“All right”—she glances around, eyeing the family who’s dumping out their trash, and waits for them to leave before speaking again—“settle in for morbid story time, and I’ll tell you about the clusterfuck my family, specifically my eighteen-year-old brother, had to deal with.” Tanya relaxes back in her seat, picking up a pen to gesture with.
“The first—and worst—event was Dad dying. He was, like, the best guy. I mean, I was super young, but I still remember him, you know?” Tanya gets this sad, faraway look in her eyes that breaks my heart. “Always smiling. Everyone loved him. Dad was a firefighter.” A shadow flits through her gaze. “And that year, there were some intense forest fires in the northern part of the state. They put out a call for help, and he went.” There’s a husky quality to her voice now, and I feel my own throat getting thick. “Our kind isn’t easy to kill, but getting caught in a wildfire will do it.”
“Oh hell, Tanya. That’s … I don’t even have words. I’m so sorry,” I murmur.
“But the worst thing is, we didn’t find out because someone called.” Tanya focuses all her attention on me. “Roderick found out immediately. Because the pack leadership transferred to him.”
I press my fingers against my suddenly numb lips as all the blood leaves my face.
What must that have been like? To suddenly feel a rush of power and responsibility and know also, in that moment, that your father died?
That would mess with anyone’s head.
“People hadn’t really expected Roderick to be the one to take the mantle if something happened to Dad. Everyone thought either Uncle Mason or Mom would be the next alpha. But magic just seems to choose whoever has the most potential.”
If that’s the case, I wonder what the magic saw in Mick for the Bear Valley pack. Maybe it just didn’t have many good options.
“That’s horrible.”
“Yeah, and it was only the first shitty domino to fall.” Tanya leans forward, bracing her elbows on her notes. “What did Roderick tell you about Monica?”
“Just that she couldn’t accept what he was.” And I didn’t push because I knew I didn’t have a right to when I kept all my secrets to myself.
Tanya snorts. “That’s an understatement. Now, I found out about all of this from Courtney years later, but it’s not something she’d lie about. See, Monica moved to Pine Falls when her dad decided he wanted to try life as a mountain man. She was sixteen and beautiful and knew zip about werewolves. Roderick fell for her, and they thought they’d spend the rest of their lives together. Then Roderick became pack leader, and he decided hecouldn’t hide what he was from her anymore. So, he showed her.” The teenager grimaces, and I feel a sickness in my stomach.
I thought Roderick’s dislike of outsiders stemmed from something like a few strangers had graffitied Main Street or something. Nothing so personal. As I start to wonder if Tanya is the right person to divulge these details, she barrels on, clearly on a roll with her storytelling.
“Monica freaked out. Full-on panic attack. He called Courtney to come help calm her down, but the girl was a hysterical mess. Monica begged them to wake her up. To tell her the whole thing was a nightmare.” Tanya sneers, clearly disgusted by what happened. “Apparently, she said some pretty shitty stuff about Roderick being a monster, which didn’t help when he was already devastated over Dad. The only way they calmed her down was by assuring her they could make all of it disappear.”
“Disappear?” That’s ominous, but I’ve seen Monica myself, unharmed.
The young wolf nods, leaning in close again, her voice going low. “Just need to find the right witches. Some of them can remove memories.” She taps the side of her skull. “For a price. Roderick and Courtney took Monica to see a witch, got the girl’s memory of the night wiped—with her enthusiastic consent. She went back to believing werewolves were just fictional characters in stories.”
“What about her and Roderick?” The question pops out before I can stop myself.
Tanya shrugs. “Done. He broke it off. He knew there was no future with her. Maybe if he was just another wolf in the pack, he could’ve pretended like he was human for her. But he’s our leader. That’s not a once-a-month gig.”
Angry suspicion drags a dark cloud over my mind. “And that’s when she shot him?”
“What?” Tanya gasps. “No!”
“You said he got shot, and then you told me about Monica! What am I supposed to think?”
The wolf snorts. “No. After Roderick ended things, she went off to college in some other state. Good riddance, I say. Even though it looked like he was the dumper, really, it was her. So, Roderick lost Dad and his girlfriend within a few weeks of each other. To say he was dealing with some shit would be an understatement. He’s one of those wolves that runs to clear his mind. He was in the woods probably almost every day, losing himself in his animal for a few hours just to find some peace.That’swhen he got shot.”
“By who?”Does the danger still exist? Is he at risk every full moon? Is someone hunting him right now?My fists clench at the thoughts.
But Tanya is relaxed as she eats her nachos, even as sadness sits in her eyes.
“Some hunters wanting a wolf pelt. They heard rumors there was a pack near our town. If anyone knew why they were visiting, we would have gotten them to leave before any damage was done. But they just seemed like two guys on a camping trip. So, one evening, they spotted Roderick. Luckily, the bullets went through his shoulder and side. He was able to get away before more damage was done. Doctor patched him up, and our new leader got the police to escort the assholes off our territory.”
“That’s … wow.” My head feels suddenly heavy with all this new knowledge. “That’s a lot.”
Roderick doesn’t have any scars. I’ve seen enough of his body to know. But he wouldn’t, would he? Werewolf blood would heal away the evidence of the horror he experienced. But that doesn’t mean the pain is gone too.
Like me, he has darkness in his past that colors the present moments.
“Yeah, a real trial-by-fire situation. But he made it through, and now we have a kick-ass pack leader.” She smirks. “Don’t tell him I said that. Need to keep my annoying-little-sister cred.”
