Page 72 of Wolfsbane

More than that, if it hadn’t passed, if the witches came back for him, I would kill the lot of them with my bare hands. Somehow, I suspected that Tristan would be the first guy out there helping me, which was a nice surprise after how he’d come to us.

“Hi,” Daire whispered, his voice still a little rough with sleep.

“Hi,” I offered right back. “Smells like Mama’s making breakfast, so everyone must already be up.”

He bit his lip, his eyes drifting away from mine for a moment before he spoke again. “Do . . . do you think they’ll want me to leave? I mean, I could now. But! I still have your wolf. I . . . I understand if they don’t want me around, or⁠—”

I leaned in and kissed him to interrupt the usual flow of self-doubt, and when I pulled back, his eyes had fluttered shut, and he was just breathing deep, looking content. “They won’t. No one wants you to leave, spell or no. Wolf or no.”

“Cash—”

“Forgave you when he realized the grudge he was holding was never about you.” I leaned in again and kissed one of his closed eyelids, then the other. “I know it’s not as easy as this, but please try to stop blaming yourself for things you didn’t control. All you’ve done is react to what you’ve been forced into. You haven’t made any of the bad decisions that led us here. I hold more responsibility for it than you do.”

His eyes flashed open at that and he shook his head, clearly offended on my behalf.

So I leaned in and kissed him again. “Precisely. So stop saying it’s your fault. If you don’t want me to feel guilty, then you shouldn’t push guilt on yourself either.”

I knew that wouldn’t be the end of it. Of all people, I knew that guilt wasn’t so easy to wipe away. But all I could do was remind him at every turn that he’d done nothing wrong.

We didn’t bother changing clothes, since we’d only been wearing them a few hours, and headed down to the kitchen, where Mama was setting out porridge with separate bowls of fruit and honey and nuts to add to it. It was one of my favorite things she served for breakfast. It was nicer than anything they’d given us in the camps, but not completely foreign to me after years of being fed the bare minimum.

She knew that, and clearly, she was concerned about me after the last day.

And maybe it made sense to do the same thing for Daire. Something that wasn’t too decadent, so we wouldn’t add to any guilt he was feeling by reminding him that his mother was not eating pastries or cakes.

He ducked his head at Mama as she handed him a bowl, murmuring thanks, even though he couldn’t seem to meet her eye. Likely, he thought everyone was finding fault in him. Was he concerned because she was my mother, and his was gone?

Mama clearly wanted to fuss over him, but she was one of the cleverest people in the pack, and left him be for the moment.

An equally serious Leo and Altair joined us at the table, even though Altair didn’t need breakfast at all. Solidarity, I supposed.

It was my turn to feel a stab of guilt, for ever thinking ill of the vampire. Somehow, being deprived of sunlight for hundreds of years had turned the man into a ray of sunshine himself. Just like Leo.

Maybe it was Leo’s influence, or maybe it was the fact that Altair’s life had gone from hopeless to filled with everything he loved in the space of a few weeks. Either way, he smiled at all of us, patting Daire on the back as he walked by, and then . . . patting me as well.

I turned and nodded to him, and he beamed at me, as though acknowledgement from a surly asshole was a gift.

That was when Cash and Aleks came in the front, careful not to bring the sun in with them, but hurried nonetheless. Cash was waving a notebook around, and when he saw us at the table, he seemed to brace himself, then nodded and came over to sit next to Daire.

“How many bedrooms do you think you need? Just the one? Two, in case you have guests?” Everyone at the table looked up at him except for Mama—well, and Aleks, who was dishing up extra porridge for the two of them—and Daire was clearly confused, his eyes squinted, brow furrowed and head cocked to one side. Cash seemed to barely notice, just poked at the notebook he’d brought with him. “This is the same sketch I initially gave to Leo and Altair, but Altair wanted a bigger bathtub.”

Altair gave a long sigh and nodded. “What can I say? I’m a dramatic fellow. I require all the luxuries.”

Cash snorted at that, but just shook his head instead of responding. He pushed the notebook between the two of them. “I put two bedrooms, just in case.” Turning the page, he motioned to a new drawing. “This is the one with the bigger bathroom. It’s not much more space, just a few feet, so we could do that easily. Right next to Leo and Altair’s if you want.” He ducked his head and blushed. “I mean, we’re not going to do it right away. We’re working on a lot right now, and after last night, we’re going to have to push our work plans up. A couple of those buildings in the old village just can’t house anyone anymore. But now that the whole pack is working on the houses, it’s going pretty fast.”

Next to him, Aleks sighed. I knew my brother; it was because moving up the schedule more meant that we were going to have to accept more of the charity from the Crescent pack, and he didn’t want to. But there was only so much money the pack could bring in, particularly when most of us were staying in the Wildwood full time, working on building the new houses.

I shoved down my amusement at Aleks’s stubborn irritation and looked back at Cash. Was he offering to build a house for Daire? I appreciated him trying to keep Daire with us, but also, was annoyed by the idea that Daire would go anywhere without me.

Naturally, that was when Cash looked up at me, eyebrows raised. “What about you? Sorry I didn’t ask right away. I figured you wouldn’t care that much, as long as the basics were covered. But is there anything you want in your house?”

He slid the notebook between Daire and me.

Because that was what he was talking about. Building a house not for Daire, but for Daire and me.

CHAPTER 40

Daire