“Did you protect her?” Mom asked, eyeing Gabe’s shirtless torso. He had a few scratches on his chest, but they seemed superficial, so they were probably from branches clawing at him.
“I tried,” he told her, but his eyes were on me, searching.
Everything happened so fast, and I couldn’t think or catch my breath, and I just wanted a moment where the world didn’t feel like it was falling away from me. I looked away from him, just for a moment, just to think, and I spotted Roxie. She was standing next to Luka’s trailer, sobbing loudly, and Hutch had his arm around her.
That’s when I noticed the tears in my mom’s eyes, and the blood on Gideon’s clothes. Dark, like the color of flaking rust, mixed with mud and leaves and a few strands of frizzy brown hair.
“What happened?” I asked.
Then I saw her. Luka was a few feet away from the campsite, crouched over her. Even from this distance, she looked like a rag doll that had been torn apart.
“Gideon found Blossom,” Mom said gently, and rubbed my back. “She’s dead.”
“I know,” I said.
I should’ve known it sooner. Blossom had been talking to me since she’d been gone—I’d heard her voice in my head quoting “The Spider and the Fly.” And as I looked over at her body, my stomach twisting, I realized that she’d been the one who turned my stomach sour. She’d been trying to warn me of danger.
“I saw her in the forest,” I said softly. “She told me to run.”
Mom’s breath caught in her throat as she stifled a sob. “She’s watching out for you.”
Behind me, I could hear Gideon asking Gabe where he’d come from and what he was doing out here. I wiped the tears from my eyes, knowing that I would cry plenty for Blossom soon, but right now, I had to find out what the hell was going on with Gabe.
“I need to talk to Gabe.” I gave him a hard look. “Alone.”
“We should all go back inside,” Gideon said, but I’d already turned and started walking toward my trailer. Behind me I heard Roxie crying, asking what they were going to do with Blossom, and Gideon promised that he’d keep her safe and they would decide what to do in the morning.
In the Winnebago, my mom’s album was still playing, but I couldn’t handle the sound so I flicked it off. I set my crossbow on the counter beside me, in case I needed it, and I poured myself a glass of water. I took a long drink with my back to Gabe, but I could feel his eyes on me, the way I always felt his eyes when they were on me.
I took a deep breath and turned back to face him. He stood before me, looking more scared than I’d ever seen him before.
“What are you?” I asked finally.
49. confession
“Well, um…” He lowered his eyes and cleared his throat. “People would call me a werewolf.”
My heart dropped from my chest, and I closed my eyes, letting his words sink in. Since I’d grown up around people with all kinds of different supernatural abilities, I wasn’t as shocked as perhaps the average person would’ve been.
I also knew that I was still keeping my secret from him—that I was a necromancer, and that most of my friends had extrasensory powers of their own—and I was probably keeping it for the same reason he had. The shame and lack of understanding that came from telling a “normal” person.
But considering my friends and family were being attacked by a creature that we didn’t understand, his confession carried a more terrifying weight with it.
“It’s not like the movies, though,” Gabe rushed to explain. “When I change into a wolf, I don’t just turn into an animal. I’m still in control of myself. I can even control when I change. It’s harder when there’s a full moon, but I’m still in control.”
“A full moon?” I opened my eyes. “There was a full moon the beginning of this week.”
“I know, like I said, I’m still in control,” Gabe insisted, and took a step toward me. “I’m always in control of myself.”
“How does it work, then?” I asked. “If the moon doesn’t make you change, why do you change?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “It’s just something I do from time to time. Like, my body craves it, and if I don’t run off some built-up wolf energy every now and then, it does get harder to handle. But I do it. I usually just run through the trees for a while, and then I come home.”
“How long have you been a werewolf?” I asked.
“Technically, all my life,” he explained. “But I didn’t start actually changing until I was twelve.”
“You were born a werewolf?” I cocked my head. “Does that mean your family are too?”
“You remember when I told you about the Brawley legacy?” Gabe asked with a crooked smile. “It’s not just the house and the money. We’re werewolves. My mom, my sister, my uncle Beau, my grandpa, we’re all wolves.”
I tilted my head back and stared up at the ceiling. “Oh, hell, there’s a whole pack of you.”