True to form, my father proceeded to make matters worse. “Such a bloodling,” he mused, taking in Wolfie’s battered pack as the yahoos hefted their leader back to his feet and began tugging him toward one of their cars. The only thing that lightened my heart was realizing that Keith had been set loose during the scuffle and had joined Wolfie’s entourage, hovering behind Galena’s shoulder. No matter what my friend thought of me now, I knew she’d look after my young nephew.
“I was a bloodling too, you know,” Chief Wilder continued, and Wolfie’s pack paused in their retreat, their attention drawn back to the older pack leader. For the first time since collapsing at the end of a leash, the younger alpha seemed to take note of his surroundings as well, and his ears and nose swiveled toward my father. I could see the human wheels beginning to turn in his head as Wolfie and I both wondered whether my father’s words had any purpose other than spite.
“If you live long enough,” my father continued, looking straight at Wolfie, “you’ll get over it.”
Whether the Chief meant Wolfie’s attachment to me or his bloodling nature was unclear, but my father had clearly tired of the show. At a signal from their pack leader, my cousins closed in behind me as Chief Wilder turned away from Wolfie and led us all back to his home.
I was being nudged away from the only pack I had ever truly felt a part of, and I wanted to sink into the same silent grief that had so clearly enveloped Wolfie. But instead, I glanced back over my shoulder at the last moment, catching Chase’s eye as the beta finished herding the pack back into their two cars. The beta’s face was no less cold now than it had been over the preceding days, but Wolfie’s friend did nod once in acknowledgement. Yes, Chase was saying, he would keep his pack leader confined until he was able to talk sense into the wolf. My betrayal wouldn’t be in vain.
***
“I hope you’re comfortable up here,” my stepmother Cricket said as she bustled around the attic room that Brooke and I had slept in as children. The slanting roof that had felt playfully intriguing when I was younger now seemed to confine me in a cage very much like the imaginary one I’d pushed my wolf into weeks ago, back when my darker half and I were still on speaking terms. That thought, along with the bleakness of my future made me bark out a laugh in response to Cricket’s words—comfort was the furthest thing from my mind right now.
Rather than taking offense, Cricket paused in her puttering and sank down onto the edge of the bed beside me. “You know we’re all so glad you’re home,” she said softly, gazing into my eyes as if begging me to understand, although she didn’t reach out to touch me. My stepmother was stick-thin and had always seemed to lack the maternal nature of my own mother, but Cricket wasn’t cold-hearted like the Chief, so I tried to at least be polite to her. Unfortunately, I couldn’t seem to muster any social graces now.
“Don’t take this personally, Cricket,” I replied, “but moving back to Haven has always been my worst nightmare.” Taking a deep breath and moving beyond my own woes, I looked at my stepmother consideringly. “I’m actually surprised you’re still here given the … um … problems with Ethan.”
Now Cricket did pat my hand, but it was an uncomfortable movement, similar to the way a dog owner would try to stroke a cat and muddle it all up. It occurred to me to wonder how such a fragile woman had kept her half-human background a secret all these years, and whether she could possibly handle my father’s anger now. If I didn’t miss my guess, Chief Wilder would have been beside himself when he realized his prized son couldn’t shift, and I wouldn’t have been surprised to find Cricket still recovering from broken bones. But, no, my stepmother seemed as whole and healthy as she’d ever been.
“He knew about me all along, dear,” Cricket told me quietly, and it took a minute for me to parse her words and to realize she was talking about my father, not about Ethan. “We considered it a fair gamble … .” Her eyes became distant for a moment, and I actually could imagine my father marrying a halfie, even understanding that there was a 50% chance any son he sired would be human. Maybe it was my father’s bloodling nature—another surprise to me today—that made him equally willing to entrust his future to luck as to skill. Yet another puzzle for me to work through when my mind was less clogged with grief.