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But I had no other choice.
The wolves sheltered me from the rest of the world even as they hid things from me.
But I found out. Eventually.
MARK REFUSED to leave my side.
On the nights when I couldn’t stand the sight of another person, he would stay outside my door.
Sometimes I would let him in.
He would motion for me to turn around, facing away from him.
I did.
On those nights, the hard ones, I would hear the rustle of clothes being discarded. The snap and groan of muscle and bone.
He would nuzzle my hand when I could turn back around.
I would climb into bed, and he would jump up beside me, the bedframe groaning under the combined weight. He would curl around me, my head under his chin, his tail covering my legs.
Those were the nights I slept the best.
MARTY WAS smoking a cigarette in the back of the shop when I came back for the first time.
He arched an eyebrow at me as he ashed the cig onto the ground.
I shuffled my feet.
“Couldn’t go to the funeral,” he said. “Wanted to, but a couple of the guys called in sick. Flu or some shit.” He coughed wetly before spitting something green on the asphalt.
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s okay.”
“Thought about you.”
It was nice of him to say. “Thanks.”
He blew out a thick plume of rank smoke. He always rolled his own cigarettes, and the pungent tobacco made my eyes water. “My dad died when I was a baby. Mom hung herself when I was fourteen. Took to the road after that. Didn’t take any handouts.”
“I don’t want anything.”
He scratched his scruffy jaw. “No, I don’t expect you do. Can’t pay you much.”
“I don’t need much.”
“Yeah, you got those Bennetts in your pocket, don’t ya.”
I shrugged because no matter what I said, he wouldn’t understand.
He stubbed out the cigarette on the bottom of his boot before dropping it into a metal coffee can already filled to the brim with discarded butts. He coughed again before leaning forward in his lawn chair, the white and green and blue nylon fraying. “I’ll work your ass off. Especially if I’m paying you.”
I nodded.
“And if that Abel Bennett tries to give me hell, I’ll drop you fast. We clear?”
“Yeah. Yes.”
“All right. Let’s get your hands dirty.”
