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Byron lifted me off her then roughly set me aside. “I said, enough.” The words sent shivers down my spine. “Alison, back to your room. You already know what you did wrong. We’ll discuss this tomorrow.”
She skittered away, and I wondered how she even dared to slap me. But when Byron looked at me, I immediately dropped my eyes, fighting an absurd urge to get as low as possible. I didn’t like it, but I couldn’t fight against it. Part of me didn’t want to.
“In future,” he said, “no in-fighting, not like this, and especially not without my permission. Do you understand?”
An odd sensation flooded my body. “Yes.” The word came unbidden. I didn’t like that feeling either. I looked up, breathless, as though I had burst through the surface of a heavy wave. “What was that?”
He looked amused. “That was both of us accepting that you’re a part of this pack.”
A part of the pack, but I kept attacking my pack members. When would I get to see my parents if I did that every time I saw someone? “I don’t understand anything,” I said in a panicked tone. “I don’t know what that was with Alison. I didn’t mean to—”
“Calm down.” He squeezed my shoulder. “Vira is waiting for us at my house. Let’s chat there.”
“Is she safe with me? I thought I was okay, but apparently, I have no control.”
His hand still on my shoulder, he guided me towards his home. “You have plenty of control. You could have hurt Alison, could have shifted and escalated everything. You only put her in her place, perhaps bruised her pride. The reason you did that is the same reason you wanted to obey me. We all have our place in a pack. A hierarchy, a pecking order. That needs to be established and even re-established sometimes.”
“So, what, I’m going to act like Victor used to? Beating people up and acting like a bully?”
“Perish the thought. You didn’t attack Alison. She challenged you, and your wolf responded. I’m not angry with you, and your wolf seems eager to obey me. Right now, you’re particularly weak to the alpha’s word. It’s something that helps new wolves fit in. It won’t always feel so intense, I promise, and I’ll do my best to be careful around you. You’ll learn over time why you’re feeling the way you do, and you’ll understand how to manage those feelings. You started with a strong foundation and good role models. I don’t doubt that you’ll handle this.”
“So you’re my alpha now.” I frowned, unsure how to feel. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”
Inside his house, he had me sit at the kitchen table with Vira while he made us both a hot drink.
“What’s going to happen now?” I asked. “Am I supposed to avoid people in case,” I waved a hand at the window, “that happens again?”
“That was entirely Alison’s fault,” he said. “I don’t know what she was thinking, but she was unsettled and needed to establish herself.”
Except I had shoved her face in the dirt instead. My cheeks burned with embarrassment. “I should apologise tomorrow.”
“She doesn’t seem wild,” Vira said, eyeing me even more warily now. “Will her parents be safe?”
“Yes,” he said firmly. “But do you understand, Margo? Even if you get angry, you mustn’t hurt people. You might be emotional for a while, especially when you need to go on a run, but it’s something you’ll have to be aware of and get used to.”
“Do I have to live here?”
“Not at all, but you’ll still be a member of the pack. We’ll guide you, protect you, help you deal with the changes. You’ll need us a lot in the next year. It’s vital that you run with the pack regularly enough to feed the wolf, but over time, you’ll feel like one whole entity rather than two halves.” He frowned. “Well, thirds, in your case, if you count the harbinger part of you.”
I made a face at the idea of feeding the wolf. “My parents aren’t going to enjoy this, are they?”
“You’ll have to re-establish things at your home, too,” he said. “You’ll have other responsibilities now, and that might require a little less strictness in your family rules. But you’re almost an adult officially, so it shouldn’t be disruptive.”
“Can I call them?” I asked. “Or even text them to let them know I’m okay.”
He lent me his phone so that I could text them. Dad almost immediately rang back. Byron answered and invited them over.
“They’re on their way,” he said when he hung up.
“Is that safe for them?”
“It’ll be a good test, but as long as your wolf is obeying me, then there’s no problem. Besides, they need to see for themselves that you’re okay. It’s been very hard for them.”
“I’ve been asleep for a while, haven’t I?”
“Days,” Vira said. “It was eerie.”
“I shifted into a wolf, right?” I said. “But I don’t remember shifting back.”
