t that easy. My parents, Vince,
Joel and Glory were all waiting in the living room for me and
Shannon. It was a good hour before I’d hashed out enough of the
story to satisfy them. Mum just sat and cried the whole time. When
I finished talking, she took my hands.
“
You should have told us,”
she said softly. “We wouldn’t have let Eddie push you into
this.”
I stared at our joined hands, a mix of
awkward emotions bubbling in me. “It was for the Pack,” I said.
“
It wasn’t worth it,” she
replied bluntly. “Ayla, if we’d lost you…”
Dad rested his hands on her shoulders.
“Eddie had no right to drag the pair of you so deep into this.”
“
He thought it was for the
best,” I said, blinking back the tears stinging my eyes.
“
I’m sure he did. But for
me, family comes before Pack,” Dad said fiercely. I glanced up at
him, shocked at the blazing anger in his dark eyes. “I would have
fought tooth and claw to keep you out of this if I’d
known.”
Family before Pack; the concept felt
strange. The whole reason I’d left town as a teenager was because
my parents had pushed my duty to the Pack ahead of my rights as an
individual. My right to my own sexuality, my own identity. My
throat was too thick with tears for me to speak, so I just nodded.
Maybe he sensed my confusion, because he covered mine and Mum’s
joined hands with his.
“
We lost you once, Ayla,
because of Pack rules and histrionics. I’m not saying Pack isn’t
important—of course it is. But if it comes down to you or Pack, I’m
choosing you. You’re my daughter.”
I couldn’t stop myself crying then, great,
ugly sobs that tore up my throat. Immediately, my parents closed
around me, smothering me in their embrace and then Vince and Joel
were in there too, hands stroking my hair, noses rubbing my cheeks,
a wolfy hug that told me better than any words ever could that I
was safe.
I savored the group hug for a few seconds
before realizing someone was missing from it. I peeked out from
under Joel’s arm to see Shannon smiling nervously at me. She was
poised on the edge of her seat, as if about to leave. I held out my
hand to her, silently inviting her in. If this was about family,
there was nowhere else she should be.
She wavered, biting her lip and then Vince
shuffled aside on the sofa to make room for her. She smiled then, a
real smile, and knelt in front of me, wrapping her arms round my
waist and laying her head on my lap. I tangled my fingers in her
hair and let my family cradle me—us.
I could have stayed there like that
forever.
***
I didn’t, of course. I eventually wriggled free of my family’s
embrace, pleading exhaustion, and Shannon and I went to bed. We
slept with our arms wrapped around each other, clinging together
with a desperation neither of us could vocalize.
It was dark outside when we stirred again
and I could hear Vince and my parents downstairs in the kitchen,
pots clanging, glasses clinking. I shuffled closer to Shannon,
reluctant to face the real world just yet. I was mostly healed from
my adventures in the woods, but I was ravenous and aching all over,
so I’d have to move soon. Just, not yet. I loved how warm and soft
she was against me, loved the darkness of the room and the intimacy
of it in contrast to the bustle downstairs. It was like we were in
our own little bubble, hidden away from reality.
Shannon kissed my forehead. “You okay?” she
asked softly.
“
Better.” I nuzzled her.
“Are you?”
“
I am, now. Now you’re
home.” She sat up, leaning back against the headboard. “Before you
left, you said we’d talk about moving.”
“
Yeah, I did.” My heart
twisted. “Do you want to? Move away, that is?”
“
I want to be with you,”
she replied simply. “Home’s where you are, really, isn’t it?” She
didn’t sound entirely happy about it.
“
Let’s go on holiday,” I
said impulsively. “We haven’t been away together for years. We’ve
earned a break. Somewhere hot and sunny, and far away. Maybe…maybe
that will put things in perspective.”
She nodded slowly. “A holiday would be
nice.”
“
Joel’s parents have a
holiday home in France.”
“
Sounds
perfect.”
We nestled back down in the covers together,
a small measure of peace attained. Things would be all right, I
decided as I closed my eyes again. I’d make them all right,
somehow.
