“You—” he said as I said, “There’s—”
We stopped.
He coughed. “You first.”
I nodded, because it had to be me. “Tomorrow. It’s the full moon.”
“Yeah? I guess it is.” He knew, but he was humoring me.
“What are you doing for it?”
He shrugged and scratched the back of his neck. “Hadn’t really thought about it.”
Which I thought possibly was a lie.
“If you’re not busy. We could. Run. Your pack. And mine.”
He looked surprised. “You’d do that?”
“You were here first, Joe. It’s your land.”
“But it’s—”
“Just. Will you do it?”
He nodded furiously. “Yes. Yeah. I can. We can. It’ll be—”
“Good,” I said. “It’ll be good.”
And I didn’t know what else to say after that. Because I had too much to say.
So I said nothing at all.
We stared at each other for a little while. Taking each other in. I tried to force myself to take a step closer to him, just to… be. But I couldn’t.
“Okay,” I said finally. “Tomorrow, then.”
He frowned as I moved to walk around him down the dirt road to the old house.
“Ox,” he said quietly as we were shoulder to shoulder.
I held my breath and waited.
“Are we—” He stopped. Shook his head. Let out a frustrated groan. “We have to talk. About everything I need you to know. Everything. There are things you have to hear. From me. I need you to—just. I need you.”
I tried to ignore the heat along my skin to focus on what was important. “Is he coming?”
He knew who I meant. “I think so.”
“Are we safe for now?”
“Yeah. Yes. It can wait a few days. But—”
“Then the rest of it can wait too.”
“Ox.”
I said nothing.
He sighed. “Okay.”
Somehow I was able to walk away.
THE SKY was darkening the next day when my pack gathered at the old house, standing in the kitchen. I still avoided the living room whenever possible. Elizabeth and Mark still slept at the house at the end of the lane, but Robbie had moved back to the old house, taking over the spare bedroom, knowing Mom’s room was off-limits. Apparently, him being there didn’t sit well with Carter and Kelly, and they told me as much. I didn’t know what Joe thought.
“Are you sure about this?” Robbie asked me. “We don’t even know them.”
“I’d like to think I do,” Elizabeth said lightly. “I gave birth to most of them.”
Robbie grimaced slightly. “Sorry.”
“For giving birth?” she teased.
He blushed and mumbled something incoherent.
“He’s got a point,” Jessie said. “Full moons with you are different. We know these wolves. Most of the humans here don’t know them. Are you sure they’re in control enough? Have you even seen them shift since they’ve been here?”
I hadn’t and said as much.
“They broke away,” she said. “How is that different from them being Omegas?”
“They had an Alpha,” Mark said. “They still do. They may not have… been here, but they still had an Alpha to draw strength from. They tethered themselves to him.”
“Just as long as there are no wolves gnawing on my ass, I’m okay,” Rico said.
“Succinct as usual,” Tanner said, smacking him upside the back of the head.
“Pendejo,” Rico muttered.
“No one is gnawing on anything,” I said.
“Really?” Chris said innocently. “I’m sure Joe’s going to be disappointed to hear that.”
I glared at him as most everyone in the room snickered at that.
“We’re going to be fine,” I said, trying to get the conversation back on track. “We’ll run with them, there will be no gnawing on anyone—Chris, keep your mouth shut—and we’ll figure this out. Okay?”
They nodded.
“Okay,” I said.
This was going to be fine.
IT WAS not fine.
It had been fine, for the most part.
When we arrived at the clearing, the moon was rising and Joe and his pack were already there. The eyes of the wolves were flashing at the pull of the moon. Gordo’s tattoos were glowing, and I realized this was the first time I’d ever seen him as part of a pack on a full moon. It hurt dully to think he’d been a part of something for so long and I hadn’t been there to see it. There hadn’t been enough time to ask him about it after everything had happened.
Like they did when they first came back, they all moved together, watching us as we walked into the clearing. I was sure that if I were a wolf, I would have heard their hearts beating in sync.
It felt tense as we approached, a little bit off, but I didn’t think it was too bad.
It might have been wishful thinking.
“Ox,” Joe said, but not before his gaze flickered over my right shoulder, where I knew Robbie stood.
“Joe,” I said.
“Thank you for allowing us to join you tonight.”
I nodded, hating how formal this was. “Thank you for being here.”
“Oh my god,” Rico muttered. “They are so awkward.”
“Shut up,” Tanner hissed. “They’re werewolves. They can hear you.”
“I know what they are, stop whisper-shouting at me!”
“They are really awkward, though,” Chris whispered.
“They were always like that,” Jessie mumbled under her breath.
If I hadn’t been watching Joe, I would have missed the way his lips quirked for just a second, like he was fighting back a smile.
“This is my pack,” I said, trying not to snarl at all of them.
“And this is mine,” Joe said.
Carter and Kelly were snickering to each other. Gordo looked like he was ready to roll his eyes.
“Shall we run?” Joe asked.
“We can,” I said.
“And here comes the part where really attractive people get naked,” Rico said. “And most of them are related. Which isn’t weird. At all.”
“Rico,” I said.
“Yes?”
“Shut. Up.”
“It’s weird. Just because you don’t see it as weird, doesn’t mean it’s not.”
“Talking about it doesn’t make it any less weird.”
“I feel like we should at least address the weirdness—”
“Rico!”
“Shutting up now.”
Carter and Kelly had already disrobed by the time Rico closed his mouth. Carter winked at me before he shifted, the familiar snap of bone and muscle loud in the clearing. Kelly followed quickly, and then there were two wolves standing in the moonlight, eyes orange and teeth bared in a canine smile.
They weren’t all that much different than they’d been years before. Same coloring as they’d always been. But they were bigger and heavier. They would never be as big as Thomas was, but they had grown noticeably. I didn’t know if that had to do with age or Joe. Probably both.