“It’s too late for what you should or shouldn’t have done,” Mark said, sounding angrier than I’d ever heard him. “You really think that he’s going to welcome us back with open arms? That you won’t have to face him? Green Creek is small, Thomas. You’re going to run into him sooner rather than later.”
“What do you want me to do?” Dad said, and sweat trickled down the back of my neck. “Tell me. Please. Just tell me what to do. Tell me what’s right. What should I have done? What should I do now? Should I have done more to save Dad? Should I have been able to stop the hunters from destroying our pack? Or perhaps I should have been able to keep Robert Livingstone from murdering all those people. I’m sorry, Mark. I’m sorry for everything I’ve done. All the mistakes I’ve made. Please. Tell me how to fix this. Tell me what I should do so that my child doesn’t scream himself awake because a man I once trusted shattered him into pieces before I could find him. You should have been my second. Not Richard. I should’ve never listened to Dad when he said that—”
“Fuck you,” Mark said coldly. “I never gave a shit about that, and you know it. We’re broken, Thomas. We’re broken, and I don’t know how to fix us. I followed you even when every part of me was screaming to let you go without me. I left my heart behind because you said it was for the greater good. And for what? What has it gotten us? What kind of Alpha are you that you can’t—”
“Enough.”
It rattled the walls.
I couldn’t move.
I couldn’t breathe.
But Mark wasn’t finished. “What are you doing? Do you even know? You’re spiraling, Thomas. People are talking. They think that you’re not going to come back.”
“We will.”
“Yeah, well, maybe you’ll be coming alone.”
“Fine. Then I will. Michelle is more than adequate. She’ll do well in my stead until I can figure things out again.” He sighed. “I need to put my children first. I need to put Joe first.”
Mark laughed bitterly. “Oh, if only Dad could hear you now. What was it he always said? For an Alpha, the needs of many outweigh the needs of a few. Pack and pack and pack.”
“Don’t you think I know that?”
“And what about Richard? It’s not over.”
“I know that too.”
“Do you? What happens if he comes again?”
“I’ll tear his head from his shoulders,” my father snarled, Alpha filling his voice. “Let him come. It’ll be the last thing he ever does.”
“We can’t keep doing this,” Mark said, and he was pleading with my father. He was begging him. “We can’t go on this way. We’re destroying ourselves, and I don’t know how to stop it. I love you, but I hate you too for all that you’ve done.”
My father didn’t respond.
They were silent. I could imagine them on the other side of the wall, facing each other, arms crossed, never meeting each other’s gazes. Two stone statues, carved and unmoving.
I was surprised when my father spoke first. “The family. In the blue house.”
“What about them?”
“The boy.”
And Mark said, “Ox.”
“Yes. You said… you met him. And his mother.”
“In the diner. It was his birthday. He was… I don’t know. There’s something different about him. I don’t know how to explain it. It was like being struck by lightning. I’ve never felt anything like it before.”
“Magic, maybe. A witch?”
“No. I’ve never heard of Matheson witches.”
“We’ll have to be careful. Having them so close…. It could be dangerous.”
“Then you shouldn’t have sold the house.”