“You’ve lost me.”
I readjusted my eye contact, not realizing I had broken it. “You’re seriously going to pretend the other night didn’t happen?”
Matt showed no reaction as he laughed. “That you got blackout drunk before—”
“Before you all changed into monsters,” I finished quietly. There was no need to worry about anyone overhearing us. Perry had left twenty minutes earlier to a breakfast meeting with the food and beverage manager. Anyone else in the building would be the line cooks, and they would be in the kitchen that was nowhere near the ballroom.
The small smile Matt was wearing vanished immediately. His lips pressed into a hard line. “Monsters,” he said quietly, his expression emotionless. He looked away from me.
I immediately found myself feeling guilt at that particular phrasing. It looked like I upset him. But before I could take it back, Matt was speaking. “You didn’t tell anyone.” This wasn’t a question but an acknowledgment.
“It’s not something anyone would believe.” But my words weren’t entirely true. I had told someone—Simon.
“No,” he agreed. “It’s not.” He started to walk away. This was all wrong; it wasn’t the way my hypothetical scenarios of confronting him had gone in my head. I struggled to find my words.
“You’re not even going to deny it?”
“And what would I say?” asked Matt sardonically. He turned to look at me, his expression bleak. “You know what you saw. I know what you saw. The whole damn group knows what you saw. You should have left the department when I told you to. It’s as simple as that.”
He started to walk away. This was once again such an odd scenario that I hadn’t anticipated it. I yet again struggled to find proper speech. “Are you guys going to…er…kill me?”
These words got Matt’s undivided attention. He stiffened before turning around, a brow soon raising. He was amused. “Yes, that’s the plan. I was just about to go out back to collect a shovel and some bleach to properly dispose of you.” He chuckled darkly as he walked away, sounding as if he thought I was the dumbest person alive.
CHAPTER 13
I really didn’t know what to make of our exchange. Matt seemed to return to his usual aloof self after that, avoiding me in general. I noticed a list of what needed to be done was left out in the employee lounge once I went on my half-hour break. Once my break was over, I grabbed the list before heading across the building to where I saw Matt headed twenty minutes earlier.
He was inside the room titled Glacier A, setting a U-shape table for twenty. At least that was what I figured he was doing. That was the terminology that was written on my paper that I grabbed from the lounge. I still had no real idea what I was supposed to be doing in the department half the time. All Perry had me doing in the mornings was vacuuming or cleaning those horrible windows that somehow always had smudges and fingerprints on them.
“You’re seriously going to pretend what I saw was no big deal?” My voice sounded a combination of whiny yet sharp.
Matt hadn’t heard me. He only saw me once he turned around to plop a chair down at the table. He popped a wireless earbud out of his ear to look at me. “Huh?”
I threw up my arms. “We’re not going to talk about the other night?” It was amazing that he could return to work and even do something as simple as listen to music at a time like this.
“You talked, I listened.” He merely shrugged. “There’s really not much to say.”
“Are you kidding me?” I balked. “We’re just not going to talk about how you and the rest of the guys are a pack of werewolves?!”
My raised voice got his full attention. Matt took both of his earbuds out to set on the table. He glowered in my direction before heading to the room’s entrance. He closed the door before speaking. “Lower the volume.”
“Then give me an explanation.” We watched one another in stony silence.
He took a deep breath through his nose as he looked to be struggling to hold onto patience. “Why couldn’t you have just left the damn department when I told you to?” He shook his head. “It would be so much easier if you weren’t here.” Matt didn’t make eye contact as he said this. I didn’t say anything to counter that. He wasn’t wrong. Everything would be so much simpler if I had never transferred.
“How has no one figured out what you are?”
Matt drummed his fingers on the top of his head, seemingly trying to contemplate how to explain this. It felt as it an eternity of silence passed before he spoke. He carefully cupped his hands together. “People see what they want to see.”
“What, so I didn’t actually see what happened on the roof?”
“No. I’m saying people…” He waved his hand as if referencing outside of this room. Perhaps he was referencing people out farther than that, maybe people in everyday life out in the world. “See what they want to see regarding us. They couldn’t possibly fathom that we’re…different,” he tested, seemingly not wanting to say the dreaded W word out loud.
“I’m finding it so unreal that no one in all of the Wisconsin Dells has figured out what you guys are but me.”
“Well…others have,” corrected Matt as he begun to pace. “You’ve already met them.”
My mind drifted to people I’d come across before registering what he was saying. “The other guys.”
Matt gave a curt nod. “Sometimes, a member finds us. Sometimes, we find them.”
“And…what? They all want to join the pack of werewolves?” My voice was incredulous.
Matt’s lips quirked into a half smile. “Very rarely will someone turn down the opportunity to live for nearly all eternity.”
I thought I was prepared for anything he could possibly say to me. But I was nowhere near prepared to hear that revelation. My head swam with thoughts as I struggled to keep from drowning in them. I took a nearby seat in a chair by the U-shape, not knowing what to say. “You’re joking.”
“I neglect to see what would be funny about that.”
“You expect me to believe werewolves can live forever? They’re not vampires.”
Matt raised an eyebrow. “Do you want to listen to my explanation or do you want to sit there and make assumptions?”
I was about to object before realizing I didn’t know what I would be objecting to. Not having anything better to say, I merely waved my hand for him to continue.
“I never said forever. I said nearly forever.”
“But what does that mean?” All my studying up on werewolf folklore with Simon hadn’t prepared me for that reveal. I never considered what the average lifespan was for werewolves, but I never would have figured they could live forever.
“It means living forever is something no one truly wants,” explained Matt without looking at me. “It means to become what we are, you have to be willing to do what it takes to survive. Not everyone is prepared to spend an eternity doing what we do. A lot of the time, after decades, sometimes centuries, we find ways to end our lives for good. To put ourselves out of our misery,” he said with a dark grin.