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“I know how to walk.”
“If memory serves, there were times when you forgot.”
A sharp breath pushed me forward. I tried to stay as far away from him as possible, keeping to the left side of the road as he kept to the right. Doors opened and curtains slid aside. Some windows had blinds that parted as we passed by.
Yep, that made sense. Everybody wanted to get a good look at the chick who had lied about her origins and blended in with their pack. They probably didn’t trust me. Even worse, I had the guy next to me who had made a mess of things way back, the one who should have been thefirstto reject me.
Yet he was walking with me.
Make it make sense, I thought.I mean, it’s not like he knows about the twins.
Anthony trotted up next to Slater and took his hand. “Mr. Slater, how do you know my mom?”
Slater raised his eyebrows at me. “Oh, we knew each other a while ago.”
“How long?” Adhara asked.
I rubbed the back of my neck, struggling to get the words out. “Ten years.”
“How come we never saw you before, Mr. Slater?” Anthony swung their entwined hands. “I mean, Mama hasn’t mentioned you.”
“I’m sure she hasn’t,” Slater said with a chuckle. “She’s an old friend. We used to be in the same pack.”
I sighed. “Wearein the same pack.”
Anthony hummed curiously. “Were you in the Silent Pride?”
They remember more than I thought.
Fear gripped me as I rushed to grab Anthony and Adhara, moving them quickly toward the road that would take them to school. Just around the corner, a few more paces, then we would be there. And I would be free of Slater because he would have no reason to walk me back.
“Alright, you’re going to be late,” I lied as I walked briskly. “Come on—pick up those feet—yes, that’s right. March!”
Adhara and Anthony laughed as they fell into a military stride with me. Anything to distract them. Anything to keep Slater from asking questions.
Anything to keep him from knowing the truth.
Miss Elwyn stood at the door of the school in a ruffled vintage dress made of sunflower print and matching yellow heels. As she pushed her round glasses up her nose, she beamed and waved. The twins ran off to greet their teacher. For a moment, bliss washed over me. It was just another day in paradise.
“Deceiver.”
My heart choked as I searched the grounds to see where that word had originated. Slater came up to my right side and touched the small of my back. Such a small gesture shouldn’t have meant anything to me. We weren’t mates. He had rejected me ten years ago. He didn’t owe me any allegiance or protection.
But he did it anyway.
“I could use some coffee,” Slater said as he turned me away from the group of parents gathering at the entrance of the school. Their weary eyes followed me. “Let’s get you home.”
Home? That was a silly word to use here. This wasn’t my home.
It never had been.
***
Fresh coffee brewed in the machine as I folded and unfolded my hands on the table. Slater sat next to me with a lock of hair falling into his eyes, the same white-blond that I had tried to match so many times with bleach until I fried my hair. Thinking of it made me thread my fingers through my own hair, now onyx with pink tips.
“I like the pink,” he remarked in a low voice. “Cute.”
“My customers like it too.”
