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“I’m not Santa Claus,” I groaned, battling the urge to pull my hair out. “Besides, I already told you no. There won’t be a bloodbath anytime soon. Now, clean that up or else I’m going to rip you apart with my teeth.”
“No, you won’t,” he dismissed my nasty threats and paced around my room, spreading more filth. “That boy killed Willa, Gray. If not him, then it’s gotta be one of his teenage hunter friends. Come on, we’ve been quiet for years. We haven’t touched any of them because they go to our school too, but they’ve killed others. Lone wolves. Our pack. They’re not so innocent and you know that.”
“They’re not the only hunters here,” I retorted.
“You know Keith’s scent was on Willa’s dead body,” he insisted. “Isn’t that enough? Are you really an alpha? If you are, you should know when it’s time to choose your pack over a group of strangers and a family who doesn’t even care about you.”
I lifted my gaze from the floor to his face. He was only an inch taller than me, but I felt even smaller because there he was again saying the right words while making me choose between my pack and my family. Internally raging, I chewed at my lip and turned away from him as I ambled toward my bedside drawer.
“I mean business, Gray. I want them dead tomorrow—all the hunters from school. Even if only one of them killed Willa, I’m sure they all planned it. I don’t care if your cousin decides to enter the crossfire,” he demanded. “You need to give the order to the pack.”
“Are you commanding me?” I pointed to myself dramatically. “Me?”
“Tonight,” he dared add.
“There’s a deadline?” Now I was just dismayed. Guilt-ridden, I opened my drawer and stared at the gun hidden inside it, the one I had stolen from Keith’s locker a few days ago. “You know what? I’m thinking I want to be twenty-one tomorrow, so I’m going to need all the time traveling machines you have,” I said, sarcastically, throwing my hands up in the air. “What you're asking me is impossible, Rain.”
“If it had been Cole and not Willa, I bet you wouldn’t be this cowardly,” he said. “Heh. You might have kept Keith from holding a gun with wolfsbane bullets, but … you missed something important, Gray. I left him a note about who killed his mother too.”
“Pfft, is that why you put a gun in his locker? You want to use Keith and his vengeful heart to kill Cole so that I’d have no choice but to start a war with the Nightstalkers? Are you …” I rubbed my temples as Rainer’s words slowly dawned on me—he left a note about the identity of Keith’s mother’s possible murderer?“Bloody hell, you really are a son of a bitch. You’re giving him the wrong idea. It wasn’t Cole. You, me, the pack … none of us know who did that!”
“Who cares?” He half smiled. “Revenge makes a man blind. Keith, that little shit, he’s probably just waiting for the right time to give Cole what he truly deserves.” Rainer looked down at his watch then slowly raised his eyebrows. “Shouldn’t you start moving now? Preferably before Keith and his friends hurt the only family you have left.” He shrugged, casually crossing his arms and leaning against the door. “Wouldn’t it be wise to be planning your own attack, before things are in motion? Or did your father leave a mere child in charge? One that treats his wolves no better than a pack of Legos.”
I gritted my teeth. “Do you know what I hate the most? People telling me what to do.” Without warning, I pulled the gun out of my drawer and shot him in his shoulder.
Rainer yelped, clutching his bleeding arm as he glared toward me in disbelief. “What the hell, man?” he snarled, sounding appalled as he blew out a pained breath, his grip trembling with betrayal. “You shot me? With wolfsbane?”
“Oh, my bad! It wasn’t lead? Good lord,” I said icily. “Better get out of here then and remove that shit before it finishes you off in less than … hmm … ten minutes or so?”
“I guess you already made your choice. Here’s mine,” he grumbled, turning paler by the second. “I officially relinquish any ties with you and your pack. You chose the humans and the hunters over revenge for your own kind. And this? You’re gonna regret this,” he finished before leaping off the balcony.
Fuck, was all I could think of as he left me at a loss for words.
Rubbing my face, I grabbed my phone and sent Stan a quick message, asking him to come find Rainer and save him.
In the silence that followed Rainer’s exit, the scent of fear, anger, and the sound of hurried footsteps coming from the hall told me that there was a mouse in the house. Cole Kimbrough had likely overheard the entire exchange and the gunshot.
Afraid I couldn’t protect everyone all at once, at least not anymore, this moment revealed the truth of my double life, whether I was ready or not.
Cole should’ve strangled or killed me on the spot however he wanted, but he didn’t. Instead, we drifted off to sleep that night without even talking to each other.
So It Ends With Insanity
Despite my emptystudy table reminding me of the homework I had forgotten to finish, I had a peaceful Monday morning. A beam of sunlight passed through the window, and I stretched my arms with a smile tugging at my face. Jumping off my bed, I sang my way into the bathroom.
After washing off the eye gunk from the corners of my eyes, I showered and performed my favorite bathroom song,“Tomorrow”from the classic movieAnnie, and managed to skip being in a full Whismur-mode (the Pokémon that cries until exhausted). For the first time in weeks, I had neither visions of death nor nightmares of werewolves lunging at me. In fact, before my shower, I had been having a nice dream of cruising around the world.
In my dream, I was on an extravagant ship taking pictures of the ocean. Dolphins danced through the deep blue water while I relished in the breeze of summer and freedom. I was alone on the balcony of the ship, until the white wolf appeared before me. I smiled, and in my mind, I chanted,Screw whatever is written on the moon. As long as I am alive and happy, there is no reason to believe I bring bad luck to myself and others. There is no reason to cry.
Hallelujah, it worked. I was in full-on Gandhi mode upon waking up.
“Aera, hurry up. Gray is waiting for you outside!” Mom called while I was in the shower scrubbing my body with coconut soap and singing the chorus of my song.
“What?” I paused for a split second. After deciding she was merely a hallucination, I proceeded with my little bathroom concert and sang louder, ending the song with the wordgray.
“Aera!” She pounded on the door as if she had a zombie chasing her from behind. “Gray is here, and he said he can give you a ride to school. I have to go to work early, so just go with him, alright? Now please hurry up and don’t be late for school.”
I turned the shower knob off. “What?” I mumbled in confusion. “Grayis here?”
