Thirty-Five
CORDELIA
What the hell am I thinking saying what I am? Who am I right now? It’s like watching someone else say it and I just can’t stop no matter how hard I try. I’m temporarily possessed by a bitchy poltergeist, that’s the only answer.
For a second, no one says anything. The ‘you’ I uttered in a fit of lunacy hangs heavy in the air like an anvil right over my head. Right now, I’m the cartoon coyote the pups used to watch at the community center when they were dropped off by their parents on moon runs.
The girl Thorne called Cassidy is pretty. She looks every bit like the All-American advertisements I saw on the Winthrop billboards advertising perfume and holiday getaways. She’s suntanned with green eyes and a heart-shaped face. Her long blond hair falls straight and smooth down her back. She looks young though, too young to be Thorne’s mate. I slap the thought down as suddenly as it comes. It’s none of my business if she’s his mate or not.
Cassidy narrows her eyes and takes a step towards me. “I know that you’re new here, so you don’t know that my mom’s the Beta. I wouldn’t call that basic at all, would you?” I can hear the unspoken threat in her voice. Keiran and the other children of the Frostclaw Elders used to throw their weight around all the time to intimidate anyone that stood up to them. I used to hate it. Always at the mercy of others because of who their parents are…it never was fair.
Anger burns hot in my chest and in that moment it isn’t Cassidy that I’m talking to, it’s every asshole that took a shot at me in Frostclaw and hid behind their parents rather than facing me on their own. My wolf snaps her maw. She wants blood. She knows we could rip this girl apart if I set her free but I keep hold of her. I got this. I have to be the one to handle this. If I let it start now there will be no stopping it in Bloodstone. I don’t give a shit who Cassidy’s mommy is. I have no intention of trading one prison for another.
I will be fucking respected in my mother’s pack. Or die trying.
“Are you going to run and tell your mommy then? Is that what you’re saying?” Cassidy stops walking towards me and falls back a step like I slapped her. I take the opportunity to step forward. “You tell anyone calling me a stray that they can have the decency to say it to my face like you did. At least you did me that courtesy.”
Cassidy’s face flushes and she looks away, down at her feet. “Listen, it’s just a joke,” she mumbles.
“I don’t care to be the punchline of yourjoke. I’m the healer here, this ismy mother’s packand if I hear any more jokes about me being a stray, I’ll leave.”
Cassidy looks up at me in surprise. “You can’t. We haven’t had a healer in years.”
I don’t look away from her the way my entire body is trying to make me do. In Frostclaw, I would have shown my neck, triedto keep my head down and stay out of a fight. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve got my wolf now that I don’t do either of those things. Instead, I cross my arms in a mirror image of Thorne and stare the other She-wolf down. “Then I suggest you take care with your words when you speak to me.”
Cassidy nods. “Yeah, okay. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that, I- it’s not funny. “ She looks at Thorne. “I’m sorry,” she says and I feel my wolf stir. It doesn’t like that she’s looking at Thorne like he’s the one to fix this and make her feel better for saying something shitty. Why the hells is she looking at him?
I roll my shoulders and point towards the door. “Apology accepted. Now if you don’t mind, I have a busy afternoon getting set up here.”
Cassidy takes off like her feet are on fire. “Of course. Goodbye.” The blonde is out the door a second later and only then do I let myself take a breath. I sag against the counter and lean over it to catch my breath. I feel like I’m going to puke. I’ve never stood up to anyone. Oh Luna, what if I have to do it again? How does anyone do this and survive?
“You okay over there?” Thorne asks.
“I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Well, you’re in the right place for that, I guess.”
I burst into laughter and cover my face with my hands. “Stop. You did not just say that.”
“Tell me I’m wrong,” he says. I hear the tease in his voice. It lightens my mood some.
“You’re not.” I lower my hands and smile at him. “You’re right.”
“Exactly. Good that you’re learning that early.”
A shiver runs up my spine and I fidget under his attention. I turn and grab a jar of moss to inspect.
“So, who was she?”
“Just some dumb kid.”
Relief hits me so hard that I almost sigh from it. She’s not his mate.
“Really? I thought she was…you know.”
“Thought she was what?”
“Your mate…or girlfriend? She smelled pretty human to me.”
