The wolves were in the woods, running in the early afternoon sun. The full moon had been six days before and they were working off excess energy that still coursed through them.
The humans were sprawled out around me. Gordo was farther away, sitting cross-legged, eyes closed as he took in deep, slow breaths, his fingers curling in the grass below him.
It was a peaceful day. Soon, we would go back home to start dinner. It was a Sunday. It was tradition. Elizabeth had found a new meatloaf recipe she wanted to try. I was going to make a cucumber salad.
I said, “Hello.”
Richard Collins laughed quietly. “I can hear them. The way they breathe around you. The wolves are… farther, but if I strain. If I listen hard enough, I’m sure I could hear Carter and Kelly. Mark. Elizabeth. Robbie, is it? The new one. The new Beta bitch of yours. And Joe, of course. The prodigal son returned home to the land of his father. A prince and the kingdom of the fallen king. Tell me, Oxnard. Does it burn knowing I put my hands on him first? Does it just curdle your stomach to know my fingers traced his skin before you ever could?”
I said, “Maybe. But never again.”
Richard said, “Oh, Ox. Tell me you don’t really believe that. Listen. Are you listening?”
“Yes.”
“I want you to leave them. Now. We have much to discuss, you and I.”
“Ox.”
I snapped my head up.
Rico was looking at me. “Everything okay?” he asked.
I nodded and gave him a tight smile. “Just gotta take this,” I said, trying to keep anything from leaking through the bonds. Alphas, I’d been taught, could dull even the strongest of their emotions so as to not put them on their Betas, their pack.
I thought, My mother was a wonderful woman.
I thought, She was great and very kind.
I thought, I love my family.
I thought, Joe came home, he’s home and he’s here to stay.
I thought, I won’t let anyone hurt them because pack, because love, because home.
My heartbeat slowed.
The back of my neck was slick with sweat.
My skin felt tight.
But my heartbeat still slowed.
Rico cocked his head at me. Jessie looked up with a frown.
“I’ll be right back, okay?” I said. I even smiled, a terrible, false thing that felt too wide.
They nodded.
I pushed myself up to my feet, keeping the phone at my ear as I walked away from all of them.
In the opposite direction of the wolves.
I could hear every breath he took.
The scrape of his tongue against his teeth.
I thought of calming things, like how the cucumber salad would taste, crisp and sweet, like tradition, even. The sweat trickled down my back. The sunlight burned through the trees. I thought all the birds had fallen silent, that the entire forest had fallen silent, but it was just the blood rushing in my ears.