I pulled myself to my full height. “A child who is part of the Bennett pack and tethered to you and Joe.”
He watched me, a strange expression on his face. “Shit,” he muttered. “Ox.”
“Don’t. Never again. You hear me? You don’t keep shit from me. Ever again.”
“Ox—”
“Gordo.”
“Jesus, kid. You’re fucking scary sometimes. You know that, right? A bit of Alpha in you.”
I sai
d nothing. Just glared at him.
He sighed. “All right.”
“Who was it?”
Smoke curled up around his face and he said, “Mark. Okay? It was Mark. I loved him. I loved him and he left and I stayed, and until I found you, I was lost in the dark. You brought me back, Ox. You brought me back and I can’t lose you. I can’t.”
THE OTHERS didn’t know. Tanner. Rico. Chris.
Gordo said it was better that way.
Sometimes I didn’t think Gordo even believed his own lies.
SCHOOL STARTED. My senior year.
The horn honked outside.
I opened the door.
Joe’s smile was bright and blinding as he waved at me from the backseat.
He said, “Hey, Ox. Now I get to be like you guys. Time for school, yeah?”
BACK IN the woods after asking if I wanted to be a wolf, Thomas said, “Tethers are important, Ox. Especially when they’re people. If it was an emotion, it’d have to be all encompassing. And that usually only happens with rage and hate, and it turns and twists until the tether is black and burnt. When the tether is a pack, it’s spread out amongst all members, and everyone carries the weight of the burden.”
“And if it’s just one person?” I asked. A breeze blew through my hair and I closed my eyes.
“If it’s one person,” Thomas said quietly, “then that person is treated as precious. But it’ll become possessive. It’s just the way it is. It’s one of the most important things there is to a wolf.”
“What’s your tether?” I asked. As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I wanted to take them back. It felt like a deeply personal question that I had no right to ask.
But he said, “Pack. It’s always been my pack. Not the individuals, per se, but the idea behind what pack means.”
“Family,” I said.
“Yes. And so much more. It can be harder when it’s individuals.”
“What if I’m tied to two people?”
He frowned. “We’ll see, won’t we?”
THERE’S A third Bennett brother, the people in the hallway whispered.
He looks just like the others.