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Margo
Dorianand I stood hand in hand in front of Mara’s grave, surrounded by the other teens. It would have been her birthday, and it felt right to remember her on such a nice day. One by one, the others slipped away until only Dorian and I were left. I squeezed his hand tight then let go and took a step back.
He knelt by the flowers he had laid earlier. “Happy birthday, Mara,” he said softly. “We miss you. I think you’d be happy to see us now. We’re doing good. Not just me, but the whole pack. Things have changed a lot since you left us. I hope… I hope you’re at peace.”
His voice broke, so I gave him some space until he was ready to leave. It wasn’t long before he came up behind me, wrapped his arms around me, and held on tight.
“Okay,” he said after a moment. “We better hurry. We can’t miss movie night.”
Back in the big open space that the houses on Werewolf Row shared, pretty much everyone in the pack had gathered to watch a projector movie that Byron had organised as a farewell. Jeremy, Zara, and baby Jake were getting ready to return home.
Not only that, some of us were leaving with Jeremy to visit his pack before travelling across Europe for a while. In a few weeks, we would even meet up with Chloe and Emma in France. That would be interesting. Chloe had been sneakily trying to get information out of me for ages. Emma was way more direct about it. Pretty much everybody in town knew there was some kind of secret, but most of them were too polite to question it, or even acknowledge it, much to the local police’s chagrin.
Dorian and I weaved our way through the pack, looking for a place to sit. Most people were already relaxing on rugs and nibbling on snacks. Nathan and Perdita sat together under a massive parasol while Heddy rocked Diane to sleep in her arms. Next to them, Jeremy was lifting his son into the air while Zara fanned herself. Mam was sitting next to Dr Rivers and his wife while Evelyn and Vira engaged in deep conversation nearby. Dad was laughing with Ryan and Byron while helping them set up the projector. Behind everyone, Amelia was chasing Jorge who carried Perdita’s giggling younger brother on his back.
Alison waved us over, and Victor moved to make room for us both. We settled in next to the other teens, sharing food in comfortable silence while we waited for the movie to begin.
We. The pack treated me as one of them, always. Even Vira had been treated with kindness. She spent quite a lot of time with Amelia, unsurprisingly, because they both had reason to feel like outsiders. Vira had wound up moving into Evelyn’s spare room while she attended classes. She wanted to be more useful, she kept saying. She seemed far more excited about learning than I could ever be, but banning things tended to make them more desirable.
The harbingers had been in touch more frequently than we expected, but none of them had returned, and as far as we knew, Eli was still receiving punishment in the sensory room, getting a taste of what he had put his sister through. Somehow, that satisfied me and the wolf.
The projector finally came on, and most of the pack cheered loudly. I caught Dorian gazing at me and grinned at him. Our lives were overstuffed with people, and it was time we focused on each other, our futures, and our next adventure together.
