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And for a while, we just… were.
THE LAST supper.
We didn’t know it.
We gathered and laughed and shouted and stuffed ourselves full.
Mark pressed his foot against mine.
I thought of many things. My father. My mother. The wolves. The pack. Mark and Mark and Mark. It was a choice, I knew. I might have been born into this life, this world, but I had a choice. And no one would take that from me.
I wondered when Mark would offer me his wolf.
I wondered what I would say.
I felt weighted and real and tethered.
Thomas winked at me.
Elizabeth cooed over the child in her arms.
Abel smiled.
Mark leaned over and whispered, “This is us. This is our pack. This is our happiness. I want this. With you. One day, when we’ve both grown up.”
SHE WAS in the diner when I went in the next morning, my turn to get coffee for the guys. She was sitting in a booth alone, her head bowed in prayer, hands folded in front of her. She looked up the moment I stepped into the diner.
“Gordo,” she said. “Bright and early.”
“Hello,” I said. “How’re you….” I blanked on her name.
“Elli,” she said.
“Elli. How are you?”
She shrugged. “I’m okay. It’s… quiet here. It takes some getting used to.”
“Yeah,” I said, unsure of what else to say. “It’s always like that.”
“Always? I don’t know how you can stand it.”
“I’ve been here all my life.”
“Have you? Curious.”
A waitress waved at me from behind the lunch counter, moving to get the coffees ready.
I started to walk toward her when a hand closed around my wrist.
I looked down. The nails had been repainted. They were red.
“Gordo,” Elli said. “Can you do me a favor?”
I breathed in and out. “Sure.”
She smiled. It didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Can you pray with me? I have been trying all morning, and for the life of me, I can’t quite get it right. I think I need help.”
“I’m not the best person to—”
