Mom approached the timber wolf slowly, her shawl fluttering behind her. She only had eyes for him, and he watched her warily, ducking his head back behind the truck again as if she wouldn’t be able to see him.
She stopped near the back wheel well and took the shawl from her shoulders, settling it on the ground in the thin crust of snow. She sat down upon it, hands on her knees. It was cold, and I could see the gooseflesh along her arms, but she stayed still.
She said, “Gavin.”
He made a noise that I’d never heard a wolf make before, almost like the hoot of an owl. It was as if he were acknowledging her. He knew what she was.
She said, “You were with us for a long time. And I knew you as much as a mother knows her children, though you were always as you are now. I would like to see your face, if you’d show it to me.”
He pawed at the ground.
She nodded as if she understood. “You saved us. You saved Carter. When all seemed lost, when my son’s fate lay in the hands of a monster, you found it in yourself to let go of the wolf and return to your true self. I never got a chance to thank you for that. I’d like to now.”
He leaned around the truck again, this time his whole head. His eyes were violet.
“You had a place here,” she said. “With us. Even when you were lost to your wolf, you recognized us for what we were. What Gordo was. What Carter was. Isn’t that right?”
He huffed out a breath in response.
“But regardless of family or fate, you would still have belonged to us just as much as we belonged to you.”
He stepped out from behind the truck.
“Jesus,” Rico whispered behind me. “I’d forgotten how big he was.”
Gavin glanced at me over my mother’s shoulder. I nodded at him, and he turned his gaze back to her, though he kept his distance.
“I know you’re scared,” she said. “And you’re unsure. It’s blue. But I see the green in you. You know us. You know this place, don’t you.” It wasn’t a question.
He took a step toward her.
She said, “Can I tell you a secret?”
He cocked his head.
She said, “I knew your mother, brief though the moment was. I have this… gift. Ever since I could remember. It doesn’t always work, but when it does, I know what I’m witnessing. Certain people shine. Brightly, as if their innate goodness was a palpable thing. Her name was Wendy. Wendy Walsh. And she shone. It was happenstance, this meeting, the passing of ships in the night. She didn’t know who I was, but I knew her. She was lovely. An innocent in all of this. She didn’t know what we did. She didn’t know what your father truly was. She only saw what he allowed her to see, as was his way.”
Gavin growled.
Mom nodded. “She was his tether. Was it fair of him to put that burden upon her? It would be hypocritical of me to say one way or another.”
Joe leaned his head against Ox’s shoulder.
“But I know this,” Mom continued. “She shone brightly. And I wondered then, as I do now, what things would have been like if only we’d done right by her. If Abel Bennett had brought her into the fold instead of sending her away. We are wolves, yes. We can do many things that others cannot. But we can still make mistakes. Awful, terrible mistakes. We should have seen what was coming. We should have known how deep the darkness ran within our own pack. We didn’t, and she suffered because of it. Her hand was forced in a way it never should have been. And you… you were never given a chance to know you had a family. A brother.”
Gordo looked away, Mark whispering in his ear.
“I’ll ask for your forgiveness,” my mother said. “But I won’t demand it. It’s not conditional of you being here. You’ll always have a choice of whom to trust. But if you allow it, I would like to earn it. I know it’ll take time, and time may be something we don’t have. But you are not a thing to be discarded. You are flesh and blood. You are important. And not just because of my son or my witch. You are important to me, to this pack, because you have proven yourself beyond measure. We have lost much. We have suffered.” Her voice cracked, but she pushed on. “But we stand tall, because we are the Bennett pack.”
Gavin bowed his head.
She reached out slowly. He didn’t pull away as she pressed her hand on the underside of his jaw, lifting his head. She looked so small compared to him, but she was unafraid. “Regardless of what relationships you forge with the pack, what decisions you make about the future you see for yourself, you will always have a place here. I have missed you. I know the wolf before me, and if you’ll let me, I’d like to know the man.”
He stepped away from her. He looked above her at the rest of us. No one spoke.
He looked to me.
I nodded.