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No one, not Cole, not Jax, not every Silver Moon wolf will take this away from me.
Chapter14
Ruby
When I’m sure Chase’s asleep, I detangle myself from his arms. His gentle snores make me feel so safe, so warm, and leaving him like this is breaking my heart.
But my family deserves an explanation, a proper goodbye. They deserve answers.
I dress quickly, abandoning the torn turtleneck for one of his oversized t-shirts before I throw my jacket on. It takes me a minute too long for my liking to figure out how to open the trailer door. There’s no handle or latch that I can see, and I almost cuss out loud when I see it’s only held closed with a tiny bit of twine around a screw.
It’s hilarious, truly, that rather than fix it Chase would just tie the door closed. Such a bachelor thing to do. I muffle a giggle and slip out the door. With a sigh I put my forehead on the cold metal and count to ten before turning to go. I had to make sure he didn’t wake up, because if he does I’ll never get away without him following me. I sigh deeply and turn, only to look directly into Rachel’s watching eyes.
I freeze, pressed against the trailer in shock, as she stares at me with one raised eyebrow and a knowing smirk. She’s hauling a preteen by his arm to her trailer as if he’s about to be scolded. I can tell by his eyes and the way he watches everything that he’s a wolf pup and my mind is filled with so many questions that they all try to bubble out of me at once. In the end it’s Rachel’s question that dominates.
“Running off so soon, Silver Dawn?” There's a venom in her voice, and I can understand her hesitance to accept me, so I cower submissively, taking a knee and shaking my head. In this pack, she’s superior to me, and I must show her the respect due to her.
“I just need to explain to my family…tell them I’m not coming back.”
“Are you freaking bowing to me? Dude, this is not your little royal pack, in this pack we treat each other as equals.”
Rachel marches over to me, her high heeled boots crunching the gravel as she leans down and grabs my chin, forcing me to stand up. She looks me straight in the eye, nose to nose, and I swear her eyes flash golden and she shows me her wolf for one brief moment.
“Swear to me, Ruby. Swear to me this is real. Chase is like a brother to me and I won't let you hurt him, do you understand?”
All I can do is nod and pull Chase’s shirt down at the neck and show her the mark on my chest. She blinks in shock and touches the mark with her fingertips.
“It’s his handprint, we matched it up,” I say. “I don’t know how or why, but mine is on his chest too.”
“I recognize his fingerprints…” Rachel says, her voice hushed with awe.
Her son is smiling at me wildly, watching his mother and I talk like he can't wait to get the next word in.
“That’s Jake,” she explains with a wave of her hand and her eyes rolling. “He thought it was a bright idea to give a bully a wedgie on the school bus and he got sent home for the day. So he’s stuck with me until Cookie can take a break and watch him so I can get to work.”
“At least he did it to a bully…” I muse, and she gives me the mom glare of death and Jake laughs out loud. I chuckle too, but when Rachel narrows her eyes we know we’re in big trouble. Both of us cower under that stare, and I’m embarrassed to be acting like a pup myself.
“How did you expect to get back to the Silver Dawn? Run?” Rachel asks, a little less venom in her voice and just a smidge of a smile.
“Well...yeah? I mean, I don’t have a car here and there’s no way I’m riding a motorcycle.” I look over at her bike and shudder. Death machines, all of them, riding one myself is the last thing I ever want to do.
“Oh, honey, you’ll be on a bike soon enough, but how ‘bout I give you a ride in my truck?” she says, nodding over at what looks like a relic parked at the bar.
“That thing runs? I thought it was there for decoration, like a museum piece!” I say, shocked as we walk over.
“Nah, she’s my beater with a heater. Barely runs but the heating will keep us nice and toasty. Hop in, hope you don’t mind having Jake sandwiched between us. This boy isn’t leaving my hip until he apologizes.”
“But mom! He was teasing Jenna!” Jake pouts and Rachel glares at him as he slides in the truck beside her. I slip beside him too and Rachel starts the truck. I flinch as it roars to life louder than any vehicle I’ve ever heard.
“Jenna is sweet, honey, but she’s a human. You need to let humans figure out their own shit, because one day you’ll intervene and get so mad you’ll shift without thinking. Then what is Jenna going to think of you? Liking her is fine, being her friend is fine, but retaliating physically is just not a good idea, kiddo.”
“You let him go to school with humans?” I ask, shocked, as she pulls away from the bar and heads towards Silver Dawn territory.
“No offense, Princess, but most of us can't afford private tutors for our children. There are too many of them and not nearly enough money. So we teach the kids to control their urges. Very few people at the school even know, like the nurse. She’s one of us. The vice principal too. The town knows our kids are different, but they knock it up to us being a bunch of biker rednecks and that’s how we’ll keep it for now.” When she finishes she glances at me and rolls her eyes when she sees Jake's arms are crossed and his face is pinched in anger.
“If Billy knew what we were, he’d never ever do anything to Jenna!” he mutters angrily, and Rachel slaps the steering wheel in frustration.
“If Billy knew what you were then so would Jenna! She’d never want to ‘hang out’ with you again because she’d be scared of you too! Babe, humans are fragile creatures who rarely understand their own existence, accepting the truth of supernatural creatures is way beyond their capabilities.”
