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Dom follows our eyes, and his expression turns pinched and sad. “We will rebuild. It was just a house.” He sounds forlorn. “For Quinn, though, it was so much more. It was her home, her safety net after she lost everything. All her memories of her father were tied with that wood and brick, and now it’s gone.”
My heart skips a beat. I didn’t think of that, and as I scan the burnt remains of the house, I see more than one upset wolf as they clean it up. It meant a lot to all of them, and we brought that destruction here. What if they never accept us?
What if we were made into wolves but we will forever be stuck as ferals, without a pack or a home, and hunted like we once hunted them?
“Come on.” Dom waves us along and leads us into the tree line and onto a path. “Most of the pack lives here on pack land. They have their own space and houses. We have lawyers, doctors, midwives, you name it. Some work in town, and some even work in the big city and come back. Jang was good like that, but everyone has a place, and there is plenty of room here to be free. The cliffs behind us protect us from the back, as you know, and we have forests on either side for running and hunting with patrols on the outskirts of our land. What we take, however, we give back. If we fell a tree, we plant two more. We only hunt when needed, and we house and feed a lot of wild animals. Quinn even started an animal hospital for wild animals that were sick or injured.” He points at a hut with a cross on the front and then to one next to it with a cross and a snake over it. “Wolf and animal.” He chuckles.
“We all used to eat in the pack house, but for the moment, we have turned the gym into a makeshift canteen.” We move through some wooden houses on a path. Some are one story, with cute little chimneys, and some are two or three stories, but each is built to give maximum privacy. We finally break into another clearing to see a large, two-story building. “So yeah, that was the gym and pool, and now it’s being used for housing for anyone who lost their houses and food. Are you hungry?”
We all hesitate, looking at one another. I don’t like being away from Quinn for this long, nor do I have any desire to mingle with wolves who will want us dead, and I can’t blame them.
We need to make an effort though, if not for us then for Quinn, so I nod, and Dom leads us over. The double gym doors are open, and even from out here, I can hear the hustleand bustle inside. We follow him in to see mismatched tables and chairs placed everywhere. Even so, people are standing and sitting on the floor, eating as if there aren’t enough places. The room is long and huge, with a basketball court—where the food is being served—and gym equipment. Skylights let the sunlight in, so it feels open and bright. It’s beautiful.
There’s a food line to the left with more wolves behind it, serving everyone, and Dom leads us over. I know when they first spot us. Whispers go up, and then everyone falls silent. Forks drop to plates, but I keep my head high, unwilling to make Quinn look bad.
The line moves quickly, but as I grab a plate and hold it out, the wolf glares at me before slapping down what looks like a casserole then turning away. I add veg and grab some bread and a water before turning to follow Dom to an open table. The three members sitting there get up and leave, but Dom ignores them, smiling happily and waving as he sits and starts to dig into his food.
My back is tense. Even as a wolf, I still feel like I’m surrounded by enemies, and it’s hard to not reach for a blade as I sit here stiff as a board. Vale is no better, his eyes darting everywhere as his hand grips his plate so hard, it cracks. Only Jai is eating, completely oblivious.
The chatter slowly starts back up again, but it’s tense, and my back burns from their gazes.
I force the food down, even though it’s like swallowing cement, knowing I need to eat to stay strong. It’s one of the tensest meals I’ve ever been at, and that includes meals with my father, which weren’t exactly relaxed.
I can feel Vale getting stiffer and stiffer by the minute, so I nudge him. “Quinn needs us,” I remind him, and he nods, blowing out a breath. We are here for her. Not only that, we arealso wolves now. If we don’t belong here, then we don’t belong anywhere.
“How dare you.” We all turn to see a lanky man glaring at us. “How dare you sit there and eat our food.”
The woman at his side tugs at him. “Peter,” she hisses, sparing us a look before dropping her eyes.
“How dare you sit there brazenly while we grieve for what we have lost because of you.” The room goes silent. All eyes are on us, and the truth is, we don’t have an answer.
It is our fault.
They have every right to hate us.
“I said they are to be made welcome. Are you going to make me a liar, Peter Jones?”
The familiar voice rings out like a threat, and my wolf purrs in approval as she steps into the gym.
Quinn.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
Iignore the bowed heads and glares as I make my way through the crowd and stand before Peter and his table. He works his jaw, trying to stare me down, but he finally drops his eyes. He’s not strong enough to challenge me.
“Well?” I demand, my arms crossed. “Are you making me a liar?”
I heard the commotion outside while I was doing my rounds, and I’m glad I came. My wolf had been pulling me here to the gym, and I didn’t even realise it.
“They are the reason Jang is gone,” Peter hisses. “How can you trust them, never mind like them?”
My heart hurts at his words, and I look around to see the same expressions on many people’s faces. They hate them. They will never accept them. I leap onto the table and prop my hands on my hips. “He’s right. Jang is gone. He’s never coming back, and I know you are all grieving his loss as well as the loss of every single wolf who was taken that night. Our land was scarred, our families stolen. It hurts, and you’re angry. I am too.” I see people nodding. “But you cannot fight hate with hate,” I snap. “They are my guests. Moreover, they are part of us now.”
“They will never be one of us!” someone yells.
I let out a growl that has them all whining and ducking. “They are, and they will be. They changed their minds, and they changed their allegiance. Have you ever considered the fact that they stood with us, fighting their own people for us? They had to kill friends and family just to do the right thing. They were raised and pumped full of hatred, yet here they stand, changed into wolves to keep us alive. We cannot blame them for their upbringing, not when we were all raised with love and acceptance, so let’s show hunters who the real monsters are here. We will welcome these men—men who saved my life, who saved every single one of you here—with open arms.”
There’s silence as some relax and sigh. It will be a long road, but I’ve made myself clear.
