But not before they held their secret meeting once more.
I couldn’t even find it in me to ask questions.
To give two shits about who they were.
I stared at the closed door.
And walked away.
THEY LEFT and all was quiet.
Carter and Kelly spent hours upon hours in the woods, restlessly moving through the trees. If they didn’t come home at night, I’d find them in the clearing, lying flat on their stomachs near a section of burnt grass, tails thumping to a beat only they could hear.
Elizabeth would disappear for long stretches of time. I never followed her. I never found out where she went.
Mark stayed on the porch, scanning the tree line. I knew what he was looking for, but I didn’t think it would happen. Richard was gone.
And he would stay gone because of Gordo. Gordo, who spent the days that followed shoring up the wards he’d placed around Green Creek. Now that he was pack again, he could access areas of his magic that had been blocked to him before. I could feel the pull of it every time he did something different, that strange sensation that felt like walking down the stairs and missing the bottom step.
Joe stayed in his father’s office.
I tried to keep all of them together.
I lay with Carter and Kelly in the grass. Under the stars.
When Elizabeth was in the house, I made sure she ate.
I stood on the porch next to Mark, running my fingers through his fur, watching.
I followed Gordo around, watching as he muttered under his breath, keeping an eye out to make sure no one in Green Creek saw the way the tattoos moved along his arms. He said it wasn’t necessary. That no one would find out. I went anyway.
Joe barely spoke to me, even when he was human and even when I was at his side.
I didn’t understand what he was going through. I didn’t understand what Thomas had given him. I didn’t understand what it meant to be the Alpha. All I could do was hope that I could be enough as his tether.
Of course, any courting he’d been doing before had stopped.
I didn’t mind. I knew there were other things he had to focus on. More important things.
ONE DAY I went to work, just to do something different.
Gordo wasn’t there. He was with Joe, talking about things I wasn’t supposed to hear.
I might have glared at both of them. They’d stared back with blank faces.
I might have also slammed the door on my way out of the house.
I wasn’t proud of that.
So without any better idea of where to go, I went to the shop.
I stayed off the main street. I didn’t want anyone to stop me. To try and talk to me. To offer condolences. I was sick of condolences.
It probably didn’t help that I was pissed at Joe and Gordo, even though I tried very hard not to be. But they’d never kept anything from me. Not since I found out about witches and wolves. For the most part, anyway.
But when I saw the shop for the first time in days, some of that anger lessened. It dampened the sadness. I thought maybe this was going to be an escape. At least for a little while.
I walked into the shop. The bell on the door to the waiting room rang overhead. It caused my heart to ache a little, but in a good way.