TWENTY
I gave my statement to
the police the
next day. Neither me nor the officers who interviewed me were sure
if I’d be charged for maiming Sly. His tendons had already healed
apparently, which left no evidence except his word to prove I’d
done anything in the first place. It was always hard for werewolves
to press assault charges. And given the depth of shit Sly was in,
he probably wasn’t thinking about me too much.
One of the officers, a wolf, let slip to me
that most of the humans arrested at the barn were Alpha Humans
members. Not exactly a surprise, but it did confirm Eddie’s theory
that they were supplying Sly with the Silver Kiss he’d been feeding
to the wolves at the barn. It also more or less confirmed that the
graffiti on ours and Tina’s doors had been the same group, trying
to keep Molly quiet about Sly’s operation and keep us from poking
our noses in.
“
The West Yorkshire Police
have a similar case going down at the moment,” the officer told me
as she escorted me out of the interview suite. “You didn’t hear it
from me, but I doubt this is the last we’ll see of this kind of
thing.”
It was a depressing thought, one that
completely killed any satisfaction I’d felt at capturing Sly. This
was happening up and down the country, I’d bet, Alpha Humans using
it to discredit werewolves, or just to entertain themselves. And
wolves like Sly, greedy and wild, were helping. It made me
sick.
After that, things slipped into normal
routine. I went back to work at Inked to find out that Kaye had
dumped her People Matter boyfriend in favor of a nice tennis player
she’d met at the gym.
“
He was getting a bit
intense,” she told Lawrence, who nodded sagely. “He wanted to take
me to some werewolf boxing match, or something. I don’t know, it
was just weird.”
I started at her words but kept my mouth
closed. It didn’t matter. It was over. I chanted it to myself over
and over in the days following.
A week later I got home to find a letter
telling me that my application to join the police was on hold, due
to my upcoming involvement in Sly and the Alpha Humans’ trial. I
showed the letter to Shannon, trying to sound like I didn’t care.
She saw through me.
“
It’s not a rejection, just
a delay. Don’t look so miserable.”
“
I’d have thought bringing
down a drug-dealing kidnapping circle would be in my favor,” I said
as lightly as I could, whilst disappointment welled inside
me.
Shannon kissed my cheek. She was baking and
the sweet smell of apples and caramel clung to her, lifting my mood
a little.
“
Don’t get too upset. Let’s
face it; you’re too much of a maverick to be on the police force,
always running off on your own to tackle the evil villains. Maybe
you should become a superhero instead.”
I grimaced and tore the letter up, tossing
it in the kitchen bin. I was sure it was only a matter of time
before the actual rejection came though. I’d been counting on
getting into the police. It would have been another anchor to the
city and the Pack. At least, before all this Silver Kiss shit
happened, it would have been. Now, after everything that had
happened, I wasn’t sure how closely I wanted to be tied to the
Pack. Family, yes, like Dad had said. But Pack? I just wasn’t sure
anymore.
I hadn’t told Shannon that. I was waiting
until after our holiday. But deep down in my blood and my bones, I
already knew I was a lone wolf, had been one for too long now to
change. I didn’t want to leave my family and my friends again, but
I didn’t want the cloistering, all-consuming pressure of being a
Pack wolf either.
I wasn’t sure I could have it both ways. I
left Shannon to her baking and went to sit on the back doorstep,
staring up at the waxing moon. Another week and she’d be full and
fat again, inviting us all out to play. By then Oscar and Moira
would be fully healed—although Moira was going to need
physiotherapy for a while, being an older wolf than Oscar, slower
to bounce back. By then Eddie would be buried under a hawthorn
tree, as was traditional.
By then Shannon and I would be packing for
our holiday. We’d be gone for two weeks, a fraction of time
compared to the eight years I’d been gone before.
I leaned my head back against the doorframe
and watched the stars twinkle overhead. Somewhere out in the city a
wolf howled, greeting the night, and a dozen others took up the
song, filling the air with music. I closed my eyes and soaked it
up. It was beautiful, it was magical and it was Pack. I just wasn’t
sure if that meant it was home.
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