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Victor shrugged. “She’s just some townie girl. I only know Margo’s name because you never stop mentioning it.”
I closed my eyes for a moment. Taking advice from Victor was a terrible idea. He was the actual worst. “You’re kind of a caveman.”
He grinned, his face lighting up, as though that was a joke. Then the smile fell as he pointed at a passing bus. “I thought you said Margo was visiting that clown in the hospital.”
I turned around, but the bus had already moved on. “Who? Adam?”
“Whatever his name is, he was on that bus.”
I snorted. “Couldn’t have been. He’s in hospital. You probably don’t even recognise him outside of school anyway.”
That earned a laugh. “Probably.” He glanced at me. “You should worry about the pack though. If they turn on Margo, you’re the one in the middle.”
“I can handle it.”
“Not just you though, is it? You won’t be standing alone.”
I thought about that. Nathan and Perdita would stand with me at all times. If I drew the wrath of the pack, they would suffer from the blowback, too.
“I won’t let it come to that,” I said. “There’s nothing wrong with Margo.”
“She’s not normal though, is she?”
“Neither are we.”
Victor huffed out a scornful laugh. “We’re normal to us. She’s not. And Amelia? Most of the pack is happier when she’s gone travelling.”
I stopped walking, grabbed Victor, then shoved him away. “So what do you want me to do? Break up with Margo? Seriously?”
He looked back at me with such a passive expression that I felt ill. “I never said that. I even think she could be useful. Just be prepared. The pack is closing ranks because of what happened with Dominic. Margo’s an unknown. It could get awkward.”
I didn’t like the way he was looking at me or the tone of his voice. Everything was weird now, even him. I shoved him away from me then headed home, but he maintained a close distance the entire time.
I was so irritated with him that I barely noticed the woman sitting on a wall on the side of the road, kicking her feet. When I passed her, the wolf stirred, not anxious, but alert. I glanced over my shoulder to get a second look. I was sure I had seen her earlier, hanging around outside our houses. She nodded at me when she caught me looking back at her which made me feel like she knew me. I wanted to ask Victor if he knew her, but I no longer wanted to talk to him, so I decided to ignore it all instead.
Back home, on pack land, Victor disappeared, vanishing amongst the other teens as though he hadn’t just filled my head with nonsense. I felt sticky and uncomfortable, as though all of the reasons why being with Margo was wrong kept crawling over my skin.
Jorge waved me over to help him carry bags of dog food from a jeep into storage. “You look like there’s a weight on your shoulders,” he remarked. “Don’t take the meeting today to heart, okay?”
I blew out a sigh. “What else am I supposed to do with it?”
“Nobody would touch Margo,” he said with a confidence that made me feel better.
“They would try to change her though.”
He didn’t deny that. He slapped a massive bag of food. “She has you to stop them.” He smiled at me then. “You’re young. Enjoy life, no matter whom you spend it with. There are plenty of people here who want to settle down and enjoy life, too. The minority are the noisy ones. Sadly, my brother is one of them. We both heard the same old wives’ tales growing up. He’s just an idiot.” He nodded over my shoulder. “Looks like you’re wanted.”
I glanced behind me to see Perdita arrive with her younger brother Robbie who looked teary-eyed, as though he had been scolded. He was spoiled rotten, but I loved him anyway.
I hurried over to them. When Robbie noticed me, he ran to meet me halfway, wrapping his arms around my neck as I bent to pick him up. “Dor,” he whispered in my ear. “I only hugged a dog. I knew he wouldn’t bite me. Dogs like me.”
I lifted him higher and met his gaze. “A stranger dog, Rob?”
He squirmed in my hold. “Not anymore. Now we’re friends.”
I tutted. “Most dogs don’t want to be hugged, Robbie. If he had gotten a fright and bitten you, he would have been punished really badly. You don’t want that, do you?”
He shook his head. I let him down, and he ran straight over to his big sister to apologise profusely. I held in a laugh as she kept a straight face.
