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I almost believed him even as I wondered if it was already too late.
But I kept that thought to myself, especially when Ox came to me on a sunny afternoon toward the end of June. I knew what he wanted. I knew what I would give him.
He said, “I told you once that the day would come when I’d ask you to tell me everything you know. About Caswell. About the wolves there and where their loyalties lie. Do you remember?”
I could only nod.
“You didn’t trust me when I told you this. Do you trust me now?”
Yes, yes, yes.
“Because I am your Alpha.”
Yes, yes, yes.
He stood above me, eyes filling with a swirling mix of red and violet. He leaned forward until he pressed his forehead against mine, and I said, “Oh.”
Green Creek knew something was happening.
They were wary in ways I hadn’t seen before, and at first I thought it was because they were scared of us.
But it turned out they were scared for us.
They stopped us in the streets, asking us what was happening.
What was going on.
If something was coming.
If they needed to fight.
Will seemed to spearhead the rising concern. He came to the garage even though it was closed, banging on the door until Gordo unlocked the front door. “What’s coming?” he asked. “And don’t tell me nothing, boy. That’s shit and you know it.”
“Nothing,” Gordo said. “Because we’re going to it.”
Will’s eyes widened. Then, “You’re all coming back, right?”
“We’re going to try.”
Will nodded. “That’s not very reassuring.” He glanced at me before looking back at Gordo. “Has to do with shape-shifters?” He wiggled his fingers in Gordo’s face. “Magic stuff?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay,” Will said, puffing out his chest. “Then you all go do whatever it is you need to do. I’ll set up a patrol around the town until you get back and Carter and Kelly can take over again. It’s what we pay them for. Don’t want them to shirk their responsibilities.”
Gordo gaped at him as Will turned and marched back out of the garage. “Don’t you worry about the town,” he called over his shoulder. “I’ll shoot anything that looks at us funny, be it vampires or beasts or another religious nut sack who takes the Good Book way too literally. I promise you that. Just make sure you come back, Gordo. We need someone to fix our cars for cheap.” He crossed the street, heading toward the group of townsfolk gathering in the diner.
“Jesus Christ,” Gordo said irritably, though I could hear the pride in his voice.
“Gordo’s pretty pissed, huh?” I told the timber wolf on the final Sunday in June. The wolf followed me as I walked down the dirt road away from the houses. Ox, Joe, and Gordo had spent the morning grilling me about the compound: the wards, the walls, how many people, wolves, witches, the layout. Whether I’d ever used any hidden way in or out of Caswell. I told them there were good people there, innocent people who would want nothing to do with whatever Robert Livingstone had done. And if what we’d heard was true, if he had taken control of children, we’d have to be careful. This wasn’t like what they’d faced before. They couldn’t just kill indiscriminately. Kelly had told me what happened with Richard Collins and the hunters led by Meredith King. This thing we were doing, this absolutely crazy thing, couldn’t be like what they’d done before.
Ox looked grim when he said we would do everything we could not to hurt any of the children.
That should have made me feel better.
It didn’t.
And it didn’t help when Ox and Joe announced they wanted Kelly and me to stay behind.
