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“He’s hurt, but he’s alive,” she confirmed. “And we need to get you home and rested, alright? You can visit him in the morning if you want.”

“I did it,” I said, the words falling heavy from my tongue. “Sly made us… He drugged us…”

“Ayla.” Shannon pressed her fingers to my lips, silencing me. “Please.” Her voice shook; exhaustion, or perhaps fear. Fear for me, not of me. I slumped my shoulders and got back in the car.

Tomorrow. Another thing to deal with tomorrow.

***

It was close to dawn when we got home and I was looking forward to falling into bed. Of course it wasn’t that easy. My parents, Vince, Joel and Glory were all waiting in the living room for me and Shannon. It was a good hour before I’d hashed out enough of the story to satisfy them. Mum just sat and cried the whole time. When I finished talking, she took my hands.

“You should have told us,” she said softly. “We wouldn’t have let Eddie push you into this.”

I stared at our joined hands, a mix of awkward emotions bubbling in me. “It was for the Pack,” I said.

“It wasn’t worth it,” she replied bluntly. “Ayla, if we’d lost you…”

Dad rested his hands on her shoulders. “Eddie had no right to drag the pair of you so deep into this.”

“He thought it was for the best,” I said, blinking back the tears stinging my eyes.

“I’m sure he did. But for me, family comes before Pack,” Dad said fiercely. I glanced up at him, shocked at the blazing anger in his dark eyes. “I would have fought tooth and claw to keep you out of this if I’d known.”

Family before Pack; the concept felt strange. The whole reason I’d left town as a teenager was because my parents had pushed my duty to the Pack ahead of my rights as an individual. My right to my own sexuality, my own identity. My throat was too thick with tears for me to speak, so I just nodded. Maybe he sensed my confusion, because he covered mine and Mum’s joined hands with his.

“We lost you once, Ayla, because of Pack rules and histrionics. I’m not saying Pack isn’t important—of course it is. But if it comes down to you or Pack, I’m choosing you. You’re my daughter.”

I couldn’t stop myself crying then, great, ugly sobs that tore up my throat. Immediately, my parents closed around me, smothering me in their embrace and then Vince and Joel were in there too, hands stroking my hair, noses rubbing my cheeks, a wolfy hug that told me better than any words ever could that I was safe.

I savored the group hug for a few seconds before realizing someone was missing from it. I peeked out from under Joel’s arm to see Shannon smiling nervously at me. She was poised on the edge of her seat, as if about to leave. I held out my hand to her, silently inviting her in. If this was about family, there was nowhere else she should be.

She wavered, biting her lip and then Vince shuffled aside on the sofa to make room for her. She smiled then, a real smile, and knelt in front of me, wrapping her arms round my waist and laying her head on my lap. I tangled my fingers in her hair and let my family cradle me—us.

I could have stayed there like that forever.

***

I didn’t, of course. I eventually wriggled free of my family’s embrace, pleading exhaustion, and Shannon and I went to bed. We slept with our arms wrapped around each other, clinging together with a desperation neither of us could vocalize.

It was dark outside when we stirred again and I could hear Vince and my parents downstairs in the kitchen, pots clanging, glasses clinking. I shuffled closer to Shannon, reluctant to face the real world just yet. I was mostly healed from my adventures in the woods, but I was ravenous and aching all over, so I’d have to move soon. Just, not yet. I loved how warm and soft she was against me, loved the darkness of the room and the intimacy of it in contrast to the bustle downstairs. It was like we were in our own little bubble, hidden away from reality.

Shannon kissed my forehead. “You okay?” she asked softly.

“Better.” I nuzzled her. “Are you?”

“I am, now. Now you’re home.” She sat up, leaning back against the headboard. “Before you left, you said we’d talk about moving.”

“Yeah, I did.” My heart twisted. “Do you want to? Move away, that is?”

“I want to be with you,” she replied simply. “Home’s where you are, really, isn’t it?” She didn’t sound entirely happy about it.

“Let’s go on holiday,” I said impulsively. “We haven’t been away together for years. We’ve earned a break. Somewhere hot and sunny, and far away. Maybe…maybe that will put things in perspective.”

She nodded slowly. “A holiday would be nice.”

“Joel’s parents have a holiday home in France.”

“Sounds perfect.”

We nestled back down in the covers together, a small measure of peace attained. Things would be all right, I decided as I closed my eyes again. I’d make them all right, somehow.

TWENTY

I gave my statement tothe police the next day. Neither me nor the officers who interviewed me were sure if I’d be charged for maiming Sly. His tendons had already healed apparently, which left no evidence except his word to prove I’d done anything in the first place. It was always hard for werewolves to press assault charges. And given the depth of shit Sly was in, he probably wasn’t thinking about me too much.

One of the officers, a wolf, let slip to me that most of the humans arrested at the barn were Alpha Humans members. Not exactly a surprise, but it did confirm Eddie’s theory that they were supplying Sly with the Silver Kiss he’d been feeding to the wolves at the barn. It also more or less confirmed that the graffiti on ours and Tina’s doors had been the same group, trying to keep Molly quiet about Sly’s operation and keep us from poking our noses in.

“The West Yorkshire Police have a similar case going down at the moment,” the officer told me as she escorted me out of the interview suite. “You didn’t hear it from me, but I doubt this is the last we’ll see of this kind of thing.”

It was a depressing thought, one that completely killed any satisfaction I’d felt at capturing Sly. This was happening up and down the country, I’d bet, Alpha Humans using it to discredit werewolves, or just to entertain themselves. And wolves like Sly, greedy and wild, were helping. It made me sick.

After that, things slipped into normal routine. I went back to work at Inked to find out that Kaye had dumped her People Matter boyfriend in favor of a nice tennis player she’d met at the gym.

“He was getting a bit intense,” she told Lawrence, who nodded sagely. “He wanted to take me to some werewolf boxing match, or something. I don’t know, it was just weird.”

I started at her words but kept my mouth closed. It didn’t matter. It was over. I chanted it to myself over and over in the days following.

A week later I got home to find a letter telling me that my application to join the police was on hold, due to my upcoming involvement in Sly and the Alpha Humans’ trial. I showed the letter to Shannon, trying to sound like I didn’t care. She saw through me.

“It’s not a rejection, just a delay. Don’t look so miserable.”

“I’d have thought bringing down a drug-dealing kidnapping circle would be in my favor,” I said as lightly as I could, whilst disappointment welled inside me.

Shannon kissed my cheek. She was baking and the sweet smell of apples and caramel clung to her, lifting my mood a little.

“Don’t get too upset. Let’s face it; you’re too much of a maverick to be on the police force, always running off on your own to tackle the evil villains. Maybe you should become a superhero instead.”

I grimaced and tore the letter up, tossing it in the kitchen bin. I was sure it was only a matter of time before the actual rejection came though. I’d been counting on getting into the police. It would have been another anchor to the city and the Pack. At least, before all this Silver Kiss shit happened, it would have been. Now, after everything that had happened, I wasn’t sure how closely I wanted to be tied to the Pack. Family, yes, like Dad had said. But Pack? I just wasn’t sure anymore.

I hadn’t told Shannon that. I was waiting until after our holiday. But deep down in my blood and my bones, I already knew I was a lone wolf, had been one for too long now to change. I didn’t want to leave my family and my friends again, but I didn’t want the cloistering, all-consuming pressure of being a Pack wolf either.

I wasn’t sure I could have it both ways. I left Shannon to her baking and went to sit on the back doorstep, staring up at the waxing moon. Another week and she’d be full and fat again, inviting us all out to play. By then Oscar and Moira would be fully healed—although Moira was going to need physiotherapy for a while, being an older wolf than Oscar, slower to bounce back. By then Eddie would be buried under a hawthorn tree, as was traditional.

By then Shannon and I would be packing for our holiday. We’d be gone for two weeks, a fraction of time compared to the eight years I’d been gone before.

I leaned my head back against the doorframe and watched the stars twinkle overhead. Somewhere out in the city a wolf howled, greeting the night, and a dozen others took up the song, filling the air with music. I closed my eyes and soaked it up. It was beautiful, it was magical and it was Pack. I just wasn’t sure if that meant it was home.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14